130$ difference for 5-7 years (M1 air vs pro)

[vishavg]

Hi everyone,

I have been going back and fourth with different configurations and have finally settled with these two:

I am coming from a 2016 MacBook pro 8gb ram and 256 storage, which has had a coffee spill...

Current day job is as a physician. I will be using the laptop primarily for writing research papers, clinic notes and video conferencing. I take notes using notion and word, with about 10-12 tabs open at a time. VLC for lectures. I don't plan on doing much video editing or playing games. I just need something reliable to last 5-7 years without much slowing down and heating. Another thought I had was to get the base MacBook air and put the money saved towards an iPad mini 5. But I'm not sure how the 7 core GPU will hold up in 5 years as I don't enjoy upgrading to the newest piece of tech.

Thanks for the help I hope others find this useful as well.

 

[JuanKr]

It is a not brainer.... go for the Air

 

[macddy]

It is a not brainer.... go for the Air

It really should be a no brainer.. go for the pro!

Why?

1. Higher sustained performance (after using applications in one sitting for 3-4 hours straight with the pro you will not notice any performance drop because of active cooling, with the air's passive cooling after 30 min you will have a performance drop)

2. Better microphone for video calls.

3. Better brightness

4. Better speakers

5. Better battery life

 

[Ritsuka]

Go for 16 GB of ram.

 

[iChan]

For your use case, I’d go for a MBA with 16GB of RAM. You don’t need sustained max performance of 15-20 minutes at a time, so not having a fan gives peace of mind with less moving parts.

Seeing as you’ll be typing a lot, it really boils down to mostly that touchbar. It’s not good. You may like it, but I and many others would actually pay good money to take it out.

 

[macddy]

For your use case, I’d go for a MBA with 16GB of RAM. You don’t need sustained max performance of 15-20 minutes at a time, so not having a fan gives peace of mind with less moving parts.

Seeing as you’ll be typing a lot, it really boils down to mostly that touchbar. It’s not good. You may like it, but I and many others would actually pay good money to take it out.

You can't say that something isn't good without backing the claim.. Just leaves the audience with no explanation.

Also the fan almost never kicks in on these new pro models anyway.

 

[iChan]

You can't say that something isn't good without backing the claim.. Just leaves the audience with no explanation.

Also the fan almost never kicks in on these new pro models anyway.

Huh? It’s up to buyer to decide whether they like the touchbar for themselves. Saying “it’s not good” is an opinion, not a claim.

Pro is objectively a better machine in the ways you listed, but it’s heavier, bulkier too. The screen’s extra brightness is probably irrelevant.

Battery life is amazing enough on MBA.

I’m looking at it from a holistic viewpoint. OP is a physician, and based on his use cases, MBA feels like a better fit.

 

[phl92]

Its funny how every argument is valid somehow...

I have similar considerations (even though my workload is more on the creative side, with slight video cutting/PS/Lightroom..) but I want my machine as well at least 6-8 years. I am pretty sure going for the MBP here. 512GB SSD. The only thing unsure yet is the Ram. My guess is 8 GB is fine now, and even "finer" in future, since more and more Apps will run natively using Ram even more efficiently...
and the price difference of MBA/MBP is not so huge anymore!

but you might be totally fine for years for your usage with the new Air. Just get enough SSD storage!

 

[macddy]

Huh? It’s up to buyer to decide whether they like the touchbar for themselves. Saying “it’s not good” is an opinion, not a claim.

Pro is objectively a better machine in the ways you listed, but it’s heavier, bulkier too. The screen’s extra brightness is probably irrelevant.

Battery life is amazing enough on MBA.

I’m looking at it from a holistic viewpoint. OP is a physician, and based on his use cases, MBA feels like a better fit.

I can agree that it is just your opinion, but you didn't say that either. Some can consider that misleading but whatever..

Pro is heavier by 0,11 kg WOOOW

Pro is bulkier? Not really. The air at its thickest is 1,61 cm actually bigger than the macbook's 1,56 cm overall.

Brightness does matter because you have more options to use it other places with it.

Battery life is amazing on both yes, but pro is better.

I'm not trying to smash your arguments, I just feel that when OP makes his/her decision he/she can at least read the comments we are making about the air and pro

 

[leman]

For your use case, either is fine. Don’t even worry about the GPU. Get whichever you personally like more.

 

[deeddawg]

I can agree that it is just your opinion, but you didn't say that either. Some can consider that misleading but whatever..

Pro is heavier by 0,11 kg WOOOW

Pro is bulkier? Not really. The air at its thickest is 1,61 cm actually bigger than the macbook's 1,56 cm overall.

Brightness does matter because you have more options to use it other places with it.

Battery life is amazing on both yes, but pro is better.

I'm not trying to smash your arguments, I just feel that when OP makes his/her decision he/she can at least read the comments we are making about the air and pro

The difficulty with this sort of stuff is pinning down just what "better" means.

Yes, the Pro is spec'd for a longer battery life and a tear down will likely reveal a larger sized battery.

But... is one better than the other if the user never needs it? If they're never running on battery longer than a fraction of the specified life, does it matter to the user that one has more unused capacity than the other? Sort of like screen brightness - if one never turns up a 400nit screen past 60%, how is a 500 nit screen "better" for that person?

Point being -- simply stating one spec is "better" than another can be misleading if that difference is immaterial to the users needs.

 

[GDF]

I would just save some money and go with the Air. Steve Jobs would have never let these decisions becomes so complicate. All of Apple products are so similar anymore, that it is making it hard to tell what little differences make one over another better.

Apple needs to start eliminating some, but of course total market share grab instead of Apple founding principal of keeping it simple.

 

[darngooddesign]

Pro is bulkier? Not really. The air at its thickest is 1,61 cm actually bigger than the macbook's 1,56 cm overall.

This is a misleading claim because it only applies to a tiny part of the Air. Really anyone who has held a 13" Pro and 13" Air knows that the Air is less bulky due to its tapered design.

 

[vishavg]

Thank you all for the comments so far. I am leaning towards the 512/16gb/7G/8C air. Can anyone comment on the "actual" difference between speakers, mic and screen quality. Is it really that noticeable? And is the trackpad much larger? Thanks

 

[macddy]

Thank you all for the comments so far. I am leaning towards the 512/16gb/7G/8C air. Can anyone comment on the "actual" difference between speakers, mic and screen quality. Is it really that noticeable? And is the trackpad much larger? Thanks

Speakers on pro have more bass and overall better dynamic sounds.

microphone is much more clearer and removes unessecary sounds in bg

screen quality is the sam as air.

trackpad is a bit larger, but not too big.

 

[James_C]

@vishavg - If you have not already seen the thread I created

New MacBook Air M1 16GB 1TB SSD compared to 2016 15” MBP

Going to be comparing to my late 2016 MacBook Pro 15" Picked up this morning from the Bath Apple Store.

forums.macrumors.com

I have a very similar 2016 15" MacBook Pro to you. The thread has a number of performance comparisons to the 2020 M1 MacBook Air that I purchased yesterday. You may find it of interest.

In summary I think you would be find with the M1 Air. It is basically twice as fast as our 2016 MBP. It is completely silent and the keyboard is a huge improvement. I would probably get the 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM to future proof.

I sold my 2016 MBP today. The new Air is a keeper.

 

[Makosuke]

...I want my machine as well at least 6-8 years. I am pretty sure going for the MBP here. 512GB SSD. The only thing unsure yet is the Ram. My guess is 8 GB is fine now, and even "finer" in future, since more and more Apps will run natively using Ram even more efficiently...

If I planned to use a computer for 6-8 years I genuinely cannot imagine not spending the extra to go from 8GB to 16GB of RAM. If you plan on doing some video editing, I can't even imagine wanting to opt for less RAM if you only planned to use it for 3.

Is it possible that 8 years from now a Mac with 8GB of RAM will run fine? Sure. It's possible. Would I be wiling to bet on that? Absolutely not. Trusting in app developers to keep RAM needs in check over an 8-year timeframe is just asking for regret.

Do you really think that the base memory needs of the MacOS itself will remain static or improve over a period of 8 years? Certainly has never been the case in the past, and honestly it's not what you'd want, either--if you can do more with more RAM, and RAM becomes more plentiful/cheaper, it would be wrong not to use some of it.

Looking back at 2012, the base Air RAM was 4GB and the most RAM you could buy in an Air or 13" MBP was 8GB. If you had 4GB today you would be in much worse shape than if you had 8GB--one is a standard configuration, one is anemic and demonstrably affects performance in all but light use cases. Over 8 years, you're paying, what, $25/year to hedge against really wishing you had opted for 8GB for the last three years you own the computer, or the difference between replacing it after 6 years instead of getting 8 years out of it?

 

[KPOM]

Thank you all for the comments so far. I am leaning towards the 512/16gb/7G/8C air. Can anyone comment on the "actual" difference between speakers, mic and screen quality. Is it really that noticeable? And is the trackpad much larger? Thanks

I have both the 13" M1 Air with 16GB/512 and the 13" Early 2020 Pro. The speakers and mic are a little better in the Pro, but they are perfectly usable in the Air. In the past, the Pro had a much better display, but now the only difference is the maximum brightness. If you will use the Mac outdoors, the extra 100 nits might make a difference. Indoors it shouldn't be that different.

Overall, the slight slope of the Air feels a bit nicer to me when typing, but it's subtle. I think the higher RAM and larger SSD in your proposed Air configuration would be more useful in the future than the active cooling in the Pro for the tasks you describe. The 8th GPU core doesn't add much performance. The 7-core model is still nearly twice as fast as the GPU in the last 13" Intel MacBook Pro.

 

[vishavg]

@vishavg - If you have not already seen the thread I created

New MacBook Air M1 16GB 1TB SSD compared to 2016 15” MBP

Going to be comparing to my late 2016 MacBook Pro 15" Picked up this morning from the Bath Apple Store.

forums.macrumors.com

I have a very similar 2016 15" MacBook Pro to you. The thread has a number of performance comparisons to the 2020 M1 MacBook Air that I purchased yesterday. You may find it of interest.

In summary I think you would be find with the M1 Air. It is basically twice as fast as our 2016 MBP. It is completely silent and the keyboard is a huge improvement. I would probably get the 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM to future proof.

I sold my 2016 MBP today. The new Air is a keeper.

Awesome, I'll check that out. Did you get the 7core GPU air?

 

[James_C]

I got the 8 Core GPU. I was limited to what was available in the store for pickups, as I could not decide between the pro and the air, and wanted to see some benchmarks before I ordered. A wanted to get a 16GB RAM variant and those were only available with 1TB SSD and 8 Core GPU. looking at the benchmarks there does not appear to be much difference between the two though.

 

[M1 Processor]

The Macbook Air is a much better deal. Your spec is identical to my system. Unless you are working the CPU for tilt for like ten minutes straight, the performance is identical, and even then the difference isn’t massive. The extra 8GB of RAM will make a massive difference in the life of the machine, because macOS is RAM hungry.

 

[vishavg]

How is it running an external monitor? And what kind of battery life have you guys been getting? Any thermal issues with the additional RAM?

 

[macddy]

I got the 8 Core GPU. I was limited to what was available in the store for pickups, as I could not decide between the pro and the air, and wanted to see some benchmarks before I ordered. A wanted to get a 16GB RAM variant and those were only available with 1TB SSD and 8 Core GPU. looking at the benchmarks there does not appear to be much difference between the two though.

I like how you are ignoring my facts regarding why the pro is better. It seems to me that you have already decided in your mind that you want the air which is fine... Your loss tho.

 

[M1 Processor]

How is it running an external monitor? And what kind of battery life have you guys been getting? Any thermal issues with the additional RAM?

Both the MacBook Air and Pro will only support a single external monitor, but I have not tried runing it with an external monitor. It has been lasting more than 10 hours for me, I’m a heavy multitasker which is why I got 16GB. The additional ram does not cause thermal issues. Pretty amazing little chip, its about as powerful as a 45w i9 from Intel.

 

[vishavg]

Both the MacBook Air and Pro will only support a single external monitor, but I have not tried runing it with an external monitor. It has been lasting more than 10 hours for me, I’m a heavy multitasker which is why I got 16GB. The additional ram does not cause thermal issues. Pretty amazing little chip, its about as powerful as a 45w i9 from Intel.

Thanks for that What kind of tasks are you running with 16gb and what is the RAM consumption like?

In regards to the 7core GPU vs 8core GPU, when would I really notice the difference?