M3 Air vs M4 Air for $150 more?

[Honey_crisp]

Looking at buying a 15" Air, and the difference between the best price on a brand new M3 (clearance) and M4 (currently on sale) is $150 USD for the same RAM and SSD configuration.

Which one would you choose, assuming there is no must have feature for my use case with the M4 besides maybe the nicer webcam?

 

[kitKAC]

Can you afford the extra $150?

 

[EdwardC]

An additional year of updates.

 

[wonderings]

What are you doing with the computer? What tasks are you performing?

 

[Honey_crisp]

Can you afford the extra $150?

Yes. But my thinking is just because I can doesn’t mean I should, if the features aren’t compelling.

However if the M3 will depreciate more when I trade it in 3-4 years then I would have owned an older laptop and not saved any money really ya know?

 

[Honey_crisp]

What are you doing with the computer? What tasks are you performing?

Primarily Office work - lots of excel, power point, google docs, multiple Safari browser tabs open, slack etc.

I do sometimes run a Windows VM but I’m not convinced that the 2 extra CPU cores in the M4 will make that experience noticeably faster.

 

[bzgnyc2]

Primarily Office work - lots of excel, power point, google docs, multiple Safari browser tabs open, slack etc.

I do sometimes run a Windows VM but I’m not convinced that the 2 extra CPU cores in the M4 will make that experience noticeably faster.

It probably won't be noticeably faster for that kind of work. The M4's cores are faster than the M3 though we're talking about a lot power either way for office work. Assuming I haven't run out of RAM, macOS isn't acting up, nor there is some runaway process, my MacBook Air i3 is fast enough for that work.

Then as I looked at the same issue for a family member who just killed her M1 MacBook Air, the MacBook Air M3 (refurb, used, etc) versus the MacBook Air M4 is a 6-of-one or half-dozen-of-the-other situation. If you look at these things on a per-month basis assuming a 6-8 year life, you get ~ $10-20/month depending on your discounts, RAM/SSD choice, etc. Assuming the M4 lasts you one more year over the M3, ~ $150 for that extra year is right in line with that. As such either can be justified.

Accepting no wrong decision between the two, my bias is for the M4 that lasts one more year and will perform slightly better during those years. Others may say 'hey get the M3 now and replace it with an M9 a year sooner'. However, I like my things to last and prefer the extra year of life. And who knows the 2x faster neural engine may come in handy a few years from now...

 

[Honey_crisp]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply and advice @bzgnyc2 ! I think I'll go with the M4 (already have the M4 13") for all the reasons you described, especially the neural engine with Apple Intelligence capabilities hopefully getting better and therefore more resource hungry in the coming years.