What is the difference between a 13" Macbook Air M1 vs a 13" MacBook Pro M1?

[JustAnExpat]

I'm thinking about purchasing a new MacBook to replace my old MacBook Air 2017 (display and keyboard problems).

I'm looking at both the Macbook Air M1(8 core/ 512GB) vs the Macbook Pro 13", and I'm not seeing much of a difference. Here's what I value:

1. Display. Both would be an upgrade to my MacBook Air 2017 non-retina display, but it looks like they are the same display.
2. Webcam. I do video conferencing sometimes, and it looks like both machines have the same camera system.
3. Keyboard. I like (but not love) my Macbook Air 2017 keyboard (it's pre-butterfly). I think both the Macbook Air M1 and Macbook Pro M1 have the same keyboard.
4. Ports. Both have the same ports (or lack thereof?)
5. I don't expect to do anything too processor heavy that would cause the M1 Macbook Pro 13" to kick on the fan.

What am I missing? Is the Macbook Pro 13" just a "we have some extra parts so let's sell it" model, or is there an actual reason why I should get the pro over the air?

 

[Mr.Blacky]

The 13" MacBook Pro is (now) a unnecessary relict from the past and I would be really surprised, if it doesn't get axed in 2022 or 2023 at the latest.
Bottom line: Get the MacBook Air.

 

[yitwail]

Air is more bang for the $$, if you get an upgraded model and compare it to base Pro. Having said that, Pro has longer battery life, and touch bar, which I don't like, but some people do. Either way, I'd highly recommend 16gb ram and at least 512gb ssd.

 

[Buck987]

I’ve had both in my home at the same time and the pro has a nicer screen and IMO a better keyboard. With the air you might have to deal with thermal throttling since it does not have a fan. As mentioned the pro also has better battery life. Best Buy has the base at 1149 and I think at that price its worth it over the air.

 

[JustAnExpat]

I’ve had both in my home at the same time and the pro has a nicer screen and IMO a better keyboard. With the air you might have to deal with thermal throttling since it does not have a fan. As mentioned the pro also has better battery life. Best Buy has the base at 1149 and I think at that price its worth it over the air.

What makes the screen nicer? According to Apple's specs, the screen is the same.

Sadly, I'm not in America, but if I was, I would seriously think about getting that machine

 

[apdg]

The MacBook Pro is, pretty much literally, a MacBook Air (8 core) with a fan and a bigger battery. You're right that they're extremely similar. The line between "pro" and "non-pro" is very thin, and this is where Apple drew it. Sounds to me like the Air fits the bill for you.

 

[JustAnExpat]

The MacBook Pro is, pretty much literally, a MacBook Air (8 core) with a fan and a bigger battery. You're right that they're extremely similar. The line between "pro" and "non-pro" is very thin, and this is where Apple drew it. Sounds to me like the Air fits the bill for you.

I'm a writer/ graduate student. One program I use a lot is ABBYY FineReader to OCR PDFs; about 300 to 500 pages in size. My Macbook Air 2017 can't run the program without it overheating, and I'm using a Lenovo Z50 with a 4th generation i7 processor. It takes about 30 minutes to OCR each batch of PDFs with the fans running at full speed. I'd imagine the Macbook Air M1 would be faster OCR-ing those documents, correct?

Or maybe I can buy one of those external USB powered fans?

 

[wilberforce]

I'm a writer/ graduate student. One program I use a lot is ABBYY FineReader to OCR PDFs; about 300 to 500 pages in size. My Macbook Air 2017 can't run the program without it overheating, and I'm using a Lenovo Z50 with a 4th generation i7 processor. It takes about 30 minutes to OCR each batch of PDFs with the fans running at full speed. I'd imagine the Macbook Air M1 would be faster OCR-ing those documents, correct?

Hard to know comparing a specific application on a specific machine, but I would guess the M1 Air would be several times faster.
I suggest find out the specific model of i7 in your Lenovo, and find the multicore score for it in Geekbench Browser "Benchmark Charts." (Or actually run the Geekbench 5 test on your Lenovo.) Note that a laptop i7 can be many times less powerful than a desktop i7, from the same generation. Compare this with the score for the M1 Air (about 7400). This will give you an idea.

Home - Geekbench

Geekbench measures your computer's processor and memory performance. Use the Geekbench Browser to share and discover Geekbench results with other people around the world.

browser.geekbench.com

The MacBook Air has not been intended for processor-intensive work, and some years of MacBook Air are very underpowered in order to eke out battery life.
However, the M1 Air is a different story - it performs far better.

 

[JustAnExpat]

Hard to know comparing a specific application on a specific machine, but I would guess the M1 Air would be several times faster.
I suggest find out the specific model of i7 in your Lenovo, and find the multicore score for it in Geekbench Browser "Benchmark Charts." (Or actually run the Geekbench 5 test on your Lenovo.) Note that a laptop i7 can be many times less powerful than a desktop i7, from the same generation. Compare this with the score for the M1 Air (about 7400). This will give you an idea.

Home - Geekbench

Geekbench measures your computer's processor and memory performance. Use the Geekbench Browser to share and discover Geekbench results with other people around the world.

browser.geekbench.com

The MacBook Air has not been intended for processor-intensive work, and some years of MacBook Air are very underpowered in order to eke out battery life.
However, the M1 Air is a different story - it performs far better.

Thank you. I'll download it and run it on my machines tonight

 

[Buck987]

What makes the screen nicer? According to Apple's specs, the screen is the same.

Sadly, I'm not in America, but if I was, I would seriously think about getting that machine

The Pro screen has a greater brightness spec. Imo the Pro screen was a little sharper and better in color. I have seen this mentioned by others in the forums, while some say to them there is no difference.

You can't go wrong with either of them but when the prices drop (like Best Buy) I believe the pro is a better buy.

 

[Blue Quark]

At the time, I could have gotten the M1 Pro for about $100 more (or something like that) than the M1 Air. Really, the only differences were the Pro has fans and the virtual keyboard thingy.

I decided on the Air, and I haven't regretted it yet.

 

[mschmalenbach]

I have the MacBook Air M1 ('MBA'), absolute bottom of the range base machine, which has 8 CPU cores and 7 GPU cores, 8Gb of RAM and 256Gb of SSD.

I do mostly video & image processing work on it. That wasn't my intention as I also have a MacBook Pro 2017 ('MBP') 15inch top of the range in memory, processor, everything, AND coupled with a VEGA 64 eGPU, which I originally got for video & image work.

My MBA runs rings around my MBP - so much so that I just don't use it now - I do all my image & video work on the MBA. And it cost around 1/4 the price of the MBP & eGPU.

The MBA doesn't get hot - it gets very warm, but not hot, and if it throttles at any time I don't notice because it is ALWAYS so much faster than my MBP & it's eGPU.

My ONLY major regret is I didn't get more SSD, at least 512Gb. A minor regret is not getting the 16Gb of RAM - and that's because every now and then I do need to reboot my MBA after I've had Davinci Resolve, Photoshop, Illustrator, Safari and about 100 tabs open, Lightroom and a PixInsight session or 3.

I got myself an external fan-cooled thunderbolt 3-based enclosure for a high speed NVMe M.2 1TB SSD and that thing is a tad faster than the inbuilt SSD, but it did cost me about $250 extra and it does come with some fan noise.

Based on what I know now I'd get a MBA with 512Gb of SSD and MAYBE 16Gb of RAM if I had the extra $200 available. OR get the 256Gb SSD and get the 16Gb of RAM instead and then get myself the external TB3 based high speed SSD, which would make all my files very portable for when I want to work on them elsewhere, such as on my similarly spec'd MacMini M1, or at work on PCs...

EDIT:::: If the 13 inch MacBook Pro M1 is available for very little price difference, say, $100, then I'd go for that - no brainer - more better life, and it has fans for cooling and the extra GPU core, not that I've noticed not having it!!

 

[KALLT]

As far as I know, the 2017 MacBook Air has a dual-core CPU only, whereas the M1 MacBooks have 8 cores. This is probably going to have a significant impact on multi-core processing already, notwithstanding the better single-core performance that the M1 has.

ABBYY FineReader isn’t compiled for Apple silicon, so it likely is not going to run optimally on an M1 Mac. Maybe you should consider an alternative OCR program that does support Apple silicon (and is optimised for multi-threading i.e. multi-core processing). If that is the primary reason why you would consider a MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air, maybe this is a reason to go for the MacBook Air.

 

[UltimateSyn]

The advantages the 13" M1 MBP has over the 13" MBA are:

• Better speakers
• 'Active cooling system' (a fan)
• 100 nits brighter display
• Touch Bar (this is actually a personal preference, many people prefer physical Fn keys over the Touch Bar)
• 2 hours longer battery life

Some people prefer the wedge-shape design and Fn keys of the MBA, so the choice ends up becoming easy to save the $. MBA is probably a better value, but the improvements the MBP has are certainly nice QOL enhancements.

 

[JustAnExpat]

As far as I know, the 2017 MacBook Air has a dual-core CPU only, whereas the M1 MacBooks have 8 cores. This is probably going to have a significant impact on multi-core processing already, notwithstanding the better single-core performance that the M1 has.

ABBYY FineReader isn’t compiled for Apple silicon, so it likely is not going to run optimally on an M1 Mac. Maybe you should consider an alternative OCR program that does support Apple silicon (and is optimised for multi-threading i.e. multi-core processing). If that is the primary reason why you would consider a MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air, maybe this is a reason to go for the MacBook Air.

Thanks for the advice. Do you know of a good OCR program that is optimize for Apple Silicon?

 

[JustAnExpat]

The advantages the 13" M1 MBP has over the 13" MBA are:

• Better speakers
• 'Active cooling system' (a fan)
• 100 nits brighter display
• Touch Bar (this is actually a personal preference, many people prefer physical Fn keys over the Touch Bar)
• 2 hours longer battery life

Some people prefer the wedge-shape design and Fn keys of the MBA, so the choice ends up becoming easy to save the $. MBA is probably a better value, but the improvements the MBP has are certainly nice QOL enhancements.

Thanks for the information. The Touch Bar - I think - is a negative for me. I like the physical keys honestly. I am getting a student discount on the machines, and I have a budget of about $1,500 USD.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Thanks for the information. The Touch Bar - I think - is a negative for me. I like the physical keys honestly. I am getting a student discount on the machines, and I have a budget of about $1,500 USD.

Tough scales to balance already but that would send me towards the Air, personally.

 

[JustAnExpat]

Hard to know comparing a specific application on a specific machine, but I would guess the M1 Air would be several times faster.
I suggest find out the specific model of i7 in your Lenovo, and find the multicore score for it in Geekbench Browser "Benchmark Charts." (Or actually run the Geekbench 5 test on your Lenovo.) Note that a laptop i7 can be many times less powerful than a desktop i7, from the same generation. Compare this with the score for the M1 Air (about 7400). This will give you an idea.

Home - Geekbench

Geekbench measures your computer's processor and memory performance. Use the Geekbench Browser to share and discover Geekbench results with other people around the world.

browser.geekbench.com

The MacBook Air has not been intended for processor-intensive work, and some years of MacBook Air are very underpowered in order to eke out battery life.
However, the M1 Air is a different story - it performs far better.

Thanks for the suggestion about downloading Geekbench for my Macbook Air (2017) and the Lenovo. The Macbook Air (2017) has a score of 744/1553. The Lenovo (20366?) has a score of 533/1206.

MacTracker says the Macbook Air M1 has a score of 1702/ 7387 and the Macbook Pro 13" M1 has a score of 1703/ 7369

Yikes!

 

[wilberforce]

Thanks for the suggestion about downloading Geekbench for my Macbook Air (2017) and the Lenovo. The Macbook Air (2017) has a score of 744/1553. The Lenovo (20366?) has a score of 533/1206.

MacTracker says the Macbook Air M1 has a score of 1702/ 7387 and the Macbook Pro 13" M1 has a score of 1703/ 7369

Yikes!

The performance improvement for your non-optimized app, which also may not use all cores, is unlikely to be as much as these figures would indicate, so don't set your expectations too high. Nevertheless, I think it should be several times faster.

 

[wilberforce]

Thanks for the information. The Touch Bar - I think - is a negative for me. I like the physical keys honestly. I am getting a student discount on the machines, and I have a budget of about $1,500 USD.

btw, if at all possible with your budget, I suggest get 16GB RAM instead of 8GB. There are lots of threads about this, so won't repeat all the reasons/opinions. Also, I suggest an SSD bigger than 256GB - this will feel small very quickly.

 

[JustAnExpat]

btw, if at all possible with your budget, I suggest get 16GB RAM instead of 8GB. There are lots of threads about this, so won't repeat all the reasons/opinions. Also, I suggest an SSD bigger than 256GB - this will feel small very quickly.

I'll go down to an Apple store today and check out the 13" Macbook Pro and compare it to the Macbook Air. Is there a color scheme you recommend?

 

[wilberforce]

I'll go down to an Apple store today and check out the 13" Macbook Pro and compare it to the Macbook Air. Is there a color scheme you recommend?

Well, people have all kinds of opinions about which color is “best” for various reasons, but they are all good and I think just get what you like.
btw, you may not be able to get a 16GB model in store, and have to order it.

 

[KALLT]

Thanks for the advice. Do you know of a good OCR program that is optimize for Apple Silicon?

I had another look and it seems that ABBYY FineReader PDF version 15 has Apple silicon support. They do not mention this on their website (https://pdf.abbyy.com/finereader-pdf-for-mac/specifications/), but the Mac App Store version history says that it does.

 

[JustAnExpat]

I went to the local Apple Retailer today and played with both the Air and the Pro. I made the decision: Hand's down, it's the Air.

Why?

The keyboard. I use the function keys a lot in my workflow, and the touch bar simply does not work for me. My fingers keep on hitting the wrong virtual key, which didn't happen on the Air.

Other factors:

The display? They both look the same to me. I am coming from a 2017 MacBook Air, which was the last model without the Retina display, and I usually have my display at half brightness or less.

The fan? I don't think I'll push the MacBook Pro to the extremes.

The extra battery life? I learned that I can buy an external battery and use that to charge the Air.

The speed? It's the same (from what I can tell).

Why pay a little bit more then $200 for a machine I won't enjoy?

The winner: Macbook Air, M1, 16GB Ram/ 512 GB

 

[JustAnExpat]

I looked at it again, and for my workflow, should I get 8 CPU/7GPU or a 8 CPU /8 GPU? I'm leaning towards the 8 CPU /7 GPU and save myself $100 or thereabouts.