15 inch MB Air M3 (16gb/512gb) vs 14 inch MB Pro M2 (10CPU/16GPU) (2024)

I’ve narrowed down my purchase to one of these two Macbooks as there are great deals on both now and I think either would fit my needs. I’m hoping to hear from someone who has both that might be able to help sway me in one direction or the other

Currently, I can get the:

• 15 inch M3 MB Air (16gb/512GB) at Costco for $1,449 with 2 yr warranty
• 14 inch M2 MB Pro (10CPU/16GPU) with same Ram/SSD specs from MicroCenter for $1,399

My use case if mixed work and personal use. For work, the typical email, teams/zoom/slack, email, Office apps as well as Citrix Workspace (Virtual Desktop). For personal use, just the basics plus use for travel in editing photos and the occasional video via Final Cut. Note: I’ve got an M1 Mac Studio Ultra for all of my heavy lifting.

The Pros of each as I see them. Note the pros of one are by by definition the cons for the other:

15 inch Air:

• Display size: The laptop I’m replacing is the 2018 MBP 15 inch and I find the 15 inch display to be just about perfect.
• Form Factor: Just love the form factor of the Air (e.g., the thinness and the overall design).

14 inch M2 MBP:

• Ports: More TB ports (both left and right side), HDMI, SC card slot
• Display quality: Mini LCD, 120 hz refresh rate, peak brightness with HDR. Although, for my use case, these things are not a big factor as I don’t game, won’t be using my laptop to watch HDR content (typically), etec…
• Speakers: Perhaps a bit better sound quality.
• Graphics: From the Metal scores I‘m seeing, the Graphics seem to be much faster for the MBP (Can’t nail down the exact percentage…but roughly 50% faster? Although, given my use cases, not sure I’d really see the benefit of this?

The single core Geekbench is in favor of the M3 Air, but they’re close (3,100 vs 2,650 ish).
The multi core Geekbench is slightly in favor of the M2 MBP but they’re close as well (12,300 vs 11,900)

How do you plan to use the laptop? Sitting at desk, on a table, on your lap on the couch, while in bed on top of the covers? I realize it sounds a bit silly but my daughter has damaged a laptop because of “casual” use of the MacBook blocking the vents. And a ventless MacBook Air was a blessing.

In addition the M3 might receive OS security updates a year or two longer.

But after all that, if it was for me I would get the M2 MacBook Pro.

Ive gone through pathetic amounts of time reading and deciding on the perfect MacBook for ME. For me, it's the base 15" MBA 8/256. I couch web surf, email, and stream the occasional tv show, movie. For your use case the 15" MBA with 16/512 will be perfect. The screen is larger than the 14". The 14" seems very very similar to the 13.6 of the smaller MBA. The M3 MBA is extremely powerful and will handle all your work, including photo and the occasional video editing just fine. The form factor is just amazing, trust me. You'll always wonder if you get the 14", "could the 15" air with larger screen and slimmer form really worked for me"

Also the M3 is a newer chip, will be supported longer. Has the important AV1 decoder for YouTube in it, meaning videos will play more efficiently. I watched a video from ijustine, she mentioned how well her 15" MBA with 16/1 worked for her workflow and admitted she may become a MacBook Air girl.

Thanks guys! I posted this on the MacBook Air forum because that’s the way I’m leaning. The majority of my work (e.g., IT consulting) is remote now with just the occasional travel. So, work for me is sitting on the sofa or comfortable chair with my feet up and the laptop on my lap. To be honest…it’s the 15 inch display that is pulling at me the hardest. I work with large spreadsheets, often work with documents side by side so the extra screen real estate is a major plus when I’m not connected to a 2nd monitor.

The main thing I was questioning in my mind was whether the much greater graphics specs of the MBP would hamper me in any way given my use case. If not…I’ll go for the MacBook Air 15. I picked them both up today because I think these deals end tomorrow. They’re both sitting here and will remain unopened until I decide…then one is going back

Great points btw on the longer updates the M3 MBA might receive over the M2 MBP.

DSTOFEL said:

... snip...

Great points btw on the longer updates the M3 MBA might receive over the M2 MBP.

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But this is only speculation. Perhaps both will be discontinued at the same time. Only apple knows.

This is what I’m finding in terms of raw performance specs between the two (Geekbench 6).
The M3 Air is holding it’s against the MBP own in terms of multi-core and up close to 20% on single core.
The MBP wins by a substantial margin in terms of graphics and SSD speed
The MBP is 100% faster memory bandwidth

Not sure how much impact the graphics and memory bandwidth performance would have given my use cases. Tough decision as the MBP has some clear performance advantages to go along with the various other advantages (ports, display quality, etc..).

DSTOFEL said:

Thanks guys! I posted this on the MacBook Air forum because that’s the way I’m leaning. The majority of my work (e.g., IT consulting) is remote now with just the occasional travel. So, work for me is sitting on the sofa or comfortable chair with my feet up and the laptop on my lap. To be honest…it’s the 15 inch display that is pulling at me the hardest. I work with large spreadsheets, often work with documents side by side so the extra screen real estate is a major plus when I’m not connected to a 2nd monitor.

The main thing I was questioning in my mind was whether the much greater graphics specs of the MBP would hamper me in any way given my use case. If not…I’ll go for the MacBook Air 15. I picked them both up today because I think these deals end tomorrow. They’re both sitting here and will remain unopened until I decide…then one is going back

Great points btw on the longer updates the M3 MBA might receive over the M2 MBP.

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Where did you buy them from? Best Buy and apple will both let you return within 14 days, even if opened and used. Seriously though, it doesn't sound like anything you are doing will need the extra GPU cores. Unless you are making money and time is money, the 10 core GPU on the air will do everything you need paired with 16gb memory. If it takes a minute longer, who cares, since time isn't money.

I got the MBA from Costco and the MBP from MicroCenter (got the last one in my local store of the MBP). I’m going to leave them unopened and just make my decision…probably by today/tomorrow.

That’s the way I‘m thinking through it as well. Trying to think of my current use cases first while keeping an eye at least on longevity. Yes, the MBP is clearly ahead of the MBA from At least a graphics perspective…plus other categories. But, if I’m not going to need that level of graphics capability for my use cases, that’s just unused capacity…and I should be making the decision then on other factors.

ArtisRight has a great YouTube channel where he goes through a lot of this performance related needs for Macs. I’m going through some of his stuff to help get me to a decision point!

cwwilson said:

I love my 15" MBA it is an outstanding computer but let's just be honest here... In this comparison the MBP is the better machine and you're getting it for less $$$ than the Air? I'd just go with that unless you really desire a fanless design or the slightly larger (but inferior quality) screen. Everything favors the MacBook Pro in this situation.

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That is exactly what the OP is trying to decide. I don't think I would go for an older M2 chip if an M3 MBA would fill my needs. The screen is larger and a joy to use. Sure the MBP might be better on paper, but does he need that. The MBA comes with a 2 year warranty vs 1 year, which is nice perk. MBA is lighter and slimmer, and less moving parts, so less to go wrong. M3 also has noticeable improvement in single core speeds, which helps every day tasks.

I had a pro, but returned it. I did not need all that power for my use case. The screen was nice and sharp, but unless you are watching HDR content all the time, I seriously don't believe it is that much of a quality of life upgrade. Yeah it was fun to watch some 4k HDR purpose YouTube videos and say "ohhh, that looks nice". People act like the MBA doesn't have a nice screen. It is super nice, better than most other laptop manufacturers. Oh, it's only 60hz, it's horrible....nonsense. The $1500 apple studio display is only 60hz. I love my 120hz pro motion on my iPhone 15 PM, but I didn't notice the difference much on the MacBook.

Point of all this, I don't think someone can say the MBP is better simply because it's $50 cheaper. What does the OP value

cwwilson said:

I love my 15" MBA it is an outstanding computer but let's just be honest here... In this comparison the MBP is the better machine and you're getting it for less $$$ than the Air? I'd just go with that unless you really desire a fanless design or the slightly larger (but inferior quality) screen. Everything favors the MacBook Pro in this situation.

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Point taken…and I could obviously look at this from the perspective of which is objectively the better machine.

However, there’s another way to look at it, and that is, which machine better fits your use case. The objective for me is to find the laptop that fits my needs/use case and preferences at what I perceive as a good value. Now, both of these options in my opinion are a good value. I’m just trying to decide which fits my needs and preferences best. It’s not an easy choice for me as I highly value the larger display and while the Air’s display is technically inferior to the MBP’s…it’s still a great display. So, it’s nuanced!

DSTOFEL said:

Point taken…and I could obviously look at this from the perspective of which is objectively the better machine.

However, there’s another way to look at it, and that is, which machine better fits your use case. The objective for me is to find the laptop that fits my needs/use case and preferences at what I perceive as a good value. Now, both of these options in my opinion are a good value. I’m just trying to decide which fits my needs and preferences best. It’s not an easy choice for me as I highly value the larger display and while the Air’s display is technically inferior to the MBP’s…it’s still a great display. So, it’s nuanced!

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OP, not to throw a wrench into the mix, because as you can see I am a big fan of my MBA and I think the 16/512 will suit you very well, especially if you like the bigger screen......however.....I just saw this morning(Monday) that Best Buy just put the M3 Pro MBP 14" 18/512 on sale for $500 off, making it $1499. That is unheard of, and a smoking deal

bellflyer14 said:

OP, not to throw a wrench into the mix, because as you can see I am a big fan of my MBA and I think the 16/512 will suit you very well, especially if you like the bigger screen......however.....I just saw this morning(Monday) that Best Buy just put the M3 Pro MBP 14" 18/512 on sale for $500 off, making it $1499. That is unheard of, and a smoking deal

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Thanks for the tip! Just ordered it. Now I have 3 in the mix

So now that I’ve thrown the M3 14 inch MBP in the mix, the raw specs among the 3 laptops changes a bit. The M3 MBP is well ahead of the M3 Air in every category except single core (e.g., obviously as they both have the M3 driving that).

Going with the M3 MBP would only be a downgrade (e.g., when compared with the M3 Air 15) in only 2 areas…subjectively speaking of course from my perspective:
-Display Size: I much prefer 15 over 14
-Design: Just love the design and slim profile of the Air. Not craze about the chubby look of the 14

But…given the price is essentially equal between the M3 Air and M3 MBP…it’s going to be tough not to go with the M3 MBP.

DSTOFEL said:

Thanks guys! I posted this on the MacBook Air forum because that’s the way I’m leaning. The majority of my work (e.g., IT consulting) is remote now with just the occasional travel. So, work for me is sitting on the sofa or comfortable chair with my feet up and the laptop on my lap. To be honest…it’s the 15 inch display that is pulling at me the hardest. I work with large spreadsheets, often work with documents side by side so the extra screen real estate is a major plus when I’m not connected to a 2nd monitor.

The main thing I was questioning in my mind was whether the much greater graphics specs of the MBP would hamper me in any way given my use case. If not…I’ll go for the MacBook Air 15. I picked them both up today because I think these deals end tomorrow. They’re both sitting here and will remain unopened until I decide…then one is going back

Great points btw on the longer updates the M3 MBA might receive over the M2 MBP.

Click to expand...

Both good choices. IMO you

open them and A-B compare how they feel to you in your use cases. The Costco box should have 90 days return period. For me the primary issues would be more MBA screen real estate versus better MBP screen/speakers quality, and only your eyes/brain can determine the comparative merits to you. However also read the specs very carefully, because the MBP is better in literally every regard except weight and screen real estate.

It would also be useful to see if your max mobile workflow ever makes the MBA throttle. If it does, then go with the MBP. I doubt if the one year longer life of the M3 will matter, because my strong expectation is that you will want to upgrade for RAM reasons (given these are "deals" my guess is RAM is not more than 16-18 GB) long before OS version support starts reducing.

Edit: with the M3 MBP in the mix that would be my likely choice personally. But A-B comparison is essential, and only you can do the A-B comparison for you.

Allen_Wentz said:

Both good choices. IMO you

should

open them and A-B compare how they feel to you in your use cases. The Costco box should have 90 days return period. For me the primary issues would be more MBA screen real estate versus better MBP screen/speakers quality, and only your eyes/brain can determine the comparative merits to you. However also read the specs very carefully, because the MBP is better in literally every regard except weight.

It would also be useful to see if your max mobile workflow ever makes the MBA throttle. If it does, then go with the MBP. I doubt if the one year longer life of the M3 will matter, because my strong expectation is that you will want to upgrade for RAM reasons (given these are "deals" my guess is RAM is not more than 16-18 GB) long before OS version support starts reducing.

Edit: with the M3 MBP in the mix that would be my clear choice personally. But only you can do the A-B comparison for you.

Click to expand...

💯 agree. The deal on the M3 MBP is too good to pass up. Now, if the M3 deal was comparable (e.g., M3 15 15/512 was $1,250) then I could consider going with the M2 Air. However, with the deals like they are…I think my decision is made…to go with the M3 MBP. Now, I’ll just have to get over my preference for the Air’s 15 inch display and sleek design! I agree with you that literally every other facet of the M3 MBP is objectively better than the air and I think the resale value might hold up better as well.

DSTOFEL said:

💯 agree. The deal on the M3 MBP is too good to pass up. Now, if the M3 deal was comparable (e.g., M3 15 15/512 was $1,250) then I could consider going with the M2 Air. However, with the deals like they are…I think my decision is made…to go with the M3 MBP. Now, I’ll just have to get over my preference for the Air’s 15 inch display and sleek design! I agree with you that literally every other facet of the M3 MBP is objectively better than the air and I think the resale value might hold up better as well.

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You are correct when you speak of resale value and return on investment. Currently an M2 MBA 15" 16/512 brings in like $520 from Best Buy where as the lower tier 8/256 M2 MBA 15" brings in $780 from Best Buy. Don't ask me why the trade in value is more on the base model.....maybe because it's a better seller, who knows. The trade in value at Best Buy of the M3 MBP 14" is somewhere around $1200. If that holds true, then if the M4 is announced and offers a substantial reason to upgrade, you could get less $300 out of your MBP 14

On that note though, you've mentioned several times your strong preference for the 15" screen and the form factor of the air. I doubt that will go away, and if you aren't worried about trade in and upgrading to an M4 chip, then I still stand by my statement that the 16/512 will handle your described work load with ease. My wife has a 14" pro and the screen feels cramped to me compared to my 15" MBA

Display Size:

M2 14” MBP
14.2” diagonal 3024x1964 pixels @ 254ppi

M3 15” MBA
15.3” diagonal 2880x1864 pixels @ 224ppi

Which display is larger depends if you measure inches or pixels

It seems to come down to this, for your use case: portability and screen size = MBAir. Superior machine in all other respects (screen quality, audio quality, longevity, power…) = MBPro.

My brother chose the 15” MBAir with no regrets. My wife chose the 14” MBPro with no regrets (for her it was the audio quality). While different (I was never going to buy a main computer without the Max chip) for myself the screen quality of the Pro makes it my personal preference.

Enjoy!

Runaway Train said:

Interesting thread. Looking at similar choices. Would be MBA 15 hands down except …….although I have a desktop, it would be ideal if the MBA could handle Pro Audio easily in Logic and Video in Final Cut (where of course the MBP would likely have an obvious advantage). Question is how much of an advantage? Anyone who has these use cases can share - if I were to max out the MBA 15 - would I be choking in Final Cut or struggling with plug ins in Logic? Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Check this guy out on YouTube (ArtisRight)…He does a lot of in depth performance videos On Mac’s used in the creative realm (including FCP). In this video he adds a spec’d out M3 Air to the mix for comparison. Very interesting.