Hello Apple,
I am really torn between an Air and Pro. I am hoping you can look at my workload and make a recommendation. My main concern with the air is that it will throttle too much during use, but I really do not know if that is a problem.
The country I live in does not have returns, so it is a little stressful as I do not want to over spend, but I also do not want to get a computer that can’t handle my workload.
I know the pro has a new processor, I can wait until the Air gets a new processor before buying it, so I am not concerned about that.
I’m considering the $1299 air or the $1500 pro. (The prices are a bit different in my country, but these are the models I am considering.)
Main Task
I will have Excel, Powerpoint, PDFs, Word, and software like Zoom all running at the same time. I may be in Zoom meetings with cameras on for up to 10 hours straight. (This is where I am concerned about throttling) I will also have a few other open programs like discord, telegram, and a web browser (probably firefox).
Secondary Task
I will be doing some video editing on it and recording with OBS the recordings would be up to an hour at the most and probably in 1080p for both the recording and editing. I will be using final cut as I used it in the past an am familiar with it. I’ll do this about once a week.
Additional Irrelevant Info
This is mainly a work computer that will be used closed and connected to a monitor for most of the time working on it. I do need a laptop so I can work remotely often enough.
I will not be gaming on it or anything as I have a SteamDeck for that. I might run some AI stuff on it to play around, but if it works well enough I might run it for work. But, I can offload those tasks to the cloud so it is not a big deal to work on the Mac.
Anyway, thanks for your input. I am guessing the Air will be fine, I just don’t want to get stuck with the wrong computer.
I use an M2 air with 16GB RAM for a very similar workload all day every day. It is more than capable, and thermal throttling is not an issue for those tasks which are not CPU or GPU heavy at all. a Pro is absolutely not necessary unless you need to hook up to multiple monitors (air is limited to 1 external display) or you really need the various physical ports that the pro has.
I suspect anyone saying “just get a pro if it’s for work” or “you need a fan with that much going on” has not actually used an Air or know how powerful and efficient they are. It’s 100% wrong.
Have you done any obs recording on the air? I’m curious how extended recording will heat it up.
In this screenshot I had been streaming a 14mbps 4k video and doing a 1080p screen recording in OBS for about 30 minutes. You can see the CPU is still about 60% idle. The case is warm (expected because it acts as a heat sink), but it’s nowhere near the point where you’d need to worry about thermal throttling. It’s doing its job dissipating heat for this workload, and the system has remained perfectly responsive while doing other tasks.
Wow! Thanks for this. I think the air probably had enough power for my needs. Especially considering that I’ll wait for the m4
If it is going to be a primary computer or a work computer then I would get the Pro. The extra horsepower and cooling just simply make it more capable.
The Air is still a very good laptop and it is surprising what it can do, but if this is going to be a work tool for you then you should get the best that you can afford. An Air might be good 90% of the time but that 10% where it overheats will suck heaps.
One thing to note, is that if you use more than 1 external monitor, you need the Pro or need to install a third party program such as Display Link manager to use multiple DisplayLink compatible displays
The Macbook Air with an M3 can drive two external monitors with the lid closed.
Did something change with the Air? I had a 2018 model I think and used two monitors without display link.
I believe it’s an Apple Silicon limitation in their lower end chips.
