[beley]

The differences are minor, but think about this: if you want a 30" display, you have to go with a MBP. MacBook and MacBook Air only support up to 24"

Also, the MBP has dedicated video, not shared. That means videos played on external monitors (sometimes even the display) can skip a little or look distorted on a Macbook, but look awesome on a MacBook Pro.

Will you need the extra computing power? I don't know. My boss has a MacBook Air and he seems to be fine with it, except when trying to do something with video.