New MacBook Air compare to MacBook Pro

artscapes wrote:

Great response and spec info! I know I’ve been behind the curve for awhile and needing to move to a new purchase. I do connect an Epson v600 scanner. It was recommended that “You'll need a USB A to USB C adaptor in order to connect it to your MacBook. This one is available from Apple: Apple USB A to USB C adaptor by this community”.

There are lots of ways to plug USB-A devices into USB-C ports:

• With the aid of the Apple adapter, or a similar AmazonBasics one
• Using small in-line plug adapters. These often sell in packs of 2 – 4 for $10, but you need to check speeds on these, as some only support USB 2.0 speed
• Using USB-A hubs that plug into USB-C ports and offer four or more USB-A ports
• Using USB-C and Thunderbolt docks that may feature USB-A ports alongside other things

A separate question would be whether your scanner is compatible with current versions of macOS. Looking on Epson's site, it appears they do have scanner drivers and utilities both for Ventura and Sonoma.

https://epson.com/For-Home/Scanners/Photo-Scanners/Epson-Perfection-V600-Photo-Scanner/p/B11B198011

artscapes wrote:

Great response and spec info! I know I’ve been behind the curve for awhile and needing to move to a new purchase. I do connect an Epson v600 scanner. It was recommended that “You'll need a USB A to USB C adaptor in order to connect it to your MacBook. This one is available from Apple: Apple USB A to USB C adaptor by this community”.

I’ve been trying to also figure out which externalThunderbolt port I should get. Ideas?

And I didn’t see any way to bump up to 24 GB with the MacBook Air 🤷🏼‍♀️ when I was shopping on Amazon & the Best Buy sites. They had the best prices.

I don’t batch edit, yet. But I might in the future.

Any other sites that you would suggest for shopping for the A 14" M3 MacBook Pro and / or a 14"/16" M3 {Pro/Max} Pro?

TYIA

First off, I'd recommend checking bhphotovideo.com, as they often better prices than Amazon or Best Buy. And they offer far more configurations than anyone else that comes to mind. I did see some 15" MBA configurations with 24GB RAM. The same is true for their MBP offerings as well.

The 15" M2 MacBook Air has

• Two USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) ports, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack
• Support for a single external display
• 8/16/24 GB of RAM (not expandable after purchase)

A 14" M3 MacBook Pro using the 'base' M3 chip has

• Two USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) ports, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack
• Support for a single external display
• 8/16/24 GB of RAM (not expandable after purchase)
• The mini-LED backlit display from higher-end 14" MBPs (PPI is a bit higher than that on the Air)
• A HDMI port
• A SDXC card slot

A 14"/16" M3 {Pro/Max} Pro has

• Three USB-C (Thunderbolt 4) ports, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack
• Support for up to two (M3 Pro) or three (M3 Max) external displays
• 18 – 128 GB of RAM (higher amounts may require higher-end CPUs) (not expandable after purchase)
• A mini-LED backlit display (PPI is a bit higher than that on the Air)
• A HDMI port
• A SDXC card slot
• More CPU cores and GPU cores (check specifications for details)

A 27" Late 2013 iMac can take up to 32 GB of user-installable RAM.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2012_27/DDR3L

But, as you say, Catalina is the end of the line for macOS upgrades, which means that you won't be able to use the latest versions of the Adobe products (Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic).

If it were me, I'd be leaning towards purchasing a new MacBook. Your iMac is 10 years old, and has been "left out" of MacOS improvements for several years now.

If your Photoshop/Lightroom work doesn't involve a ton of batch editing, then I'd say the MacBook Air might be the way to go. It's got plenty of power for photo editing, and (for me, anyway) the 15" size is pretty much the sweet spot...not too big, not too small. You said you back up to the cloud and your 8TB external drive, so it doesn't sound like the internal SSD size is a huge issue...you've chosen the 512 GB size, which is what I'd also recommend. If you do a lot of batch editing, then I might recommend bumping the RAM up to 24GB.

But please note carefully the specs graciously provided by Servant of Cats. The biggest limitation of the MacBook Air is that it's limited to supporting one external monitor. I mention this because we often see questions in these forums from folks wanting to know how to connect multiple external monitors to their new MacBook Air. You didn't mention what external devices (other than the external HD) you would be using, so the additional ports on the MacBook Pro might be something to look at.

For me, I was torn between the 14" MBP and the 15" MBA. I chose the MBA as the screen text is a tad easier to read on the MBA (due to screen pixel density differences).

Hope this helps.

As a side note, iCloud is not a backup for computers, it is a syncing mechanism. So, i f you delete something on your Mac, it will disappear on the cloud. So you need to have an external hard drive and do backups.

Personally, I'd go with an iMac for the apps you use.

artscapes wrote:

thank you for the great solutions! I bought the 15" M2 MacBook Air!

👏👏👏

You're welcome. Enjoy your new MacBook Air!