M4 vs M4 15 inch Macbook Air

[MacOH21]

Debating if an M5 is worth it:

Apple EDU store: M5, 24 GB, 512 GB $1399
Apple Refurb store: M4, 24 GB, 512 GB $1189

All other tech specs are equal (wifi/bluetooth updates aside). Any thoughts on which you'd go with?

 

[JPack]

My answer depends on if your workflow could use more RAM or storage.

If no, then choose the M5. Otherwise, I'd do the M4 and look for one with more GB.

 

[Bazza1]

Unless you do professional video, audio, music, picture editing - or are a serious gamer - then a M5 Air is serious overkill for most users. For that matter, so is the M4, but it has the added benefit of the recent drop in price at retail and via Apple's own Refurb site. May be able to get a higher spec'd M4 for less than its original price for base model - so still cheaper than the M5 base.

 

[dmr727]

I do some gaming via Crossover on my 10 core M4 Air, and while it's generally pretty performant given its size, I do bump into throttling when I push it too hard.

The M5 has a nice GPU performance bump, but if the extra oomph if that important, I'd step up to a MBP for the cooling. Otherwise I'd enjoy the good deals on an M4. It's a fantastic computer.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I just made this comparison and narrowly chose the M4 so I could remain on Sequoia as long as I prefer to do so.

I find the Air componentry (screen in particular) to be just "ok" for 2026+ and I'm hoping that some changes and upgrades might be ahead so I decided to have something sort of close to "Base" (16gb/1TB) in hopes of not getting fully hosed when going to re-sell it in a couple years.

If I could have run Sequoia on the M5, I would have done that.