New MBP or upgraded MBA for Creative Suite and Chrome use?

[26139]

My wife has an 2018 i5 8/128 MBA.
I have the same 2018 i5 model MBA, but with 16/256.

She runs a ton of Chrome tabs and Illustrator daily, but things slow way down when she's working on anything at all in Illustrator and the fans kick on high.
The memory pressure stays green, but she's using over 2 gigs in swap files (her SSD is half full).

Would my 2018 i5 MBA work for her needs?

We're curious because I want to upgrade my 2018 i5 MBA with 16/256 for some video work and would like to give her, but am willing to hold off and get her a new Pro if she needs the power (my video production isn't a money maker, her stuff is for her job).

Thanks!

 

[ctjack]

Here is the deal: At best case MBA 2018 will be 10% better at single core and almost equal or worse in multicore.
On the advantages side: probably you do have them face to face and it is quite good that slim and sleek MBA 2018 is on par with big and wide MBA 2015.
All in all they are equal laptops except the screen. Because MBA 2015 used U seris chips borrowed from Pro series, and now 2018 uses Y-series chip which is low-power chips for browsing the web.
The Pro 13 of 2019-2020 base models have 3x times more power than your MBA 2018 or MBA 2015.

We're curious because I want to upgrade my 2018 i5 MBA with 16/256 for some video work and would like to give her, but am willing to hold off and get her a new Pro if she needs the power (my video production isn't a money maker, her stuff is for her job).

You can also get her a new pro and borrow it from time to time to do some video work Of course when it is not used for money making and sitting free, then your wife could easily browse the web with MBA 2018, while you edit videos.

 

[26139]

Here is the deal: At best case MBA 2018 will be 10% better at single core and almost equal or worse in multicore.
On the advantages side: probably you do have them face to face and it is quite good that slim and sleek MBA 2018 is on par with big and wide MBA 2015.
All in all they are equal laptops except the screen. Because MBA 2015 used U seris chips borrowed from Pro series, and now 2018 uses Y-series chip which is low-power chips for browsing the web.
The Pro 13 of 2019-2020 base models have 3x times more power than your MBA 2018 or MBA 2015.

You can also get her a new pro and borrow it from time to time to do some video work Of course when it is not used for money making and sitting free, then your wife could easily browse the web with MBA 2018, while you edit videos.

Thank you. This does seem like the best option.

To clarify, my wife and I currently have the same 2018 i5 MBA, mine has double the ram and storage (16/256 compared to 8/128).

 

[ctjack]

To clarify, my wife and I currently have the same 2018 i5 MBA, mine has double the ram and storage (16/256 compared to 8/128).

Sorry, but i thought by reading start post, that you have one 2015 and one 2018.
Anyway good luck and be happy with the base model! With base 2020 Pro you can also upgrade RAM to 16gb for $100.

 

[26139]

Sorry, but i thought by reading start post, that you have one 2015 and one 2018.
Anyway good luck and be happy with the base model! With base 2020 Pro you can also upgrade RAM to 16gb for $100.

All good, I fixed the typo in my post.

I definitely appreciate the explainer though, as now it looks like her work is replacing her Windows laptop with a 2015 MBP, so your advice was extremely helpful.