Age old question MacBook Air or MacBook Pro?

[Feek]

I fully blame YouTubers and their idiocy.

Yup.
Remember when the first M1 machines came out? Remember the big deal that the YouTubers made, saying how fantastic the M1 MBA was in that it could edit 4k videos with ease.
They still can! An M1 MBA is still a superb tool for video editing for anyone. Nothing has changed to make it less good at editing videos at all. The newer models will do it a little bit quicker but there is literally nothing wrong with an M1 or M2 Air for anyone.

I bought an M2 MBA last year to replace my launch day M1 and for the things I do, I really didn’t notice any difference in performance. It was nice to have the new shape and I’d nearly filled up the SSD so doubling the size to 1Tb was worthwhile for me.

I keep looking at the 14” MBP and then I take a step back and remember that the M2 MBA I’ve got doesn’t struggle with anything I throw at it so I’d simply be wasting my money if I were to upgrade.

@GSXRMovistar I still reckon an MBA will suit you but I also think that you could try the trick I suggested earlier to get both models and try them. You could even send them both back within the fortnight and buy cheaper from somewhere else if you’re so inclined.

 

[GSXRMovistar]

Yeah I think the MBA M3 16Gb is the way to go, however the screen on my MBP is now behaving so making it hard to go out an instantly spend!

 

[Feek]

however the screen on my MBP is now behaving

Tap it gently on the edge with a hammer. Just enough to cause a crack.

making it hard to go out an instantly spend!

Ahh, with a cracked screen, you’ll have to do it.

 

[Jaykay91]

Took the plunge and went with the M3 Air 16gb. Surely if the misses M1 8gb can handle web browsing, photo editing etc then the M3 should handle everything I need to do. Ordered from apple so will give it a good test before the 14 days runout incase it starts to struggle using the programs I use.

 

[Feek]

Nice, 13" or 15"?

 

[reflux]

The Air can handle a lot more than ‘light’ photo and video editing!

Can attest to this. I'm a UX designer and have a varied workflow of Figma, a development environment and lots of demanding browser-based applications. I got a new job a couple of months ago and was expecting them to send a 14" Pro. They sent an 13" M2 Air instead (albeit with 16gb RAM). It's great so far, rarely feel like I need the extra headroom of a Pro. Definitely could do with the bigger screen size but that's about it.

 

[Xelene]

We just got an Air and the screen is hands down the best LCD i've used in a Laptop, its not as good as the one in the Pro but it is very far ahead of anything you'll find in a none OLED Windows gig. The main problem I have with Mac laptop screens is persistance as they tend to run at 60Hz and can be a bit ghosty (although I do find they are quite well tuned to avoid that)

 

[Xelene]

Can attest to this. I'm a UX designer and have a varied workflow of Figma, a development environment and lots of demanding browser-based applications. I got a new job a couple of months ago and was expecting them to send a 14" Pro. They sent an 13" M2 Air instead (albeit with 16gb RAM). It's great so far, rarely feel like I need the extra headroom of a Pro. Definitely could do with the bigger screen size but that's about it.

That's exactly the model we got for my partner, it's a really great laptop. They do a bit of pricing shennigans to try and bump you up to the 13 Pro but I dont think its worth the extra 200-300 or so for a slightly bulkier frame and a slightly better screen. She mostly uses it for watching videos and some light Python coding, the battery will typically survive most of a flight to Japan if you turn the brightness down a bit. I wish they put 16GB in the base model and charged 1100-1200 for it, that would be something I would have to actively find reasons to not recommend.