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M2 MacBook Air or M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14” dilemma

M2 MacBook Air vs M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14”

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I have the same dilemma.

I'm looking to replace my 2016 MBP.

I was very interested in the 14" MBP when it came out, with the bigger screen being one of the tempting factors, but the battery life put me off. It's advertised as much less than my current device.

The battery on the new M2 MBA is better than the 14"MBP. I'm leaning towards that one.

Can anyone with better knowledge of laptop batteries contribute on this point?
 
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Get the M2 Air if you don't need two external displays. I have a work-issued M1 Pro 14" and it's heavy for a daily commute computer, and just a little too large for my taste when putting it in my backpack, but the single external display on 13-inchers was a deal breaker for me. I come from a 12.5" HP Elitebook, which was trash but light and small.
I use it for productivity and enjoy manipulating enormous powerpoint decks and 500 meg spreadsheets and having multiple tabs open at all times. Excel is still weirdly laggy on the 14", sadly, even with small files, and unless you are doing graphical intensive work or video, or need the parallel processing power for development, you will generally benefit from having higher single-core performance. Invest the price difference in 16-24GB RAM and 1TB+ in storage if you can. The screen on the 14" is nice but mostly when watching HDR video, and it's definitely not OLED-nice (my Sony A9 runs circles around that XDR). I have never been able to notice 120Hz ProMotion and have had the 14-inch open next to my 13" 2015 Retina MBP for hours trying to "see" the difference.
I have never heard the fans with the exception of when I was working outside in full sun last week.
 
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Obi Wan Kenobi said:
Can anyone with better knowledge of laptop batteries contribute on this point?
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It’s going to depend on the tasks you’re giving it. This is applicable to the Air too.

For example, if you’re rendering a 10-bit 4K timeline with lots of grading in final cut it’s going to use more battery than if you’re laying out slides in keynote or working on an Excel spreadsheet.

On the 14” MacBook Pro, the fans will kick up as the final cut timeline renders. On the Air it may throttle if the workload increases the temperature. Both will use more battery doing this task.

Also more obviously if you’re working in a bright room with lots of sunlight & auto screen brightness will use more battery on both as the screen brightness will be at 100%. And on the 14” if HDR is on screen.
 
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symphony said:
I really want to get the M2 MacBook Air for portability and convenience, but now the M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14” seems like a better option when matching the RAM and storage to the MBA.

There is still a big difference in price, but ProMotion and HDR are big features for me and worth the additional expense. But thinness and portability is also another huge deal for me. Now I am stuck with this dilemma.

I’ve felt and held the new MBP, it looks amazing and new, but it’s so heavy and chunky. The new MBA should be slightly lighter and thinner than my M1 MBA. But when I consider the big expense I’m already making, I just wanna get the MBP. I can max out the configs of the new MBA and still be under the price of the highest prefigured MBPs sold in Apple Store.

The computer is supposed to be my travel computer and school computer. Maybe even replacing my iPad at home.

Has anybody went ahead and just got the 14” MacBook Pro? Anyone in the same boat as me? Tell me I’m wrong.
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I sold my M1 MBA with 1TB SSD/16GB RAM and got a fully loaded (apart from SSD) 14" MBP Max. The weight difference for me was outweighed by the screen and sheer power of the MBP. And still fits in my camera bag. Flies through my Nikon Z9 files unbelievably fast.
 
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Obi Wan Kenobi said:
I have the same dilemma.

I'm looking to replace my 2016 MBP.

I was very interested in the 14" MBP when it came out, with the bigger screen being one of the tempting factors, but the battery life put me off. It's advertised as much less than my current device.

The battery on the new M2 MBA is better than the 14"MBP. I'm leaning towards that one.

Can anyone with better knowledge of laptop batteries contribute on this point?
Click to expand...
I'm in your boat. Replacing my 2016 MBP and didn't buy the 14"MBP, because the machine is simply too powerful for my tasks (web dev). I could've taken the M1 Air, but I really want a fresh design with thinner bezels. Add that sweet midnight color and boom. I am just sad, that it doesn't come with 16GB Ram out of the box, so I need to pay up.
 
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va1984 said:
I had the 16” MBP and returned it, tried the 14” MBP for a few months and then sold it. Way too heavy and clunky for people on the move (in NYC, you live without a car, your laptop is on your shoulders in your backpack. It may be irrelevant for others who only ever move with their car).

Honestly, i would only recommend the new Pro line for anyone who is exclusively working with CPU intensive software and rarely if ever needs to carry the laptop anywhere.
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I hiked with the old 13" (which weighs the same as the 14") on foot around a foreign country with a backpack for weeks. I didn't always have the backpack on but I did fora good part of that time. The extra weight from the Mac did not make a real difference. And I'm not a big person. But to each their own.
 
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symphony said:
I really want to get the M2 MacBook Air for portability and convenience, but now the M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14” seems like a better option when matching the RAM and storage to the MBA.
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The 14 inch is pretty portable. It only weighs less than one more pound than the Air and easily fits in backpacks. The only downside is you don't get as much battery life than the Air since you're running a pro chip but you still get extremely long battery life, and fast charging so that battery life issue isn't much of an issue after 5 minutes with magsafe.
 
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Does anyone know if you'll be able to hide the notch by going full screen in apps like on the newer MacBook Pros or is this possible only because of the mini led screen?
 
Howard2k said:
The Pro isn't heavy and clunky. These are both light weight machines. You'll almost certainly be fine with either from a weight perspective unless perhaps you're differently abled.

You have plenty of other differentiators that ARE important. Ports, cooling, screen etc. Weight would be least of my worries.
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"The Pro isn't heavy and clunky."

My 16 inch M1 Pro MBP sure is. Yes, the display is nice and bright and colorful and all that. But I made a real mistake in buying it. I can't wait for the M2 Air to get here. That will be a much better fit for what I do with a computer. YMMV.
 
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In all honesty you are looking at a 300 dollar price difference.

MacBook Pro 14inch 16GB 512SSD $1999.00

MacBook Air 13.6inch 16Gb 512SSD $1699.00

Then you need to consider the MacBook Air is a custom build model so its harder to get sales, and the MacBook Pro is a stock model which has gotten sales of up to 250 dollars off.

So assuming you catch a MacBook Pro sale, you are looking at a real price difference of between 50 to 100 dollars. It makes the pro the no brainer choice. Even if one like the design of the Air more, for 50 to 100 more you get more ports, pro motion, the better screen display etc. Again a no brainer choice.
 
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Same “dilemma” here (yeah, I know, first world problems, right?). Currently running an M1 MBA and truly love the device. I don’t do anything hardcore at all with the Air; web browsing, listening to music, watching videos, etc. The base model Air excels at those things.

I was/am very intrigued by the M2 MBA, but started looking at the 14” MBP as I can get my mitts on one of them a lot sooner than the M2 Air. Of course, there’s the price difference, but the biggest things on the MBP that turn me on are the better speakers, better screen, and the 1080p webcam. I know the M2 Air has updates in all of those areas except the screen, but there’s the wait - an life’s too short, right?

So, I sourced a 14” MBP locally and should be able to pick it up this weekend. I’ll keep the MBA around for a bit and do some comparisons before I decide which of the two I’ll be keeping. But, I think I’m going to be pretty happy with the MBP.
 
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Wow, the space gray m1 Pro MacBook Pro is gorgeous. I am currently setting it up and the black well keyboard is beautiful. Excellent change from Apple, kinda hard to differentiate the keys, but aesthetically beautiful.
 
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lockerc18 said:
"The Pro isn't heavy and clunky."

My 16 inch M1 Pro MBP sure is. Yes, the display is nice and bright and colorful and all that. But I made a real mistake in buying it. I can't wait for the M2 Air to get here. That will be a much better fit for what I do with a computer. YMMV.
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The OP was referring to the 14".

All the same - the 16" is just fractionally heavier than the old 15". It's 2Kg. I guess I just don't consider that heavy, personally. I'm sure in 5 years from now when the equivalent product is down to 1.5Kg it will also be described as heavy and chunky. :)
 
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It's going to be hard to take this outside and use it as a tool. I kinda want to baby it. lol
 
I would always choose MacBook Pro 14 over air m2....better screen, better speakers....you look at the screen most of the time...why don't get better one if you are in dilemma?
 
Ended up selling my week old 14" 16/1TB was just overkill for my needs, especially as I have a 24" iMac, all I do really is browse, email, Netflix etc, only use iPhotos.
Only neg I have is battery was average using hotspot to my 13 max over the weekend.
My daughter who has a M1 air said it was thick lol.
Got it for 20% off and sold it for $320AUD more so all good, buyer got a bargain too at $450AUD off.
Guy that bought it is a videographer.
 
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Student of Life said:
In all honesty you are looking at a 300 dollar price difference.

MacBook Pro 14inch 16GB 512SSD $1999.00

MacBook Air 13.6inch 16Gb 512SSD $1699.00

Then you need to consider the MacBook Air is a custom build model so its harder to get sales, and the MacBook Pro is a stock model which has gotten sales of up to 250 dollars off.
So assuming you catch a MacBook Pro sale, you are looking at a real price difference of between 50 to 100 dollars. It makes the pro the no brainer choice. Even if one like the design of the Air more, for 50 to 100 more you get more ports, pro motion, the better screen display etc. Again a no brainer choice.
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NOT to mention supply chain issues in building your own Air with 16gb will take a while I would imagine.. and resale value is ALWAYS better with a pro...
 
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Obi Wan Kenobi said:
I have the same dilemma.

I'm looking to replace my 2016 MBP.

I was very interested in the 14" MBP when it came out, with the bigger screen being one of the tempting factors, but the battery life put me off. It's advertised as much less than my current device.

The battery on the new M2 MBA is better than the 14"MBP. I'm leaning towards that one.

Can anyone with better knowledge of laptop batteries contribute on this point?
Click to expand...
I used to have a 2016 13" MBP that I used for work, and now have the 2021 14" MBP.

There is no contest regarding battery life, the 14" wins, even vs. the 2016 when it was new. I'm sure the Air will be even better than the 14", but the new Pro is no slouch for battery.
 
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I’m really debating this as well. I wish I would have pulled the trigger when the MBP was on sale. Would be a no brainer in hindsight.
 
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