Moving from MacBook Pro M1 to MacBook Air M3: Worth it?

As with so many such decisions, the answer is "it depends". It depends on how you use your Mac now, how you think you might use it in the future, and what's most important to you. An M3 MacBook Air benchmarks significantly better than the M1 processor in your MBP, but whether you would be able to take advantage of that increased performance we can't really say without knowing more about your current and intended use. Note, though, that since the MacBook Air lacks cooling fans, it can be subject to processor throttling under heavy loads due to heat, so if you regularly push your Mac to its limits, you might be better off waiting until you can budget for/justify a MacBook Pro. You can also check Apple's Certified Refurbished list and see if there would be an M3-based MacBook Pro that would fit your budget.

Regards.

An M3 Air would probably be sufficient, then, though you might want to upgrade to 512GB of storage if budget allows. 256GB might pinch given modern operating system requirements and usage. You can of course get an external drive for documents, but most OS and app functions can't be offloaded, so with only 256GB things might get tight.

Regards.

If you upgraded to a 14" M4 MacBook Pro, you would get

• Three USB-C (Thunderbolt) ports, instead of two
• A HDMI port
• A SDXC card slot
• A mini-LED-backlit display
• The ability to drive two external displays with the lid open (a M3 MacBook Air can only drive two external displays when the lid is closed – with limitations on the Retina scaling options available for the second display).

Whether you need or want these features for your use case is for you to decide.

If you are going to be taking a lot of photos and videos, you may want more than 256 GB of internal storage. On my Mac, the 512 GB internal SSD is almost half full. That's with music and Digital Copies of movies stored on their own external drive.