Help to select my first ever Macbook!!!

[Srv_2793]

I am so confused between MBA(16gb,512) or MBP14 base model.

I won't be doing any creative work, will be doing casual stuff and studying for cyber Sec/cloud computing, hence will need to run VMs. Please suggest which one should I go for as price is not really an issue for me.

 

[Phil77354]

Well, you've come to the right place, no doubt you'll get lots of questions and advice here!

I'm planning to purchase a 14" MacBook Pro soon myself. I decided to get the Pro rather than the Air because there are enough differences between the two models to make the additional cost worthwhile for me personally - display size and quality, better FaceTime camera, speakers, longer battery life and MagSafe connector. Not only that, the standard Pro configurations include 16 GB RAM and more storage, so it's possible to get a better spec'd MacBook Pro without the need to special order and wait in order to get the configuration you want.

You're indicating that price is not your main concern, so my recommendation, for what it's worth, is to get the MacBook Pro.

 

[0128672]

Because you're going to run VMs, I'd go with the MBP 14. I assume you've already researched the compatibility with the current macOS for whatever VM software you'll be using.

 

[James_C]

I am so confused between MBA(16gb,512) or MBP14 base model.

I won't be doing any creative work, will be doing casual stuff and studying for cyber Sec/cloud computing, hence will need to run VMs. Please suggest which one should I go for as price is not really an issue for me.

Firstly you need to do some research on what VM's you need to run. With the new Apple Silicon chips your options are more limited than used to be the case with Intel Chips. Parallels has support for Windows on Arm and Mac OS, however due to the different architectures on Apple Silicon it is not currently possible to run x86 Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac.

It should also be noted that running Windows on Arm is possible, but the licensing is a bit of grey area, Microsoft's position at the moment is Windows on Arm is not officially supported on Apple Silicon. That being said I am currently running WfA on a M1 Pro MBP under parallels and I have successfully applied a Windows X86 licence to it, and it appears to run quite happily at the moment.

With VM's you should definitely be looking at 16GB of RAM, as the memory is shared between Mac OS and the VM.

In terms of performance the MBA should be fine, as I have been using a M1 MBA 16GB with a WfA VM for about a year and it ran very well.

I don't think you will see a lot of performance benefit from the applications you are running with the MBP, but the MBP 14" M1 Pro gives you a lot of other significant benefits, a screen to die for, better speaker system and studio quality Mics, a better range of ports and Apple's MagSafe power connector. The Web Cam is also much better. The only advantages of the MBA over the MBP is battery life, and it is a lot lighter in your backpack.

If you see value in the above then go for the MBP, I suggest you go to an Apple store if you can and see both in person.

 

[Phil77354]

Re my own purchase, decided to get the less expensive (a lot less expensive) MacBook Air, just ordered one with 16GB RAM and 1 TB SSD in stock at local Apple Store, picking it up this afternoon. I had been looking at the new MacBook Pro models and really like the added features but in the end decided that the additional $800 or so was just not justified, for my particular needs.

 

[filbert42]

I like my new 14" MacBook Pro. I went for this over the MacBook Air as I will be using two or three USB ports and the SD card reader, so it's nice to have them built in rather than using a hub. I also like the Magsafe connector - I had one on my last MacBook Pro (from 2013). I was pretty much waiting for Apple to bring back these features before I replaced it.

If you're not bothered about ports and Magsafe, save a lot of cash by going for the MacBook Air - but go for plenty of RAM, if you want to run VMs, and more disk space than you think you'll need - it's much more comfortable to have plenty of headroom and VMs and snapshots eat disk space. And you can't upgrade, you're stuck with what you initially get.

I haven't run VMs for a while, so can't comment on how well they run on the new M1 series. I used to use Parallels and preferred it to VMWare as it seemed to integrate better. On my old mac I had 16gb RAM and 1TB SSSD, that was enough for me.

I never regretted moving to a Mac from a Windows machine.

 

[AdamNC]

I say get a MBA 8 core gpu with 16 gigs ram, and 1T drive. I did a 4 hour zoom meeting with 4 others on the Video call, used 25% of my battery, and it was warm but not hot.

 

[Toutou]

Studying cybersec + cloud stuff sounds to me like a Linux VM or two, writing some code, spending some quality time at the command line, nothing too intensive. Performance wise the Air with 16G RAM should be perfect. So if you're on a budget, or if you'd prefer a portable, silent machine AND you don't mind the lack of ports (only two USB-C), get the Air.

If you can afford it and you don't mind a slightly bigger machine, the 14" Pro will get you a larger, better display, more ports, a little better CPU performance (0 to 35 % difference depending on the workload) and much better GPU performance (some gaming here and there maybe?).

 

[mi7chy]

Sounds like you need the Intel MBP 16" which are being offloaded fairly cheap.