1st time Buying Advice: Help me pick a MacBook (Air/Pro) v2

[AppleMango]

Hello dear people of macrumors,

I need more help in picking my first Apple laptop.
I have all Apple since 2018 except for my laptop - still on a 10y old Windows Laptop.

What would I like to do/to have:
- portable, preferably 13/14"
- standard tasks like emails, browsing the web, watching videos/photos, tax software, Word/Excel/Powerpoint,
- option to get into video/photo editing
- option to music recording/producing

I‘ve posted one of these in 01/23 when the M2 chips came out, but I stalled and now with the M3, I’m completely lost what to pick.

I play the piano and write texts some times and after 2 really ugly years for me, my wish is to expand my hobbies and get a life worth living again and I realise that music, the pursuit and occupation with creative things enrich my life.

I would like to have the option to have a machine that gives me a good start into music recording/production, to experiment, to play around, to have a lot of options. I know this is not very specific, but since I'm only used to analog instruments there is not much experience yet for me on computers and software.

I enjoyed recording videos and taking photos and playing around, even with just the iPhone 14P and I'm just really tired of Windows 8.1 (which is also not supported anymore).

I would love to hear from more experienced Mac(book) (Air/Pro)-users what to look for.

What do I need? Pro/Max? How much RAM, should I max it out and aim for 10 years usage like I did with my previous machine?
Should I look at 2-5 years and sell it on, get a newer one so buy less spec-version?

Many thanks for all your input!
cheers!

 

[Basic75]

What's your budget? A current MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM (more doesn't hurt) should do fine for several years unless you plan on getting really serious with the music and video part. Internal storage is not quite as important as you can easily add external drives for archiving not currently needed projects. You'll probably want at least 512GB to keep projects of some size internal. Unless you only use the laptop at home on your desk.

 

[jlc1978]

First question is "what is your budget?"

Either machine would work, especially if you are just interested in learning audio/video using button in apps.

I'd go for a least 16/18GB of storage and a 1 TB HD; and get RAM over larger SSD since you can always add an external drive but not RAM..

So, buy whatever is the best configuration within your budget.

 

[picpicmac]

and aim for 10 years usage

I have the original 17" MacBook Pro, from 2003. It still works. However, I don't use it because the software is so out of date. But it served me well being my only computer, living in Japan 2003-2007.

I am not in the market for a portable (but I am in the market to buy an M3 Mac of some sort soon.)

If I were you, don't go with a 13" screen. It makes for a light computer, but screen size is important for video editing, and I think also music editing.

17" isn't made anymore, and such a beast is big and heavy.

If I had to choose a not-too-heavy laptop today, I'd pick the base 14" MBP M3 Pro. $1849 on the Education Store. Only 512GB SSD, but you should get a portable SSD anyway for large projects (2TB external SSDs are not expensive.) 18GB should serve you well for basic video and music. If you can stretch to buy up to the 36GB model then do so. It's a big price jump up to the M3 Max chip and likely the M3 Pro base chip (11/14 cores) will do you fine.

 

[kschendel]

I think you want to be looking at a 14" Macbook Pro. A Macbook Air will do the standard stuff easily; where it might get iffy is if you get moderately serious about video / photo / sound editing. I would pay more attention to memory than to CPU model or storage size; 16GB memory would be minimum and I'd advise 24 or more. The standard M3 CPU is probably fine, or an M2 Pro (the two are very roughly equivalent).

 

[xDeadTechx]

Honestly OP, a refurbished MPB 14' M1 Pro is something I would look into. Yes the M1 Pro is a couple of years old now, but for my workflow (coding, rendering etc) it still performs fast and still has great battery life. The speakers on the machine are amazing and overall build quality is still fantastic. The M1 Pro isn't as fast at say a M3 Pro but it still packs a punch. I have the base M1 Pro (512GB) but have an external USB-C SSD that I dump all my files to. Might be something to look into but that's my experience with the machine.

 

[OrenLindsey]

I'd get a 14" MacBook Pro, either the base M3 or an older refurbished M2 Pro or M1 Pro. 16GB RAM will be fine.

You can get the 16GB M3 14" for $1680 on the education store (they don't actually require you to be a student to get the deal) or for $1800 on the normal store.
A refurbished M1 Pro (they don't have them right now but they'll come back soon) costs $1440 and a refurb M2 Pro (also don't have them but they'll return) is $1600. Out of those prices I'd probably get the education store M3 or the M2 Pro.

The Pro has a wayyy better screen and speakers, and the processor packs quite an extra punch compared to the Air.

 

[ChrisA]

If you are doing music production and video editing then you want to get all the screen space and RAM you can afford. The video and audio apps put a lot of controls on the screen.

16GB or RAM is enough unless you are making money and working full time. As for the screen, you might want to get a 27" monitor for use at home and and smaller more portable screen for when you are not home. After this, pick between the Pro and Max versions based on budget.

 

[XboxEvolved]

I would go with the MBA but I also would wait until the M3 MBA is released in the next few months if it were me looking to buy a computer personally. The reason I'd go with the MBA is even if you are doing video editing and photo stuff, your computer isn't going to show much, if any slowdown.

Now if you were doing a lot more development stuff or highly graphical intense stuff then I'd go with the MBP, but an MBA can still do that stuff as well just not as well and likely not as heavy.

Really in terms of design, screen, and ports, obviously, you get more ports with the MBP but a dongle can solve that problem for the most part, and the screen is also better on the MBP but Apple may update the screen tech in the M3 MBA who knows? Since you are coming from a 10-year-old computer, any of these options will shock you quite a bit when you start using them.

 

[MBAir2010]

Im extremely happy with that MacBook Air M1 8GB 256SSD drive!

I type alot, sometimes touch up cartoon, photo edit and stream sports on that MacBook without a stutter or hitch!
the Battery last longer than I would ever use that for, almost 20 hours and everything syncs well!
the style has some sleek bevels and curves compared to the new versions and th price is the sam was the 2010 MacBook Air that I purchased in 2010.

I can also use an external drive for Monterey and 1TB for space which seems nice as well.

hoped this helped!

 

[Fishrrman]

If you're doing music, get the Pro.
More ports, more power.

That's really all there is to say.

 

[tstafford]

I've got one of each: MBP14 and MBA Air M2. They are both great in their own ways. For me the key differentiator is the display support. I think the limit of one external display on the base M2 (and M3) chip is a meaningful constraint. I run three monitors off my Studio and can't imagine a desktop set-up with fewer then two displays.

I keep the M2 MBA purely for travel. And for that it is perfect. Essentially an alternative to an iPad Pro IMO. Long battery life, light weight and compact form. It's actually lighter than the iPad Pro w/ the keyboard.

But when I'm at my desk I want more power, more ports and more displays.

I will mention one more thing - my M1P MBP14 has really degraded on battery life. Forget the numbers, I can absolutely tell it's not getting the duration it had when new. The M2 MBA is only six months newer but seems to be holding up better. Frankly the battery life on the MBP has started to frustrate me a bit. Hoping to pass it on to the kids as their desktop machine and stop thinking about the battery.