Apple’s MacBook lineup has been fully refreshed over the last yr between the 2022 MacBook Air and xiii-inch MacBook Pro with M2 chips and the 14 and xvi-inch MacBook Pro that launched in tardily 2021. Whether you’re looking for yourself or someone else, hither’southward an in-depth look at the divergence betwixt MacBook Air and Pro to help you figure out which is the best pick.
Table of contents
- Difference between MacBook Air and Pro
- CPU, GPU, RAM, more
- Displays
- I/O: Difference betwixt MacBook Air and Pro
- Size, weight, and finish
- Bombardment life
- Pricing
- Difference betwixt MacBook Air and Pro determination
The late 2021 fourteen and sixteen-inch MacBook Pro laptops feature a fresh design, mini-LED brandish backlighting, the render of I/O including HDMI, SD carte du jour slot, and MagSafe, and the removal of the Affect Bar.
And they have more power than e’er with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips (if you lot’re on the fence between the 14 and sixteen-inch MacBook Pro, bank check out our detailed guide).
And at the more affordable cease are the 2022 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro running on the upgraded M2 fleck. The MacBook Air has received the most changes with an all-new design, larger 13.six-inch display, apartment-edged chassis, new midnight color, upgraded webcam, and much more than.
Difference betwixt MacBook Air and Pro
CPU, GPU, RAM, more than
While the M2 is a notable upgrade over the M1, it is less powerful than the M1 Pro, Max, and Ultra chips.
M2 enables upward to 24GB RAM, upward to 10 GPU cores, and comes with a faster 8-core CPU than the M1. Here’s a more detailed look at the M1 vs M2 fries.
Meanwhile, with the xiv-inch MacBook Pro, you become the M1 Pro or M1 Max fleck with the option for even more CPU and GPU cores, and RAM up to 64GB.
|
Hardware |
2022 MacBook Air | 2020 MacBook Air | thirteen″ MacBook Pro(2022) | 14″ MacBook Pro (2021) |
| CPU | M2 – 8-core | M1 – 8-core | M2 – 8-core | M1 Pro or Max – eight or 10-cadre |
| Storage | Upward to 2TB | Up to 2TB | Up to 2TB | Up to 8TB |
| RAM | 8, 16, or 24GB | 8 or 16GB | viii, sixteen, or 24GB | xvi to 64GB |
| Graphics | Up to 10-core | 7-core | 10-cadre | Upwards to 32-core |
| Neural engine | 16-core | 16-core | 16-core | 16-core |
| FaceTime photographic camera | 1080p | 720p | 720p | 1080p |
| Speakers | 4-speaker system with wide sound | Stereo speakers with wide sound | Stereo speakers with high dynamic range | 6-speaker high-allegiance |
| Mics | 3-mic array | iii-mic array | Studio-quality three-mic assortment | Studio-quality iii-mic array |
| Thermal direction | Fanless | Fanless | Active cooling with fans | Active cooling with fans |
Apple tree says the M2 is upward to 18% faster for CPU performance and up to 35% faster for GPU performance than the M1. It has over 20 billion transistors and can handle up to 15.8 trillion operations per second.
The M2 flake as well features a media engine that brings support for hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. It also has a video and ProRes encode and decode engine.
Another overnice improver to the 2022 MacBook Air is a 1080p webcam like the 14-inch MacBook Pro received. Apple says it has the same “advanced image point processor with computational video.” Meanwhile, the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro sticks with the sometime 720p webcam.
Displays
If screen brightness is important to you, the 2022 MacBook Air gets a nice improvement from 400 to 500 nits brightness.
Some other modify with the redesign is the 2022 MacBook Air has a larger 13.vi-inch screen with slimmer bezels.
While the 14-inch MacBook Pro’due south upwards to 1,000 sustained nits brightness (ane,600 peak) is just for HDR content, you’re nevertheless getting up to 120Hz refresh rates with ProMotion, mini-LED backlighting, and sparse bezels.
| 2022 MacBook Air |
2020 MacBook Air |
thirteen″ MacBook Pro (2022) |
fourteen″ MacBook Pro(2021) |
|
| Actual screen size | xiii.6-inch | 13.3-inch | 13.3-inch | 14.2-inch |
| Resolution | 2560 ten 1664 | 2560 10 1600 | 2560 x 1600 | 3024 x 1964 |
| Aspect Ratio | xvi:10 + notch | 16:10 | 16:10 | 16:ten + notch |
| PPI | 224 | 227 | 227 | 254 |
| Nits(brightness) | 500 | 400 | 500 | 500 for SDR, thou sustained, up to 1600 pinnacle for HDR |
| Retina display | – | ✅ | ✅ | – |
| Liquid Retina Brandish | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ + XDR |
| ProMotion (upwardly to 120Hz) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| mini-LED backlit | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| True Tone | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| P3 wide color | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
The M2 MacBook Air and the 14-inch MacBook Pro include a notch at the summit middle of the display for the 1080p FaceTime camera. But unlike the iPhone, the notch doesn’t include Face ID hardware/support.
I/O: Difference betwixt MacBook Air and Pro
The 2022 MacBook Air gains MagSafe charging like the 2021 MacBook Pro notebooks. However, Apple tree has kept additions like HDMI, SDXC slot, and support for upwards to iv external displays sectional to the 14 and xvi-inch MacBook Pro.
The 2022 MacBook Air and 13-inch Pro have support for just one external display up to 6K at 60Hz, even with the new M2 scrap. That may exist a deal-breaker for some.
- All-time USB-C display and Thunderbolt displays for MacBooks
Along with the two USB4/Thunderbolt iii ports, the M2 MacBook Air keeps the iii.five mm headphone jack.
| | 2022 MacBook Air | 2020 MacBook Air |
13″ MacBook Pro (2022) |
14″ MacBook Pro (2021) |
| Magic Keyboard | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Touch ID | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Touch Bar | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| USB-C/Thunderbolt ports | 2 | 2 | two | three |
| Headphone jack | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| HDMI | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| SDXC card reader | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| MagSafe charging | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6 (802.eleven.ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11.ax) | Wi-Fi half-dozen (802.11.ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.xi.ax) |
| External display support | 1 external display with upward to 6K resolution at 60Hz | 1 external display with upwardly to 6K resolution at 60Hz | one external brandish with upwards to 6K resolution at 60Hz | Up to 2 external displays at 6K res at 60Hz (M1 Pro) or up to three external displays at 6K res and 1 external display up to 4K res at 60Hz (M1 Max) |
Size, weight, and finish
As y’all’d expect, the MacBook Air remains the lightest machine with the 13-inch MacBook Pro weighing a bit more, and the fourteen-inch existence the heaviest. The 2022 MacBook Air is even 0.1 pounds lighter than its 2020 predecessor.
The MacBook Air is also super-thin at 11.iii mm (0.44 in). And if the aureate or new midnight colors are appealing, those are simply bachelor with the MacBook Air.
| 2022 MacBook Air | 2020 MacBook Air | 13″ MacBook Pro (2020) | 14″ MacBook Pro (2021) | |
| Weight | 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg) | 2.eight lbs. (1.29 kg) | three pounds (1.4 kg) | 3.v pounds (1.6 kg) |
| Thickness | 0.44 in. (1.xiii cm) | 0.16-0.63 in. (0.41-one.61 cm) | 0.61 inch (1.56 cm) | 0.61 inch (ane.55 cm) |
| Width | 11.97 in. (xxx.41 cm) | 11.97 in. (30.41 cm) | xi.97 in. (thirty.31 cm) | 12.31 in. (31.26 cm) |
| Depth | 8.46 in. (21.5 cm) | 8.36 in. (21.24 cm) | 8.36 inches (21.24 cm) | eight.71 inches (22.12 cm) |
| Display size | 13.half dozen in. | xiii.3 in. | 13.3 in. | 14.2 in. |
| Finishes | Silvery, space gray, starlight, midnight | Silverish, space gray, and gold | Argent or space gray | Silver or space greyness |
Notably, the 2022 MacBook Air has shifted from the wedge pattern it’s had for years and at present has a flat-edge chassis like the MacBook Pro. But Apple has made it very slim at just xi.3 mm (ane.13 cm) thin.
Battery life
Real-world bombardment life for Apple Silicon MacBooks compared to the old Intel models has been impressive and usually matches Apple’south claims. But that can depend on what you’re doing with your MacBook, screen brightness, and more.
In any case, the power efficiency and bombardment life come in strong with the M2 MacBook Air.
| 2022 MacBook Air | 2020 MacBook Air | 13″ MacBook Pro (2022) | 14″ MacBook Pro (2021) | |
| Wireless web battery | 15 hours | fifteen hours | 17 hours | eleven hours |
| Video playback | 18 hours | 18 hours | xx hours | 17 hours |
| Included ability adapter | 30W, 35W, or 67W USB-C + MagSafe | 30W USB-C | 67W USB-C | 67W or 96W USB-C + MagSafe |
| Battery capacity | 52.6Wh | 49.9Wh | 58.2Wh | 70Wh |
| Fast charging | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Apple says when using the 67W power adapter, the new MacBook Air can fast charge to surrender to 50% battery in just 30 minutes.
Pricing
With a starting price of $1,199, the MacBook Air comes in $800 less than the xiv-inch MacBook Pro which starts at $1,999.
Standard models of the 2022 Air are 256GB SSD/8GB RAM and 512GB SSD/8GB RAM configurations. Models with 16 or 24GB RAM for the 2022 Air and upgraded M2 fleck are custom orders.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro base model at $one,999 with an M1 Pro flake, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD.
| Model/toll | 2022 MacBook Air | 2020 MacBook Air | xiii″ MacBook Pro (2020) | 14″ MacBook Pro (2021) |
| 256 / 8GB | $1,199 | $999 | $one,299 | – |
| 512 / 8GB | $one,399 | $1,199 | $1,499 | – |
| 256 / 16GB | $1,399 | $1,199 | $1,499 | – |
| 512 / 16GB | $1,599 | $1,399 | $1,699 | From $ane,999 |
| 1TB / 16GB | $i,799 | $ane,599 | $ane,899 | From $2,199 |
| 1TB/ 24GB | $ane,999 | – | – | |
| 1TB / 32GB | – | – | – | From $ii,599 |
| Custom builds | Up to $two,499 | Up to $1,999 | Upward to $two,299 | Up to $5,899 |
Difference between MacBook Air and Pro conclusion
Hopefully, now it’s clear which MacBook is the right pick.
- For light to medium performance needs and some limited intensive needs, in the lightest machine with not bad battery life, the MacBook Air is the best fit starting at a reasonable $1,199 or $1,099 for students and teachers.
- For those wanting to save some money and have simple workflows (web, docs, media), the $999 M1 MacBook Air (often discounted) is still in the lineup.
- But if you value the most power, active cooling for extended heavy workloads, a brighter screen, more ports, and greater external brandish support, the xiv-inch MacBook Pro is the way to get.
- While the 13-inch MacBook Pro has been refreshed with the M2 fleck, there probably are non many people that should purchase it.
The main divergence between the 2022 MacBook Air and Pro is the included fans for the Pro and Bear upon Bar. But if you’re worried well-nigh performance and overheating, y’all should probably exist looking at the 14 or 16-inch MacBook Pro.
And the 2022 MacBook Air offers many upgrades that the new 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t like the larger Liquid Retina brandish, 1080p webcam, MagSafe charging, midnight and starlight color options, and more.
Read more 9to5Mac guides:
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- M2 iPad Pro vs M1 iPad Pro: What’southward changed?
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Source: https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/02/difference-between-macbook-air-and-pro/
