MBA OR MBP?

[Dualvansmommy]

In search of a new MacBook, although not new to apple products as have iPhone XR, iMac, AW, and IPad Air.

Last fall release of M1 MacBooks line got me intrigued, but worried about the camera quality/ability to be consistent. Read good amount of threads here & reddit about the 720p camera when it could have been 1080p. How important is this? I also heard it may get released 3rd/4th quarter so not sure if i can hold out that long.

Essentially i need a MacBook that can handle my work and personal needs with excel spreadsheets, PP powerpoints, data tracking for statistics for my grant funders, database to keep my clients confidential info. Also the usual platforms to keep my projects and deadlines organized with Trello, slack, One drive/Notability, google drive, and etc.

Now the biggie; i use zoom heavily. Have been since pandemic started, so a good camera is essential for all those zoom meetings, FaceTiming, and a lot of videophone calls as i deal with a lot of deaf people who rely on videophone calls. People have told me to go for Pro and if worst come to the worst, just get an external camera but at 1,200 something price....i want more reassuring answer? Which device should i go for if camera issue wasn’t such an issue.

 

[mtneer]

In search of a new MacBook, although not new to apple products as have iPhone XR, iMac, AW, and IPad Air.

Last fall release of M1 MacBooks line got me intrigued, but worried about the camera quality/ability to be consistent. Read good amount of threads here & reddit about the 720p camera when it could have been 1080p. How important is this? I also heard it may get released 3rd/4th quarter so not sure if i can hold out that long.

Essentially i need a MacBook that can handle my work and personal needs with excel spreadsheets, PP powerpoints, data tracking for statistics for my grant funders, database to keep my clients confidential info. Also the usual platforms to keep my projects and deadlines organized with Trello, slack, One drive/Notability, google drive, and etc.

Now the biggie; i use zoom heavily. Have been since pandemic started, so a good camera is essential for all those zoom meetings, FaceTiming, and a lot of videophone calls as i deal with a lot of deaf people who rely on videophone calls. People have told me to go for Pro and if worst come to the worst, just get an external camera but at 1,200 something price....i want more reassuring answer? Which device should i go for if camera issue wasn’t such an issue.

Beyond the camera, for Powerpoints, spreadsheets, one drive - the MBA is more than capable of taking care of business.

 

[pmiles]

The camera is 720p. So it's a bit outdated if you're used to 1080p at this point.

Apple is going to be updating more of their line this year, probably even before WWDC. If you've waited this long, I'd wait a bit longer. May have better cameras in their next offerings. You can hold out... just imagine a tree fell on your roof and you have to fix the roof... no money is a great way to deter you from buying too early. People may not have will power, but reality sure does.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Now the biggie; i use zoom heavily

The experience with the MBA and Zoom calls reported here are very good:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...y-test-2020-m1-mba-8c-7g-8gib-256gib.2269411/

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...per-hour.2269547/?post=29271473#post-29271473

As far as I got it (have myself a M1 mini and therefore another webcam), the gist of it is that people say that Zoom transfers the Video with a rather small bandwidth so that the camera resolution does not matter in real life.

There was an Youtube review where someone, I think Rene Ritchie, compared the cameras of many Apple products, including the higher-res ones of iPad Pros etc., and didn't find substantial differences.