MacBook Pro or Air?

[nph]

I am looking to either get a MacBook Air M4 (hopefully M5) with 24 Gig of RAM and large SSD
OR
MacBook Pro M5 with 24 Gig of RAM or MBA M5 Pro if not too expensive.

Last option is a Used MBP M3 Pro or MBP M5 pro

Here is what I will use it for:
- Garageband connected with a electric keyboard.
- MS Office
- Parallels Virtual machines.
- Xcode to learn Swift
- Learn Python
- Run LLMs locally
- Baldurs Gate 3
- Run many apps in parallel.
- Video editing in iMovie
- lots of Safari tabs open
- Photo editing and updating photo library
- WhatsApp for text and calls.

I care about swift responses (pun intended) and good battery life and easy access/light to carry.

Recommendations?

 

[Basic75]

You'll have to make that choice yourself, slightly more portable Air or better sustained performance with the Pro. If you want to know what other people choose, I have a MacBook Pro 16" M1 Max with 64GB.

 

[m1maverick]

Choose the MBA unless the following are important to you:

• Larger physical size (14"/16" versus 13"/15")
• Enhanced screen
• Additional ports
• Active cooling
• Color selection

 

[steve217]

Wait for the M5 base MBP to hit the refurbished store (mid-March). The screen is definitely worth it and the base M5 is plenty for your listed use cases.

 

[axantas]

Here is what I will use it for:
- Garageband connected with a electric keyboard.

I was in a similar sitation. Then I had a look at the connectivity and the fact, that not all peripheral devices run via an additional hub. I finally got the MacBookPro with 24 GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Instrument libraries and virtual machines are quite "heavy" things. You also will welcome the power of the M5.

 

[ignatius345]

I feel like this Pro vs Air question gets asked every day here, with the same answers. There should just be one definitive thread about it that these all get redirected to.