Air or Pro?

[81Tiger04]

My wife had been using MacBooks since they were clunky, plastic white things ?. Well, a year ago my wife took a leap and purchased a PC for work. Fast forward to now ... She wants to go back to a Mac (big surprise ha ha). What would you suggest she do as far as her Mac purchase? Pro or Air? Which will suffice?

She bought a Dell XPS 15 9500. She was starting a new job and would be working online at home a lot. It primarily involves online video & audio sessions via Zoom or Adobe. During sessions, she is is often running something such as an interactive game, websites, taking notes, etc. She currently runs 1 monitor but will possibly increase to 2.

The XPS 9500 meets her needs. In her new purchase, she would like to make sure her computing needs are met for the next few years.

XPS 15 9500
	6-Cell Battery, 86WHr (Integrated) Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.0 15.6" FHD+ (1920 x 1200) InfinityEdge Non-Touch Anti-Glare 500-Nit Display 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive 16GB DDR4-2933MHz, 2x8G NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6 10th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H (12MB Cache, up to 5.0 GHz, 6 cores)

 

[raqball]

Not much difference between the Air and the Pro. Pro has 100 more nits, a Touch Bar (could be a reason to buy or avoid), a fan and extra ports..

The Air can be equipped with the 8 core GPU so the processor and GPU can be exactly the same between them...

I hate the Touch Bar so the Pro was an instant no from me.. I got the M1 Air maxed out with the 8 core GPU, 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.. Happy with it, it's quiet (no fan) and blazes though everything I've put it through..

 

[Significant1]

Both will do fine and I would let her decide what she fancy most. I choose air because it is cheaper, doesn't have a fan. Especially because it doesn't have a fan. The pro m1 might not have much fan noise, but I have just been so fed up with fan noise from my old machines. Glad I did, it is speedy and completely silent.. always. Only upside on pro from my perspektive is a bit brighter screen (500 vs 400nits) when sitting outside in the sun.

 

[Falhófnir]

Weird I thought I already replied to this... For your wife's usage I'd say RAM would benefit over CPU, so the Air with 16GB would probably be more useful than the Pro with 8GB. However, going with either the MBP or MBA won't allow her to add a second display as each only support a single external monitor (at last without a clunky workaround) so that may be a dealbreaker, depending on how important the desk setup is. An alternative might be an M1 Mac mini which can output to two displays (one via Thunderbolt, one via HDMI) for the desk, and keeping the XPS for laptop use when she isn't at the desk?

 

[81Tiger04]

Weird I thought I already replied to this... For your wife's usage I'd say RAM would benefit over CPU, so the Air with 16GB would probably be more useful than the Pro with 8GB. However, going with either the MBP or MBA won't allow her to add a second display as each only support a single external monitor (at last without a clunky workaround) so that may be a dealbreaker, depending on how important the desk setup is. An alternative might be an M1 Mac mini which can output to two displays (one via Thunderbolt, one via HDMI) for the desk, and keeping the XPS for laptop use when she isn't at the desk?

Not to get off topic, but why couldn't she use 2 monitors with a MBP or MBA? I'm using a 2016 MBP and 2 monitors right now. I'm not questioning you, I'm just confused.

 

[Significant1]

Not to get off topic, but why couldn't she use 2 monitors with a MBP or MBA? I'm using a 2016 MBP and 2 monitors right now. I'm not questioning you, I'm just confused.

It's a limitation of M1. It can support two displays in total, but since that includes the internal display, only Mac Mini supports two external monitors. There is a workaround however, using a usb-hub/adapter with a displaylink gpu. https://www.displaylink.com/

 

[81Tiger04]

Gotcha.

 

[jdb8167]

It's a limitation of M1. It can support two displays in total, but since that includes the internal display, only Mac Mini supports two external monitors. There is a workaround however, using a usb-hub/adapter with a displaylink gpu. https://www.displaylink.com/

The expectation is that upcoming Apple silicon replacements for the 4-port Intel 13” MacBook Pro and the 16” MacBook Pro will allow for multiple external monitors. They should be released sometime this year—probably early fall. You might want to wait for them if multiple displays is an important consideration.

 

[awintersdaybyth]

Not much difference between the Air and the Pro. Pro has 100 more nits, a Touch Bar (could be a reason to buy or avoid), a fan and extra ports..

iirc they both just have the two usb4/thunderbolt ports

e2a: the M1 models that is

 

[ghanwani]

The Air would be quite a different machine than the XPS 15. The 16 MBP would probably be the closest replacement.

 

[81Tiger04]

Based on the requirements described above, does the Air seem to be more than capable for her needs?

PS ... Let's assume she only uses 1 additional monitor for this question.

 

[jdb8167]

Based on the requirements described above, does the Air seem to be more than capable for her needs?

PS ... Let's assume she only uses 1 additional monitor for this question.

It sounds like an Air would be fine. Two get a few years of use I would go with 16 GBs of RAM though. I wonder if the lack of a second display might reduce the number of years of use though. If so then even 8 GB would probably be fine.

 

[81Tiger04]

It sounds like an Air would be fine. Two get a few years of use I would go with 16 GBs of RAM though. I wonder if the lack of a second display might reduce the number of years of use though. If so then even 8 GB would probably be fine.

Oh she would definitely get 16GB of RAM. And at least 512GB SSD.

Buying from Education Store is also a big help.