Friday, June 16, 2023 4:29 pm3 Comments

• Review

Apple recently launched the highly anticipated 15-inch MacBook Air, which offers a number of improvements over the 13.6-inch model. The larger display and chassis are welcome changes, and the M2 chip provides a significant performance boost. However, Wccftech’s Ali Salman believes that the 14-inch MacBook Pro is still the better choice for most users.

Apple’s 14-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro (left) and the 15-inch M2 MacBook Air

Ali Salman for Wccftech:

If you are looking to buy the 15-inch MacBook Air, you should note that it features slower SSD speeds due to the single NAND chip in the base model. What this means is that the base model will deliver 30 to 50 percent slower read and write speeds compared to the M1 MacBook Air. Henceforth, to take advantage of better SSD speeds, you would have to spend an extra $200 to upgrade to the 512GB variant. This would bump up the price to $1,499 for the 15-inch MacBook Air.

Other than this, upgrading the RAM from 8GB to 16GB would cost another $200. If you are getting the MacBook Air for basic use, the base model is more than capable to handle your workload. However, if you are a power user, you would need additional RAM to keep the system running flawlessly without any stutter. Henceforth, this would further increase the price to $1,699.

The base model of the 14-inch MacBook Pro is priced at $1,999 that comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of fast storage capacity. What this means is that the base model of the MacBook Pro and the upgraded model of the MacBook Air have a $200 [sic $300] difference. However, the extra $200 [sic $300] is more than worth it as the 14-inch MacBook Pro has a lot more to offer.

In comparison to the 15-inch MacBook Air, the 14-inch MacBook Pro features an M2 Pro chip that houses a 10-core CPU and a 16-core GPU. The M2 [Pro] chip is far more capable than the M2 chip when it comes to graphics-intensive workload. The machine also comes with an extensive range of I/O which is quite handy if you are a power user…

If you have the budget and are a power user, we would recommend the 14-inch MacBook Air. However, if you are looking for decent performance and an easy-to-carry laptop for school or college, the 15-inch MacBook Air is your go-to machine.

MacDailyNews Note: In terms of physical dimensions, here are the comparisons:

14-inch MacBook Pro
• Height: 0.61 inch (1.55 cm)
• Width: 12.31 inches (31.26 cm)
• Depth: 8.71 inches (22.12 cm)
• Weight: 3.5 pounds (1.60 kg) M2 Pro; 3.6 pounds (1.63 kg) M2 Max

15-inch MacBook Air
• Height: 0.45 inch (1.15 cm)
• Width: 13.40 inches (34.04 cm)
• Depth: 9.35 inches (23.76 cm)
• Weight: 3.3 pounds (1.51 kg)

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