from Hacker News

MacBook Air vs. pro for development work

by bjacobt on 7/19/23, 6:28 PM with 23 comments

My 2015 15" MBP is showing its age after 8 years of use (almost daily) and I'm in search of a new macbook and can anyone share their experiences with the newer M2 macs?

I've narrowed it down to

1. 15" M2 Macbook Air with 24GB RAM & 1 TB hard disk - $2099

2. 16" M2 PRO Macbook Pro with 32GB RAM & 1 TB hard disk - $3099

3. 16" M2 MAX Macbook Pro with 32GB RAM & 1 TB hard disk - $3249 (Costco)

I prefer the AIR for it's price, but I'm worried if it is a good laptop for my use? My current laptop has its fan on high speed all the time and I'm worried if AIR can handle the load. I'm not concerned about weight/size and prefer to have a machine that works for a few years.

I'll have dual monitor setup with laptop display and 27" 4k external monitor

I have these applications open daily 1. MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook & MS Teams + Zoom 2. Lots of open tabs on Safari, Chrome & Firefox including Slack. 3. At least three VS Code editors (backend node, frontend react/angular + tooling, C++ for IoT firmware dev) 4. At least two PyCharm editors for moving data, API calls and some Neural Network inference (no training) 5. Postgresql db with multiple databases, and Redis 7. Few node applications (backend) 8. Few docker containers 9. Few tabs of iTerm connected to remote servers via SSH 10. Remote Desktop for Windows Server access

Thanks for any recommendations.

Edit: formatting

  • by owenbrown on 7/20/23, 9:05 PM

    You mentioned wanting to use dual-monitors. MacBook Air only supports one external monitor.

    https://www.apple.com/macbook-air-13-and-15-m2/specs/

  • by drdvehn on 7/20/23, 4:29 AM

    Go for the pro version. IMO, it's much better for the kind of work you note. I see that you used the last one for 8 years. Considering that, even if pro is costlier, that difference in amount will not be visible or relevant for such long usage. If you were going to replace it every year or two or every time a new version is released, then the cost difference becomes a factor.

  • by japhyr on 7/19/23, 6:49 PM

    How much do you need a laptop? I had a similar setup for a long time, and when I finally upgraded I went with a studio and two monitors. I kept my old laptop for travel, and it keeps up reasonably because I don’t tend to have as many projects open at one time when I’m traveling.

    Getting away from a laptop let me get a better-specced machine for the same price. I’m loving it so far.

  • by poly_morphis on 7/20/23, 1:22 AM

    I don't have this many windows open constantly, but I can say that I do a lot of C & C++ stuff with VSCode and my M1 MBP 14 has absolutely zero trouble keeping up. In fact, I often think I should have just got the Air. I'm pretty sure the fan doesn't exist (okay, I know it does, but it is seriously quiet: you should never hear it unless running something super intensive).

    What ultimately swayed me towards the MBP was the SD port (I do a bit of hobby photography on the side, this is very useful), the HDMI port, and...the display. It's a fantastic display. Ever since going high refresh rate on my desktop PC, I feel like I can't go back. It's an absolutely wonderful experience.

  • by psyklic on 7/20/23, 9:10 PM

    Could also consider an M1. Here's a new M1 MAX 64GB RAM & 4TB hdd for $2999 -- https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1668351-REG/apple_mbp...

  • by gtirloni on 7/19/23, 9:12 PM

    Any of those options will outperform your 2015 MBP considerably.

    https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/2327vs5189vs5183vs4922/...

  • by EstesPark on 7/19/23, 10:56 PM

    I use my M1 Air daily and couldn't be happier. The only issue I've had is I couldn't get TFX installed.

    https://discuss.tensorflow.org/t/i-want-to-use-the-tfx-1-6-1...

  • by rurban on 7/20/23, 5:06 PM

    I was happily using 5 Airs for several years, whilst my colleagues had to carry their bulky Pro around.

    Now my wife switched to the M2 Air, but I cannot use them anymore since they abandoned 32 bit support, and I need that for my embedded simulation work. Also the keyboard and OS sucks.

  • by idontwantthis on 7/20/23, 9:46 AM

    I don't think there's any sense in getting the Max, since you aren't even getting the highest amount of RAM.

    $1000 spread over 8 - 10 years vs starting to waste your own time in maybe 5 if the air gets slow. I'd recommend #2.

  • by tkiolp4 on 7/19/23, 10:18 PM

    I made a similar switch a year ago. I bought the 16 inch M1 pro (32GB ram). My usage is similar to yours (but I don’t do Neural networks) and I couldn’t be happier. I imagine the M2 would be even better.

  • by throwawayadvsec on 7/19/23, 8:46 PM

    a macbook pro 100%, or even better a PC, you could have such a beast with that budget