MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared

[Tagbert]

Very generalized article that does not help those of us in the middle. It should be obvious to anyone that if you just use email and watch movies the Air is fine, or if you are editing a Hollywood movie, you need a Pro. But I'm a professional photographer who shoots on location so I'm always on the move and editing the photos where ever I am. I use Lightroom and Photoshop when the client demands it, but prefer to use Capture 1 and AffinityPhoto when the client does not care. Portability is important to me since I'm already carrying around 50-150 pounds of photo equipment, but having a slightly larger screen is helpful too. Storage space is important since I fill up about 1TB every couple of months. I also need to think about the future as photo editing programs evolve to include new ways to create masks and remove or clone objects nearly automatically. So I'm a creative yet I'd not consider my use case something that needs a lot of computer resources. For any of you in a similar situation, what is your expierence with the Air and the Pro? That information is what would help me. Thanks.

If you value the portability that argues for the MBA. For photo editing like that a 16 or 24GB M2 is plenty of horse power. You likely will only need more RAM if you are doing graphic layouts with many layers and affect, treating those apps as design tools. For photography you'll probably not be limited by 16 or 24GB.

You mentioned filling up 1TB and I think you probably would do well to get the 2TB upgrade. Any more than that and you are really talking a lot of money. I'd just get an external SSD and offload files when they are no longer active. Backups are also important and you might want to consider a cloud backup service like Backblaze so you can always have things backed up and don't need to always be carrying around a backup drive.

As far as "future proofing" goes, I'd recommend concentrating on your near term needs. You are making money on this computer and should consider it a depreciating tool. You will hopefully pay for it fairly quickly. Trying to spend now for an undefined future often means that you spend money on things that end up not mattering and you may end up wanting to change computers before then for other reasons.

 

[svish]

Both the Air and the Pro are great laptops. The Air will be enough for many users.

 

[Johnstrass2]

MacBook Air is not crippleware. 8GB unified is plenty to do lots. You can open every app that ships on your system at once and memory pressure is still green in activity monitor. You can virtualise Win11 speedily in parallels, even on M1 with 8GB. Try it. It’s super fast. Ram usage is NOTHING like on Intel.

Thank you very much for that clarification. I think I’ll try one in the store like you say. I don’t have any M1 or M2 power devices at the moment so I haven’t been able to try and compare with my old Intel.

 

[Chancha]

Apple website says the new 15” air has BT5.3, but also noticed the spec of the 13.6” air is also BT5.3 with no other change. When it was launched a year ago the spec said BT5.0 (although launch studio says it’s actually 5.1). Which is it !

Can anyone confirm the 13.6” air now had a different model number to reflect the change in Bluetooth hardware?

I was wondering about this, could be Apple's typo mistake, since in my country the 13" base models does not get a shipping lead time like the 15", it says pick up immediately at my local Apple Store. That to me means they didn't need to stock a new SKU, these are the same 13" as before.

 

[hirsthirst]

Standard issue laptop at my company is a 14" MacBook Pro - I looked up the price & astonished that an M2 is now £2,549 with the 32GB option. I only ever do basic MS Office (small Excel, small Word docs, larger PowerPoint, mostly Outlook and Teams) and standard SaaS web apps (Salesforce, Workday etc) plus basic Apple apps personal usage, so even the M2 MBA 13" with 16GB RAM I asked for instead would be huge overkill at £1,349.

52% of the price.

The lighter weight of the MBA would be far a bigger benefit to me than the (wasted) performance of the Pro.

 

[darngooddesign]

Thank you very much for that clarification. I think I’ll try one in the store like you say. I don’t have any M1 or M2 power devices at the moment so I haven’t been able to try and compare with my old Intel.

Some people say 8 is enough, other 16 is the minimum, only you can decide for sure.

You have 15days to return for any reason so buy whichever and run it thought your toughest workload. Pay attention to memory pressure color; if it is always yellow then you might consider getting 16GB because demands usually increase, but if it is only occasionally yellow then you will be fine with 8GB. et 512GB drive though because the 256 is slower.

Secondarily, try a demo of TG Pro or a different app which monitors internal temps. If your workload has them up around 90C the computer will start throttling performance, in that case I would suggest the 14" MBP, even a discounted 14" M1-Pro will be a great computer for years to come.

 

[sflagel]

The 16" MBP makes quite a bit less sense now, that's for sure.

Agree. I bought the 16inch Pro just because of the screen size, it really hurt to tap my card on that one, and then read an article about an upcoming 15inch MBA when I came home from the shop. Took the BMP back same day. It was a long wait, but I saved £ 1,100 (upgraded the MBA to 16MB memory).

 

[sflagel]

No future with 8GB Ram

Agree. But even with an upgrade to 16MB, the MBA is £550 cheaper than the 14-inch MBP.

 

[magicMac]

I was wondering about this, could be Apple's typo mistake, since in my country the 13" base models does not get a shipping lead time like the 15", it says pick up immediately at my local Apple Store. That to me means they didn't need to stock a new SKU, these are the same 13" as before.

Yeah that’s true I noticed that also in the UK. Suggesting the same hardware. Possibly a firmware update. I just checked my work laptop, which is an M2 MacBook Air and in system information the Bluetooth chip shows as BCM_4387. I don’t know much about this chip and whether is is firmware upgradable to 5.3, but quick online search does mention the chip is 5.0. It will be interesting what chip is inside new deliveries !

 

[Elohim369]

Is the M2 Pro MacBook Pro 16" way more battery efficient than the M1 Pro?

I have a 16" M1 Pro and if I use this computer I get around 5 hours, 6 tops, on battery. 22 hours is a fantasy ....some sort of optimal conditions scenario?

I am hoping a M2 15" MacBook Air will provide much better battery life. My old M1 Air was very good, easily hitting 9 or 10 hours of solid use.

Those wishing for mini-LED screens you should know that that technology uses a lot of battery. Better wait for high quality OLED screens.

The variable frame rate makes the display hot to the touch - the display is also very thick, compared to any normal laptop, and this is the main reason this is the biggest MBP in some time - it's humongous, even when compared to my previous Intel MBPs.

I have no issues with performance - it's a flawless beast of a machine that never stutters or stops - no quality issues, it's a rock. Unfortunately also the size and weight of a rock... and battery is disappointing.

 

[Elohim369]

Not in the same exact situation but in general, I feel the same. There seems like no "right" answer to MBA vs MBP. I have always gotten a MBP but last time I got the 13" MBP which was sort of a change. I prefer the smaller/lighter size. For this round I have gone back and forth between the 13" MBA and the 14" MBP. Neither seems completely right.

MBA is thin and light, multiple colors available, great battery, it's just screams cool! But I'm worried it won't really be able to handle "everything". Like I play games (no AAA stuff) and I don't have to play on my laptop but I would like that possibility and not at 20-ish FPS.

MBP is big and chunky. Only two colors, both are boring. It has ports and slots I don't need, ever. On the plus side, it does have a better screen (but really only noticeable in XDR), better speakers (which I don't really care about), but it does have the horsepower to throw anything at!

Why doesn't Apple make something that's a hybrid of both? A 13-14" 120hz screen that's thin and light with style, multiple colors, enough power to get decent FPS in games, not be too loud with the fans, jettison the legacy ports.

In the end, that isn't going to happen overnight so I'll have to choose between something I think is cool but maybe underpowered or something that is more utilitarian.

mini-LED will be replaced by OLED.

Way too much battery consumption, especially at 120Hz. Ok there's pro motion but I think on a computer there's always something somewhere animating on the screen, and at least in my experience the screen is always on 120 - never had a display get hot on me before, this one gets very hot (M1 MBP 16)

 

[Elohim369]

Agreed. My 14" MacBook Pros battery life was great for the size and performance, but compared to either my wife's M1 MBA or my current M2 MBA, it was pretty weak.

My M1 MBA is way better in battery life than my M1 Pro MBP - bottom line is, Apple's battery ratings are unfortunately lies.

They say it's the same, but it's not.

M1 / M2 have amazing battery life thanks to these processors using very little power. The M1 Pro uses a lot more, and the M1 Max a lot more again. Pro and Ultra are getting into Intel territory on TDP, M1/M2 are more like mobile phone processors.

I guess if you do a lot of CPU intensive tasks like I do, you'll notice this more.

For streaming movies I guess it doesn't matter but I didn't buy a MBP to watch Netflix...

 

[arggg14]

Agree. I bought the 16inch Pro just because of the screen size, it really hurt to tap my card on that one, and then read an article about an upcoming 15inch MBA when I came home from the shop. Took the BMP back same day. It was a long wait, but I saved £ 1,100 (upgraded the MBA to 16MB memory).

What are your thoughts on the difference in the screen and speakers?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

If you value the portability that argues for the MBA. For photo editing like that a 16 or 24GB M2 is plenty of horse power. You likely will only need more RAM if you are doing graphic layouts with many layers and affect, treating those apps as design tools. For photography you'll probably not be limited by 16 or 24GB.

You mentioned filling up 1TB and I think you probably would do well to get the 2TB upgrade. Any more than that and you are really talking a lot of money. I'd just get an external SSD and offload files when they are no longer active. Backups are also important and you might want to consider a cloud backup service like Backblaze so you can always have things backed up and don't need to always be carrying around a backup drive.

As far as "future proofing" goes, I'd recommend concentrating on your near term needs. You are making money on this computer and should consider it a depreciating tool. You will hopefully pay for it fairly quickly. Trying to spend now for an undefined future often means that you spend money on things that end up not mattering and you may end up wanting to change computers before then for other reasons.

I would add an exception to your comment: working with images goes better with additional RAM, and RAM needs always increase over time. With fast UMA RAM baked on to the M chips it makes sense to future proof with more RAM than simply what one's 2023 workflow uses.

Also note that the MBA's only two Thunderbolt 3 (rather than three Thunderbolt 4 in MBPs) is 1/3 the minimum bandwidth of the MBPs and along with the much lesser memory bandwidth limits MBA functionality as a desktop box.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I don't have experience, since the 15 inch just came out, but it seems you would be best off with a maxed-out Air 15.

The MBA is lesser in every way, especially display quality and inability to have higher RAM. MBA is about price and saving 1.5 pounds weight. My experience is commercial photography and IMO the MBP is far superior for photog needs, but the MBA definitely meets minimum needs if minimum is what one seeks.

Note also that if you show pix to clients using the laptop like I do, anyone with trained eyes will see the MBP display (and by extension the pix) as better.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

What are your thoughts on the difference in the screen and speakers?

MBP display and speakers are far superior to the 13" MBA. I have not carefully listened to the 15" MBA speakers yet but the display is like the 13".

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Agree. But even with an upgrade to 16MB, the MBA is £550 cheaper than the 14-inch MBP.

Of course the lower end laptop costs less. And most folks do not need the far superior but more costly MBP laptop.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

mini-LED will be replaced by OLED.

Way too much battery consumption, especially at 120Hz. Ok there's pro motion but I think on a computer there's always something somewhere animating on the screen, and at least in my experience the screen is always on 120 - never had a display get hot on me before, this one gets very hot (M1 MBP 16)

My 16" M2 MBP Max has never had its display get hot, not once despite hard usage. And the battery seems to go forever. Quite an amazing box actually. My eyes/brain are images trained, and I was amazed by the display and the sound when streaming movies or presenting images.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Counterpoint: It’s fine.

"Fine" is in the eyes/brain of each individual, but anyone should be able to A-B compare and see that the MBP display is far superior. Many folks who only do text may prefer saving money (and weight!) by choosing the lesser MBA display.

 

[darngooddesign]

"Fine" is in the eyes/brain of each individual, but anyone should be able to A-B compare and see that the MBP display is far superior. Many folks who only do text may prefer saving money (and weight!) by choosing the lesser MBA display.

I agree that the MBP has a superior screen, love my 16”, but the Air’s screen is not trash, it’s just not as good. The point of the Air is to save money, weight, and thickness, with that comes compromises.

 

[iCyprus]

Agree. But even with an upgrade to 16MB, the MBA is £550 cheaper than the 14-inch MBP.

Not on Amazon )

 

[Elohim369]

My 16" M2 MBP Max has never had its display get hot, not once despite hard usage. And the battery seems to go forever. Quite an amazing box actually. My eyes/brain are images trained, and I was amazed by the display and the sound when streaming movies or presenting images.

Very interesting - maybe they fixed something in the M2!

 

[jessejesse]

I have an MBP (M1pro). Processor speed seems pretty similar, but I believe even the M1Pro is significantly better than the M2 as far as graphics go, never mind the M2pro. With the recent changes to allow gaming, I would personally stick with a chip that can handle gaming. I could be wrong, but that's my first read. If that isn't a concern, it seems like a great machine.

I'll say, I continue to be boggled by people that care about "coolness" or are really weighed down by the additional weight of a MacBook Pro. There's such a thing as getting too much in the weeds.

I'm a therapist. I specialize in working with tech/engineers. You're all over optimizers! Sometimes you need to zoom out. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

 

[Luba]

How much speed or whatever in “real life” do we lose from Thunderbolt 3 on the MBA vs Thunderbolt 4 on a MBP?

 

[Tagbert]

How much speed or whatever in “real life” do we lose from Thunderbolt 3 on the MBA vs Thunderbolt 4 on a MBP?

Both Thunderbolt 3 and 4 are the same 40 Gbps speed. The only difference is that some features are optional in 3 but are required in 4. 4 was more of a cleanup of the spec than any kind of functional change.