15" M3 Air 16/512 = $1700
14" M3 MBP 16/512 = $1800
Tough decision. I'd like to see them head to head in something like a big Handbrake encode or something else comparable. How important is that fan?
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13-Inch vs. 15-Inch MacBook Air Buyer's Guide
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15" M3 Air 16/512 = $1700
14" M3 MBP 16/512 = $1800
Tough decision. I'd like to see them head to head in something like a big Handbrake encode or something else comparable. How important is that fan?
I need to show my wife this article and tell her “see a couple of inches doesn’t make that much difference…”
Pretty much. Unless you're actually doing heavy compute or want to run higher end games on your MacBook, the 13 or 15" airs are excellent. Just spec with appropriate RAM and storage.
but then.... apple being masters of extracting your dollar - you get real close to the Pro models in price with their much nicer screens, ports, etc.
That's needed a very interesting decision. Not so much because of computing power but more because of the form factor. 14 inch is easier to pack in a backpack for traveling and it also might be more robust and has a SD card and HDMI port. The 13" notebooks are too small for older eyes so 14" is the smallest that would work for me.
I can only afford to buy either the 512 GB SDD or 16 GB of RAM but not both. Can anyone help me understand if 8 GB of RAM is good enough these days and future proof? Is 256 GB just too small these days too or ample? (I don't game).
Maybe older users?
I just got a 13” air and swapped the colour in store. I was looking at the 15” and they huge. Using the 13” with that slim boarders is more than enough.
But my eyesight is pretty good (it’s not terrible).
8GB of RAM isn't as terrible as some make it out to be particularly since SSD speeds on the Apple Silicon machines are extremely fast making use of swap not as huge of a performance penalty, but while after market SSD upgrades are theoretically possible (e.g. M1 MacBook Air SSD upgrade from DosLab Electronics here:
FWIW, DosLab Electronics recently upgraded my 2020 M1 MacBook Air from 256GB to 2TB. Including all the packaging, shipping and handling, service, return shipping, it was around half what Apple charges for 2TB of SSD.
Plus, I like supporting those who actually do better services than Apple's overpriced storage siloing.
TL;DR if choosing between 16GB of RAM or 512GB SSD, I would say the 16GB of RAM is probably a more flexible longer term spend? In the short term, you can use external storage and longer term you may be able to pay someone else to upgrade the soldered SSD.
However, I am also guessing (though not certain) that the M3 MacBook Airs suffer from the same performance penalty with only one SSD chip as the M2 MacBook Airs (basically, with the M2 MacBook Air laptops you would want 512GB minimum, otherwise SSD performance is worse than on the M1 MacBook Airs, also see:
)
The 13in vs 15in MBA is really a personal preference thing. For me, the portability of the 13in MBA is a major attraction, and I have an inexpensive 24" 1080p monitor at my desk for extra screen real estate when needed.
During the 2010 MBA launch, Jobs described the new MBA as what would happen if an iPad and MacBook hooked-up. I found that kind of device appealing, and the smaller MBA gives me more of that vibe. But, I absolutely see why someone would opt for a larger screen.
Anyway, best of luck to those buying a new MBA. You can't go wrong regardless of the screen size that you select.
During the 2010 MBA launch, Jobs described the new MBA as what would happen if an iPad and MacBook hooked-up. I found that kind of device appealing, and the smaller MBA gives me more of that vibe. But, I absolutely see why someone would opt for a larger screen.
Anyway, best of luck to those buying a new MBA. You can't go wrong regardless of the screen size that you select.