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Torned between the MBA 16gb/1tb vs MBP 16gb/1tb

MacBird said:
I'm wondering if that will somewhat change during the summer months.
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I live somewhere with perpetual summer.

I have a 13" MBP (2018) that I use mainly for fairly light work (Office, Safari, watching shows, PDFs, and a few other apps). The fan almost never comes on, to the point that when it does I usually start wondering what is making the sound...

With how cool the M1 laptops run - I'd imagine that if I got an M1 MBP the fan would be even less likely to come on...
 
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pldelisle said:
Thank God every day, please 😂😂😂
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Well, it has its downsides - it's hot and humid all year round!
And having lived somewhere which has winter (admittedly the version of winter where it snows maybe a week a year) I rather miss the changing of the seasons, and winter clothes! Here we just get the rainy season or the non-rainy season...
 
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sky87 said:
Well, it has its downsides - it's hot and humid all year round!
And having lived somewhere which has winter (admittedly the version of winter where it snows maybe a week a year) I rather miss the changing of the seasons, and winter clothes! Here we just get the rainy season or the non-rainy season...
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Ahah ! Here we usually get a couple of weeks at -20/-25 Celsius degrees, and usually several meters of snow every winter ❄️.
God damn it 🤣🤣🤣
 
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I had no idea how much I missed the dedicated function keys until I started using a M1 MBA. I'm coming from a 2016 MB Pro with the Touch Bar. Some folks love the TB, some hate it, I've come to the latter position.
 
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jeffg819 said:
I had no idea how much I missed the dedicated function keys until I started using a M1 MBA. I'm coming from a 2016 MB Pro with the Touch Bar. Some folks love the TB, some hate it, I've come to the latter position.
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Roger that... I tried the MBP but the TB is incredibly awkward - I.e. change volume you look at the bar, select the volume, then slide to adjust vs the MBA click the button a few times to adjust as needed...Samar for brightness, same for .... the TB is a solution for a problem it never existed. I will venture to say it will not last long on Macs line up. At the very least I hope to always have an option like the Air without it
 
Brazooka said:
Roger that... I tried the MBP but the TB is incredibly awkward - I.e. change volume you look at the bar, select the volume, then slide to adjust vs the MBA click the button a few times to adjust as needed...Samar for brightness, same for .... the TB is a solution for a problem it never existed. I will venture to say it will not last long on Macs line up. At the very least I hope to always have an option like the Air without it
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Unfortunately it already has lasted a long time on the MBP lineup. You have never found any app specific shortcuts useful?
 
ADGrant said:
Unfortunately it already has lasted a long time on the MBP lineup. You have never found any app specific shortcuts useful?
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Only looked at the default settings configuration...the butterfly keyboard was replaced, hopefully this will be too...at least offered as an option.

The Touch Bar was really the decision factor - I can deal with once in a lifetime if I need the fan from the Pro, but I miss the keys on the Air multiple times throughout my day.

I don't care for the speakers, I have either connected on the BT speaker or on AirPods. The screen, really no difference on my daily work...yes, if I look for I can see the difference in the screen...but in all honesty it makes no difference to my work at all.... the MBA screen is an update already, if one was comfortable with whatever Mac they had before, the MBA is already an upgrade.... I think :)
 
Brazooka said:
Only looked at the default settings configuration...the butterfly keyboard was replaced, hopefully this will be too...at least offered as an option.

The Touch Bar was really the decision factor - I can deal with once in a lifetime if I need the fan from the Pro, but I miss the keys on the Air multiple times throughout my day.

I don't care for the speakers, I have either connected on the BT speaker or on AirPods. The screen, really no difference on my daily work...yes, if I look for I can see the difference in the screen...but in all honesty it makes no difference to my work at all.... the MBA screen is an update already, if one was comfortable with whatever Mac they had before, the MBA is already an upgrade.... I think :)
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I think aside from the cooling, the key benefit of the M1 MBP is the longer battery life.
 
I have used both MBP & Air 8gb versions for a few weeks. My final conclusion

- The MBP is "technically" better - battery (a lot), keyboard (slightly), screen, mic, heat and speaker. But this is not to say the Air is bad in some way, far from it.
- The Air is cheaper, much better form factor (imo) and performs exactly the same except in very demanding niche usage.

In the beginning couldn't get past giving up the long MBP battery and was 'looking' for reasons to justify the MBP. In the end I chose the Air despite the MBP being technically better.

I didn't think the wedge shape would matter but after using it I MUCH prefer the way my hands rest when typing on the Air, has a more natural/relaxed feel (not sure how else to explain it). Air form factor is surprisingly good.

The Air battery lasts all day (+ some) and so its not worth it (for me) for 235 extra. You can't go wrong either way. If both perform your needs then go what makes you feel good.

(Anyone who has intel versions of either should switch.)
 
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Brazooka said:
Thanks for all who replied. The MBP is packed and ready to go tomorrow morning, keeping the Air. It boiled down to the form factor and the Touch Bar to be totally honesty....small things on Touch Bar really annoy.
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How did you factory reset it? Im about to do the same.
 
Just made the same decision here between machines with the same specs. I went with the Air. I use my machine for app design, light video editing, and other medium workload stuff and the Air has handled everything with zero issues. Other reasons I went with the air:

- I tolerate the touchbar, but not having to deal with it at all is nice
- I do prefer the keyboard on the Pro (it's stiffer) but the Air's keyboard is also great, especially compared to the POS 2019 MBP keyboard I'm replacing
- The weight difference is small, but noticable enough
- Speakers, screen, and mic differences are there, but not so dramatic that it's worth the extra permium (in my opinion)
- No fan at all is fine by me, and makes me wonder if this machine will actually last longer than the Pro due to the lack of dust and other bits getting into the machine. (I have no idea if this is true.)
- As mentioned my workload will rarely require 10+ minutes of sustained full load, and even if it does, the hit is minor enough that it's immaterial for me

TL;DR - weight matters, saving ~$350 is nice, no touchbar, the Air covers all of my use cases.
 
Chairman.Jobbie said:
How did you factory reset it? Im about to do the same.
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First thing is to MAKE SURE it is removed from Find my and from icloud.
Then reboot holding down the Touch ID as it reboots, you will see a message going to options.
Once the options load, go up next to the app log, and select Erase this Mac.
Once it finishes, it will ask you to connect to the wifi - DO THAT!
After you connect to the wifi, if you properly removed your Mac from Icloud and from Find My it will Activate the Mac but not to any account - which is what you want.
 
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Chairman.Jobbie said:
How did you factory reset it? Im about to do the same.
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I just returned an 8GB M1 MBA today (keeping the 16GB). Last night I logged myself out of everything I could think of (internet accounts, iCloud, Onedrive, etc), then I followed the instructions in this post here https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...e-return.2272102/?post=29321642#post-29321642 up to the point of reinstalling the Big Sur OS and Cmd+Q to shut down. This took maybe 1-1.5 hours in total (most of it was the reinstallation). Not sure if this is the most efficient method but seemed to work for me.
 
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I went with the MBA. It's rare I run something that runs over 10 minutes, and if I do, I'll put up with waiting the extra 30-60 seconds for it to finish. No big deal, love not having a fan after my last fan in a mpb broke.
 
justinf77 said:
I had both as well, and I decided in favor of the MBP. There's more than just the fan. You also get:

  • Significantly better screen. Not only higher brightness, but also better black level and contrast ratio. This was very noticeable to me after using both.
  • Touch Bar. This is a pro for me, a con for others. But I love the Touch Bar.
  • Bigger battery. Lasts about 30% longer than the MBA at similar brightness.
  • Better microphone. Very noticeable from all the YouTube comparisons I watched on this.
  • Better keyboard. Debatable, as some prefer the MBA, although I've really grown to love the tactile feedback from the MBP keyboard.
  • Better speakers. Also debatable, as some say the MBA speakers are louder, but according to Apple they are better quality. I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference.
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And it comes with the faster charger.

My M1 MBP charges from 0 to 100 in 2.5 hours.
 
Brazooka said:
I have both machines at hand, both are awesome...hard time to decide which one to keep :(

Which one would you keep and why?
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If you are going to go for the top of the line spec of the 13", you should really wait for the 16" because you're going to want one I would imagine, as it sounds like you need all the specs you can get.
 
I initially thought I'd go with the Pro due to the increased battery life, but I just got 16 hours of general use on my Air (16GB/1TB) split across two days on a single charge. (General use - browsing, email, Slack, videos, image editing, coding/writing.)

Bottom line is if your usage is anything like mine you're not going suffer terrible battery life.
 
justinf77 said:
[*]Better speakers. Also debatable, as some say the MBA speakers are louder, but according to Apple they are better quality. I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference.
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Chairman.Jobbie said:
I have used both MBP & Air 8gb versions for a few weeks. My final conclusion

- The MBP is "technically" better - battery (a lot), keyboard (slightly), screen, mic, heat and speaker. But this is not to say the Air is bad in some way, far from it.
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neilio said:
- Speakers, screen, and mic differences are there, but not so dramatic that it's worth the extra permium (in my opinion)
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Interesting to see many saying M1 Pro speakers are better? I see they are "better" based on marketing material and maybe some reviews with subjective rating but the only review where I have seen actual measurement to back up the rating shows that MBA M1 speakers are better than MBP M1 (MBA M1 got 95% score while MBP M1 only 90%).
See for yourself here:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...o-gets-the-M1-performance-boost.510883.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...le-M1-CPU-humbles-Intel-and-AMD.508057.0.html


I haven't heard MBP M1 at home but I had MBP 13" 2019 (1.4GHz base) before and I got MBA M1 which has much better speaker quality. I also had MBA 2018 briefly before I got my MBP 2019 and even then Air had much better sounding speakers. I'm not talking about louder speaker but actual audio quality. For some reason Air has some audible bass and natural sound while MBP had almost no bass and it sounded tinny due to that.

Not sure if MBP M1 is different from 2019 version but I doubt it is not based on iFixit teardown where both MBA and MBP seem to have the same speakers in M1 versions as they had previously in Intel versions.

Just curious why some who have tested these for themselves say MBP M1 has better speakers and some say MBA M1 has better? I mainly use my MBA M1 with Airpods anyway but I can't say speakers are worse than my MBP had.
 
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