Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

M4 vs. M5 MacBook Air Buyer's Guide

Astuces iOS said:
I feel like that's just loosing money and the m4 pro is more powerful !

If it's just for home then better buy a Mac mini but outside you lose battery, screen, speakers and ports !
Click to expand...

I definitely lost some money on the deal, but used it as an opportunity to up myself to 24gb/2tb. Hopefully it'll last me for a good 5-6 years, at least.

In hindsight, I could have bought a Mini and a Neo, but I carry my laptop everyday, and don't really want to manage two computers. Interesting thought, though!
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire and turbineseaplane
WarmWinterHat said:
I definitely lost some money on the deal, but used it as an opportunity to up myself to 24gb/2tb. Hopefully it'll last me for a good 5-6 years, at least.

In hindsight, I could have bought a Mini and a Neo, but I carry my laptop everyday, and don't really want to manage two computers. Interesting thought, though!
Click to expand...

Did you go 15" or 13" on your MBA?

(forgive me if I missed it)
 
turbineseaplane said:
Did you go 15" or 13" on your MBA?

(forgive me if I missed it)
Click to expand...

I went with the 15". I like it, but I should have gone with the 13”. I wasn't paying attention and missed my return window. It's still a fantastic machine, though. Weighs roughly the same as my previous 14" MBP, but feels so much better.

Even been using the extra RAM to play with some local models in Ollama. They kinda stink, but it's interesting.
 
Last edited:
  • Love
Reactions: turbineseaplane
WarmWinterHat said:
In hindsight, I could have bought a Mini and a Neo, but I carry my laptop everyday, and don't really want to manage two computers. Interesting thought, though!
Click to expand...
Same here. One of the main reasons I bought a 16” M5 Pro MBP was because I also don’t want to manage two computers. I could have saved a lot of money going with a Mini and an Air or Neo. Although I’m probably 90%/10% clamshell vs on-the-go with my MBP these days, I just don’t ever want any regrets about missing ProMotion or lacking performance to creep into my brain while using my laptop as a laptop. I really liked the 14” MBP when carrying it, but not so much when using it, just a bit too small. So I put up with the weight and size to have a premium (for me) experience for the 10% of the time I’m on the go. Since I keep my daily drivers for quite a while (finally retired my 2019 Intel MBP last month), I’d rather part with more money up front than deal with any second-guessing myself the next 5 or so years.

Now back onto the topic of this thread… when setting up my wife’s M4 MBA, it didn’t take long to get used to the display, although it’s obviously inferior when side-by-side with my MBP, it’s still a really great screen. I also felt that at least during setting it up and installing apps, it didn’t really feel any different than my M5 Pro (heavier sustained workloads are a different story obviously). So I don’t think most would notice much difference M4 MBA vs M5 MBA in regular day-to-day use. All that said, there seem to be some very good deals on M5 MBA, and unless a few hundred dollars will make or break your compute budget, M5 MBA is the way to go (unless you want to run Sequoia for a few more years).
 
  • Like
Reactions: WarmWinterHat and turbineseaplane
BSDnostalgia said:
This system is clearly a winner. I just wish the flash was a little cheaper. But, how are folks finding the display?
Click to expand...
Im used to Apples OLED Promotion displays on my iPhones and my iPP M4, but i get PWM sensitivity so the MBA LCD display is actually so much better on my eyes.

60hz display is fine for me on laptops/monitors because you are viewing the screen from further away so lack of promotion is not as noticeable. P3 colour and good contrast is nice. Overall it’s a good display not amazing, similar to my ipad air 4.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BeagleLegal and BSDnostalgia
Apple's new "Neo" priced at $500 must be killing the sales of these $1000+ MacBooks. For the majority of users, even the Neo is overkill if all you need is a web browser and email.

In fact, I just dug out my old 2017 MBP with an i5 Intel processor because I needed another computer for testing some stuff I'm making. Darn, it is good enough, and for normal stuff, especially if, like me, you spend most of your time in a text editor, it is not different from my Apple Silicon computer. OK, different story when I try to run a local LLN or video editor. But most people never do those things.

I know Apple does not release data that would let us know the realttive sales volumes but, I'm reading that Neo is selling well.

What I'd like to know is if Pro and Air sales are down because of the Neo or or the Neo only expended the total number of Mac sold.
 
  • Disagree
  • Like
Reactions: dizmonk and turbineseaplane
I agree with you about the Neo @ChrisA

If it had more storage available (1TB) and could do 4k/120hz in clamshell mode when connected to an external (it's capped at 4k/60hz) I would have a Neo as my "only".

Maybe in a future version!
 
If you have the M4, you don't need to get the M5. Over the weekend Mrwhosetheboss and MKBHD explained the deceptive marketing of upgrades by tech manufacturers.

 
mlayer said:
If you have the M4, you don't need to get the M5. Over the weekend Mrwhosetheboss and MKBHD explained the deceptive marketing of upgrades by tech manufacturers.

Click to expand...

Agree that you don't need to go from an M4 to an M5.

However, if you're buying right now, it's hard to not recommend an M5 given the incredible sale prices.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back