With the MacBook Air and Pro both so great, it’s hard to know which to choose.
Currently, I am not in the market for a new laptop. I am really enjoying my Asus Zenbook 14X and with the addition of a 2012 MacBook Air running Ubuntu. I am very happy with my current laptop setup, but as I look to the future of what Mac I may want, Apple is making it hard.
The new M3 MacBook Air is the exact same as the M2 but with a newer chip. After watching and reading some reviews, it feels like the M3 is very incremental unless you have specific needs. Meaning that the M2, which Apple also still sells, is still a great buy.
After going to Costco with my mother-in-law to help her pick up a new MacBook, going over both the Air and the Pro, it was really hard to pin down one being that much better than the other. Both provide different benefits and I think the extra cost of the Pro is justified by the better display alone.
Paul Alvarez
But some people, sometimes I include myself in this group too, don’t need the display on the MacBook Pro. Both of the displays are fantastic, but the higher resolution and Mini-LED does definitely make the Pro more superior. The size of the MacBook Air is just so appealing that the better display on the Pro is a hard sell.
You also have port differences and depending on the model you could also get a Pro version of the M-series chip in the MacBook Pro. But everything else is the same: the front camera, battery life, Touch ID, and Thunderbolt USB-C. One thing you do get on the Pros over the Air is higher base RAM and storage sizes.
The specs only go so far though. When looking for a computer, cost is a big factor but mostly what are you going to use it for. What needs do you have and which computer is going to deliver you the best when it comes to performance and productivity. Joy is also a huge factor, and I think that is where I struggle the most.
The Midnight MacBook Air that my mother-in-law bought is beautiful. Using it slightly when helping her set it up, I really liked the size, color, and overall package. I don’t know if it is because I have been using the 2012 MacBook Air 11-inch more recently but the smaller size of the M2 MacBook Air was super appealing to me.
I have tried the MacBook Pro a few times now, and most of the time I felt it was overkill for what I needed. I always felt the price of the device and the performance it gave me was hard to justify in keeping it. I did write about those feelings more in a post I wrote recently titled _Pro Computer Guilt_, and even though I still agree with what I said in the post, it is still hard to picture me spending over $3000 on a laptop.
The MacBook Air with the specs that I want, which would be 24 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD, ranges from $1,799.00 brand new, $1,529.00 Apple Certified Refurbished, to around $1400.00 used. I am sure I could also find a new model for cheaper on sale at Best Buy or elsewhere too, either way I am looking at a laptop with more RAM than I need and a 1 TB SSD for well under $2,000.
Now the MacBook Pro is a little more complicated since getting an M1 Pro or M1 Max would probably give me the same performance needs that I would get from the M2 in the MacBook Air. If I just compare the M2 Pro MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD to simplify things, I am looking at a range from around $2,000 for Apple Certified Refurbished or used.
The M1 Pro MacBook Pro with the same specs I could probably find for a few hundred dollars cheaper, but then I need to bring up the fact that all of these comparisons of the MacBook Pro to the Air are not completely equivalent for what I want. The problem with comparing the M2 MacBook Pros with the MacBook Air is the color.
The only real comparison to the Midnight MacBook Air for me would be a Space Black MacBook Pro that only comes in the new M3 Pro or Max MacBook Pros which now we are talking well over $3000 again for 18GB or 36 GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. This is why these decisions are so hard, when factoring all of your wants and needs things get pricey and a bit confusing.
This is all to say that Apple is in a great place with their MacBook line. They have been for a while now, but the continued progress in both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pros have made it feel like Apple cares about the Mac so much again, when for a while it did feel like the platform was being neglected.
If I was choosing a Mac right now, I would probably just try and pick up an M2 MacBook Air at a decent price, probably the Apple Refurbished model, and I would be more than happy with my purchase. Since I don’t need to make that decision right now, I will have to wait and see if it gets more difficult or easier in the future — I have a feeling it won’t be easy at all, and that’s ultimately a good thing.