MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro: how to easily decide which to buy

When it comes to picking the best MacBook for you, the eternal debate between MacBook Air and MacBook Pro rages on. Both laptops are at the top of their game right now, and that can sometimes make the decision between the two even trickier to make, especially when you consider the timing.

Choosing between options as extreme as the 16-inch MacBook M4 Pro and an M1 MacBook Air isn’t where the problems lie. It’s probably obvious which of those is right for you, indicated by the thousands of dollars separating the two.

But Apple knows there’s money to made in the messy middle of the lineup — in that increasingly thin line between these two laptop lines. Nowhere is that overlapping more problematic than with the 15-inch MacBook Air and the 14-inch MacBook Pro. But don’t worry — there’s an easy answer to which you should buy right now.

The easy way to know which to buy

Here’s the big picture: you probably don’t need a MacBook Pro. And if you do, you probably already know that you do. The advice to leave the MacBook Pro to people who edit video, render graphics, and train LLMs all day. If any of those tasks are more of a hobby for you — maybe once or twice a week — you’ll likely find that the MacBook Air has plenty of power for you. It’s surprisingly good at creative tasks on its own, especially if you opt for the M3 model, which got a significant GPU upgrade over the M2.

That should rule out the Air or the Pro for the majority of people. Unfortunately, however, it’s not that simple. The existence of the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 and 15-inch MacBook Air M3 make that decision considerably more difficult, especially if you’re someone who likes to have a premium laptop. When configured with the same RAM and storage, they’re only a price difference of $100.

For that extra $100, the MacBook Pro gives you a considerably better screen, more ports, support for up to three external monitors, and, of course, the M4 chip. That’s well-worth the extra money in my book.

The only real advantages the MacBook Air has over the Pro is that it’s thinner and starts at a more affordable 256GB of storage. If those factors make you lean toward the Air, I’d at least suggest waiting to buy until the M4 model launches, which could be in just a few months. That would give you close to performance parity, or at the very least, reduce prices on the M3 MacBook Air.

If that doesn’t solve the answer straightaway though, read on to get a breakdown of how each aspect of these two MacBooks differs.

Specs

Design

The MacBook Air 15-inch uses the same design as the 13-inch MacBook Air. It’s not dissimilar to the 14-inch MacBook Pro, but the design deviates in a few important ways. The most important difference is in size. An inch difference in screen size doesn’t sound like a lot, but the 15-inch MacBook Air also has slightly thicker bezels, adding even more to the overall footprint of the device. When you put these laptops side by side, the 15-inch MacBook Air takes up more space on the table. The width is the most dramatic dimension, giving you what feels like a lot more screen real estate to work with. That really is the primary selling point of the 15-inch MacBook Air and should be the main reason you’re choosing it. Otherwise, you may as well get the more affordable 13-inch model.

Thickness and weight are the other main points of difference in terms of size. The MacBook Air 15-inch is just 0.45 inches compared to the 0.6 inches of the MacBook Pro 14-inch. The MacBook Air really is the thinnest 15-inch laptop you can buy right now — and it really does look sleek next to the MacBook Pro. The two laptops are closer in weight, though the MacBook Air is still lighter at 3.3 pounds compared to the 3.5 pounds of the MacBook Pro.

From a design perspective, the other differences include the keyboard, which doesn’t have the killer black backdrop like the MacBook Pro. It also doesn’t have the on-deck speaker grille cutouts.

Aside from that, I’d recommend getting to an Apple Store to see the two machines side by side. The difference in screen size and overall dimensions might help you get a better idea of which you’d be more comfortable with.

Lastly, you also get some more color options with the MacBook Air, including Starlight, Midnight, Silver, and Space Grey. The MacBook Pro is limited to just Silver and Space Black.

Ports

The MacBook Air 15 has less connectivity than the MacBook Pro 14, with just two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an audio jack (like the MacBook Air 13-inch). The MacBook Pro 14 M4 comes with just two Thunderbolt 4 ports as well, but it adds in an HDMI port and a full-sized SD card reader. The M4 Pro and Max models come with three Thunderbolt 5 ports.

That makes the MacBook Pro 14 a lot more expandable. Both utilize MagSafe 3 chargers, though, saving a Thunderbolt 4 port for external use. Both laptops now support the latest Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless support.

Configured with the base M3 CPU, both laptops are limited to just one external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz. That’s true of both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. It’s technically possible to connect to more displays, but it requires a dock and some extra software. As of recently, you can have two external monitors connected (only on the M3 configurations), but it requires having the laptop lid closed.

The M4 MacBook Pro, on the other hand, let’s you do three external displays — two at 6K resolution and one at 5K. Taking this a step further, the MacBook Pro 14 with the M4 Pro and Max can handle three 6K external displays at 60Hz.

Simply put: the MacBook Pro is the laptop for you if you need more than just a single external display.

Performance

The M4 is the latest chip in the Apple Silicon series, and it provides a significant uplift in performance over the M3 chips. But it hasn’t come to the MacBook Air just yet. The single-core performance is the biggest upgrade, but there’s also a modest increase to multi-core CPU performance and graphics.

On the type of work you’ll do on with a MacBook Air, though, you may not notice a huge difference. Don’t worry — Google Chrome will run just as fast, especially now that both models start with 16GB of RAM. But faster is faster, and it does give the M4 MacBook Pro a serious advantage over the MacBook Air right now in terms of video editing, photo editing, and gaming.

It’s also true that the MacBook Air is fanless, while the MacBook Pro has an active cooling system. Neither device is overly loud, but the MacBook Pro certainly provides less thermal throttling and better performance in sustained workloads. So, for hobbyist music producers, editor editors, and casual gamers — the M4 MacBook Pro is the better option.

Regardless, both laptops provide excellent battery life, and while you’re on battery, you won’t lose much performance. If you’re new to Apple Silicon MacBooks, you’ll be shocked by how long these laptops last, sometimes over 18 hours, depending on the task.

The one difference between the two, of course, is configurations options. Unlike the MacBook Air, however, the 14-inch MacBook Pro can be configured up to the M4 Max with 16 CPU cores and 40 GPU cores. That gives a huge boost to video encoding, rendering, gaming, and anything that can put more raw GPU performance to use. You also have the option to bump RAM up to 32GB on the MacBook Pro, whereas the MacBook Air maxes out at 24GB. Importantly, neither storage or memory is user upgradable — so what you configure it with is what you’re stuck with.

Display and speakers

Another MacBook Pro 14 advantage is its 14.2-inch mini-LED Liquid Retina display running at 3024 x 1924 (254 PPI) resolution, which provides superior sharpness, brightness, color, and contrast compared to the standard IPS Liquid Retina display on the MacBook Air line. This includes the MacBook Air 15, which has a 15.3-inch IPS Liquid Retina display at 2880 x 1864 (228 PPI).

Both displays should offer similar colors, in terms of both gamut and accuracy. But the mini-LED panel on the MacBook Pro 14 will get much brighter, especially for high dynamic range (HDR) content where it can approach 1,600 nits. Movies and videos in HDR look absolutely fantastic. It also has incredibly deep contrast providing inky blacks compared to the IPS screen of the MacBook Air.

Don’t get me wrong — the MacBook Air 15’s display is also quite good, but the MacBook Pro 14 provides a truly premium experience, especially with the addition of the faster 120Hz dynamic refresh rate.

The M4 MacBook Pro also introduces two new display features this time around. First off, it can now max out at 1,000 nits in SDR brightness, but only when you have automatic brightness control turned on. There’s no way of manually going up to 1,000 nits, but it’s particularly useful when working outside.

Secondly, the M4 MacBook Pro also has the option for a $150 upgrade to the nano-texture display, which helps deflect reflections in a subtle and effective way. The technology debuted has been on previous high-end iMacs and monitors, but this is the first time it’s come to a MacBook.

Both laptops have six-speaker sound systems with force-canceling woofers. They support the same technologies as well, meaning that you’re likely to get the same excellent sound from both that’s among the best you can get in a modern laptop.

While the 15-inch MacBook Air is surprisingly competitive, the 14-inch MacBook Pro does offer more bass, providing a more robust sound profile. But really, both sound amazing. The 16-inch MacBook Pro remains the best-sounding laptop you can buy.

Leave the MacBook Pro for the pros

With these two laptops, you can trust the branding distinction here. Leave the MacBook Pro for the creative professionals who depend on the extra performance to get their work done. Everyone else will be delighted by the experience of the MacBook Air.

The one exception to the rule is for those who might want the premium experience of a MacBook Pro but don’t have a real use for the performance. For example, if your laptop is your primary movie-watching device, that upgrade in display quality is definitely worth the extra $100. Similarly, if you like the flexibility of having an SD card slot or an HDMI port, the MacBook Air will only frustrate you.

Lastly, if you’re enticed about the extra performance of the 14-inch MacBook Pro but are bummed about the price, I’d recommend taking a look at prices for last-gen machines. There are refurbished versions floating around that are as affordable as the 15-inch MacBook Air but will provide better performance.

Either way, just make sure you don’t spring for an older model with only 8GB of RAM. Not all third-party retailers have adjusted their pricing accordingly now that Apple has moved all models up to 16GB of RAM.