Base M2 MacBook Air or Entry-Level M3 MacBook Pro?

[mdhaus72]

My wife is a teacher and I'm looking to replace her laptop for Christmas. She's not a traditional power-user by any means...mostly internet use, lots of spreadsheets, Google Slides, and other things used to teach her high school English classes.

Best Buy has a special on their base M2 MacBook Airs with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB hard drives for $949. Alternatively, I'm wondering if it would be worth the extra $500 or so to upgrade her to a M3 base MacBook Pro, which would give her an M3 chip over the M2, better screen technology, a slightly larger screen, double the hard drive space to 512 GB and two more GPU cores. What do you think is the better deal overall? I can see advantages to both.

Is the M3 chip significantly better in real-world use over the M2? One advantage to the Pro, I guess, is that it also provides her with an extra year of Apple OS support down the line.

Thanks!

 

[frizzelle]

Currently running through a similar decision in my head at the moment (but thinking about waiting for the M3 air).

Does your wife have any preference on the weight/portability? This is what is leaning me to towards the Air along with cost. I don't think you can make a bad choice here though to be honest as both are great... that screen on the pro is absolutely something to consider if it has an impact!

 

[1BadManVan]

For her use case, I dont see a reason to spend another $500. She's not going to notice a difference in performance with those tasks, the m2 is still a very powerful and fast chip.

 

[Jhonjhon236]

Personally I would get the M2 and use the extra money for 16gb of RAM and more storage.

 

[Aggedor]

Personally I would get the M2 and use the extra money for 16gb of RAM and more storage.

Yep, the best option.

 

[Saturn007]

I agree with Van! No point in getting the M3 as it doesn't offer that much gain in performance and the added power isn't relevant to her uses.

Portability and light weight, though, are important for a teacher, as she'll be on the go, schlepping the laptop to and from school. I taught for years with 13” MBA, 8GB, 256GB configuration and it served me well.

How much RAM and HD capacity does she have on her current laptop? How cramped is it?

For her uses, 8GB should be more than enough. I've done research and writing projects; statistical, spreadsheet, and graphing work; etc. on only 8GB on an Intel MBA. With Apple Silicon, she should be fine with 8GB.

As to storage, unless she accumulates large amounts of photos and videos, and wants them with her on the laptop, 256GB (or 512GB if needed) should be more than enough. The premium for the extra memory is steep. But figuring out whether she's running out of storage space now with her current laptop is crucial to making the call.

If she doesn't need that extra room, the $949 M2 MBA sounds like a sweet deal!

I'd save the $500 and use it towards key accessories — external SSD drives for backup, laptop carrying case, mouse, USB hub and adapters or connectors to hook the new MBA to her school projection units, etc. Those can add up quickly. Besides, they could be Christmas extra from Santa!

Which color are you thinking about?!

 

[dizmonk]

I have the m2 15 with 16gb/1tb and it's more than sufficient.