Julio Herrera
New member
Hey. My name is Julio Herrera and I am from Italy. I am very curious to know what is the difference between MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, anyone can tell?
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MacBook Air or MacBook Pro | Julio Herrera
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Greybeard2017
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Tom_N
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Assuming that you're talking about Apple Silicon models, the 13' MacBook Pros are a lot more similar to the MacBook Airs than to the 14" and 16" MacBook Pros.
With the 14" and 16" MBPs, you can get just about all of the high-end processing, RAM, and SSD options with either size of screen. That's a change from the Intel days – when some goodies were only available on 16" models, not on 13" ones.
With the 14" and 16" MBPs, you can get just about all of the high-end processing, RAM, and SSD options with either size of screen. That's a change from the Intel days – when some goodies were only available on 16" models, not on 13" ones.
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Greybeard2017
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I think you have a typo "not on 14" ones" rather than "not on 13" ones"
Tom_N
Forum Pro
Not a typo. There were no 14" Intel-based MacBook Pros: just 13", 15"/16", and 17" ones; and the 13" ones usually did not get things like discrete GPUs.
Towards the end of the Intel days, Apple subdivided the 13" line between
- Models with 4 USB-C (TB3) ports
- Models with 2 USB-C (TB3 ports and older Intel CPUs
lightandaprayer
Veteran Member
Julio, if you haven't heard of Apple refurbished Macs you may be interested to learn that you can save some money buying a refurb. . . In the U.S. the basic discount is 15% and can be higher, with the same 14-day return period, one-year warranty and eligibility to get an additional 2-year AppleCare+ warranty as regular Macs.
Refurb-Tracker works with the Italia online Apple Store. Select your country from the drop-down menu and you can search for all models or a specific model plus upgraded specifications such as more RAM, etc. You can then search among the available Macs for something you like.
If you have a specific Mac in mind you can set-up a free alert and receive emails/texts when as soon as it appears online. It is much more convenient than checking the store over and over, especially with popular and relatively rare configurations.
When I did a search around an hour ago the Italy Apple Store has 193 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models available. (I did not upgrade RAM, storage or any other specification.)
Refurb-Tracker works with the Italia online Apple Store. Select your country from the drop-down menu and you can search for all models or a specific model plus upgraded specifications such as more RAM, etc. You can then search among the available Macs for something you like.
If you have a specific Mac in mind you can set-up a free alert and receive emails/texts when as soon as it appears online. It is much more convenient than checking the store over and over, especially with popular and relatively rare configurations.
When I did a search around an hour ago the Italy Apple Store has 193 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models available. (I did not upgrade RAM, storage or any other specification.)
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Barry Twycross
Senior Member
The Airs are lighter, the Pros have more ports. That's mainly it. MacBook screens have "IPS technology", which I don't know what it does for you. The Pro may have slightly longer battery life, but all the machines have pretty amazing life.
The 13" MacBook its still the older style with a TouchBar, and fewer ports.
Previous generations of MacBook Airs had thermal issues, if you used too much power, it would go into processor throttling to cool down, ie the performance would drop dramatically. I don't know if that's still an issue with Apple Silicon, as they're much more power efficient. I used an M1 MacBook Air, and I was impressed by the speed (much faster than my Intel MacBook Pro), and never had any throttling issues.
The 13" MacBook its still the older style with a TouchBar, and fewer ports.
Previous generations of MacBook Airs had thermal issues, if you used too much power, it would go into processor throttling to cool down, ie the performance would drop dramatically. I don't know if that's still an issue with Apple Silicon, as they're much more power efficient. I used an M1 MacBook Air, and I was impressed by the speed (much faster than my Intel MacBook Pro), and never had any throttling issues.
Tom_N
Forum Pro
It means you don't get bad color shifts if you look at the display at an angle. Most good LCD monitors have IPS panels now. (I'm not sure if the term "IPS" applies in the context of OLED monitors.)
Tom_N
Forum Pro
The 14"/16" MacBook Pros also have
- Higher multi-core CPU performance
- Faster GPUs
- Support for more RAM
- Support for more than one external monitor
- M2 – 8, 16, or 24 GB of RAM
- M2 Pro – 16 or 32 GB of RAM
- M2 Max – 32, 64, or 96 GB of RAM
- M1 – 8 or 16 GB of RAM
- M1 Pro – 16 or 32 GB of RAM
- M1 Max – 32 or 64 GB of RAM
Mike Boreham
Senior Member
You are right that thermal throttling on Silicon MBAs is much less of an issue than earlier MBAs, but all fanless MBAs do throttle under sustained high load conditions. They are designed to. It doesn't mean MBAs can't do sustained high load tasks, they can, but it takes a bit longer.
I think the fan on MBPs is an important factor for anyone who regularly does high load sustained tasks.
I wrote more with links in this post. In fact that whole thread is the same question as this one.
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lightandaprayer
Veteran Member
Another difference between the MBA and MBP: the 14" and 16" MBPs have keyboards with slightly greater key-travel and a tiny bit of tactile response. The MBAs, 13" MBP and the so-called Magic Keyboard have minimal key-travel and bottom-out with every key-stroke. . .
The MBPs are understandably nowhere close to even a decent mechanical keyboard but I think that it is enough of a positive improvement on a portable computer that I am willing to pay the difference for it. Typing is what I do the most on my Macs and it's worth the cost amortized over the years I will own it.
Keyboard preference is subjective so it's best to try it out yourself. My wife feels fine about her M1 MBA keyboard while I merely tolerate it. . . LOL ;-)
The MBPs are understandably nowhere close to even a decent mechanical keyboard but I think that it is enough of a positive improvement on a portable computer that I am willing to pay the difference for it. Typing is what I do the most on my Macs and it's worth the cost amortized over the years I will own it.
Keyboard preference is subjective so it's best to try it out yourself. My wife feels fine about her M1 MBA keyboard while I merely tolerate it. . . LOL ;-)
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Tom_N
Forum Pro
Apple uses the phrase "Magic Keyboard" to describe all of their laptop keyboards these days, including the keyboards on the 14" and 16" MBPs.
They introduced the term – in the laptop computer context – at the same time that they replaced the infamous "butterfly switch" keyboards with "scissor switch" keyboards. Verifying that a late-Intel-era Mac notebook had a "Magic Keyboard" was basically a way to verify that it did not have a "butterfly switch" keyboard.
Abbott Schindler
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I’m pretty sure that the Magic Keyboard goes back before that, although perhaps not on notebooks:
Loading…
en.wikipedia.org
In any case, it’s a far better keyboard than the crappy 2016-18 MBPs had.
lightandaprayer
Veteran Member
I used the term "Magic Keyboard" to refer to the standalone keyboards that come with iMacs, etc. I admit that I may not be up on the Apple keyboard nomenclature. But your post will help clarify things for anyone who may have been confused by my comment. . .
Gawd, I sure do miss my 2008 15" MBP keyboard. ;-)
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Michael Gebauer
Senior Member
Basically
- the ability to run more external displays
- and depending on the model you choose, the variations of processors you can select
Tom_N
Forum Pro
They still use the phrase "Magic Keyboard" for their standalone keyboards. The 24" M1 iMac comes with a "Magic Keyboard with Touch ID" or a "Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad."
But all of the Apple Silicon laptops have Magic Keyboards. The 14" and 16" MBPs might have "slightly greater key travel and a tiny bit of tactile response", but you can't tell that from looking at the "official" keyboard name.
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Henry Richardson
Guest
M1 Pro 14" MacBook Pro vs M2 15" MacBook Air
Excellent prices these days for M1 Pro/M1 Max MacBook Pros.
Excellent prices these days for M1 Pro/M1 Max MacBook Pros.
Julio Herrera
New member
Thanks for sharing!
jaberg
Senior Member
•. Better, brighter display on the Pro models.
The better display is the only thing that pushes me towards a Pro for my own photo post-production work. Everything else is easily handled by the lower cost Air.
dasams
Senior Member
For home use, don't you have an external monitor? I have an M2 15" MacBook Air and no complaints about the display while traveling and I recognize that the Pro Display is nicer.
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