Macbook Pro or Air

[theadamguy24]

So I am a math teacher doing virtual teaching and right now I am trying to prepare for the event I have to teach from home. The laptop the school gave me does not have a functioning HDMI and my old laptop is 10 years old. So I am considering apple, but I am just wondering if I should get the Air or Pro. I do know I will have to get accessories for the mac which I am fine with. The only thing I would be using the device for would be zoom, skype, office 365, web surfing, and fun stuff like netflix, hulu, etc. I just want opinions from the community. I don't want to buy a laptop and have it break for a dumb reason. Also windows 10 is super resource heavy which is no problem for my gaming pc but I don't want it to be a problem for the laptop. Any good advice?

 

[ruslan120]

The MacBook Air stutters and suffers with any video chats longer than 10 minutes due to its gimped cooling and the demanding nature of video chats / screen shares.

For that reason alone I would vote Pro. It’s $200ish more and has better performance, cooling, much better screen, barely thicker design, much better speakers, and similar weight.

 

[theadamguy24]

The MacBook Air stutters and suffers with any video chats longer than 10 minutes due to its gimped cooling and the demanding nature of video chats / screen shares.

For that reason alone I would vote Pro. It’s $200ish more and has better performance, cooling, much better screen, barely thicker design, much better speakers, and similar weight.

I was thinking the Pro. I would get 8GB of ram and 512GB of memory. But I am a little unsure of processor.

 

[0128672]

I was thinking the Pro. I would get 8GB of ram and 512GB of memory. But I am a little unsure of processor.

I'd vote for the Pro too. Based on the usage you described, I think you'd be fine with an i5.

 

[960design]

i5 Pro 13" ( 16" if you have bad eyes ).
I would personally go with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage to future proof Big Sur. 8G RAM will certainly handle 95% of your tasks mentioned. I just say 16GB so that you can get an extra year or two out of it, if needed ( plus resale will be higher - used macs keep their value much better than used Windows computers ).

Last note: we may have ARM Macs coming in the next month or so. If you can wait two - three more weeks for the announcement, then I would. Otherwise, get what you need when you need it. Do not wait on tech, that is a never ending game.

 

[0128672]

There's also quite a few other threads on the same topic you might find useful:

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Can't Decide Between 2020 Pro & Air

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Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro 2020!

Hello, thank you for taking the time to help me out! I'm having trouble deciding whether to buy the base model Macbook pro 2020 or the upgraded Macbook air 2020. I will be using the laptop for college, which is composed of note taking, essays, spotify, and etc. However, the reason why I am...

forums.macrumors.com

There's more too ...

 

[theadamguy24]

i5 Pro 13" ( 16" if you have bad eyes ).
I would personally go with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage to future proof Big Sur. 8G RAM will certainly handle 95% of your tasks mentioned. I just say 16GB so that you can get an extra year or two out of it, if needed ( plus resale will be higher - used macs keep their value much better than used Windows computers ).

Last note: we may have ARM Macs coming in the next month or so. If you can wait two - three more weeks for the announcement, then I would. Otherwise, get what you need when you need it. Do not wait on tech, that is a never ending game.

So I did some googling on the ARM Macs. They are going first on the Macbook Air. I don't know how I feel about that. However if I see a price go down for the macbook pro's then I am jumping on it.

 

[JPack]

Pick up a $1,099 MacBook Pro 13" (2020) from the Apple Refurbished Store. Given the transition to ARM, anything you buy today won't last more than a few years. So choose 8GB/256GB and save the money for a proper ARM MacBook down the road.

If you're an educator, buy new from the Education Store ($1,199) and sell the AirPods that come free.

 

[theadamguy24]

Pick up a $1,099 MacBook Pro 13" (2020) from the Apple Refurbished Store. Given the transition to ARM, anything you buy today won't last more than a few years. So choose 8GB/256GB and save the money for a proper ARM MacBook down the road.

If you're an educator, buy new from the Education Store ($1,199) and sell the AirPods that come free.

From what I read, ARM would first be going into the Macbook Air line and then next year into the Macbook Pro. Once I find out the status of my school laptop, I will then make a better decision. Plus I was planning on buying through the education store. Didn't think about selling the airpods though.

 

[SkiHound2]

Pick up a $1,099 MacBook Pro 13" (2020) from the Apple Refurbished Store. Given the transition to ARM, anything you buy today won't last more than a few years. So choose 8GB/256GB and save the money for a proper ARM MacBook down the road.

If you're an educator, buy new from the Education Store ($1,199) and sell the AirPods that come free.

I think looking at the refurbs are is good idea. The lower end Pros have 2 TB3 ports and 8th generation processors. I'd either go for a low end pro to keep costs down or move up to the upper tier 2020 13" Pro with 4 TB3 ports and 10th generation processors. 13" Pros with the 10th generation processors have just made it to the refurb store. The $1799 (new) model is going for $1529 while they are still in stock. I just ordered one yesterday.

 

[MPclk2006]

The MacBook Air stutters and suffers with any video chats longer than 10 minutes due to its gimped cooling and the demanding nature of video chats / screen shares.

For that reason alone I would vote Pro. It’s $200ish more and has better performance, cooling, much better screen, barely thicker design, much better speakers, and similar weight.

That’s crazy you have experienced that with a MacBook Air. I bought my kids two laptops (mid $200s range on sale) for doing their online schooling and all they do is video chat and do work and they have no issues, I cannot imagine a Macbook having issues when these little laptops are kicking a$$ everyday.

 

[Ericdjensen]

I have an Air and I love it but get a Pro. The Air feels like it’s about to catch on fire most of the time. The cooling is beyond bad. There really is none

 

[louventuri]

So I am a math teacher doing virtual teaching and right now I am trying to prepare for the event I have to teach from home. The laptop the school gave me does not have a functioning HDMI and my old laptop is 10 years old. So I am considering apple, but I am just wondering if I should get the Air or Pro. I do know I will have to get accessories for the mac which I am fine with. The only thing I would be using the device for would be zoom, skype, office 365, web surfing, and fun stuff like netflix, hulu, etc. I just want opinions from the community. I don't want to buy a laptop and have it break for a dumb reason. Also windows 10 is super resource heavy which is no problem for my gaming pc but I don't want it to be a problem for the laptop. Any good advice?

I teach in a district that has been virtual since since the start of the school year. It’s been 4 weeks now. I was in your shoes and I just purchased a new MacBook Pro 13. I got the entry level model. I weighed the options, just like you, and then made the decision for the pro because of its capabilities with multitasking. I felt it would work better for me than the air.

Teaching virtually in my district requires the use of Microsoft TEAMS for face to face lessons, sharing my screen on an extended monitor over Teams to share my curriculum, and then the other normal daily tasks for teaching like email, lesson planning, word processing, etc. Individually, none of these tasks were terribly difficult on my older 2013 MacBook Pro. But as I started to multitask, it couldn’t keep up. Teams seems to be a major resource hog. So is the website that my curriculum runs on. When using the two Together, my old Mac couldn’t keep up and became frustratingly unusable. My feed to my students would freeze. Their videos to me would get in watchable. My curriculum website would stutter badly. Seeing how bad things got on an underpowered machine (even though my 2013 MBP was purchased with higher levels of ram, etc as a means of future proofing), I decided more power was better than less. I don’t know if my new MBP is overkill or if the Air would have been enough, but I’m very happy with my my decision.

My suggestion to you, as a teacher who was in your shoes a week ago: go for the pro. Maybe the apps you’ll use will be easier on the resources, but it’s better to have too much than not enough power.

There was a several week long wait on my model from Apple which was a bummer, as i needed it ASAP. After a day of online shopping, I found one from Apple Refurbished And it arrived in 2 days. I’ve been using it for over a week in the manner I mentioned above and it has been perfect.

Good luck with your decision and good luck teaching this year. Teaching Virtually has been a major challenge. It’s been the most difficult month of my 10 year career with the exception of my very first year. We’re all in this together.

 

[JPack]

From what I read, ARM would first be going into the Macbook Air line and then next year into the Macbook Pro. Once I find out the status of my school laptop, I will then make a better decision. Plus I was planning on buying through the education store. Didn't think about selling the airpods though.

ARM is coming at the same time to 13” Air and Pro, based on Kuo. General recommendation is to stick with minimum requirements until those products launch. Otherwise, you’re sinking money into products that will quickly become obsolete.

 

[JPack]

That’s crazy you have experienced that with a MacBook Air. I bought my kids two laptops (mid $200s range on sale) for doing their online schooling and all they do is video chat and do work and they have no issues, I cannot imagine a Macbook having issues when these little laptops are kicking a$$ everyday.

Much of it depends on the actual meeting and platform used. Skype vs. Zoom vs. Teams. And the quality of the video. Chances are, kids aren’t using 1080P and 4K Logitech webcams like many office workers are.

 

[SkiHound2]

The current Macbook products won't immediately become obsolete. They won't be state of the art but they'll continue to work, and they will continue to be supported for several years. The 2019 iMacs are no longer state of the art, but they aren't obsolete. Some gamers using Windows boxes might say they were never state of the art. Many folks are still using Macs from 20122, 2015, etc. They still work. I think the move to ARM has a ton of promise and they should perform faster, use considerably less power, and generate considerably less heat. And the processors should be considerably less expensive for Apple, though rather than passing that on to us they may just pass it on to the shareholders. I've just seen speculation that the initial offering will be a 13.3" Macbook Pro in essentially the same body as the current 13.3" Pro, and an Air released at about the same time. The rumored Air was also to be in essentially the same body and form factor as the current model. Then at some point next year redesigned 14" and 16" Macbook Pros will hit the shelves. Is any of that true? I don't know. We know ARM based Macs are coming in some form and it seems it won't be too long. But I'd also expect some growing pains. If you're using any kind of specialized software will it be compatible, and if so how well will it run? Will it have all the current features? I think a generally sound approach is that if you can wait, wait. But if you need something now, get it now. Someone who needs a computer to do online teaching this fall can't wait.