Did you go for the 15” or 13” MacBook Air and why?

[Howard2k]

While we are on this topic, what exactly does 32gb of ram get us? I assume it means the MBA has more ram to devote to graphics for say, some particularly demanding game? Any other potential use cases that might need that much memory?

The more RAM you have the more you will use. At the very, very, very least it will reduce the swap wear on SSD and continue with improved performance instead of swap between reboots.

I went with 16GB on my M1 MBA, which felt perfect. 24GB on my M4 MBA, but I run some LLMs.

For most people, 16GB is perfectly ample. That's a ton of extra room for Apple Intelligence, as the features roll out.
But 32GB would allow me to run larger LLMs. Or perhaps a better gaming experience. And certainly it would allow more Safari/Chrome tabs with less swap.

 

[geta]

While we are on this topic, what exactly does 32gb of ram get us? I assume it means the MBA has more ram to devote to graphics for say, some particularly demanding game? Any other potential use cases that might need that much memory?

Large amount of Safari pages and editing programs will benefit from more RAM.

 

[Abazigal]

The more RAM you have the more you will use. At the very, very, very least it will reduce the swap wear on SSD and continue with improved performance instead of swap between reboots.

I went with 16GB on my M1 MBA, which felt perfect. 24GB on my M4 MBA, but I run some LLMs.

For most people, 16GB is perfectly ample. That's a ton of extra room for Apple Intelligence, as the features roll out.
But 32GB would allow me to run larger LLMs. Or perhaps a better gaming experience. And certainly it would allow more Safari/Chrome tabs with less swap.

Hmm, I can’t say I have run into any noticeable performance issues on my M1 MBA with 8gb ram, running safari and chrome with 6-10 tabs each. Noted on the LLMs (which I don’t see myself using either).

Thanks for the responses. Food for thought.

 

[Howard2k]

Hmm, I can’t say I have run into any noticeable performance issues on my M1 MBA with 8gb ram, running safari and chrome with 6-10 tabs each. Noted on the LLMs (which I don’t see myself using either).

Thanks for the responses. Food for thought.

Prior to Apple Intelligence I was a firm believer in the "8GB is enough for the vast, vast majority" approach. With Apple Intelligence it's too early say since 1) so few features have been rolled out and 2) the features that have been rolled out seem to have had so little affect on CPU/RAM from what I've seen.

I almost went with 16GB again but wanting to mess around with some LLMs was a decider.

 

[Santabean25]

Hmm, I can’t say I have run into any noticeable performance issues on my M1 MBA with 8gb ram, running safari and chrome with 6-10 tabs each. Noted on the LLMs (which I don’t see myself using either).

Thanks for the responses. Food for thought.

And for your use case, 8GB might be ok. I regularly had 80+ chrome tabs open, plus more in other browsers too. I dislike manually managing apps and prefer pretty much everything I need open all the time. FCP also enjoys a little extra RAM.
So, for me 24GB was about right, although, if I had more money, I'd have forked out for 32GB.

 

[subjonas]

Get a 13” and Vision Pro 😄

 

[adrianlondon]

14" > 13" > 15"

I'm sure I was taught differently at school 😁

 

[Abazigal]

Get a 13” and Vision Pro 😄

Funny you mention that. I was just watching this video of a Japanese video editor who owns a Vision Pro and occasionally brings it out with him to serve as a portable display for his MBP.

That said, I tried out the Vision Pro at an Apple Store before and they didn't have any lens for my degree, so I am not able to use one unless I go with contacts or Lasik. Oh well, the perfect excuse to convince myself not to spring $5k for one. I would probably be too self-conscious to use one in public anyways. 😛

 

[subjonas]

Funny you mention that. I was just watching this video of a Japanese video editor who owns a Vision Pro and occasionally brings it out with him to serve as a portable display for his MBP.

That said, I tried out the Vision Pro at an Apple Store before and they didn't have any lens for my degree, so I am not able to use one unless I go with contacts or Lasik. Oh well, the perfect excuse to convince myself not to spring $5k for one. I would probably be too self-conscious to use one in public anyways. 😛

That’s unfortunate/fortunate it won’t work for you😆. It won’t work for me either but for a different reason. My work requires using a Mac and an external drawing display, but the VP’s Mac Virtual Display turns off any physical displays when activated. For me it’s unfortunate because it would really help me to be productive on the go if I had a huge secondary monitor. I’m envious of people like this YouTuber for whom the MVD feature seems to be designed.
I also wouldn’t feel comfortable using it in public. I’d only use it at home if I want to work away from my desk or on trips in a hotel etc.
Hoping a software update gives the option to leave a physical monitor on! I might even downsize my 16” MBP to 14” then…maybe.

 

[Isamilis]

While we are on this topic, what exactly does 32gb of ram get us? I assume it means the MBA has more ram to devote to graphics for say, some particularly demanding game? Any other potential use cases that might need that much memory?

I am not supporter of big ram. I have M2 8gb RAM and everything just run smoothly. But… if you need to run memory intensive applications (not safari or chrome) like virtual machine, having more RAM will make you have more flexibility. If you just run typical stuff (browsing, office, multimedia etc) then bigger RAM won’t affect significantly.

 

[Santabean25]

I am not supporter of big ram. I have M2 8gb RAM and everything just run smoothly. But… if you need to run memory intensive applications (not safari or chrome) like virtual machine, having more RAM will make you have more flexibility. If you just run typical disagree.

More RAM does make a difference. You have to be doing very light work to get away with that these days. Chrome will eat into the RAM you have pretty quickly, despite the improvements they've made in recent years.

16GB is the min at this point, I think.

8GB has outstayed its welcome, a fact that even Apple has acknowledge in the last six months.

 

[Jacoblee23]

I got a 13" and 15" m3 air that I both use. It is nice being able to choose each day.

 

[thadoggfather]

im very tempted to keep my m4 13" I got for $849 and m2 15" I got open box for a very similar price from Best Buy in the fall of 2023.

$540 on trade in on my base M2 15" without chargers for apple credit which doesn't seem like enough on a laptop I had for 1.5 years and is still perfectly fine / has its benefits and advantages. Especially since I got my 13" M4 at Best Buy and won't be trading it in there because I had to at point of sale which I was hesitant to do.

If one had to go, it is probably the 13" m4 since it's within the return policy but its been really great to use so far in the 10 days I've had it.

its also midnight, whereas my 15" is silver. kinda like the contrast as well.

I don't know that I'd run out and buy 13 and 15 inch of same generation at same time, though. that seems like a taller order to be honest.

 

[helloapple1]

im very tempted to keep my m4 13" I got for $849 and m2 15" I got open box for a very similar price from Best Buy in the fall of 2023.

$540 on trade in on my base M2 15" without chargers for apple credit which doesn't seem like enough on a laptop I had for 1.5 years and is still perfectly fine / has its benefits and advantages. Especially since I got my 13" M4 at Best Buy and won't be trading it in there because I had to at point of sale which I was hesitant to do.

If one had to go, it is probably the 13" m4 since it's within the return policy but its been really great to use so far in the 10 days I've had it.

its also midnight, whereas my 15" is silver. kinda like the contrast as well.

I don't know that I'd run out and buy 13 and 15 inch of same generation at same time, though. that seems like a taller order to be honest.

Do you prefer using the 13” or 15”?

 

[thadoggfather]

Do you prefer using the 13” or 15”?

because of the novelty / return to form, probably 13" if I had to only have one and were choosing a single laptop to upgrade to today for overall practicality for my uses.

..BUT it really is tough because on a desk or in a lot of situations, having a bigger screen when in use is pretty much always preferable for me. That said, the bigger one takes up more space on a table which usually doesn't matter but it can, weighs more even if not a metric ton its noticeable one handing in size and weight, and is a lot more awkward in bed laying down or that kinda orientation on the couch partially laying down. That last part is what really grinds my gears. Everything else I am fine with conceding on.

in the most extreme position, fully laying down and forearms parallel-ish to my torso, I have to bend my arms out more to type on the keyboard because of the wrist pad buffer, if that makes any sense lol. on 13" I do not not.

I will have to get back with you though after extended use. Maybe I'll long to use my 15" M2 even more again with time... never know

 

[Isamilis]

.

 

[Performa640]

I traded in my 13" M3 Midnight MacBook Air for a 15" Sky Blue M4 MacBook Air because I bought the base model M3 with only 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD. That was a mistake, not so much in terms of general usage, but in terms of the machine being unlikely to age well down the road with those specs, and I have wanted to correct that mistake ever since. Now, finally, I've been able to correct that mistake (16GB of unified memory and 512GB of internal storage, yes!) and then some, giving my not-getting-any-younger eyes a break with the larger display. It's still thin and light and portable, but much more pleasant to look at.

 

[chrono1081]

I had a 13 but if I did it again I'd get a 15 most likely. I do a ton of coding and the little bit of real estate is helpful. If I didn't do coding I would stay with the 13 inch for portability.

 

[dizmonk]

Okay, so I kind of caved. I got tired of my vacillating. I just went into the Apple store and got the M4 16gb/1TB model. I've been working on it for a few hours. Even though I've used M-series 15 MBA before there are few things that are striking.
1. Keyboard/spacing makes typing much easier.
2. I forgot how much more usable screen real estate there is (which definitely helps older eyes).
3. M4 is definitely faster than M3. This M4 MBA is easily faster than my M3 MBP.
4. I'm not sure how much of a downgrade the speakers are.

I need to take a week to test this thing out and get a sense of the battery life. I have no idea if I'm keeping it. On the initial cut, it's doing a lot better than I expected.

FWIW, I traded in my M3 14 MBP and kept the 15" m4 MBA. Typing is much better, the screen real estate is very nice, and the battery life (so far) is much better than I expected. The only things I miss from the MBP are the speaker and the extra brightness option.

 

[DeepSix]

Waiting for a 27" Macbook Air.

 

[Rick America]

I had an M1 MBA 13 and just replaced it with the new MBA 13 --- I really wanted to like the new MBA 15, but I felt it to be just a bit too big for my needs when I viewed them side-by-side.

One not-so-great surprise: I was surprised how much "bigger" the new MBA 13 "felt" compared to my older M1 one. While the same width in the back, the front is no longer tapered. It appears to be almost the same thickness throughout. In fact, it really is more an "underpowered" MacBook Pro with a slightly smaller screen. I suspect if there was a 13" MacBook Pro, it would look identical to the current MacBook Air.

 

[gnyce]

15 inch

bigger display
better speaker system

 

[Adelphos33]

Two $1,199 machines

13", 10 core CPU, 10 Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage
15", 10 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB storage

Hard to choose between these two. The 13" may be a better buy because the extra storage gets you more headroom... But the way I use my laptops, I only use about 100GB of storage on my current machine!

 

[helloapple1]

I got a 13" and 15" m3 air that I both use. It is nice being able to choose each day.

Which one do you use most?

 

[bellflyer14]

Two $1,199 machines

13", 10 core CPU, 10 Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage
15", 10 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB storage

Hard to choose between these two. The 13" may be a better buy because the extra storage gets you more headroom... But the way I use my laptops, I only use about 100GB of storage on my current machine!

I say go with the 15" then, if you have a Best Buy they will price match Microcenter through 3/28 as those are both on sale for $1019