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MacBook Air And MacBook Pro: Choose The Best
Table of Contents
If you’re looking to purchase a new MacBook, you probably have questions about which of these two machines might be better for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Apple continually updates its product lines, bringing in new configurations annually, and now that it has started putting more powerful processors on the table, there has never been so much to take into consideration when purchasing an Apple laptop.
When purchasing a MacBook, you should consider the size of the display, the storage capacity, the computing power, and the price. For instance, the 2022 13-inch and 2024 13-inch MacBook Air may look the same, but they have different chips, so the laptops are different in performance, efficiency, and battery life.
The M4 chips used in the most recent MacBook Pro models are more competent and efficient than the M3 chips. The MacBook Air laptops, however, are still sporting the previous generation, the M3. Imagine yourself as Goldilocks; you’re being given five different MacBook models, and you need to find the one that is just right for you.
Now that we’ve decided which one to buy, let’s go through the major differences between the Pro and the Air.
What Differentiates the MacBook Air from the MacBook Pro?
There are huge differences between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The biggest difference is in pricing and computing power. Although the M4 Apple MacBook Pro was more costly than the M3 MacBook Air, its superior performance more than makes up for the difference.
Memory
The M4 MacBook Pro has unified memory beyond the Air’s and more ports than its counterpart: three Thunderbolt 4 inputs and an SD card slot, as well as a more advanced hardware configuration.
Display
The MacBook Pro is available in two display sizes: 14-inch and 16-inch, each of which holds a different M4 chip. The 14-inch can only be selected with the M4 chip, although the 16-inch model option can be picked with either an M4 Pro or M4 Max. Overall, all perform well, except for some critical differences. Notably, in the M4 Max, this chip has “a powerful Media Engine.”
Chip
Each one also features a different count of cores. The standard M4 comes with a 10-core CPU, as well as a 10-core GPU. Apple’s M4 Pro has an even 14-core CPU, but the number of GPU cores increases to 20. In contrast, the M4 Max contains the same processor, but this model comes with 32-core GPUs. The RAM is also different and ranges between 16GB to 48GB. Although there isn’t a single, obvious performance gap between the M3 and M4 chipsets, Apple to ZDNET Editor Kyle Kucharski, “The M4 is 1.3 times faster at handling productivity tasks tasks than the M3”.
With the introduction of the 14-inch Laptop Pro, Apple regrettably discontinued the 13-inch model. You cannot even order one from their site now. The reconditioned 14-inch with 16-inch Mac Pro models with the M3 Pro with M3 Max CPUs are still for sale.
Pricing
The M4 MacBook Pro is a great workable laptop in all senses; however, when the base chip doesn’t perform at its best, consider an M4 Pro or M4 Max. Not forgetting, when choosing the 16-inch Pro version, it sets up a few dollars higher for its bigger, higher-res version. The starting point of the 14-inch Pro costs $1,599 while upgrading up to a certain degree to 1,999 and starting with a cost of 2,499, which eventually shoots up with upgrades to a max of $3,999 with the 16-inch Pro version.
MacBook Air and MacBook Pro in Terms of Hardware and Ports
Only Apple’s base M2 chip comes with the 2022 version of the 13-inch MacBook Air. For the 2024 versions, the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air features a base M3 chip. But the absence of Pro and Max chips doesn’t make the Air a less-than-capable computer. The MacBook Air is thinner and lighter than the Pro since it has fewer hardware parts to carry around, namely, no HDMI port, SD card slot, or cooling fan. Apple counts on its chips’ efficiency in dissipating heat.
