M1 MacBook Air folks - what do we think about the new MBPs?

[Chairman.Jobbie]

An M1 MBA with a 14" screen would be the sweet spot for alot of people... especially me. Notch wouldn't bother me. Ill wait until next year.

The 14" screen is pull to get the new MBP but it doesn't make sense as the Air is totally fine otherwise.

 

[workerbee]

The 14" screen is pull to get the new MBP but it doesn't make sense as the Air is totally fine otherwise.

My feelings exactly. Of course I lust after the new-fangled stuff everyone gushes on about here, but in reality the MBA screen is good enough.

Not sure if I got the measurements right, but comparing real usable screen size (i.e. without the title bar) between MBA and MBP 14 is not that much of a difference, despite the MBP being larger and having those nice small borders. Both of course are quite small indeed compared to the MBP 16, 2019 or 2021.

 

[Mattym62]

An M1 MBA with a 14" screen would be the sweet spot for alot of people... especially me. Notch wouldn't bother me. Ill wait until next year.

The 14" screen is pull to get the new MBP but it doesn't make sense as the Air is totally fine otherwise.

This is exactly where I’m at. If they made a 14”, I’d sell my M1 MBA in 2 seconds.. I love the portability but I don’t love the 13” screen.. 1 Inch makes all the difference! 🤣

 

[Wackery]

they're great, but all I care about is fanless design

 

[xraydoc]

they're great, but all I care about is fanless design

It's amazing what my little fanless MBA can do. Currently running Safari with several tabs, I have two PowerPoint files open of over 50MB each, Mail and iMessage are open onscreen, I've got music streaming, and I'm currently updating the version of Windows 11 on my Parallels VM. The MBA is silent and slightly warm.

 

[Wackery]

It's amazing what my little fanless MBA can do. Currently running Safari with several tabs, I have two PowerPoint files open of over 50MB each, Mail and iMessage are open onscreen, I've got music streaming, and I'm currently updating the version of Windows 11 on my Parallels VM. The MBA is silent and slightly warm.

to me it's basically the computer I dreamed about owning one day as a kid, I love it.

 

[xraydoc]

to me it's basically the computer I dreamed about owning one day as a kid, I love it.

And the low power mode on Monterey adds another good hour or more to the already excellent battery life. And for basic office-type tasks, I've really not noticed any perceptible slow down within my limited testing thus far.

 

[Wackery]

And the low power mode on Monterey adds another good hour or more to the already excellent battery life. And for basic office-type tasks, I've really not noticed any perceptible slow down within my limited testing thus far.

wow, didn't even realise low power mode was a thing, even better

 

[thadoggfather]

And the low power mode on Monterey adds another good hour or more to the already excellent battery life. And for basic office-type tasks, I've really not noticed any perceptible slow down within my limited testing thus far.

not offset by memory leaks and maybe less power efficient running OS in non-LPM?

 

[xraydoc]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've not yet been struck by the memory leak situation.

 

[Kafka]

I am the owner of a 16GB/1TB M1 MBA that I love, and am currently trying out a base 14" MBP.
I am annoyed because the MBA is perfectly fine, I have zero use for more horsepower, I prefer its form factor, it's fanless, has better battery life... The MBP screen is nice indeed but I can live without this (surprisingly though, at night it seems to tire my eyes faster).

2 things are making me want to keep it though: the second external display capability, and the clearly superior headphone DAC/amplification. I am a music lover and have a very nice DT1990 hungry for lossless files that is useless with the MBA. That headphones output on the new MBP is AWESOME and would be hard for me to give up, now that I have tasted it. I know myself and external DAC/amplification is a rabbit hole I don't want to enter...

 

[fantasticman]

Does anyone know how much better in performance is the new base 16" MBP 10 Core cpu 16 Core GPU and 16 gig is over the 16GB/1TB M1 MBA 2020?

I have the MBA but am looking for a bigger screen and speaker...the MBA is great, I only use it for watching videos, audio, surfing , trading ... occasionally video and photo work but absolutely nothing professional .

On the MBA sometimes I see that rainbow wheel . I was wondering if the base model 16" with 16 gig would be better or should I go with the 32 gig?

Thanks

 

[Dwalls90]

Does anyone know how much better in performance is the new base 16" MBP 10 Core cpu 16 Core GPU and 16 gig is over the 16GB/1TB M1 MBA 2020?

I have the MBA but am looking for a bigger screen and speaker...the MBA is great, I only use it for watching videos, audio, surfing , trading ... occasionally video and photo work but absolutely nothing professional .

On the MBA sometimes I see that rainbow wheel . I was wondering if the base model 16" with 16 gig would be better or should I go with the 32 gig?

Thanks

I'm sure at this point someone has benchmarked them so I'd try searching for that comparison.

Above all else, are you not happy with the MBA performance? Then maybe try one in the store. Generally speaking, it doesn't sound like anything you're doing really needs the MBP, but perhaps you want it.

 

[fantasticman]

I'm sure at this point someone has benchmarked them so I'd try searching for that comparison.

Above all else, are you not happy with the MBA performance? Then maybe try one in the store. Generally speaking, it doesn't sound like anything you're doing really needs the MBP, but perhaps you want it.

The MBA is great but as I'm using it as my main computer, it's not so much the power I need but the screen size of the 16" and the speaker.

 

[dizmonk]

The MBA is great but as I'm using it as my main computer, it's not so much the power I need but the screen size of the 16" and the speaker.

Having looked at all the models in the store what I can tell is that 16" is heavy....

 

[workerbee]

what I can tell is that 16" is heavy....

And, coming from a MBA, probably shockingly big.
I'm still extremely happy with just how portable (light and small) the M1 MBA is compared to my previous i9 16" MBP.