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If there’s one certainty whenever I review a new MacBook, it’s the arrival of comments that go something like this.
“Uh, well, yeah, but if you’re spending that much money on <insert name of new MacBook here> you might as well buy <insert name of next MacBook tier here>.”
These comments are nearly as irritating as “this video starts at 03:43” – not least because they’re totally ignorant of one very important facet of Mac ownership: sometimes, people just want a particular Mac. Sure, a MacBook Air can be just as expensive as a MacBook Pro if you increase the spec of the former, but who cares? What if that person doesn’t want a MacBook Pro? That’s ok!
Now that we have a 15-inch MacBook Air, we have a laptop that is an inch bigger than the smallest MacBook Pro you can buy, and the comparisons are already flying in.
So, without further ado, here is an ultra-simple guide to the buying decision we never thought we’d have to make. Which should you buy – the 15-inch MacBook Air or the 14-inch MacBook Pro?
15” MacBook Air vs 14” MacBook Pro: pricing
The 15-inch MacBook Air starts at £1,399/$1,299. For that, you get the base spec M2 chip with an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB of storage.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at £2,149/$1,999 (yes, we do get our pants pulled down in the UK) and comes with the M2 Pro chip that has a 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage.
Fully specced, the 15-inch MacBook Air will set you back £2,599/$2,499 for the same M2 chip as the base spec, but with 24GB of unified memory and a 2TB SSD. Tick every box on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, and you’ll spend £6,549/$6,299. That nets you an M2 Max chip with a 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU, 96GB of unified memory, and 8TB of storage.
These are very different machines.
The top tier 15-inch MacBook Air is indeed more expensive than a base spec 14-inch MacBook Pro, but it’s worth bearing in mind that to match the spec of the former, you’d need to increase the MacBook Pro’s storage to 2TB, which takes the price up to £2,749/$2,599. And, because there’s no 24GB option for the MacBook Pro, you’d need to increase the unified memory to 32GB, which makes the total £3,149/$2,999.
The closest you can get the 15-inch MacBook Air to the 14-inch MacBook Pro base spec is by increasing the unified memory to 16GB and the storage to 512GB. That brings the total to £1,799/$1,699, and therefore still a fair chunk of cash south of the Pro.
Not quite as simple as it seems, is it?
So, let’s look at the key spec differences.
15” MacBook Air vs 14” MacBook Pro: spec differences
The displays on these two Macs are vastly different. The size (15.3” vs 14.2”) might not seem like much, but in practice, the 15-inch MacBook Air does provide noticeably more screen estate.
And, yes, they both have a notch. Which doesn’t matter.
The key differences, however, lie within the display technology. While the 15-inch MacBook Air uses a Liquid Retina display, the MacBook Pro adopts a mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR display. The latter is brighter (1,000 nits sustained brightness versus 500), has a higher resolution, and features ProMotion for an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz.
The chips powering these two MacBooks are also vastly different. The 14-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t have a standard M2 option – you get to choose from either the M2 Pro or the M2 Max, both of which offer many more CPU and GPU cores compared to the base chip found in all 15-inch MacBook Airs.
There’s also much more memory and storage on offer with the MacBook Pro, and if you opt for the M2 Max chip, you’ll gain access to two ProRes encode engines for video work (versus the single engine in the 15-inch MacBook Air).
Ports provide some serious points of differentiation, too. The 15-inch MacBook Air provides two Thunderbolt 4 ports, whereas the 14-inch MacBook Pro boasts three, alongside an HDMI port, and an SD card slot. The 14-inch MacBook Pro can also drive up to four external displays (if you get the M2 Max chip), versus the single external display capability of the 15-inch MacBook Air.
The MacBook Pro is a chunkier, heavier laptop than its Air cousin; it’s heavier by 0.2 pounds, and a fair bit taller.
The only similarities between these two MacBooks on paper are the fact they offer the same battery life (18 hours), MagSafe charging, a 1080p FaceTime camera, and Touch ID.
Who is the 14-inch MacBook Pro for?
Now that we have the raw numbers, we can think about the type of person who would buy a 14-inch MacBook Pro over a 15-inch MacBook Air.
Beyond all of the numbers above, there’s one very important factor to keep in mind: the MacBook Pro benefits from active cooling. That means it has fans inside which spin up to cool down the M2 chip when things get intense. So, if you’re undertaking lots of heavy 4K video editing, music production, or development work which is really testing those CPU and GPU cores, the ability for the MacBook Pro to cool itself without throttling the performance will be highly desirable.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro is deemed a ‘pro’ machine for that reason. It’s for people who need ultimate performance, maximum connectivity, and as few compromises as possible. It’s why you can spec it up far beyond the 15-inch MacBook Air and why the pricing quickly eclipses that of the latter when you start adding bits on.
There’s also far more unified memory and storage on offer, which again nods to the demands of the professional user.
As I always say, you know if you need that much memory and storage.
Who is the 15-inch MacBook Air for?
Someone recently left a comment against my 15-inch MacBook Air review suggesting that this isn’t a professional laptop.
I disagree with that statement wholeheartedly. I’ve been using MacBook Airs to run this business right from the start for all but production duties. And that sums up how one should make the choice between these two laptops if you don’t have an allegiance to either.
The 15-inch MacBook Air doesn’t have active cooling. So, no matter how much you spec it up, when things get tasty, it’ll start to throttle the performance in order to keep the M2 chip as safely cool as possible. Power users will notice that, which is why they’re much better off opting for the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
The 15-inch MacBook Air will sell by the bucketload, and it’ll be bought by people who don’t need oodles of performance, but who want ultimate portability, a perfectly sized display, and incredible battery performance.
Again, you know if that’s you!
Conclusion
There’s one point to add to this guide, which is that you may just want a MacBook Pro. Equally, the MacBook Air could be the most desirable laptop for you out of these two.
This is where the lines between requirements and intended use cases begin to blur. The great thing about the Apple silicon generation in which we find ourselves is that you can ‘get away’ with a specced-up MacBook Air for pretty serious work, just as much as you can shoehorn an overpowered MacBook Pro into a simple workflow.
It’s up to you. Apple is one of the few (only?!) computer manufacturers that features an army of fans who will often opt for what, on paper, looks like the most nonsensical choice of machine.
It isn’t. You be you. Pick the one that either makes the most sense or the one that you simply want. It’s ok!
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