These first reviews and benchmarks have done nothing to change my mind that even though I prefer the Pro models, I don't know who the two port model is aimed-at or who should be buying that one over the Air.
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MacBook Air or PRO?
- Thread starter Sara Karlsson
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I imagine it's the same folks whom the two-port MBPs were aimed at previously when they were 8th gen Intel - those wanting MBP features like Touchbar, speaker/mic improvements, higher brightness screen, and/or active cooling at a lower pricepoint than the four-port MBP models.
The performance threshold of Air vs two-port MBP is certainly shifted more in favor of the Air though based on the reviews I'm reading.
I have ended up deciding to buy a MBP vs a MBA for the following reasons:
Major reasons:
* The extra performance gains on sustained CPU & GPU performance will likely make a difference gaming, which I may use for occassionally (though I recognise neither the MBP nor MBA would probably be well suited gaming machines)
* I want the lifespan to be 7-10 years, and the fan might come more in handy towards the end of life if software demands even for day-to-day activities are higher than now
* I would appreciate the extra battery life [see also: wanting a long life from laptop]
* The MBP is of a similar size & weight to the MBA (otherwise the MBA would be a major advantage for me)
* The MBP fan does not appear to kick in for day-to-day usage (otherwise MBA would be a major advantage for me)
Minor reasons:
* Better speakers (though I don't really know what this means in 'real life' - all I know is I do use laptop speakers enough that quality matters)
* The last Apple laptop I owned was a MBA, so just having something a little different with a touchbar etc.. for the novelty factor, even if not a good reason
If I only wanted to keep the laptop for 3-4 years and use it for day-to-day tasks I would not hestitate or regret buying the MBA - the benchmarks clearly suggest that in many circumstances there will be no performance gains of the MBP.
Major reasons:
* The extra performance gains on sustained CPU & GPU performance will likely make a difference gaming, which I may use for occassionally (though I recognise neither the MBP nor MBA would probably be well suited gaming machines)
* I want the lifespan to be 7-10 years, and the fan might come more in handy towards the end of life if software demands even for day-to-day activities are higher than now
* I would appreciate the extra battery life [see also: wanting a long life from laptop]
* The MBP is of a similar size & weight to the MBA (otherwise the MBA would be a major advantage for me)
* The MBP fan does not appear to kick in for day-to-day usage (otherwise MBA would be a major advantage for me)
Minor reasons:
* Better speakers (though I don't really know what this means in 'real life' - all I know is I do use laptop speakers enough that quality matters)
* The last Apple laptop I owned was a MBA, so just having something a little different with a touchbar etc.. for the novelty factor, even if not a good reason
If I only wanted to keep the laptop for 3-4 years and use it for day-to-day tasks I would not hestitate or regret buying the MBA - the benchmarks clearly suggest that in many circumstances there will be no performance gains of the MBP.
Based on the Verge review, the only reason to get the Pro is if you're running cpu-intensive processes for 10+ minutes at a time. Otherwise the Air is the better value, and better laptop since it doesn't have TouchBar.
But what about higher quality speakers?
In practice I wonder if they are both bad to be honest...but hoping for someone to prove me wrong! Maybe I'm a little out of date but I've never found laptop speakers to be good.
Well it's pretty likely that neither of them are amazing, and certainly not on the level of the 16" MBP or even the four-port 13" MBP with its two dedicated woofers, but I haaaaaaaatteeee tinny speakers. To me, if the Pro is even moderately less tinny and more full than the Air, that will be worth the upgrade.
I'm assuming, but not positive, that the speakers are the same as their predecessors, in which case this video is probably the best comparison we have:
We saw the same sort of questions last time round because on paper, a lot of people (me included) were wondering why you'd spend more on the MBP. As it turned out, the thermal performance of the Air was inferior to the Pro.
Now, it would appear that you can get almost the same performance in the Air. The Air seems to throttle after 9/10 minutes of sustained load - I'd suggest that unless you're a Pro who is doing these sort of tasks regularly through the day, or you really love the TouchBar, that there's no point spending the extra on the Pro now.
Anyone who is doing those things as part of their workflow is probably waiting for the 4 port models anyway.
Yep. Which is why I chose not to spend $250 extra on the Pro and ordered the Air instead.
Though to be fair, the early-2020 i5 Air suited my needs just fine too, rarely spinning its fan except for the times I was doing a batch photo export or importing & building previews of hundreds of RAW images.
I did the same, cancelled my Pro order and went for an Air. I was a bit worried about the choice as I've always had Pros, but the Air is just too good to turn down at that price.Yep. Which is why I chose not to spend $250 extra on the Pro and ordered the Air instead.
Though to be fair, the early-2020 i5 Air suited my needs just fine too, rarely spinning its fan except for the times I was doing a batch photo export or importing & building previews of hundreds of RAW images.
Very interesting. Thanks for finding. I would have expressed it as 30% reduction under throttling rather than 44% advantage for not throttling !
I am upgrading to an M1 Air from a fanless 12" MacBook. There was a long thread in the MacBook forum running looped Cinebench R15 to see how much it throttled. As you can see from that link, the 12" MacBook throttled less than 10% in looped Cinebench testing.
I am more surprised how little the 12" MacBook throttled than I am by 30% of the M1 Air. I guess the 12" MacBook was a very low base, so it shouldn't be surprising that the much more powerful M1 throttles more with passive cooling even with its greater efficiency.
I will be quite happy with 30% throttling under prolonged heavy load and would not want the cost and noise of a fan system to avoid it for my uses. Even with throttling and Rosetta it will be a huge step from the 12" MacBook.
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Yes - personally I'd rather have the extra GPU core since I do a bit of photo editing and it's "only" $50 - and I was looking to make a more apples to apples comparison of the configurable items.
Very interesting. Thanks for finding. I would have expressed it as 30% reduction under throttling rather than 44% advantage for not throttling !
I am upgrading to an M1 Air from a fanless 12" MacBook. There was a long thread in the MacBook forum running looped Cinebench R15 to see how much it throttled. As you can see from that link, the 12" MacBook throttled less than 10% in looped Cinebench testing.
I am more surprised how little the 12" MacBook throttled than I am by 30% of the M1 Air. I guess the 12" MacBook was a very low base, so it shouldn't be surprising that the much more powerful M1 throttles more with passive cooling even with its greater efficiency.
I will be quite happy with 30% throttling under prolonged heavy load and would not want the cost and noise of a fan system to avoid it for my uses. Even with throttling and Rosetta it will be a huge step from the 12" MacBook.
I note that Renee Ritchies first look shows only 6% throttling after 10 minutes Cinebench... (the 30% throttling above was after 30 minutes).
I wanted to cancel my 13" pro order, even though it was a custom 16 gb it was shipped today
. I might just return it and order an air, I have such a hard time making decisions and apple has made it harder for me this year
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While helpful to have the reviews, it seems most reviewers had the 16GB versions of both machines and I'm considering the 8GB. Only Joanna Stern references that she may have been using an 8GB Air vs a 16GB Pro and still recommended the Air. Anyone else seen a review using an 8GB Air?
I chose the M1 pro variant just so I don't run into hiccups with it throttling due to heat using video chats for work, Touch Bar (coming for a 2019 air just something new) better battery and better speakers which I can now say they are MUCH better than my 2019 Air. I never realized how dull they sounded until I hear the clarity and base from this new M1 pro!
I really wish they'd make the TouchBar optional across the line
this is my first machine with it and I really do not get all the hate on the Touch Bar?!?!?! I know its preference but you can force the function keys to be there all the time instead of the Touch Bar changing based on the window that's open. I find it pretty functional in outlook and safari.
