2018 13" Macbook Pro CPU v. 2018 Macbook Air CPU

[acrakes]

Hi all,

I'm on a 2011 MacBook Air with a dual-core processor, thinking about an upgrade. The machine still works, but like a car that can't go above 25 mph - too many apps and/or browser tabs at once and it isn't usable.

The configuration I go with will have 16 GB RAM and a decent-sized SSD, I've gone through all the other differences between the two models, so I'm really looking for opinions on whether the quad-core i5 or i7 in the MBP is worth the money over the chip in the Air. I don't do anything like video editing - just Word, a couple of other writing apps, Dropbox and Google Drive in the background, the Kindle app, FaceTime, Messages, , Adobe Acrobat, iTunes (with a large library) and Safari, with a bad habit of accumulating dozens of browser tabs at a time.

It looks like the primary benefit of the Air processors is efficiency - an extra hour or two of battery life. But am I likely to notice a significant performance difference between the Air and the 2.3 or 2.7 GhZ Pro models, with the programs I'm using, either today or four years from now when software is incrementally more resource-intensive?

 

[acrakes]

I am taking my talents to the "Apple Insider" forums

tl;dr - I've seen the benchmarks but I really want to know if the difference between the Air CPU and the 13" MBP CPU is going to be noticeable and whether the quad-core is going to age substantially better than the dual-core

 

[ApolloBoy]

If you're not doing anything intensive, the MBA's dual-core CPU will suit you just fine. I'm actually quite pleased with the performance on mine, it's just as fast as the 2014 i7 rMBP it replaced and I get much better battery life in return.

 

[acrakes]

Thanks for the feedback, good to know the MBA is competitive. I really dug into the benchmarks online and wound up going with a 2.3/16/256 Pro which ended up costing less shipped from Adorama than I was going to pay for a 16/512 MBA in-store. Wish I could have afforded more, but decided the CPU and RAM were the best things to future-proof - I only use 90 GB on my old 128 GB Air SSD and external hard drives are easy to come by.

The 15" MBPs actually have the steepest discounts, odd enough - dropping under some of the 13s in price even with a faster CPU and discrete GPU.