Which should I buy: MacBook Air M4 (15”, 24GB RAM) or MacBook Pro M4 (14”, 16GB RAM)?

[Mohamed-3]

Hi everyone 👋

I’m planning to buy my first Mac and I’m torn between:

• MacBook Air M4 – 15” – 24GB RAM – 512GB SSD – 10-core CPU/GPU
• MacBook Pro M4 – 14” – 16GB RAM – 512GB SSD – 10-core CPU/GPU

My main usage: Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects) and Blender for 3D modeling/animation.


I’m worried about the Air’s cooling and limited ports, but the extra 8GB RAM is tempting for multitasking and heavy projects.


I’m based in the UAE and my budget is around $2000.


Which one would you recommend for my use case, and why?



Thanks in advance for your help 🙏

 

[Kottu]

Buy the Macbook pro M5 or a M4pro. MacBook Air will reduce performance to control temperature when it gets hot. The Pro has a much better display than Air. As you want to use Adobe and Blender, Pro has the better display for that purpose. You can find really good deals in Dubizzle sometimes.

 

[gilby101]

Everything that @Kottu says is true. But 16GB seems a bit low for Photoshop, etc. Lack of RAM will slow Adobe apps if doing complex work. So given your choice, I would go for the Air. Always compromises when budget is fixed.

 

[OBirder]

I as well agree with [mention]Kottu [/mention]
In addition you want to consider 24GB of memory and 1 TB internal SSD.
If you can wing it you may get the M4 Pro with the mentioned memory and SSD for $2399. This will give you Thunderbolt 5 ports, 14 core CPU and 20 core GPU.
Especially for the Adobe Suite this should be helpful.