I'm most likely going to wait for this supposed March event to see if Apple does in fact release M3 MacBook Air. I'm looking to upgrade from my 2015 15" MacBook Pro. But wouldn't an M3 MBA be so close in spec to a M3 MBP that it hurts M3 MBP sales? No point getting an M3 MBP when an M3 MBA exists.
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Wouldn't an M3 MacBook Air hurt M3 MacBook Pro sales?
- Thread starter bigpoppamac31
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But wasn’t that the identical with M2 MBP and M2 MBA?
That is why M3 MBP were introduced first in 2023.
You can expect that the M3 MBA will not have any specs (base level RAM/SSD, Bluetooth, WiFi, displays) that are better than M3 MBP.
That is why M3 MBP were introduced first in 2023.
You can expect that the M3 MBA will not have any specs (base level RAM/SSD, Bluetooth, WiFi, displays) that are better than M3 MBP.
The air and the pro have existed side by side for some time now.
No.
The fanless/thin design of the Air ensures that nobody who is going to do intensive work/stress the processor would select that machine. It's about as fast for a 30S-minute, then degrades significantly. The use case is completely different.
An M3 MBP could keep up with my M1 Pro on a long encode but an m3 MBA would be much, much slower due to thermal throttling.
With an M3 on the air you'd get the benefits of the single core increases, which typically show in use such as browsing the web, emails, opening apps etc. Useful for sure, but that's only half of what a processor is designed to do. With the same processor on the pro you get the single core increase but also get the capability via the fans to use the multi core to its full potential over a long period of time, enabling you do to intense CPU/GPU work which is severely limited on the Air.
The fanless/thin design of the Air ensures that nobody who is going to do intensive work/stress the processor would select that machine. It's about as fast for a 30S-minute, then degrades significantly. The use case is completely different.
An M3 MBP could keep up with my M1 Pro on a long encode but an m3 MBA would be much, much slower due to thermal throttling.
With an M3 on the air you'd get the benefits of the single core increases, which typically show in use such as browsing the web, emails, opening apps etc. Useful for sure, but that's only half of what a processor is designed to do. With the same processor on the pro you get the single core increase but also get the capability via the fans to use the multi core to its full potential over a long period of time, enabling you do to intense CPU/GPU work which is severely limited on the Air.
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If I was upgrading and didn't need the fans i'd still want the promotion/XDR display on the pro, and figure it worth the $300. Apple is far, far behind its competition when it comes to refresh rate and contrast etc (on it non pro models). The display upgrade is worth it alone, MBP also comes with SD card slot and there's TONS of options of non conspicuous cheap 3'rd party SD storage upgrade options through the port. I added an TB to my MBP for $70.
Pro has vastly superior audio through its inbuilt speakers and the display, while flawed, makes the Air's look like something from another age. The Air is a great computer and excellent in its own right, but those two factors alone elevate the Pro to another level that easily justifies the price gap. On the flip side of the coin, the Air is a much better computer if size and weight are nonnegotiable. They're not really direct competitors in my mind, though of course there's some overlap.
I'll be upgrading from an M1 MacBook Pro to and M3 Air. I don't need the fans, but I also don't want the extra thickness and weight of the Pro.
Yeah true. I didn't entirely factor in how the processor is integrated into the system. But you said the MBP display is flawed. How so? I will say I'm not a fan of the notch on the Apple laptops.
I was referring specifically to the mini-LED technology that often exhibits very noticeable clouding in video content. It's mostly great but when it's bad it's really bad. A halfway house to OLED that impresses and frustrates. But it's also a far better compromise than the permanent silver rectangle we get with conventionally backlit panels. And that leads me to a major factor - the notch blends far better into fullscreen black or movie bars on the Pro, because the Pro can recreate black whereas the Air cannot.
I've just gone from 2015 pro to 14 inch m3 pro and I'm amazed how much better it is. the speakers are fantastic. I have an m1 air for work which didn't seem to much different but the new pros have really impressed me.
you're in for a treat when you upgrade. I'd buy the m3 pro again as I'm very happy with my choice.
Just to be clear - they’re both LCD panels but one has full array mini-LED backlighting whereas the other is edge lit LED.
a dongle and an external monitor can nullify these pretty big differences.
I do my entire engineering job on an m2 mba, I'll probably never return to the pro line. More money for not that much improvement. I'm not doing large local renders, and when doing intensive work that takes a few minutes of cpu I wouldn't really care or notice if it was 20% faster.
I got the m3 pro 14 inch with 1tb ssd and 18 gig ram.
I also have a M2 Max studio with 32 gig ram and I feel it feels a bit quicker than that in day to to day stuff like applications opening a bit quicker and smoother.
...but it doesn't. The M3 MBP has been available for about 4 months already and a new Air release date hasn't even been announced yet. Anyone who wanted a new MBP either already purchased it or if they weren't convinced to buy one until now then if a new Air convinces them to finally make a purchase Apple won regardless. Once you buy an Apple device and are hopefully happy with it you might keep buying them and recommending Apple devices to friends and family.
For me it's the other way around, the MBP has the superior hardware. The Air is less heavy and that's about it.
It's the same for me, yet the Airs max out too soon with upgrades to allow me to get away with it. It doesn't have 32GiB of RAM which is the bare minimum my workflow requires, and 2TB of storage are way too little for a main device. The only reason I left it at 4TB were the high costs of the 8TB option. As a secondary device on the go the Airs are plenty yet if I have to get 2 devices it would cost more money overall and be more inconvenient than a single 14" MBP that is mobile enough yet doubles as a desktop workstation in the office. The one external monitor limit of the base SoC would add to the inconvenience.
Now more than ever I'd choose a 14" MBP over an Air since its footprint is just small enough to carry it in a backpack daily yet its performance is beyond anything this form factor allowed for in the past. 10-15 hours of battery life on a 128GiB RAM workstation laptop with this form factor were simple impossible until Apple Silicon came along.
There were so many customers asking for Apple to stop making their products thinner with less and less ports and to make the Macs actual Pro devices again. Now that Apple is embracing that I am here for it. In the past I had a MBP, a Mac Pro, another Windows workstation, and a 12" business laptop. Now all these have been replaced by a MBP.
hmm, had a MBP 14 M1 Pro for 2 years and never noticed an issue. I'd take that screen back over my Current Air any day. (work gave me a m2 air, so wasn't worth having two MacBooks)
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Yep, on overall balance the Pro display is very much superior. The clouding seems to be very dependent on specific content type and viewing environment. And of course some may not notice or care anyway.
Disagree, this may have been more of a true statement for the 13" MBP that had very few advantages vs. the equivalent MBA. Unless you really needed sustained performance, a slightly larger battery, and the touch bar, it was hard to justify the extra $150-200 you typically had to spend. Now for the extra money you get a somewhat larger, much better screen, more ports, better port selection, better speakers, and a nice, solidly built chassis in my experience using my M1 Max 14" so far.
With clouding you probably mean blooming. It's more noticeable in a dark room, so some people who only sit at the computer during daytime might not notice it much. In HDR content it's still visible depending on the content. It's an inherent flaw of this panel and it's the cost for the high brightness and HDR capabilities. As are the bad response times leading to excessive ghosting with this panel, which is the other drawback. Unfortunately it's either this or the old type of display panel that the Airs use. But new OLED panels should come soon enough so hopefully Apple will switch the Macbooks to better panels with M5 or M6.
Another difference with the displays is the PPI and scaling. The displays on the Pros have a higher PPI and do 2x integer scaling by default. The Airs have a lower PPI and do fractional scaling by default. This can affect how things look. For example, a line meant to be 1 pixel wide will always scale to 2 pixels wide on the Pro, but will scale to either 1 or 2 pixels wide on the Air depending where it is on the screen (because you can't have fractions of a pixel). Not a huge deal, but some people are pretty particular about it, especially those needing to do pixel-perfect work.
14" Pro
Screen Resolution: 3024 x 1964 (254 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1512 x 982 (2x scaling)
16" Pro
Screen Resolution: 3456 x 2234 (254 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1728 x 1117 (2x scaling)
13" Air
Screen Resolution: 2560 x 1664 (224 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1470 x 956 (~1.74x scaling)
15" Air
Screen Resolution: 2880 x 1864 (224 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1710 x 1107 (~1.68x scaling)
14" Pro
Screen Resolution: 3024 x 1964 (254 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1512 x 982 (2x scaling)
16" Pro
Screen Resolution: 3456 x 2234 (254 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1728 x 1117 (2x scaling)
13" Air
Screen Resolution: 2560 x 1664 (224 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1470 x 956 (~1.74x scaling)
15" Air
Screen Resolution: 2880 x 1864 (224 PPI)
Default "looks like": 1710 x 1107 (~1.68x scaling)
I think your assumption that most people buy these comparing first and then decide. I believe lots of people just buy a pro rather an air. The touchbar Model was even a worse deal and it was super popular, i guess the best sold pro model (due to price I think).
Some cannibalizing is expected. Smart vendors (Apple) are most concerned about providing what customers want/need and can pay for. If y'all want much lesser, cheaper MBA Apple will provide it.
Look closely and you will see that no, "M3 MBA be so close in spec to a M3 MBP" is not really the case at all. MBP is better in every single possible way other than weight and price. Some folks will ignore all the lesser performance characteristics to get lower cost and/or lower weight, which is fine with Apple as long as buyers are buying.
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