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Macbook Pro or Macbook Air ??

  • MBP $1799 model

    Votes: 6 42.9%
  • MBA i5/16gb/512gb

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • MBP Base model + 16gb ram

    Votes: 7 50.0%

  • Total voters
    14

DanTat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 16, 2020
21
3
I was considering waiting for the ARM mac but I don’t think my current mac will last. Currently I have a 12 inch 2017 macbook i5/8gb/512 & the loose screen makes the display blurry sometimes.

I’m debating between a MBA i5/16gb/512 plus an ipad pro or go straight for the 1799 MBP model & no ipad pro? The MBP will be around $600 more compared to the upgraded air & i can potentially put that $600 towards & ipad pro?

I considered getting the base model pro but i would really prefer the 16gb ram & at least 512gb storage & if i add upgrades to base model pro i might as well get the 1799 model? Or Would i make sense to get the base model 9+upgraded ram & base storage for the same price as upgraded air & just get an external

Would the MBA be sufficient for my use case ?
I mainly do basic tasks like word processing, watching videos online but I like to have chrome open with a million tabs at once & my 8gb ram is always red in activity monitor thus considering the 16gb ram this time around. I also installed bootcamp & tried to play some games that aren’t super graphic intensive like maplestory on my 12inch & that didn’t go well. Will this all be okay on the air? How is the heat sink problem?

on a side note is apple care worth it ?
 
Last edited:
I have mba2015 With parallels/bootcamp 8GB ram and its ok, so mba2020 With 16GB is very very good; when it comes to games - check the hardware requirements for a specific game and if the MBA meets them, it will be Ok
 
You can get a like-new 2020 MBA i5/16/512 for $1269 from the Apple Refurb Store that includes the one-year warranty and option to buy Applecare+. Check out the other configs there too for 8GB.

 
I would recommend the base 13-inch MBP, especially if you are watching videos in Chrome.
 
Always upgrade RAM first if your are going to keep the machine for at least few years. I'am 100% happy with my base higher MBP 13 2019 except damn 8 gb RAM( Selling my current machine just to buy a new 13 MBP higher base with 16 gb RAM sounds irrational, especially when massive ARM updates are just around the corner. I've come now to even considering to get a MBA 2020 i5 16 gb RAM, because, to be honest, I almost never hit even 25% CPU load while most of time my moderate 8 gb RAM shows 50%+ memory pressure and sometimes reaches 75-80%. 8 GB RAM on Macs in 2020 still sounds absurd to me. I regret I believed if Apple uses 8 gb RAM on 13 inch PRO's it mostly should be fine for that price of 1800 USD)))
 
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