Screwdrivers make horrible hammers too.
Buy the tool for the job you need to do.
Very happy with my MBA - it runs cool and silent most of the time. My usage is low power with occasional brief bursts of CPU - such as exporting RAW photos - then I hear a fan for a minute and go silent again.
You also forgot to mention the MBP is 8th gen CPU vs MBA's 10th gen CPU. Why is that?
@galaxy6 - you need to decide if your usage is going to be CPU intensive or mostly light usage, which also has an impact on spec'd battery life (MBA longer). If you're going to run video conversions or games or other sustained cpu loads, then the MBP is likely a better fit. For safari, mail, photo editing, organization, etc my MBA has been working great. The MBA's wedge shape also gives a different feel than the MBP's squared off nose. Either way, buy from a place you can return/exchange if you wish.
Hi, interesting post, and some good advice here, especially on the exchange point. There's a couple of things I'd add here.
Background: current machine is a 2016 12" retina Macbook, I bought and returned a 2020 i5 / 16 / 512 MBA for reasons I'll explain below, and I've ordered an i5 10th gen Intel MBP to replace it. I also have a powerful desktop that I use for anything taxing.
The heat situation on the MBA is overblown in most circumstances. However I was surprised on the MBA at some of the things that got it hot. The killer for me was 60fps 1080p video playback, videos I shot on my phone. 90+ºC, fans full speed, with quite a few frame drops. This was one of the problems I was trying to solve from my rMB.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: you said "If you're going to run video conversions or games or other sustained cpu loads, then the MBP is likely a better fit." - I 100% agree with you. But in my pretty short time with the Air, I was alarmed at what things caused sustained CPU loads. I don't consider 60fps video playback a pro level feature.
Ultimately - for me at least - the absolutely beautiful Air form factor (seriously, it is a stunning machine) can't trump the performance constraints in my use case.
TL;DR: If you go for the Air, there's a strong chance you'll love it, but make sure you can return easily if the performance doesn't meet your needs.