MBA or MBP with M1?

[bsurb]

Several days of research and checking out the laptops at best buy, I am still stuck on which one to buy. I design a lot in Adobe Illustrator and keep a good amount of tabs open when web designing. That is about it. General internet browsing as well.

Should I spent $1,260 on a new air with 16/512? OR I found a like new 13" w/ touchbar with 16/1TB locally for $1600...

My only concern is the touch bar. Is that part of the macbook intended to last and function as long as the mac itself, or are those known to go out and mess up over time? That is my only concern with the Macbook. And then $1600 spend, $400 more I can get the physical keys on the 14", but it is most definitely overkill for what I plan to use it for.

Are these MBA's that are out now meant to last as well?

 

[DesertNomad]

I have never heard of a TouchBar failing, but with that feature discontinued, no developer is going to work to support it in the future that I can see.

 

[AFK]

Several days of research and checking out the laptops at best buy, I am still stuck on which one to buy. I design a lot in Adobe Illustrator and keep a good amount of tabs open when web designing. That is about it. General internet browsing as well.

Should I spent $1,260 on a new air with 16/512? OR I found a like new 13" w/ touchbar with 16/1TB locally for $1600...

My only concern is the touch bar. Is that part of the macbook intended to last and function as long as the mac itself, or are those known to go out and mess up over time? That is my only concern with the Macbook. And then $1600 spend, $400 more I can get the physical keys on the 14", but it is most definitely overkill for what I plan to use it for.

Are these MBA's that are out now meant to last as well?

two are identical except mbp has a fan.

if you need need to sustain high cpu (for rendering, large code compiles etc) then go with mbp. else air.

there are fast thunderbolt ssds if you need to expand storage.

 

[smbu2000]

I'd say it depends. If you need the storage, then that 1TB model sounds like a pretty good deal.
If you check for reviews from the end of last year you can find plenty of comparisons between the M1 MBA and MBP since those were the only M1 devices at the time.

The MBP has slightly better speakers and mics. The MBP has a brighter screen compared to the MBA. (500nits vs 400nits)
I'd say a bigger point in favor of the MBP is the slightly larger battery, although both M1 systems do get great battery life. It also includes the 61W USB-C charger compared to the 30W charger included with the MBA.

I haven't really seen any issues with the touchbar on the Macs I've seen. My 2016 15" touchbar works fine and I haven't had any issues on the M1 MBP I have.

 

[Ploki]

touchbar is neat for brush sizes and stuff like that in affinity. dunno how well supported is in adobe

 

[JPack]

There are some reported Touch Bar flicker issues on the 2018 and 2019 models.

I'd prefer the MBA. Either go low (MBA) or go high (MBP 14). Right now, the MBP 13 is a bit stuck in the middle for non-commercial users.

 

[bsurb]

two are identical except mbp has a fan.

if you need need to sustain high cpu (for rendering, large code compiles etc) then go with mbp. else air.

there are fast thunderbolt ssds if you need to expand storage.

Basically just using it for illustrator and editing websites online. No heavy coding or anything. I do have lots of tabs open at times.. but I’d use it a couple days a week if that. My 2012 MacBook with 16/256 ssd is just a little slow and sluggish at times…

I wouldn’t even mind getting an external and using that to store files if needed later on…. Just can’t decide if i need 16gb air with 256’or 512

 

[AFK]

Basically just using it for illustrator and editing websites online. No heavy coding or anything. I do have lots of tabs open at times.. but I’d use it a couple days a week if that. My 2012 MacBook with 16/256 ssd is just a little slow and sluggish at times…

I wouldn’t even mind getting an external and using that to store files if needed later on…. Just can’t decide if i need 16gb air with 256’or 512

ah ok.

i think a 512. the recommendation has been you want around 20% of free space on your ssd for optimal performance. but it's only a recommendation, not a hard / fast rule.

 

[JPack]

Basically just using it for illustrator and editing websites online. No heavy coding or anything. I do have lots of tabs open at times.. but I’d use it a couple days a week if that. My 2012 MacBook with 16/256 ssd is just a little slow and sluggish at times…

I wouldn’t even mind getting an external and using that to store files if needed later on…. Just can’t decide if i need 16gb air with 256’or 512

If you're using it like a desktop computer, an external SSD would offer better value. It comes down to whether you need access to 256GB of data at all times.