MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared

[LSUstang05]

I am looking to swap my 2014 MacBook Pro with a new Mac and a little hot on one of the MacBook Pros 16, but probably holding out until I see, if there is a MacBook Air 15.

In the same boat. We have a 2015 MBP and we specced it to 16GB of RAM and it's lasted us up until about this year. If I'm going to purchasing another Mac, I want as much RAM as possible and 24GB on a MBA just doesn't seem like nearly enough when I could get 16GB almost 10 years ago...

 

[Saturn007]

As someone who just bought the M4 MBP for $1474 yesterday, I have no idea why you'd go with a MBA unless you were good with 256gb of storage.

ALWAYS get the Pro.

Display and speakers are far superior on MBPs.

Nice tries, but no cigar! Hyperbole and sweeping generalizations usually fail and lose out…

For many, the lack of PWM is a good reason, indeed, that makes it a very good idea to go for the MBA. So, it's definitely not “always” get the Pro. Displays on the MBP are not “far superior” to those who are bothered by PWM.

Besides “far superior” is quite different from merely “superior”! Or from ”ultra superior” or “ultra pro Max superior”! 😀

 

[asiga]

ALWAYS get the Pro. It's the only Apple computer with actually good value. Get an older one if you're budget-conscious; 14" M1 or something.

The difference between atrociously slow low-res panel of MB Air and 120 Hz mini-LED of MB Pros is stark; everything else does not matter, including weight, ports or whatever.

The fact that people see the Air as a low-end MBP is a horrible mistake. What MBP should I buy if my eyes need at least a 15’’ display and I’m always travelling? Should I carry 2.1kg with me? Come on! What kind of “higher standard” is the heavy 16’’ MBP when you need to use it on the go?

Apple is to blame here, because the Air was expensive when it was introduced (the low end at that time was the plain “MacBook”), but they decided to remove the MacBook and make the Air cheaper. That was bad, because cheaper means it cannot innovate in weight anymore (in fact the Air keeps the same weight it had 15 years ago, while the rest of the industry has innovated with lighter laptops that are expensive and not perceived as “low end” by the public).

I would like that the plain MacBook was reintroduced, moving the Air back into the prosumer zone that it should have never left, and innovating with it by making it lighter and lighter. I don’t want thin, Apple, I hate that trend. I want ultralight. If thin is a side effect of being light, that’s fine, but the goal is the weight, not the thickness.

Edit: If there was a 15’’ Air with a weight of 1.2kg at >$3000 I’d order it just now. The problem is that the 15’’ Air, while very cheap, weights 1.51kg, which is almost the same as the 1.6kg of a 15’’ MBP of 2018 (modern 16’’ MBPs are 2.1kg, but that’s another story). An Air that has the same weight as an older MBP of the same size is not an Air. But that’s the consequence of marketing it as low end rather that an innovating product.

 

[Thinking Differently]

Apple recently updated the MacBook Pro with the M4 series of chips and a series of other upgrades including a 12MP camera, a nano-texture display option, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. The new machines follow updated MacBook Air models with the M3 chip that were released earlier in 2024, so how do the latest models compare?

Despite now being similar in appearance, the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro are very different devices, so should you consider purchasing the 13- or 15-inch MacBook Air, which start at $999, to save money, or do you need one of the higher-end 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro models, which cost at least $600 more? Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two popular laptops is best for you.

MacBook Air	MacBook Pro
M2: 13.6-inch display M3: 13.6- or 15.3-inch display	14.2- or 16.2-inch display
LCD Liquid Retina display	Mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR display
60hz refresh rate	ProMotion for refresh rates up to 120Hz
Up to 500 nits brightness	Up to 1,000 nits brightness and 1,600 nits peak HDR brightness
	Nano-texture display option
1080p FaceTime HD camera	12MP Center Stage camera with support for Desk View
Apple M2 or M3 chip	Apple M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max chip
M2: Enhanced 5nm node (N5P) based on A15 Bionic chip from iPhone 13 (2021) M3: 3nm node (N3B) based on A17 Pro chip from iPhone 15 Pro (2023)	3nm node (N3E) based on A18 chip from iPhone 16 (2024)
M2: 3.49 GHz CPU clock speed M3: 4.05 GHz CPU clock speed	M4: 4.4 GHz CPU clock speed M4 Pro and M4 Max: 4.5 GHz CPU clock speed
8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores	M4: 10 CPU cores with 4 performance and 6 efficiency cores M4 Pro: Up to 14 CPU cores with 10 performance and 4 efficiency cores M4 Max: Up to 16 CPU cores with 12 performance and 4 efficiency cores
Up to 10-core GPU	M4: 10-core GPU M4 Pro: Up to 20-core GPU M4 Max: Up to 40-core GPU
Updated GPU architecture	Updated GPU architecture with improved efficiency
M2: 16-core Neural Engine, 15.8 trillion operations per second M3: 16-core Neural Engine, 18 trillion operations per second	16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second
16GB or 24GB unified memory	M4: 16GB, 24GB, or 32GB unified memory M4 Pro: 24GB or 48GB unified memory M4 Max: 36GB, 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB unified memory
LPDDR5 memory	LPDDR5X memory
100GB/s memory bandwidth	M4: 120GB/s memory bandwidth M4 Pro: 273GB/s memory bandwidth M4 Max: 546GB/s memory bandwidth
Passive cooling	Active cooling
	High Power Mode on all M4 Pro and M4 Max models
M3 models only: Dynamic Caching Hardware-accelerated ray tracing Hardware-accelerated mesh shading Support for AV1 decode	Dynamic Caching Hardware-accelerated ray tracing Hardware-accelerated mesh shading Support for AV1 decode
M2: Wi-Fi 6 M3: Wi-Fi 6E	Wi-Fi 6E
Two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports	M4: Three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports M4 Pro or M4 Max: Three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports
	HDMI 2.1 port with support for multichannel audio output
	SDXC card slot
13-Inch: Four-speaker sound system 15-Inch: Six-speaker sound system with force-canceling woofers	High-fidelity six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers
Three-mic array with directional beamforming	Studio-quality three-mic array with high signal-to-noise ratio and directional beamforming
M2: Support for one external display M3: Support for up to two external displays when the lid is closed	M4 or M4 Pro: Support for two external displays M4 Max: Support for up to four external displays
	Dedicated display engine
256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage	M4: 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB storage M4 Pro or M4 Max: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage
13-Inch: 52.6-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery 15-Inch: 66.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery	14-Inch: 72.4-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery 16-Inch: 100-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery
18-hour battery life	M4 14-Inch or M3 Pro 16-Inch: 24-hour battery life M4 Pro 14-Inch: 22-hour battery life M4 Max 14-Inch: 18-hour battery life M4 Max 16-Inch: 21-hour battery life
67W, 96W, or 140W USB-C Power Adapter
Silver, Space Gray, Starlight, or Midnight color options	Silver or Space Black color options
M2 13-Inch: Starts at $999 M3 13-Inch: Starts at $1,099 M3 15-Inch: Starts at $1,299	M4 14-Inch: Starts at $1,599 M4 Pro 14-Inch: Starts at $1,999 M4 Pro 16-Inch: Starts at $2,499

[td]

30W, 35W, or 67W USB-C Power Adapter[/td]


Design

Both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro share the same basic design with a flat top and rounded edges on the bottom, but they do have several minor details that differ. For example, while both MacBooks have displays with a "notch" at the top to facilitate the built-in webcam, the MacBook Pro's bezels are noticeably slimmer. The keyboard well of the high-end MacBook Pro is also all-black... Click here to read rest of article

Article Link: MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared

Yawn....

Don’t care about 99%+ of this.

Give us the following (or at least options):
* A touch screen
* A built-in cell modem
* Built-in ethernet (10Gbps would be nice)
* Quality Keyboard
* Upgradable/replaceable Memory & Storage
* Long term support

 

[zarmanto]

Give us the following (or at least options):
* A touch screen
* (etc)

Sounds to me like you're not actually looking for an Apple; you should probably just buy a Windows laptop.

Or, you know, you could embrace your chosen pseudo, and recognize that Apple does things differently...

 

[jecowa]

Built-in ethernet card is crazy. And they keyboards are great on all the Apple Silicon models.

If they give it a touch screen, there should also be a way to flip around the screen into tablet mode to make it easier to draw on.

I’d rather they drastically lower the price of their RAM and SSD build-to-order options than make it user-upgradable. If they offered market rates on these, it wouldn’t be as important to be able to upgrade it myself. And the soldered-on stuff helps keep the laptop thin and light.