Need help deciding between Macbook Air M4 and Macbook Pro M4 (pro or max)
Hello everyone
Before I start, if you want to help but you are bored to read the whole post, please scroll down to the bottom where the sum is.
Been smashing my head trying to decide which one to buy. Watching vids, reading forums etc, but my issue remains.
The models I am considering are:
MacBook Air M4 15 inch, maxed at 32GB memory 2TB SSD
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 16 inch, 48GB memory 2TB SSD nanotexture display
Macbook Pro M4 Max 16 inch, 64GB memory 4TB SSD nanotexture display
The intended use is:
- Browsing (tons of tabs open simultaneously on chrome for example)
- Watching live streaming (again multiple tabs open)
- Normal everyday simple tasks (checking emails, using word excel and simple stuff like that)
- Every now and then some video/photo editing
My needs:
- I need it to be silent. Dead silent. It’s the most important aspect for me. Of course I don’t mind hearing the fans like a jet engine when video editing or other heavy load which will be 10% of the use, but I cannot accept more than an almost unnoticeable hum when performing the rest aforementioned tasks which is 90% of the use.
- I need it to be really fast on startup (my old mb pro late 2013 startup was lightning fast, like unlocking an iPhone) and not slow down when opening many tabs on chrome or watching multiple live streaming.
The pros of MacBook Air M4 as far as I have read:
- It serves my most important need to be dead silent since it has no fans. It’s its only one, but really big strength and if the cons didn’t exist, the mb air should be a no brainer for me.
Cons
- The fanless design that serves my most important need, is it’s biggest disadvantage due to overheating a lot even when performing the simplest tasks possible. Many users in this community share this complain. This overheating leads to slow down performance which is unacceptable in simple tasks like that.
- Not so good screen and speakers and less ports. The speakers I don’t mind that much, but the less ports and 60hz screen and worse colour than the pro are annoying.
The pros of the MacBook Pro M4 (pro or max):
- It is a pro. It’s fast, it’s potent, better screen and speakers, more ports, it can handle my needs with ease (as far as I understand)
The cons:
- It has a fan (or two). Which throws the “dead silent” prerequisite out the window. The complains I have read are that the fans produce noise even under light usage and are almost always on.
Size and weight are not so much of an issue as it’s main use will be at home.
My last purchase was an iMac Pro 2017 and it was a total let down. Tons of fan noise, slow startup, back and forth to the service department to figure out if there is a defect causing these issues (they found none). My train of thought was “Buy the flagship, what can go wrong?”, and many things went wrong. I regret that purchase and I don’t want to regret my next one that’s why I thought I should ask here. Unfortunately in my country the support at physical shops is ridiculous and no one has been able to answer my questions about fan noise and performance rather than just repeating over and over again the usual “I don’t know about that. If you are a pro get a pro, if not get the air. So which one do you want?”. Also impossible to try them hands on because they only have the base mb air and the base mb pro (some shops don’t even have that), and there is no return/refund possible. If you buy something you stick with it (unless DOA for the first 14 days).
Summary
Will the Air be able to handle my needs (multiple tabs browsing, multiple video streaming etc) without overheating and slowing down performance?
Will the Pro be able to handle the same needs, with the fans not sounding more than a silent hum?
Should I follow “more is better” and go with Max and 68GB of memory (or even more??) or is this going to cause more noise since as far as I understand the more potent chip the more cores and the more memory, means more heat and therefore increased noise by the fans?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
