MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro - Which is Right for You?

APPLE

You’ve decided that you want to buy a Mac, not a PC. And you’ve worked out that a desktop is not for you. So that leaves you with the choice of a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. But how do you narrow down your choice further? Here we concentrate on the most recent MacBook designs, namely the M2 13 and 15-inch MacBook Airs and the M2 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros. Read on to find out more…

The Similarities

• Both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are slim-profiled, highly portable laptop computers that both have excellent displays, use fast M2 Apple Silicon chips, have the same comfortable ‘Magic Keyboard’, smooth responsive trackpads, a 1080p camera for videoconferencing, a fingerprint sensor for unlocking the Mac and offer excellent battery life.
  
  
• Connectivity-wise, both models have two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and the excellent MagSafe charging system.
  
  
• They also both come in multiple screen sizes and a selection of colours.
  
  
• Both machines have excellent displays, although some versions of the Pro have Mini LED backlighting.

The Differences

• Overall, the MacBook Air is lighter, slimmer and more affordable than the MacBook Pro.
  ​
• The 13-inch MacBook Air (M2) is far and away the lightest laptop in the Apple line-up. At only 1.24kg, it’s lighter than the 15-inch Air (1.5kg), 14-inch Pro (1.6kg) and the 16-inch Pro (2.15kg).
  
  
• In terms of colour options, in addition to the standard silver and space grey (a darker shade of silver), the MacBook Air comes in two additional colours: Midnight and Starlight.
  
  Midnight looks very stealthy when it’s clean – however the downside is that it attracts fingerprints and smudges more than the other three colours.
  
  Starlight is a classy-looking cross between silver and gold, depending on the lighting conditions.
  
  
• In terms of additional connectivity, the Pro models also have an SDXC card slot, extra Thunderbolt port and HDMI port.
  
  
• The MacBook Air and Pro have distinctively different LCD displays. The MacBook Air (M2) displays are bright (up to 500 nits - a ‘nit’ is a unit of measurement that indicates how bright a screen appears to one human eye). However, the displays on the MacBook Pro (M2) models are double the brightness rating, at 1,000 nits (and for HDR content can reach up to 1,600 nits).
  
  The MacBook Pro models have a higher screen resolution than the MacBook Air (254 pixels vs. 224 ppi), which means that images and text appear slightly sharper on the Pro. The Pro also offers ‘ProMotion’, which produces smoother, faster scrolling than on the Air.
  
  Both the Air and Pro models have ‘Liquid Retina’ screens, but the Pro has Liquid Retina XDR, which incorporates around 10,000 Mini LED backlights to the screen, giving greater contrast, particularly for darker colours.
  
  
• In terms of performance, both the Air and the Pro have M2 chips, as previously discussed. As such, even the entry level MacBook Air is very fast! If you use your laptop for general, day-to-day tasks such as emails, web surfing, word processing, spreadsheets and basic photo editing, the Air will be more than fast enough. However, if you also use power-hungry applications, for example for graphic design work or video editing, then the Pro will be more appropriate for your needs.

Which Should I Choose - MacBook Air or MacBook Pro?

For the majority of Mac users, the M2 MacBook Air is a great option, due to the combination of features, fast performance, a slimmer, lighter and highly portable design, and of course lower price than the MacBook Pro.
 
If, however, you need a larger and more accurate display, more memory and storage, more ports and the advanced features and very high level of performance required by more power-hungry apps (e.g. for graphic design or video editing), then look to the high-end MacBook Pros.
 
Of course, if you would like some advice with regards to your own personal situation, we would be happy to help you assess your requirements and talk you through all the current options available to you. Please call Richard on 01403 753666.