MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro: The Pro is better in nearly every way, but the Air might be the better choice

[Admin]

How much are you willing to pay for a better display?

MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro: The Pro is better in nearly every way, but the Air might be the better choice : Read more

 

[CelicaGT]

For daily computing/officework/media consumption the Air just can't be beat. Having experience with both an M3 Air and an M4 Pro, if you do any GPU work (gaming, rendering) the Air throttles HARD. ARM may be efficient but a GPU is just a GPU at the end of the day and active cooling is a must.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

If you're doing rendering or other intensive and long duration tasks, get the Pro, if not get the Air.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Unless 256GB is fine for your needs, the 512GB 15” MBA is only $200 less than the 14” MBP.

For $200 you get:

• Active cooling
• A much better screen (500nits @ 60Hz vs 1000 nits sustained @ 120Hz variable)
• 1 more Thunderbolt port
• 1 HDMI port
• SDXC port

 

[newtechldtech]

I personally prefer ThinkPad X1 carbon over any exaggerated Macbook Air...
Actually the X1 Carbon is Lighter and Military grade more durable including water spills and drops on cement. and You can get REAL options from OLED screen to touch and pen support , and LTE/5G options.

 

[QuarterSwede]

I personally prefer ThinkPad X1 carbon over any exaggerated Macbook Air...
Actually the X1 Carbon is Lighter and Military grade more durable including water spills and drops on cement. and You can get REAL options from OLED screen to touch and pen support , and LTE/5G options.

The X1 isn’t going to run macOS or instantly turn on or have the battery life the MBs have either. That’s more important to some of us.

The MBs do need a cellular option though.

 

[newtechldtech]

The X1 isn’t going to run macOS or instantly turn on or have the battery life the MBs have either. That’s more important to some of us.

The MBs do need a cellular option though.

The X1 has enough battery life for one day usage , does not need to beat MBair, ... and what is special about MacOS ? Lack of business software ? Try find MACOS version of MS Project , good luck with that... and the list goes on and on and on.

 

[QuarterSwede]

The X1 has enough battery life for one day usage , does not need to beat MBair, ... and what is special about MacOS ? Lack of business software ? Try find MACOS version of MS Project , good luck with that... and the list goes on and on and on.

We use X1s at work, they absolutely don’t have the same battery life (nothing on x64 will). The Lenovo stated 19hrs is absolute BS. They get about 4.5 hrs when actually doing standard business work. The MB line definitely gets all day usage doing the same functions because Apple doesn’t tend to exaggerate claims.

Also, if you don’t understand why some people prefer macOS over Windows or *nix we have nothing more to discuss.

 

[newtechldtech]

Also, if you don’t understand why some people prefer macOS over Windows or *nix we have nothing more to discuss.

who cares ? Where I work more than 5000 business notebooks are on windows platform. you dont seem know anything about business notebooks and business software . in the US , the enterprise market share for MACOS is only 23% from a statistics back in 2021... the main reason ? the lack of many business related software !

 

[CelicaGT]

who cares ? Where I work more than 5000 business notebooks are on windows platform. you dont seem know anything about business notebooks and business software . in the US , the enterprise market share for MACOS is only 23% from a statistics back in 2021... the main reason ? the lack of many business related software !

And none of that matters one iota if the user wants or needs MacOS. Not every comment section needs to be a flame war.

 

[psyconz]

And none of that matters one iota if the user wants or needs MacOS. Not every comment section needs to be a flame war.

Fair point.

I've been primarily a gamer but also power user for decades. First "pc" was a Commodore-128. Then an Amiga 1000. Then on the 'net - started with Unix back in the mid 90s. Went to Windows for long enough to play enough games (20 years or so? I actually can't remember, it's been that long).

But despite the gaming factor, I've been on Kubuntu for over a year now and the speed boost for gaming and all other stuff versus Windows 10 or 11 has been insane. Like a whole new generation of hardware upgrade speed boost insane. Worth it more than losing the support for the very, very few things I want to do that I can't get working on it.

Anyway, I'm fairly sure that both the compatibility between various system types and each other, and the relative performance deltas between them, will keep increasing as they have done in the past.

It's easy to overextend one's own experiences, perhaps - I know I'm not the most common type of user...

So yeah, it's definitely not a "one size fits all" type of situation at all. In terms of tech users, and, clearly, posters in this forum 🤪

Peace =)