2019 MBA (16gb) vs 2019 MBP (8gb)?

[Abathingtj]

Haven't posted in Macrumors in forever, but have been lurking for a while now and finally found a reason to post again!

I'm looking to pick up a new MacBook soon for pretty basic usage. I actually already have a gaming desktop, as well as a gaming laptop for heavier activities. The reason I'm looking for a second laptop is mainly for school, travel, and like I said just basic stuff - a new Mac would be perfect for me with all the integration with my other Apple stuff. I tried getting a tablet (iPad, and then Surface), but I'm just a regular laptop kind of guy more and I'd rather just have another Macbook in my lineup again.

I'm wondering though if I should go for the Air with 16gb of RAM or the Pro with just 8gb? I know the Air has dual core so I don't know if 16gb would make that much of a difference, but also though the Pro has that quad core I'm not sure if 8gb is too little nowadays on macOS.

If anyone can give me some advice on this it'd be greatly appreciated.

Thanks fam!

 

[ruslan120]

Sounds like the MacBook Air 16GB is the way to go.

If you’re doing more things at once that are less intensive then I would choose MBA since it has more RAM. If you need the processing power for video editing, games, photo editing, etc then I would go MBP, optimally with 16GB of RAM as well. That being said the MacBook Air handles most tasks well.

 

[Muyfa666]

I tried a 2018 MBA with 16gb of ram, and a 2019 MBP13 with 8gb of ram. IMO, the slower processor of the MBA felt more sluggish than the MBP13 at 8gb. Maybe placebo effect, but that's my experience.

I'd go with the MBP13 2019 with 256gb SSD and 8gb ram in this case, but again - my personal humble oppinion.

 

[Patcell]

I would definitely go with the Pro. The Air is gimped by the crap CPU.