If you aren’t desperate to get the extra storage, we would recommend the MacBook Pro over the similarly priced MacBook Air because we think that despite looking the same in terms of specs we believe that the lack of fan in the Air will hamper that model. You might assume that the Air would be a lot lighter and smaller than the Pro, but that’s not the case, the Air is slightly lighter thanks to its wedged design, but the Pro is also slim and light.
It’s probably the key difference between these Mac laptops and the reason why the Pro is better suited to more demanding applications. The lack of a fan may well mean that the MacBook Air struggles when performing more strenuous tasks. Perhaps the most significant, but least apparent difference, is the inclusion of a fan in the MacBook Pro, while the MacBook Air has no fan, instead relying on an aluminium heat spreader to draw heat away. There is also the option of a gold finish for the Air, something the Pro lacks. We don’t think the Touch Bar is a deal breaker, especially since the best bit (Touch ID) is available on the Air anyway. But the Pro offers plenty in return including a brighter screen (500 nits compared to 400 nits) a couple of hours more battery life in a day (20 hours compared to the Air’s 18 hours) and the Touch Bar. One is immediately apparent from the above: this Air offers 512GB SSD compared to 256GB in the Pro. There are a number of other key differences.
We’ll look at the comparison between these two models next. If you really think you will benefit from the extra core then maybe you should be looking at the MacBook Pro, which will benefit from a fan to keep it cool when you are pushing that processor. The other question is whether you need the extra GPU core. ICloud as a solution where you can get 2TB for £9.99/$9.99 a month). We think that the difference between the £/$999 MacBook Air and the £/$1,249 model isn’t really big enough to justify the extra spend – unless you really need the extra storage (and if you think you do we would suggest that you look at We’ll discuss the comparisons between those similarly priced models in the next section. We imagine the price drop partly reflects the fact that there is less of a leap up from the entry-level Air, but also serves to differentiate between it and the £1,299/$1,299 MacBook Pro. You might be interested to learn that, prior to the introduction of the M1, the more expensive MacBook Air used to cost slightly more at £1,299/$1,299. That’s £250/$250 more for a slightly better GPU and twice as much storage. The main difference between this model and its more expensive sibling is that the more expensive model offers an 8‑Core GPU rather than 7-core GPU and twice as much storage at 512GB. For your £999/$999 you get a Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 7‑Core GPU, 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.