MBA 2020 i5 512 GB SSD vs Base MBP 2020 i5 256 SSD

[iMacedonian]

As the title suggests, since these two are the same price, would it be a better choice to get the MBA 2020 with 512 SSD storage and 10th gen i5 vs the 8th gen i5 on the base model MBP with 256 SSD that has better screen and cooling mechanism?
What would you do?

 

[IngerMan]

MBP 2020 base is 8th Gen if your talking the 13”?

Depends on what your going to use it for?


MBP
Brighter screen
Better CPU & iGPU results
better thermals when being pushed

MBA
No touch bar
Longer battery life for light use
More comfortable to type on wedge design.

 

[iMacedonian]

Light coding (Frond-end and Python), Netflix, web browsing and Spotify. That's mostly it, unless I decide to become a YouTuber so i'd need to edit videos or something I'll correct my initial post regarding the 8th gen, it's a typo.

 

[IngerMan]

They are both a good choice. Sounds like either one would work for your use. Hobby stuff, light coding.

what’s your personal preference, which one puts a twinkle in your eye ?

 

[iMacedonian]

They are both a good choice. Sounds like either one would work for your use. Hobby stuff, light coding.

what’s your personal preference, which one puts a twinkle in your eye ?

I'm kinda leaning more towards the Air just because of the money worth. My 2017 fanless MBA is handling 10 Chrome tabs without any issues, so the reviews on YouTube where they're bashing the cooling system of the new MBA seem a little far-fetched.

 

[oilers780]

Light coding (Frond-end and Python), Netflix, web browsing and Spotify. That's mostly it, unless I decide to become a YouTuber so i'd need to edit videos or something I'll correct my initial post regarding the 8th gen, it's a typo.

When you're mentioning coding, I would look at it this way: what will you being doing in the future that you may not necessarily mention now? Any chance you get into heavier coding? If there is a possibility, the MBP's processing power advantage could come in handy. I would spec it to what you can afford and what will fit your needs for the next 5 years or so.

When I got my 2015 MBP? I was so damn excited with 8gb of RAM. 2 years in? I regretted not getting 16gb of RAM. This time, I didn't miss the boat. I maxed out the specs on my Air w/ the processor and RAM. The SSD is 512gb, which is about double what I was originally looking at. But I am so set for the next 5 years with a fine tuned machine.

If you can max out the RAM in the Air and go for an i5 to do all the coding you can think of? It might be a better deal than a base MBP. Especially if you can get a student discount.

 

[Jack Neill]

I was faced with the same choice only I was looking at the 1700 MBP, I ended up getting a i5/8/512 Air. It was 1290 Open box and its perfect for my needs, I am glad I went with storage over power as this is "enough" for now. Plus the Touch Bar is stupid.