MBA i5/16GB RAM/512 GB SSD or MBP 13" i5 (8th Gen)/16 GB RAM/512 GB SSD?

[deeddawg]

Work is Windows-based so I run a VM on a MacBook using VMWare Fusion so I could use Windows-specific software

For work, I have to analyze very large datasets.

I want to have 16 GB of RAM to future-proof the laptop

Per the above statements you want to choose a MBP with 16GB RAM, potentially 32 depending on the size of the datasets and the software you're using to work with them, but probably fine with 16 since if you do have to swap virtual memory, the SSDs are pretty quick.

The MBA is great for brief bursty CPU usage with periods of idle time. That is not your workload. You need a system that's intended to support sustained substantial CPU loading. That's a MBP.

Given your ~4 year ownership cycle, I'd suggest going to the 10th gen MBP systems as well.

As an aside: I consider the concept of "future proofing" as bullsht. Your expected needs are your expected needs, and if you allow a little headroom for growth through your expected ownership cycle then the system fitting those needs will be great. If your needs change sufficiently that you'd wished you'd "future proofed" you probably would be better off replacing the system for other reasons as well.

 

[Herrpod]

 

[ilikewhey]

I can not recommend the current gen mba to anyone regardless of their workload, to spend 1 thousand dollar mainly for social media and web browsing is not money well spend imo. we have 2018 mba at our office and the fan kicks up even under excel. if i'm spending 1k i don't want to be 2nd guessing if the app i'm using or going to get would be burst load or requires sustain load. and from what i read so far on the 2020 apparently even spotify can make the mba kick up its fan.

 

[deeddawg]

I can not recommend the current gen mba to anyone regardless of their workload, to spend 1 thousand dollar mainly for social media and web browsing is not money well spend imo. we have 2018 mba at our office and the fan kicks up even under excel. if i'm spending 1k i don't want to be 2nd guessing if the app i'm using or going to get would be burst load or requires sustain load. and from what i read so far on the 2020 apparently even spotify can make the mba kick up its fan.

I note you're giving this advice without any personal experience with the 2020 model?

My 2020 i5 MBA is cool and silent unless I'm very specifically doing something like exporting a bunch of RAW image files or kicking off a 1000 image preview build.

So far it's been a great replacement for my 2015 rMB12.

 

[ilikewhey]

I note you're giving this advice without any personal experience with the 2020 model?

My 2020 i5 MBA is cool and silent unless I'm very specifically doing something like exporting a bunch of RAW image files or kicking off a 1000 image preview build.

So far it's been a great replacement for my 2015 rMB12.

I note you're giving your advice based on your own ancedotal experience with the 2020 model?

some times things are so obvious that one don't need hands on experience, they didn't do anything different to the way the cooling works on the 2018 model, couple that with the 10th gen not being that more efficient, i can see why the air has mixed reviews in the air section and on reddit.

if you're coming from a rMB12 then yes its a great replacement, but for anyone previously on a pre gen air or mbp, the new air left alot to be desired.

 

[hudson1]

I note you're giving this advice without any personal experience with the 2020 model?

My 2020 i5 MBA is cool and silent unless I'm very specifically doing something like exporting a bunch of RAW image files or kicking off a 1000 image preview build.

So far it's been a great replacement for my 2015 rMB12.

In the above YouTube review, the reviewer mentions the higher load on the MBA during video conferencing and noted Skype produced temperatures approaching 100C. However, his reviewed unit was the i3, not i5. Do you participate in video conferences with you i5 MBA? If yes, can you share your experience vs what the reviewer noted for his i3 MBA?

 

[deeddawg]

I note you're giving your advice based on your own ancedotal experience with the 2020 model?

I'm stating my own personal experience with the computer that's in my hands.

I also see several folks stating what they think a computer they don't possess will act like.

Folks need to certainly consider all views in determining what is the best choice for their needs.

if you're coming from a rMB12 then yes its a great replacement, but for anyone previously on a pre gen air or mbp, the new air left alot to be desired.

I also have a 2018 MBP15 -- the rMB was my easychair/travel system, and that is the role my MBA is taking. So I do have perspective with other macs. Wouldn't want folks to think the rMB was my only exposure.

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In the above YouTube review, the reviewer mentions the higher load on the MBA during video conferencing and noted Skype produced temperatures approaching 100C. However, his reviewed unit was the i3, not i5. Do you participate in video conferences with you i5 MBA? If yes, can you share your experience vs what the reviewer noted for his i3 MBA?

Most of my videoconferencing is on my work computer using teams and webex - that lenovo spins fans half the day long anyway so no telling what part is software vs hardware there.

I've done a couple of personal Zoom calls on my MBA with five to seven participants, forty minute duration. Never once heard a fan, nor did my i5 heat up. No screen sharing. This group only gets together once a week so my sample size is limited of course.

Edit: note that I don't have one of those cpu temp measuring things installed. I care about perceivable factors rather than internal measurements. I don't touch the CPU, the part I care about is the bottom case and (to a lesser extent) the top case temps. Fan may be running too, but if I can't hear it in a quiet room, its RPM is irrelevant to me.

 

[ilikewhey]

I'm stating my own personal experience with the computer that's in my hands.

I also see several folks stating what they think a computer they don't possess will act like.

Folks need to certainly consider all views in determining what is the best choice for their needs.

i agree, i also see several folks trying to justify their purchase by understating issues that are brought up by other owners. thats why i recommend the MBA being a hard pass for me for the reasons i stated, ofcourse my work will still get me one regardless of what i think. we are both bringing our opinions to the table for the op to take into account for him or her to make a choice.

 

[Mattyman]

Find it interesting that the 10th gen MacBook pro is slower than the 8th gen on iMovie export. Why would that be the case?....

 

[deeddawg]

i agree, i also see several folks trying to justify their purchase by understating issues that are brought up by other owners. thats why i recommend the MBA being a hard pass for me for the reasons i stated, ofcourse my work will still get me one regardless of what i think. we are both bringing our opinions to the table for the op to take into account for him or her to make a choice.

My goal is merely to provide unbiased data points for folks to consider, conveying things as truthfully and objectively as I can manage. I've harped on folks needing to choose the right tool for the right job. There's lots of jobs the MBA is not suitable for -- which is likely related to intentional product line differentiation on the part of Apple. The MBA is also not the "avoid at all costs" system some folks seem to claim it is. If one steps away from Macrumors and looks at BestBuy and Amazon reviews, there appear to be many very satisifed owners.

Would I choose it as my sole computer? No. I have a big workhorse for when I need that. Splurged on the MBP15 to serve as a most of the time dual monitor desktop system (replaced an old mac mini), and the light/small one for portability & travel.

That said - for my wife or my adult kids and MBA would serve their (light usage) needs impeccably.

Different tools for different situations. Just want folks to be able to make well reasoned decisions.

You mention work computers - I certainly wouldn't recommend a MBA for a work computer outside of certain light impact use cases. My employer issues MBP16s to those needing macOS. Since my role requires certain Windows only software, my work computer is lenovo.

EDIT - just for kicks I launched Spotify in Safari a few minutes ago. I usually listen to other services, and usually use my phone for that anyway, but since it was mentioned I figured I'll test it out.

Half hour of playing and I'm not detecting any heating or fan noise (yes I paused the music... )

Take it for what it's worth. One data point. I received my MBA two weeks ago today, so it's had time to get all its indexing and other stuff done.

 

[Herrpod]

My goal is merely to provide unbiased data points for folks to consider, conveying things as truthfully and objectively as I can manage. I've harped on folks needing to choose the right tool for the right job. There's lots of jobs the MBA is not suitable for -- which is likely related to intentional product line differentiation on the part of Apple. The MBA is also not the "avoid at all costs" system some folks seem to claim it is. If one steps away from Macrumors and looks at BestBuy and Amazon reviews, there appear to be many very satisifed owners.

Would I choose it as my sole computer? No. I have a big workhorse for when I need that. Splurged on the MBP15 to serve as a most of the time dual monitor desktop system (replaced an old mac mini), and the light/small one for portability & travel.

That said - for my wife or my adult kids and MBA would serve their (light usage) needs impeccably.

Different tools for different situations. Just want folks to be able to make well reasoned decisions.

You mention work computers - I certainly wouldn't recommend a MBA for a work computer outside of certain light impact use cases. My employer issues MBP16s to those needing macOS. Since my role requires certain Windows only software, my work computer is lenovo.

EDIT - just for kicks I launched Spotify in Safari a few minutes ago. I usually listen to other services, and usually use my phone for that anyway, but since it was mentioned I figured I'll test it out.

Half hour of playing and I'm not detecting any heating or fan noise (yes I paused the music... )

Take it for what it's worth. One data point. I received my MBA two weeks ago today, so it's had time to get all its indexing and other stuff done.

Thanks for letting me know Spotify now plays in Safari. Last time I checked it only worked in Chrome, and when I used it in Chrome it made my fans on my 2013 MBP go nuts.

 

[spamaka]

I just ordered the MBP i5 8th Gen with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. It will be arriving on May 28 I will have to use my 2016 12"Macbook until then. Thank you all for your feedback and comments!

 

[ilikewhey]

My goal is merely to provide unbiased data points for folks to consider, conveying things as truthfully and objectively as I can manage. I've harped on folks needing to choose the right tool for the right job. There's lots of jobs the MBA is not suitable for -- which is likely related to intentional product line differentiation on the part of Apple. The MBA is also not the "avoid at all costs" system some folks seem to claim it is. If one steps away from Macrumors and looks at BestBuy and Amazon reviews, there appear to be many very satisifed owners.

Would I choose it as my sole computer? No. I have a big workhorse for when I need that. Splurged on the MBP15 to serve as a most of the time dual monitor desktop system (replaced an old mac mini), and the light/small one for portability & travel.

That said - for my wife or my adult kids and MBA would serve their (light usage) needs impeccably.

Different tools for different situations. Just want folks to be able to make well reasoned decisions.

You mention work computers - I certainly wouldn't recommend a MBA for a work computer outside of certain light impact use cases. My employer issues MBP16s to those needing macOS. Since my role requires certain Windows only software, my work computer is lenovo.

EDIT - just for kicks I launched Spotify in Safari a few minutes ago. I usually listen to other services, and usually use my phone for that anyway, but since it was mentioned I figured I'll test it out.

Half hour of playing and I'm not detecting any heating or fan noise (yes I paused the music... )

Take it for what it's worth. One data point. I received my MBA two weeks ago today, so it's had time to get all its indexing and other stuff done.

exactly, you can afford to have a handicapped mba cause you have big workhorse in case you need the extra power. many of us, my self included depending on what time of the year, can only reply on one laptop. to get the mba and then have to worry about whether the app i'm gonna run is gonna over shot the intended use is just troublesome. it wasn't always like this though, my 2014 mba can 90% do what my 2015 mbp can do. abeit slower but the cooling was adequate. now the new mba can't even handle excel+word+chrome+ other light apps without the fans kicking up obnoxiously. for the past year i been bringing my own 2015 mbp to work just so it doesn't sound like a jet is taking off on my desk.

for the intended use as you and others have stated, i honestly find a ipad pro with keyboard folio can do the same job but cheaper and longer lasting battery.

i'm not a fan of safari so i only use chrome, which is what folks are reporting issues with.

 

[deeddawg]

.

exactly, you can afford to have a handicapped mba cause you have big workhorse in case you need the extra power. many of us, my self included depending on what time of the year, can only reply on one laptop. to get the mba and then have to worry about whether the app i'm gonna run is gonna over shot the intended use is just troublesome.

Yes, if your workload doesn't fit in an MBA, then it's not the right tool for the job as your sole computer.

The point though is there are many users whose usage does fit. I can think of several family members for whom a MBP would be wasted and a MBA would cover 100% of their needs.

Not a lot of those folks frequent MR though, so the perceived landscape can seem skewed.

now the new mba can't even handle excel+word+chrome+ other light apps without the fans kicking up obnoxiously. for the past year i been bringing my own 2015 mbp to work just so it doesn't sound like a jet is taking off on my desk.

Even when I've pushed to have my MBA's fan going full tilt it's not been obnoxious or sounded like a jet taking off.

Let's not be hyperbolic.

Can't speak to excel or word, I don't use Office apps on my personal systems, but haven't had light Chrome use do anything to the fans in the bit I've done with it. May be down to what sites are visited and what adblock/extensions are in use.

for the intended use as you and others have stated, i honestly find a ipad pro with keyboard folio can do the same job but cheaper and longer lasting battery.

ipadOS has come a long way, but it's not macOS yet and thus isn't a true substitute.

 

[Billiejoe87]

If you are paying for 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD on the Macbook Air then get the Base Macbook Pro with the same speccs. It has an older processor but is far more capable in everyway.

The Macbook Air’s sweetspot in my opinion is the i5, 512GB SSD, 8GB Ram option. If wanting to upgrade anything else, go Pro.
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i agree, i also see several folks trying to justify their purchase by understating issues that are brought up by other owners. thats why i recommend the MBA being a hard pass for me for the reasons i stated, ofcourse my work will still get me one regardless of what i think. we are both bringing our opinions to the table for the op to take into account for him or her to make a choice.

Have a look at the Macbook Air thead if you want to see people defying reality. A few posters in there have hijacked the place shouting down anyone who dares point out the Air’s thermal issues. One is even pretending the Air can play 4K 60FPS Youtube videos without any issues. It totally turned me off the Air and made me go Pro as it’s clear there are issues when people are in damage control trying to defend their purchase, by flatout making things up.

 

[ilikewhey]

If you are paying for 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD on the Macbook Air then get the Base Macbook Pro with the same speccs. It has an older processor but is far more capable in everyway.

The Macbook Air’s sweetspot in my opinion is the i5, 512GB SSD, 8GB Ram option. If wanting to upgrade anything else, go Pro.
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Have a look at the Macbook Air thead if you want to see people defying reality. A few posters in there have hijacked the place shouting down anyone who dares point out the Air’s thermal issues. One is even pretending the Air can play 4K 60FPS Youtube videos without any issues. It totally turned me off the Air and made me go Pro as it’s clear there are issues when people are in damage control trying to defend their purchase, by flatout making things up.

You mean the heat sink thread that’s over 1k in replies? the same folks remind me of the same crowd who defended the butter fly
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Yes, if your workload doesn't fit in an MBA, then it's not the right tool for the job as your sole computer.

The point though is there are many users whose usage does fit. I can think of several family members for whom a MBP would be wasted and a MBA would cover 100% of their needs.

Not a lot of those folks frequent MR though, so the perceived landscape can seem skewed.

then what is the right workload for the mba, "your workload doesn't fit in an MBA" sounds like something one would say whenever someone complain their mba is overheating

Even when I've pushed to have my MBA's fan going full tilt it's not been obnoxious or sounded like a jet taking off.

Let's not be hyperbolic.

Can't speak to excel or word, I don't use Office apps on my personal systems, but haven't had light Chrome use do anything to the fans in the bit I've done with it. May be down to what sites are visited and what adblock/extensions are in use.

so would office apps be considered something that doesn't fit within the scope of the mba workload? words works fine, but the excel datasheet the office use makes the mba kick up the fan rather loud. too loud for the quiet office environment.

ipadOS has come a long way, but it's not macOS yet and thus isn't a true substitute.

its pretty close, on days where i don't bring my mbp i use my ipad pro with keyboard, it handles all the usual business activities just fine.

 

[deeddawg]

then what is the right workload for the mba, "your workload doesn't fit in an MBA" sounds like something one would say whenever someone complain their mba is overheating

Is this a serious question? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. IMHO the MBA is seemingly aimed at workloads consisting of brief bursty CPU utilization with any sustained CPU loads being infrequent.

As an example of how I see this, here's some stuff from my usage yesterday and today:
Spend time viewing webpages in Safari, a few tabs at a time. Used Mail a bit. Messages a bit. Updated a couple personal ledgers in Numbers. Worked through 500 RAW+JPG pairs in PhotoMechanic culling/tagging/ranking/labeling them. Brought them into Lightroom, generated a couple panoramas and HDR images. Tweaked an image in Photoshop since I needed to warp/transform it a bit. I didn't open Luminar yesterday, but have on previous days. Had a little fan noise audible as LR generated smart previews on that import but it didn't last long and was silent again quickly.

As for your second sentence, you sound like you're intentionally trying to misinterpret the statement. If you want to find some alternate meaning to it that's your call; I'm not going to play political bullsht with you defending a made up misinterpretation.

Edit - forgot, I played fullscreen 1080p youtube video in Safari this morning for an hour for grins and giggles. System remained silent (even when audio muted).

office apps be considered something that doesn't fit within the scope of the mba workload? words works fine, but the excel datasheet the office use makes the mba kick up the fan rather loud. too loud for the quiet office environment.

I don't use the MBA as a work computer and probably wouldn't recommend it given folks reports on how resource intensive the MS Office apps seem to be. They tend to spin the fan on my work lenovo plenty.

its pretty close, on days where i don't bring my mbp i use my ipad pro with keyboard, it handles all the usual business activities just fine.

ipadOS doesn't run Photomechanic, Lightroom requires syncing stuff to Adobe, facebook app svcks on macOS, and probably some other things I'm not thinking of offhand. I really like my ipad mini, but it's not macOS.