Macbook Pro 16" vs Macbook Air 15" Full Comparison
For the past month, I borrowed the 16" Macbook Pro (M1 Max) from a relative, because my 2015 13" was no longer usable for my workflow, and I didn't yet have the funds for a new machine. The experience was amazing, it truly is Apple's best laptop - save the M2 and now M3 Max, but after buying and using the 15" Macbook Air, I can comfortably say that this is the laptop for me.
The first decision I had to make when choosing the laptop to buy was lineup. For a while I leaned towards the Pro lineup, because of the extra power, screen, speakers, etc. Just about everything on the Pro is improved in some way. The big factors for me at first were ports and screen. There is obviously a wider selection of ports on the Pro, the only one I was really concerned with was the loss of the third Thunderbolt port. I plug my laptop into a studio setup, and had been using all three ports, but consolidated some cables, so I now only use two. The screen on the Pro is so good with the miniLED and Promotion. I have an iPhone 13 Pro, so I am used to 120hz on the smaller display, but I actually didn't notice the 120hz as much on the larger laptop display. Additionally, I tend to sit at my laptop for long periods of the day, and found that my eyes got really tired after just a few hours. I later found that this was because of PWM (Pulse-width-modulation) that is something only found on the pros. I ended up turning off Promotion, which helped, but this made me realize I didn't need the Pro's screen. A common misconception is that the brightness is better on the Pro. In any SDR content, which is just every time you are browsing the web, and not watching a movie or show, the brightness between the Air and the Pro is no different, 500 nits.
So after that realization, the Air was the better option for me. I still enjoyed the larger screen of the 15" Air, but am on the go a lot, so bounced back and forth between the 13" and the 15", but finally settled on the 15".
Now many people tout the Pro's benefits as worth the extra dollars, but the price difference definitely played a role. I bought this in the US, just for reference. If I would have purchased a Pro machine, it would have been the 14" Macbook Pro with M3 Pro, 18/512. From the education store, this model is $1850. With tax, this comes to just over $2000. In comparison, I was able to purchase the 15" Air off the refurbished website, 16/512 for $1440. With tax this came to $1560. That's $440 in savings, which is a lot of money. I understand future proofing, and was under its illusion for a while. That does not mean I don't need to value the dollar when buying a new machine though.
For aesthetics reasons, I also prefer the air. It looks so svelte with how thin it is, and I really enjoy not having speaker grilles. I live in a dusty area, and so there was always particles getting in the speaker grilles of the Pro. These are absent on the Air and lend to a cleaner look.
So now that I explained cost and the reasons behind my purchase, I'm going to throw some pros and cons down, for people who want a real-world comparison, from my experiences.
| M1 Max Macbook Pro 16" | M2 Macbook Air 15" |
|---|---|
| Fantastic speakers, great bass response. 10/10 | Good speakers, surprisingly good bass response. 8.5/10 |
| Promotion display, nice with HDR, but not a good experience for me. 8/10 | Great 60hz display, with excellent colors and brightness. 9/10 |
| Ports - Magsafe, 3 TB, SD, HDMI, Headphone. HDMI and SD unnecessary for me. 8/10 | Ports - Magsafe, 2 TB, Headphone. Very manageable with my current setup. 6/10 |
| Footprint, fits on a desk, but takes up a lot of space, chonky boi, 6/10 | Slightly smaller footprint, still takes up lots of space on the desk, super thin 7/10 |
| Very heavy laptop, either in the hand or a bag. (4.8lbs - 2.2kg) 4/10 | Incredibly light for the size (weight matters a lot for me) 9/10 |
| Excellent battery life - went 2 days without charging 10/10 | Excellent battery life - after full day of use was only at 40% 10/10 |
Performance is another category that matters, but not too much for me. My requirements was that this new laptop ran my studio setup (GarageBand while I learn the ropes), could play BOTW (dumped from WiiU), and could do light video editing. The performance differences for me were actually quite interesting. With music production, there is no difference, both laptops can supply power to my setup and have no playback issues (2015 13" couldn't), and video editing is about the same between them, except a small difference in export times. I don't care that much when it comes to export times, I just need the file at some point. It's a lot better though than my 13" which took about 50-60 minutes of jet-engine for a 10 minute video. For BOTW, I was really surprised. I got 30-32 fps on the M1 Max, and could bump the resolution up to 4k and see no difference in performance. However, the frame rate was basically locked (FPS++ set to 60) at 30. In comparison, I get consistent 40 on the M2, but can't bump the resolution up from 1080p. I don't play for long enough for thermal throttling to really start affecting performance.
So for my use case, the 15" Air is the better machine. Lightweight, portable, performant enough for me, and a really pretty laptop. The 16" Pro is objectively better, but I couldn't justify the cost of even the 14" for my use case.
I don't know why there are no comments on this post but this is one the best comparisons for PRO/AIR debate that should be pinned on other subs.
How did you make BOTW work on MacOS?
Thank you! I appreciate it! I use CEMU for BOTW, but you do have to have a working ROM of the game in order to play it.
This was an excellent posting. Thank you for the comparison.
I'll jump in with other folks on this post: this is exactly the kind of comparison/review I was looking for. I'm making the leap over from Windows and I'm trying to decide on the right mac for myself. I'm coming over from a fairly beefy windows laptop (middle-end) so I was worried about losing various bits of quality here and there, but my biggest worry between macs was screen quality.
Knowing how sensitive I am to visual stuff (motion sickness, headaches from staring at a computer screen too long) it's good to know about Performance. I've been leaning towards the 15" MBA for a while, but this pretty much cinched it for me! Thanks!
This was exactly the kind of review I was looking for far and wide. Thanks so much for taking the time to post this kind of detailed comparison.
So helpful! Thank you!
Great post :) I'm waffling between the same two devices right now and this has been in line with my intuition, I think I'll also be getting the 15 air. The only concern for me is I had a 14" Pro from work before and thought the screen was too small for split screen work, wondering if you've run into this use case with your MBA?
The difference between the 15" and 14" is pretty substantial. I personally have no issue with split-screening apps. The 15" screen size is definitely closer to the 16" MBP compared to the 14", at least in terms of usability. When deciding whether or not to get this M2 Air machine, I used the 14" a lot at the store, just to get a feel for it, so I do have experience with this machine as well. I have my scaling at default, but the more space option is also pretty comfortable, if you feel you need more space for split-screening. I used that for a little bit. I personally think that the 15" Air has the perfect size screen, not too big, not too small. That should be taken with a little bit of owner's bias though.
I also switched to Edge about a month ago from Safari, and I have to say the in-browser split screen has been pretty useful. Doesn't really change anything visibly, but managing the tabs is a lot easier that way, if you are trying to do two browser windows. Good luck with your purchase decision!
Thanks for taking the time to post this. I've been struggling with which to get, but I think you've helped me settle on the MBA 15". I have one through work and it's an amazing machine.
Thanks for your post! I currently have an M2 MacBook Pro and I'm considering switching to a 15-inch MacBook Air due to the weight of this beast I carry around all day long.