Buyer advice - M5 Air vs M5 Pro

[Apolloza]

First time in years I'm able to buy a new MacBook for myself. Looking for some advice and input. I need to get it right for something that will last me 4 to 5 years.

I'm not based in a country where we have any some of the store discounts and the stores currently still have the 512gig pro as the base. I can get student discount, but it doesn't add up to much locally.

What I can afford is either a base M5 Pro (512 gig SSD and 16gig memory) or a M5 Air with 1TB storage and 24 gigs of memory. Buying timeline is end of March.

Use cases - I will primarily be using the laptop for studies. In class based courses where it will be note taking, browsing. for the browsing I sometimes go up to 30 tabs. At home if I'm mobile (not plugged in) it will be browsing with some odd YouTube videos. If I travel ill be using my Airpod Pro 3 for audio. I do sometimes do photo editing with Lightroom and I want to do some Final Cut editing from time to time. Neither true pro level, purely hobbyist levels. For both these "more pro" cases I will be at home, so able to plug in, connected to a 34' Ultrawide screen and the laptop on a elevated stand with a tiny bit of ventilation in a way.

I do plan on going to two external screens at some point - 34' UW (Display port and 240hz) and a 60hz HD display (VGA - yes, VGA). Aware that ill need two separate dongles for the Air and I might be able to do the UW screen on the pro via HDMI.

I'm currently leaning towards the Air, especially with the extra ram, but any insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Paul1964]

I depends on how much video editing you would be doing but I would probably go for the Air in your case as you seem to be a bit of a tab-monster to the extra RAM should give you the headroom for that.

 

[Apolloza]

I depends on how much video editing you would be doing but I would probably go for the Air in your case as you seem to be a bit of a tab-monster to the extra RAM should give you the headroom for that.

Yeah the video editing is the big variable for me as well. I use to do it as a hobby for the family back on a G4 powerbook using Final Cut. 1080P stuff at most. It was a pain. lol.

Now its going to be purely as it comes. If I get back into it I might spend a few hours a week at most editing. 4K content though. If my studies take a lot of time I wont ever get into either Final Cut or Lightroom. But when the studies end then it might pivot to those apps more often again.

The big difference I guess will be the Air's throttling when I do a big edit and the CPU is getting to hot. But since I don't have any recent experience with video editing I guess the comparison benchmark is a G4, so I still will love the experience on a air. lol.

 

[Apolloza]

Just to close off here. I eventually pushed a bit and went for the Macbook Pro - M5 with 24gigs of memory. Only have one external screen connected, the 34" ultra wide via HDMI. Even though the display can go up 180 Hertz both the new M5 and my work M4 Macbook pro only seem to go up to 100 Hertz. Suspecting its the cable that came with the display thats the limit.

I do still plan on getting a hub. Right now I I swop out three cables when I switch between my personal and work laptops. The thunderbolt displays with displayport is incredibly expensive so will keep an eye out for a second hand unit somewhere.

Overall, my first apple laptop since the early intel days, and loving every second of it! The battery on the M series is just insane!