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Well, the Pro does have higher spec over the Air -- otherwise there wouldn't be any point. The Air is fanless, so if you are pushing the CPU hard, it will throttle the CPU; whereas the Pro will turn the fans on. (Though I've never pushed my M1 Pro MBP hard enough to hear the fans..!)
Yes, the speakers are better on the Pro, there are more ports; though the Air is lighter, if that's a consideration. You might want to check if the screens are the same quality. The Air is 13", rather than 14", don't forget.

As ever, when your budget constrains your choices, you'll have to make some compromises. By sacrificing the MBP in favour of the Air, you can spend more on higher spec RAM and storage. It's a thought.

I'd definitely go to an Apple Store and have a look at the Air and MBP, and see what you think. If you smile sweetly, they may even test the speakers for you.
What I'd give to have a machine that's fans don't come on for light web browsing... or YouTube 1080s. Not bothered about portability/weight anymore. I wonder how much I'd notice the difference going 13 to 14" screen. Living in London has had it's moments for me when carrying anything vaguely visibly Apple looking these days, cased or otherwise, so it won't be travelling much at all. I will go into Apple and check them out, thank you again. I don't know about the smiling sweetly bit though. For what they charge to go from 512 to 1TB they should be singing and dancing for me?
Speakers are good on the Air but better on the Pro especially the bigger one. Physics is at play here the more space and the better grill the better the sound. Notably the screen is much better on the new pros vs the air. Get the nano texture display if you do any work outside or near bright windows. The difference is night and day.
When you say it like that... it makes a lot of sense. The nano can only be purchased direct from Apple store I'm guessing. I don't really use outside, we don't have the weather for that sort of thing, but intrigued to see it now. Thank you
benwiggy advised:
"Alternatively, for £2000, I'd go with the base M4, but 24Gb RAM and 1 Tb storage."

Good advice for the future.

Peter Franks:
As I'll guess you've discovered by now, you CAN'T expand installed RAM or SSD size in the new m-series MacBooks.

But... the "pro" models (both m4 and m4pro) offer a nice complement of ports
3 thunderbolt/USBc
SD card slot
HDMI port
Headphone port

KEEP IN MIND that if you buy "a base model" with the minimum RAM and SSD size today, it's likely going to become very "constrained" as the requirements of the OS and software grow in the years to come.

So... grit your teeth and get something with "a little more" TODAY, to give it growing room for the years to come.

If it was me, I'd spring for 32 or 36gb of RAM. But 24 will do, certainly better than 16 or 18.

Does Apple have an online refurbished store in the UK?
If they do, you can save money by buying from them.
I've bought my last two Minis that way -- very satisfied.
Interesting what you say about the RAM Fish, I thought you'd say there was nothing much in it with the 16/24/32. Good advice, and yeh, the little more is needed. I'm amazed they're still putting in headphone ports. Thunderbolt USBc, I've never got the difference on them. So any old USB sticks needs adaptors, why do they do this. Even seeing those sticks on Amazon, they're mainly the old USB, hardly any 'C' on there. They do have the online refurbished here, but what amazed me was the savings were less than the discount you get on Amazon for a new one. What I saw was mainly £150/200/250 odd less than new, and that's pretty much a discount on a new, anywhere else but in an Apple store. The £1999 MBP on Apple is 1700 on Amazon. I don't know what the deal is with Amazon as regard to pros and cons, other than the fact you can't specify, memory, storage, nano texture etc.
 
What I'd give to have a machine that's fans don't come on for light web browsing... or YouTube 1080s. Not bothered about portability/weight anymore. I wonder how much I'd notice the difference going 13 to 14" screen. Living in London has had it's moments for me when carrying anything vaguely visibly Apple looking these days, cased or otherwise, so it won't be travelling much at all. I will go into Apple and check them out, thank you again. I don't know about the smiling sweetly bit though. For what they charge to go from 512 to 1TB they should be singing and dancing for me?

When you say it like that... it makes a lot of sense. The nano can only be purchased direct from Apple store I'm guessing. I don't really use outside, we don't have the weather for that sort of thing, but intrigued to see it now. Thank you

Interesting what you say about the RAM Fish, I thought you'd say there was nothing much in it with the 16/24/32. Good advice, and yeh, the little more is needed. I'm amazed they're still putting in headphone ports. Thunderbolt USBc, I've never got the difference on them. So any old USB sticks needs adaptors, why do they do this. Even seeing those sticks on Amazon, they're mainly the old USB, hardly any 'C' on there. They do have the online refurbished here, but what amazed me was the savings were less than the discount you get on Amazon for a new one. What I saw was mainly £150/200/250 odd less than new, and that's pretty much a discount on a new, anywhere else but in an Apple store. The £1999 MBP on Apple is 1700 on Amazon. I don't know what the deal is with Amazon as regard to pros and cons, other than the fact you can't specify, memory, storage, nano texture etc.

Following on from this people,

Am I going to notice much difference between the 10/10 and 12/16 CPU, GPU, because the 1TB is a lot more tempting than the 512GB, for the same price? It's not a deal breaker if you tell me I'm going to notice a huge up on speed, but will there be that much difference, and to what, fans coming on etc? Thanks


Screen Shot 2025-11-05 at 13.27.36.png
Screen Shot 2025-11-05 at 13.27.55.png
 
Looking at the above two models side-by-side...

Do you really think you'll need thunderbolt 5 instead of tbolt4 ?
Do you have need of the higher GPU capabilities?
Do you use many apps that require MORE THAN a single core?

I'd be leaning towards the m5 here, because:
1. 2x the SSD space
2. the "single-core" performance between the two of them is probably close
3. my "graphics needs" are satisfied "well enough" by the slightly less powerful GPU.

That extra SSD space may really come in handly 5 years down the line...
 
Looking at the above two models side-by-side...

Do you really think you'll need thunderbolt 5 instead of tbolt4 ?
Do you have need of the higher GPU capabilities?
Do you use many apps that require MORE THAN a single core?

I'd be leaning towards the m5 here, because:
1. 2x the SSD space
2. the "single-core" performance between the two of them is probably close
3. my "graphics needs" are satisfied "well enough" by the slightly less powerful GPU.

That extra SSD space may really come in handly 5 years down the line...
Thank you, that’s pretty much what I want to hear.

I’ve used Garageband and iMovie, but have zero experience of Logic or Final Cut. I mainly use for Photoshop, a lot of emails, listening to music, web, plenty of YouTube, I do need to do Film and Music editing, but does Garage/iMovie still exist now, and will have to try web building again. 32GB would maybe be nice, but 24 it is, but hopefully won’t need with what I do. Although….. I’m amazed the M5 doesn’t come with any kind of Power Adapter.

I don’t know whether the CPU or GPU will make a difference to me? I don’t really understand it much if I’m honest.
For external drives I assume the Thunderbolt 4 or 5 is negligible. Not sure what else I’d need them for?
 
You were using a 15 years old Mac… the base M5 CPU will be more than enough. Video and audio editing will still be so fast.
 
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You were using a 15 years old Mac… the base M5 CPU will be more than enough. Video and audio editing will still be so fast.
Embarrassingly true yes…. Various upgrades though 😎
Thanks yes, I am sure it will be good enough. Just wondered differences and getting my head round the techy stuff, CP,GP,U etc.
 
Refurbished has been suggested. Here are the current UK refer machines


I've bought several refurbed machines. A better success rate with them than with new ones :D
Thanks, when I looked at the newer models on there, the Amazon discounts were better for the new version, but assume this is better for the slightly older models. Are there drawbacks to buying Macs from Amazon as opposed to direct from Apple?
 
Getting 14 years out of a laptop, especially one that has known hardware defects definitely qualifies as getting something out of it.

View attachment 2564262

At this point how much money and time are you willing to invest in something that is most likely not coming back?
Totally. I used my mid 2009 15"MBP for 14 yrs. Still can use it, albeit it being painfully slow. It's gone through sooo many batteries, fans, speakers (subs especially), screens, I/o boards, chargers and SSD's. My 3rd party insurer ended up ending our relationship due to making a rather big financial loss.
 
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Totally. I used my mid 2009 15"MBP for 14 yrs. Still can use it, albeit it being painfully slow. It's gone through sooo many batteries, fans, speakers (subs especially), screens, I/o boards, chargers and SSD's. My 3rd party insurer ended up ending our relationship due to making a rather big financial loss.
That's brave! batteries, SSD and RAM, that was my limit!! Anything over and above and I'd have had to bin it off years ago. I just hope whatever I get next, the fans won't run just from watching YouTube or on start up, like that did for umpteen years. Drove me mad
 
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