i use the air cause it’s lighter and i prefer the design, considering i take it everyday to class it’s a big win for me. Also, I study in the literary field so I don’t need anything particularly heavy or memory consuming

if you’re in school, chances are the Air is perfect for you. like almost 100%. if you do heavy tasks like video editing, 3D rendering, running many, many programs all at once…the Air can do that too…but if you do all these things daily, then i’d recommend you go for the Pro. the new Air is very light & thin too btw, makes me check my bag to see if i’m even carrying it sometimes.

I bought a MacBook Air for daily use and I am very satisfied. Especially I am a person who hates fan noise. This laptop is quiet and great.

Air, but you are on the macbook air subreddit, so that's prolly what most people are going to tell you hahaha

"Which one would you buy and why?"

It's silly to make a buying decision based on what others use or what they would buy. You have to buy based on your own use case.

If you are not doing heavy video editing or music creation you should be fine with the regular MacBook Air. If you have the cash, I would spend the extra for 16Gb of Ram and at least a 512gb hard drive. If you know what your major will be already many schools will have computer spec recommendations for specific majors.

There is a huge difference between a university student and a school student.

First case (university student), totally depends what’s you are studying.

Second case (school student), just buy an M1 Air. You need nothing more than that.

I agree the m1 air is more then enough for me in school

Hello, well, because of what you have mentioned, it is not worth waiting for the m4. In fact, it would work even with the m2. The Apple chips are too powerful and to take advantage of them you would have to start doing very demanding tasks. I would recommend you buy the m3. Since it is at the same price as the new m2 and will last you 6 years, I would recommend that to make it last longer you get the 512GB option so as not to have problems with storage in the future

Air is perfectly capable for most students, unless you're studying something intensive (which you suggested that you're not). Now that the Air models have the M series chips, there really isn't much of a difference between performance of the Air and Pro like back in the day.

I’d wait until it’s a little closer to dental school to buy a MBA. Maybe it’ll be a cheaper. Could be a variety of different discounts going on around that period.

Congratulations on Undergrad. Go crush dental school!

MacBook Air. And use Safari instead for better battery life

Wait until back to school promo then get the M4 MBA through the education store. 

Chrome tabs will suck the battery charge from anything

Even I’m a student who will in Sha Allah be going for dentistry in September. I plan on getting an M4 MBA. There’s always gon be sm new on the market and seeing the fantastic value u get for the m4 this year w 100$ less + double the ram it’s the perfect time for a new laptop.

The only real advantages the Pro has are a slightly brighter screen, allegedly 2 more hours of battery life, and a touch bar. Battery life on the Air is already pretty good, will probably be even better when battery saver mode comes, so I don’t see a reason to get the Pro for that. Difference in brightness is only 100 nits brighter on Pro. Do what you will with that information, I don’t know much about screen stuff but I personally don’t think that’s a deal breaker. As for the touch bar, that ones on you as to whether or not you’ll actually use it. As for the price, the Air is much cheaper at $1000 and has pretty much the exact same things as the Pro. It’s a way better value in my eyes due to that.

I'm a grad student who does models and data analysis as well as YouTubing as a hobby. The M1 Air has outperformed every laptop I've ever had in almost every aspect (gaming aside). Granted, the modeling I do doesn't maximize the CPU, and I'm sure there may be more intense models with a larger thermal output.

Gaming is one area you may want the fan in the Pro, but whether it is sufficient to make a significant difference I do not know. However, you can see real world tests on YouTube for gaming on M1 with air, pro, and mini. The level of gaming matters too of course.

If gaming isn't a major needs the M1 Air would be a dream laptop for university. If gaming is a bigger need, check out those real world tests to see if it's worth it (the fan may still be insufficient).

The Air will suit your needs nicely.

I had to make the same decision back in december when the M1 macbook lineup launched.

I had a 2020 intel macbook pro and loved the form factor but i did sell and wanted to get an M1 macbook instead. I was deciding between getting the base model M1 macbook pro or a 16gb M1 macbook air. The reason why i wanted the pro was the fan, the slightly brighter screen, the boxier design that i loved, the touch bar and the longer battery life.

After researching for weeks i found out that the performance difference is so little that i couldn't justify paying the extra cash to get the macbook pro just because i thought it looked better, or for the 2 extra hours you'd get. Although it is nice with 2 extra hours, but i found myself plugging my macbook the whole time and never running out of battery even with the power hungry intel macbook.

So i made a decision and got the 16gb macbook air and i am so glad i did. This machine is super fast, the screen is as fantastic as on the pro model, and i actually love the design of it.

I use it for uni aswell, i do programming and now learning networking using different simulators and they all work. I am so glad i went for the 16gb of ram and actually waited a whole month for it to get delivered. I almost cancelled it to just grab the base model from a local store so i didn't have to wait any longer lol, but i waited.

Now after using it for 6 month + i can really say if you want the mac to last for years, you better feature proof it and get the 16gb mba. If they offered a 32gb version i surely would've went with it as i find myself constantly up in the 13gb or 14gb territory.

I advise you to wait for mid July or the start of august if you can as Apple do offer nice stuff if you buy a macbook for school or uni. Last year they gave airpods gen 2. for free and airpods pro for a little extra (something around 100$).

Air All day 16gb ram

I’d say Pro because of the active cooling, which the Air does not have.

As for compatibility, I’m not aware but I have a gut feeling that some data science stuff is better available on Windows. Not sure though.

For an extra 500 bucks, the base m4 macbook pro will last you so long, and comes with hdmi and stuff and better display. There are still m1 users that have no intent to upgrade. Air is cheaper, but you might want the cooling a little.

I would say the Air is completely enough. I have the M3 Air myself, and I see no bottleneck in anything I do. Try to throw anything at it and it will take it. You really don't need fans with the Apple Silicon because my chip stays mostly below 60 degrees C and if I fully max out all the components under 80 degrees C

How intense are your tasks? If you max out your current computer for more than 10 minutes multiple times a day I would go with the Pro. Otherwise the Air should be fine.

if you value better speakers and a screen with true blacks the Pro is also the way to go.

Also depends how many external monitors you connect to?

If your current computer is still up to date with security, which it is and will be, and if your computer is currently meeting your needs then you have plenty of time to replace it. No need to rush. But I fully understand the feeling for upgrade since these M-chips have been out for years now and more and more software is requiring it. So it's more than fine to get a new model since these new ones really are a ton better than the Intel ones. But also consider waiting. I'm usually in the camp of 'buy what you need when you need' but if yours is still running good then you can wait. New Pros should release late this year and places like Best Buy could then unload current models on sale. I grabbed my M2 MBA from Best Buy during a sale shortly before the M3 MBA was released, saved a little money and I'm happy with it.

As for Pro vs Air in your case - depends on your budget. Either would serve your needs quite well. Get to a store to look at the demo models in person. Honestly. Even if it requires a special trip, make a day of it and hit the town - but go look at them. Feel their weights. See how the 13 or 15 inch Air looks. See the difference with the Pro model, each aspect of hardware from Screen to Speakers are better but honestly, the Air is a great computer on it's own. Also consider ports, the Pro has more ports so if you get an Air you'll likely want to grab a hub or dock for when at your desk.

If you desperately need one, I would go with the MacBook Air to save money if your video editing or doing anything hard like that go with the MacBook Pro but the air will definitely work just fine for 90% of your uses I’m sure

MBPro has a better battery, more ports, better external monitor support. And you'll notice this one, more weight.

Until you get to movie editing class you'll likely not notice the differences.

OPI have a question for you, because I’m generally curious. These exact threads such as yours are beating a dead horse way past its death. Why would you not just buy the 14 inch MacBook Pro? I’m asking you a genuine question. If you can buy it then why don’t you buy that over the air?

I think the long term benis of a MacBook Pro outweigh the costs of the air. I just bought a MB pro 14, with 32gb ram and couldn’t be happier

Definitely get a MacBook Air , get 15 inch -16-24gb ram will be perfect for you and as much storage as you you need 512-1tb? , the m4 air is more than capable of anything you will use it for , don’t get sucked into the “pro” it’s really for professional video editing and music production? For your use cases even the very very base air would be more than enough, hope that helps

I’ve had both. For what you described you should definitely get the air.

For most things you aren’t going to notice performance difference between pro and air unless you program or do media editing.

Basically if you have to ask likely the air is the better choice for most users. Exceptions would be you like display of pro better, or speakers. Otherwise most users aren’t going to notice.

If money isn’t an issue go with the Pro, it’s lovely.

If not an issue I would get the Pro for the better screen

The M4 will be fine for your needs mostly. Data Science can sometimes utilise the additional memory and memory bandwidth depending on what you're doing but most things will be fine.

Light, hobbyist level video editing can also be done on the Air, the only trouble there is that it gets hot fast.

One question I have is how much is the M4 MacBook Pro in your region? Can't be that much more than the Air, surely. It will get you better sustained performance, a bigger battery and the other Pro creature comforts. I suggest you take a look at that. You'll be carrying the laptop in a bag anyways and the 200-300gm weight difference in a bag isn't really noticeable because it is a smaller percentage of the overall system weight

For student work the air with base m4 chip will be fine, compiling will just take a little longer. It’s not worth the cost for faster compile times unless you’re working professionally and trying to build a large codebase again and again through out the day. You can still do the same work on an air.

I was faced with the same choice for me it was only 155€ difference though.

The M4 Pro has thunderbolt 5 which is good for external stuff, the pro has better screen and audio (speakers as well as microphone amp if you do music recording). Slightly larger screen size is helpful.

The air mostly has the weight on its side. It's noticeably lighter.

I picked the pro