For those that bought an M1 MBP, do you wish you had gone with a MBA?

[davidg4781]

I'm really considering buying a new Mac. Part of me wants to get a lower spec Air for now and when the next M1x or whatever comes out upgrade. I'll save some money this way. But I also said the same about 8 years ago when I bought my mini and never switched to something newer/more powerful.

I really don't NEED the power of the Pro but I'm thinking more for longevity and I'd like the Touch Bar.

I didn't see any other posts like this. If y'all need to send me to the Waste Land, feel free to.

 

[nylon]

I'm really considering buying a new Mac. Part of me wants to get a lower spec Air for now and when the next M1x or whatever comes out upgrade. I'll save some money this way. But I also said the same about 8 years ago when I bought my mini and never switched to something newer/more powerful.

I really don't NEED the power of the Pro but I'm thinking more for longevity and I'd like the Touch Bar.

I didn't see any other posts like this. If y'all need to send me to the Waste Land, feel free to.

So my 2016 15" MBP is suffering from the dreaded Flexgate issue and Apple wants ~ C$1100 to fix it. So I have purchased a base model MBA as a holdover till the new MBP's are released. All I can say is the MBA M1 is insane. The paradigm shift from my 4+ year old Intel machine is impossible to explain in real life. The only problem for me is that the screen is too small. I plan to sell as soon as the new 16" MBP's are out. I would say going with a base model Air in the interim is a good decision as there will be very little loss on resale given an MBA redesign is not due till next year.

P.S. I found the Touch Bar on my 15" MBP next to useless and down right annoying most of the time.

 

[nburwell]

I thought about it for a minute as I was comparing the M1 MBA and MBP. Ended up going with the MBP and don't regret the move. I work a lot in LR and PS, though I'm sure the MBA would've been fine as well when working with large RAW files.

I also don't plan on upgrading my laptop for awhile, so my M1 MBP will hopefully last a good while.

 

[bd139]

Touch Bar is dog excrement for some use cases. I went with the MBA to replace my 2017 i7 15” MBP. No regrets!

 

[svish]

I don’t have either. But since you like the touch bar, go for Pro.

 

[themadrhino]

I bought the MBP since it had the fan for the same processor basic processor (7 vice 8 core). I miss the MBA form of slanted but no regrets on MBP with M1 chip. I recently had to get an iMac since my special needs son damaged his 27" iMac during thunderstorm that scared him so traded in my Intel MBP 13" for the new M1 iMac and again no regrets. The M1 iMac also has I believe same configuration of 8 processors as M1 MBP. Both are lightening fast. I on average hold my Macs for 5 to 7 yrs but recently cut over to new chip to avoid obsolescence.

 

[Sinfonist]

If the TouchBar is essential to you, go for the Pro (it may well vanish in the next model). For me, the absence of the TouchBar and the lack of fans makes the MBA the better choice (the fans on the Intel MBA could be quite disturbing!). The MBA runs silent and cool even on quite heavy workloads. I paid for the extra GPU, 16GB RAM and a bigger SSD, which makes a nicely capable machine. Geekbench shows almost no performance difference between the MBA and MBP (actually slightly better for the MBA), but the MBA is reported to throttle back after 8-10 mins at 100% CPU (I haven't noticed this happening with my own workloads...). The MBP also has a slightly better battery and is a bit heavier. IMO, both are good machines.

 

[portland-dude]

No, and nuts to those sheeple echoing that crap article MR put out not long ago saying it was the same computer for less. It's not. Stop saying it is (not you, OP)

 

[topgunn]

No, and nuts to those sheeple echoing that crap article MR put out not long ago saying it was the same computer for less. It's not. Stop saying it is (not you, OP)

But it is, for most people at least.

There are three big differences between the two. One has no TouchBar, no fans, and costs less. In my opinion, the Air is the better computer. The only use-case for which I would recommend the Pro is if you max out the CPU for prolonged periods where the fan of the Pro will allow the computer to perform better than the Air. Me, I don't do that and I hate the TouchBar and I love a silent computer. I currently have 40 or so M1 Macs deployed and only 4 Pros. The only reason for those 4 are that the end users actually liked the TouchBar.

 

[roxygal9]

I was under the same dilemma - I didn't need the power of the pro but the extra battery life and brighter screen was appealing and it was accompanying my 16 MBP. I would like this machine to last awhile and love the portability. I don't mind the Touch Bar, and I got this machine 512GB for 1149 on Amazon, so for 150 more than the MBA I sprung for it. So far no regrets except I'm still unable to add outlook to the m1 (but not a device issue) and am using spark for now. Otherwise wow on the battery life!

 

[davidg4781]

I was under the same dilemma - I didn't need the power of the pro but the extra battery life and brighter screen was appealing and it was accompanying my 16 MBP. I would like this machine to last awhile and love the portability. I don't mind the Touch Bar, and I got this machine 512GB for 1149 on Amazon, so for 150 more than the MBA I sprung for it. So far no regrets except I'm still unable to add outlook to the m1 (but not a device issue) and am using spark for now. Otherwise wow on the battery life!

By Outlook do you mean the app or the account?

I haven’t been able to add my work outlook account for years, but I’m stuck on High Sierra.

 

[roxygal9]

Sorry I meant I am unable to add my gmail accounts to my outlook (I have office 365) on the M1 Mac only. It works fine on my intel Mac. I have tried different things but no dice.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

I'm really considering buying a new Mac. Part of me wants to get a lower spec Air for now and when the next M1x or whatever comes out upgrade. I'll save some money this way. But I also said the same about 8 years ago when I bought my mini and never switched to something newer/more powerful.

I really don't NEED the power of the Pro but I'm thinking more for longevity and I'd like the Touch Bar.

I didn't see any other posts like this. If y'all need to send me to the Waste Land, feel free to.

If you don‘t need the power of the Pro, you probably won‘t need the power of the M1X/M2.

Touch Bar, as the others mentioned, could vanish, so now is the right time to buy.

For better chances of longevity, take the 16 GB if the budget allows.