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Sway me in favor of the 13" MacBook Pro instead of the 13" Macbook Air
- Thread starter prehmo
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It's counter intuitive for the majority of touch typists as their focus is on the display. Touchbar is another potential point of failure in the chain and naturally Apple's only solution is to replace the entire Logic Board as opposed to the just the Touchbar at significant cost.
That's why the Touchbar is so strongly disliked. Apple's implementation of a dynamic keyboard row is the best implemented to date, equally it has met the same demise as all it's predecessors. Somethings just dont need fixing, the Butterfly Keyboard & Touchbar should have never been implemented. The former was clearly unreliable, the latter more a gimmick than a tool.
FWIW I have a 13" M1 MBP and rarely use the Touchbar as it's faster to use shortcut keys or set up the GUI accordingly.
Q-6
Gaming or sustained heavy use on the Air, especially in a warm environment performance will plumet as that's the nature of passively cooled systems where CPU/SOC TDP exceeds the maximum capacity of the passive cooling solution.
Q-6
The market & Apple have spoken, enjoy it while you can. M2 13" MBP is highly likely to be the last Mac with the Touchbar unless Apple releases an M3 variant.
Q-6
Not everyone needs more than 256... I get by with less than 100 easily.
OP, get the Air! It's a beautiful device. The 13" Pro is designed only for businesses. Then, get the 15" Air and enjoy what I consider the best Mac Apple sells right now. Large screen, light/slim, cheap in apple terms, amazing battery and still powerful
Sorry but light/slim/cheaper does not mean best; not even close. 14" and 16" MBPs are better in every regard except light/slim/cheap.
The statement that The 13" Pro is designed only for businesses also is simply untrue. Try playing games, for instance, and see how poorly an MBA compares to MBP. [And yes we all know Macs are not the best gaming devices. But nevertheless many folks do play games on them.]
The 14 & 16ā pros are not better in every regardā¦ theyāre expensive and heavy! Sure, more powerful, more ports and a better display. But now you can get a light version of those pros and save a good amount of money. Those who need the powerful pros will get them but the rest of us want that pro like device without wasting moneyā¦
If you want to play games on a Mac, you should strongly consider a pro or max chip then. Apple doesnāt invest in the Touch Bar anymore and have clearly left it behind in terms of designā¦ both of which are cost saving measures so they can offer a device for business use. Iām not saying you canāt use the 13ā pro for games but that is not the purpose of this device
Always bought my Mac's with work in mind (O&G industry), equally with time on hands and a little imagination...
Doom 3; new engine native to Apple Silicon, new HD graphics. Original might be a close to 20 year old game, this isn't...
Newer 14" & 16" are clearly far more capable again
Q-6
If referring to Doom 3 up to 4K...
dhewm3 Engine;
dhewm3 is a source port of the original Doom3 (not Doom3 BFG, for that you may want to try RBDoom3BFG). Itās known to work on Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and AROS, but it should work on (or be easily portable to) any system that supports OpenGL 1.4 with ARB shaders, SDL and OpenAL.
Compared to the original version of Doom3, dhewm3 has many bugfixes, supports EAX-like sound effects on all operating systems and hardware (via OpenAL Softs EFX support), has much better support for widescreen resolutions and has 64bit support.
It only supports old Mods if they either donāt require their own game DLL or have been ported to dhewm3 - see the Mods page for more information.
Far too many fixes & improvements to list here.
D3HDP HD Graphics Mod;
- Fixed and improved textures, particles and materials for the levels;
- Optimized assets and less space required;
- Reworked and improved details for all levels, map objects, characters, monsters and weapons;
- Added deleted/unused micro details and effects from E3 Alpha Doom 3;
- Remastered enpro level with architecture from BFG Edition;
- Fixed several issues and mistakes in the maps;
- Included all the fixes for materials from Resurrection of Evil in the original campaign;
- Jack Campbell now wears marine armor from BFG Edition;
- Added shotgun sound from BFG Edition and restored original machinegun sound;
- Complete HD texture pack for Doom 3, Resurrection of Evil and Lost Mission mod;
- All the dead bodies stay on the place (optional for Doom 3, RoE and Lost Mission);
- Bullet shells stay forever in the ground;
- Included E3 Alpha Pistol, Shotgun and Machinegun (optional for Doom 3, RoE and Lost Mission);
- Full compatibility with Dhewm3;
- Added Phrozo Particles v2.0 (optional for Doom 3, RoE and Lost Mission);
- Included Birdman as replacement for HellKnight (optional for Doom 3, RoE and Lost Mission);
- Self Shadows v2.0 modification added to the pack (optional for Doom 3, RoE and Lost Mission);
- Added Alpha & BFG Marine Armors and Invisible Monsters add-ons;
- Added water material to the game.
All credit to the dhewm3 & D3HDP teams. I only figured that both mod's would complement one another and run natively on M1/M2 thx to Mac Source Ports recompiled engine...
Performance on the Air IDK, M1 13" MBP opt for V1 of the HD graphics pack, M2 14" & 16" should run V2. The game may perform well on the Air as the dhewm3 source port is well optimised. The engine is locked to 60 FPS, however for Time Demo's is unlocked with the 13" M1 MBP benchmarking consistently in the region of 130 FPS.
Those interested follow the link: Doom 3
n.b. You need to own the original game as the mods do not provide the core data files.
Q-6
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Personally, I'd go with the Air. I much preferred the wedge design, but the form factor and the additional storage would probably sway me here - even though most of my devices have 256 GB SSDs in them and I regularly put stuff I don't need on the devices themselves on external drives and/or cloud storage. Not because I have to but because it's tidier. That's just my personal use, though.
And while I love the Touch Bar, it's just not as big a deal to have/not have it that I'd make a purchase decision over it.
And while I love the Touch Bar, it's just not as big a deal to have/not have it that I'd make a purchase decision over it.
I dont want to hear your hate. You dont like the touch bar I get it. STOP trying to force your hate on others.
N.P. Much the same, other than the M2 Air has a slightly larger display. The 14" & 16" MBP's have better display technology, equally no Apple portable has a poor display nor has done for years.
The Doom 3 info may help others and the OP expressed in interest in gaming so wont go to waste
Q-6
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For these specific configurations: You want the MacBook Air because the 256GB SSD is significantly slower than the 512GB SSD. This is an issue that 256GB drives on ALL standard M2 Macs have (and that 512GB drives on all M2 Pro/Max Macs have as well). An M2 MacBook Air with the 512GB drive will not be affected.
Otherwise (i.e. outside of the context of those specific configurations): The benefits of an M2 13-inch MacBook Pro over the M2 MacBook Air (either 13-inch or 15-inch) are as follows:
- Active cooling
- A tried and true design (the M2 is technically the third release with the tweaked Touch Bar design of 2-port 13-inch MacBook Pro that has the Magic Keyboard [rather than the butterfly keyboard], following both the M1 based model and the 8th Gen ULV U-series Intel version before that - which itself fixes most of the problems that the 13-inch MacBook Pro design had from 2016 to 2019)
- The Touch Bar (version that has a physical escape key)
- No notch
The first on that list is nice and can help for times when you do heavier tasks; the second, third, and fourth are more subjective; either they're things you care about or they're not. Personally, I like that all of those features exist. But it also is the case that my needs as a Mac user pretty much put me at something between a maxed out 13-inch MacBook Pro or a 14-inch MacBook Pro with the binned variant of M2 Pro; so for me, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is more ideal than the MacBook Air.
But certainly, if those specific configurations, it's not at all worth it to go with the 13-inch MacBook Pro; you're spending more on a drive that will hamstring you.
Sure.
- The Pro has a fan so you can do long CPU/GPU intensive tasks with no performance degradation
- The Pro has a Touch Bar. Instead of having single purpose keys, you now have adjustable continuous controls, adequate for each application.
- the Pro has an <strike>old</strike> tried-and-true case design, so you know you will get a great build quality with no issues
- The Pro has the 10 core GPU by default
- The Pro has the better battery life
- The Pro does not have a notch
- The Pro display has bigger bezels, so you get better separation between your content and the world
- The Pro is called "Pro", which means "the better one", and sounds professional.
There you go.
I'm sure there are more reasons, but that's what I could come up with now.
I don't believe anything I said, and purchased an Air for myself.
Good luck
Mark Gurman reports Apple's coming with an M3 13" MacBook Pro. The only hope is that Apple updates its design to make it fit in with the rest of the line. It would be better if Apple just put the regular M3 in the 14" MacBook Pro though.
Gaming on M silicon is a pain in the ass since you can't install windows via Boot camp and Mac OS offers only a hand full of games. Other route is to do virtualisation like Vine but involves too much tinkering
Instead I would recommend:
A 500ā¬ Lenovo legion with 1660Ti/3050
A steam deck if you don't need a windows laptop for other stuff
Gaming on Xbox cloud on your MacBook or straight on your Samsung TV/Monitor (models newer than 2022 AFAIK)
I tried all 4 options and I ended with the Xbox route as my time is limited.
Takes 10 seconds to start any game from the large library Xbox offers
Instead I would recommend:
A 500ā¬ Lenovo legion with 1660Ti/3050
A steam deck if you don't need a windows laptop for other stuff
Gaming on Xbox cloud on your MacBook or straight on your Samsung TV/Monitor (models newer than 2022 AFAIK)
I tried all 4 options and I ended with the Xbox route as my time is limited.
Takes 10 seconds to start any game from the large library Xbox offers
Wouldn't be surprised as the 13" MBP is a big seller for Apple nor do I see a redesign on the cards. Apple just need to drop in the M3 SOC and they are good to go.
Q-6
I have a reasonably competent PC which takes care of my gaming needs. The M1 Mac is more a point of interest with a handful of titles that can be run natively. Given the current state of gaming on the Mac I personally wouldn't consider one primarily for gaming. As said there are simply better options at lower price points.
Q-6
Your purpose with the Mac Book Pro is to "future proof" and play games. It might be helpful to look at the difference between the two machines (besides the storage), and then discuss with one is best.
MacBook Pro 13"
Display: 13.3"
Camera: 720p
Fan: Yes
Battery life: 17hours
Touch Bar: Yes
Hard drive size: 256GB (as spec)
Magsafe charging cable: No
MacBook Air 13"
Display: 13.6"
Camera: 1080p
Fan: No
Battery life: 18 hours
Touch Bar: No
Hard Drive Size: 512GB (as Spec)
Magsafe charging: Yes
[source from MacTracker]
For game playing, the MacBook Pro would be at a disadvantage because of the hard drive size. Games can be quite large, and can easily fill up the 256GB drive. The display is also smaller too. However, with a fan the MacBook Pro can run longer, but external cooling fans can be purchased for the MacBook Air.
For future proofing, there's really not much proofing that exist. They both have the same processor. The MacBook Pro has a smaller hard drive (which might cause problems in the future).
There's no advantage, for your purpose, for a MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro 13"
Display: 13.3"
Camera: 720p
Fan: Yes
Battery life: 17hours
Touch Bar: Yes
Hard drive size: 256GB (as spec)
Magsafe charging cable: No
MacBook Air 13"
Display: 13.6"
Camera: 1080p
Fan: No
Battery life: 18 hours
Touch Bar: No
Hard Drive Size: 512GB (as Spec)
Magsafe charging: Yes
[source from MacTracker]
For game playing, the MacBook Pro would be at a disadvantage because of the hard drive size. Games can be quite large, and can easily fill up the 256GB drive. The display is also smaller too. However, with a fan the MacBook Pro can run longer, but external cooling fans can be purchased for the MacBook Air.
For future proofing, there's really not much proofing that exist. They both have the same processor. The MacBook Pro has a smaller hard drive (which might cause problems in the future).
There's no advantage, for your purpose, for a MacBook Pro.
once you spec up the mba, vs the pro base variant the price difference is only 50-100 bucks difference between 14 and 15 mba. when you spending 1500+ that price difference is negligible
I did this comparison and found that there was no major differences and went with the M2 MBA. I also own a 14 M2 Max that I use for mobile video editing. The M2 MBA is my favorite laptop of all time. Smooth and simple, I really like it.