Fan vs Fanless is still a factor for sustained workloads. Other than that, the difference is less pronounced as you say.
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MacBook Air or PRO?
- Thread starter Sara Karlsson
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I had the exact same predicament. Actually have both computers here, but feel the Air is better for me so much I haven’t even opened the Pro box.
I think it is a fine idea. You know you best. And that you're thinking about it all says to me that is what you want. So go for it. Don't settle for less than you want.
Hey so Maxtech just put out their video review on the MBA 8GB in which they go into some nitty gritty details. Clock speeds, throttling, framerates playing League of Legends on max graphics and I'm pretty sure I saw them measuring external temperatures
Search Maxtech on YT. I can't link because they've blocked YT at my work.
After having seen the video by Max Tech I’m wondering whether I even need the 16 GB RAM. Crazy speed. 😄
I am also not sure what to buy after seeing all this reviews... i just know i need the 512gb SSD version ... either of the air or the pro.
i am doing slight video editing, also 4k60 but mostly in iMovie and in future probably also in FCP. also i need lightroom and photoshop from time to time. maybe in total around 10-15 hours a week...
I guess the air with 8GB Ram is more than enough but what about long term sustainability? I like to have laptops a long time. Actually I am still using a 11 year old Dell XPS laptop.
Will the MB air over time suffer and decline having no cooling system?? 250€ more or less is not that much if I can have the pro substantially longer alive and capable due the cooling system ...
And also about Ram I didn't find reliable tests using the 8GB vs 16GB in either laptops.. I guess if the 8GB is enough for today, it will be also in the future, since then more and more Apps will run natively and using Ram even more efficiently?!
i am doing slight video editing, also 4k60 but mostly in iMovie and in future probably also in FCP. also i need lightroom and photoshop from time to time. maybe in total around 10-15 hours a week...
I guess the air with 8GB Ram is more than enough but what about long term sustainability? I like to have laptops a long time. Actually I am still using a 11 year old Dell XPS laptop.
Will the MB air over time suffer and decline having no cooling system?? 250€ more or less is not that much if I can have the pro substantially longer alive and capable due the cooling system ...
And also about Ram I didn't find reliable tests using the 8GB vs 16GB in either laptops.. I guess if the 8GB is enough for today, it will be also in the future, since then more and more Apps will run natively and using Ram even more efficiently?!
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You should choose the 16GB Air over the 8GB Pro. The extra Ram will be more beneficial than the Pro's fan for what you do. To see if the Air is good enough for your needs, and you have 15 days to decide, prep your most intensive video and photo tasks and run them on the new Air. Honestly, if you had access to an open Apple store you could load those files on a thumb drive and test both the Air and Pro yourself; Im sure one of the employees would allow you to install demo software.
The finless Air would only suffer if you are constantly maxing out its capabilities. Run a heavy workflow on the M1 Air and use Activity Monitor to see how close to maxed out the Air gets.
Completely and totally depends on your individual needs. Why did you choose the configuration you did, and what's changed to make you think the other configuration is the better choice?
We're talking two weeks wait vs years of ownership/use.
You may have even longer than that to decide since we are now in the Holiday return period. I am returning a M1 Mini since I decided to get the M1 Air instead and when I select the initiate return option it says I have until January 8th to return it.
Maxtech found the MBA performance only drops about 15% when thermally throttled, so even if you are doing long running sustained workloads, the perf hit isn't that bad, and its still faster than most Intel macs even when throttled. Not worth the extra $300 for a MPB to get ~15% more performance after 10 minutes.
I came to the same conclusion. I am coming from a 2015 MacBook Pro and the M1 Air should handle my work without any issues since it is purely my personal machine. I had looked at a 2020 Air earlier this year and had hesitated because of the reported Thermal issues but it does not look like this is an issue with the M1 Air
I am completely sure that the Air meets my needs, except that I might use it with an LG 5K monitor down the line.
How much extra equivalent load does an external monitor add for the same tasks?
In other words, if you are going to use it with an external, but still not sustained heavy load, is the Air OK?
How much extra equivalent load does an external monitor add for the same tasks?
In other words, if you are going to use it with an external, but still not sustained heavy load, is the Air OK?
FWIW - I believe you have until Jan 8th to initiate the return, then up to another 13-14 days to send it in.
I also have a 13" MacBook Pro with 16GB of ram 1TB of storage and the Iris Pro Graphics. It is the 2.4 GHz Quad core i5. A fairly recent model. The MacBook Air 16 GB with 1 TB of storage benchmarks almost twice as fast in all categories. Single, Multi and Compute.
I'm still in awe of this MacBook Air. Apple totally delivered.
I'm still in awe of this MacBook Air. Apple totally delivered.
I find that hard to believe. You mean the Pro does not have a tap to click option in Sys Prefs > Trackpad?
Air has silent clicking, Pro does not. Even on same settings, the Pros trackpad is louder than the Air
I'm still waiting to see an in-depth comparison of the speaker quality on the Air vs. Pro.
I'm curious about this, too. My guess is that it's only a factor if used outdoors in bright ambient lighting.
The silent click is an irrelevant feature for me because I always use drag-gestures and tap-to-click.
Interesting and curious.
As I understand it 'tap to click' means the physical click is replaced by the tap, and presumably tap to click is silent on the Pro?
This is the first setting I turn on for all laptops.
So are you wanting to have a silent physical click which is not available on the Pro? I didn't know such a setting existed. I have sold my 12" MacBook waiting for my Air so can't check anything.