MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro: Which Mac should you buy in 2024?

The question of "MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro?" can be a tough one, but if we walk through the options I can help you make the right choice for your needs. The current Apple laptop lineup includes 13.6-inch, and 15.3-inch MacBook Airs and two flavors of MacBook Pro: 14.2 inches, and 16.2 inches. 

The Air lineup offers the M2 or M3 chipset, while the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 are powered by the Apple M3, M3 Pro, or M3 Max. Only the Pro models offer the more powerful "Pro" or "Max" chipsets, this is one of the clearest differentiators between the Air and Pro MacBooks. The base MacBook Pro 14 blurs these lines with its standard M3 chip. Apple's current lineup doesn't have any duds, so whether you go with MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, there are no wrong choices, just determining which best meets your needs. 

While the Air M3 is here and claims our top recommendation for most people thanks to improved performance and battery life, the M2 Air is still around and gets a $100 price cut (often more from retailers) so it remains a strong option for those that want to get into a new MacBook as affordably as possible.

So follow along and I’ll help you decide which Apple laptop is right for you by comparing price, features, performance, battery life, and more. By the end of this guide, we'll settle whether a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro is right for you to spend your hard-earned money on.

MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro: Specs compared

The Quick List

MacBook Air (13-inch, M2): Best for most people

Pros: While outwardly the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 doesn't look any different from its predecessor, the changes inside thanks to that new M3 chip help make it the best MacBook for most people right now.

The MacBook Air's 13.6-inch display is one of the brightest laptops around and True Tone ensures excellent color accuracy as well, but the vibrancy falls short of some of the OLED competition. Rumors of Apple moving to OLED in the future abound, but not yet.

Like its predecessor, the MacBook Air M3 is one of the thinnest laptops around at only 0.4 inches. However, unlike many ultraportable laptops, it can keep up with an impressive workload thanks to the M3 chip. Whether it was our benchmarks or real-world usage, the Air M3 was up for any task. 

Looking at the benchmarks, the MacBook Air M3 scored 12,087 on the Geekbench 6.2, well above the category average. Our Handbrake video transcoding test took 7 minutes and 54 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. Again beating the average, but it's worth noting that the Intel Core Ultra powered competition are passing Apple here. Finally, Apple corrected the SSD read/write performance of the Air M2, jumping all the way from 2,800.1/2,210.6MBps on the M2 to 3,030.7/3,058.8MBps with the M3.

All that performance prowess doesn't hurt its battery life either. If finding an outlet can be a challenge during your day, never fear, the Air M3 powered through over 15 hours of battery life testing in our lab.

If that’s not enough, you also get a 1080p webcam with Apple's latest software tricks helping to boost the hardware to higher heights. 

Cons: So what are the downsides? If you have a lot of peripherals the pair of Thunderbolt/USB-C ports may be tough, but at least you have MagSafe 3 to keep both ports free while charging. 

Starting at $1,099, the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 isn't cheap, but it remains a solid value. You may want to pay the extra $200 for 16GB of RAM though, multitaskers will appreciate the extra performance headroom.

Need more screen real estate? Look no further than the 15-inch MacBook Air M3, it mirrors all of the strengths of its smaller sibling, but with a larger 15.3-inch display. 

See our full 13-inch MacBook Air M3 review.
See our full 15-inch MacBook Air M3 review.

MacBook Air (13-inch, M2): The sub-$1,000 MacBook

Pros: The M2 MacBook Air is compelling, to say the least. The laptop broke from the wedge design of old for a look that put it squarely in MacBook Pro territory. But staying true to its name, the Air is 20% smaller than its predecessor in terms of volume. You even get some snazzy new colors to choose from this time around. Apple’s also added a few other new goodies such as a 1080p webcam, a new speaker setup, and a bigger display. 

But the real star of the show is Apple’s M2 chip, which offers great performance for an ultraportable laptop. It’s faster and more powerful than the previous model and is ideal for anyone looking for a super-light workhorse. Plus, it lasted over 14 hours on our battery test and has fast charging. 

Bigger screen, smaller bezels — that’s the name of the game for the M2 MacBook Air. The laptop boasts a 13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display, compared to the previous version’s 13.3 inches. And when it comes to displays, more often than not, bigger is always better. As expected, the M2’s screen is an explosion of color with sharp details. 

The M2 Air also performed great during our synthetic benchmarks. When we ran Geekbench 5.4, for example, the notebook hit 8,919, decimating the 6.054 premium laptop average and the Slim 7 Carbon’s (AMD Ryzen 7 5800 CPU) 6,241.

On the Handbrake test, the Air M2 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 7 minutes and 52 seconds. That score roasted the 10-minute average as well as the XPS 13 (Intel Core i7-1185G CPU) and Spectre x360 (Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU) which had times of 18:33 and 18:39, respectively. The Slim 7 Carbon came the closest at 8:51, more than a minute slower. 

Weighing a slight 2.7 pounds and measuring 12 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches, the MacBook Air can easily slide into any medium-sized purse, messenger bag, or backpack.

Cons: Apple’s lightest laptop has always been light on ports and that remains true with the M2 Air. Although the MagSafe charger made a triumphant return, you still only get a pair of Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports and a headset jack to work with, so you might need a dongle or two. 

See our full MacBook Air M2 review

MacBook Air (15-inch, M3): Big screen on a budget

Pros: Getting that big 15.3-inch display on a MacBook for as low as $1,299 is hard to pass up considering for years that would cost you at least $2,499. While it lacks the 120Hz refresh rate of the Pro models, Apple didn't skimp on the display as it offers an excellent 482 nits of brightness in our testing.

At 3.3 pounds and just 0.45 inches thick it's a tempting option for business travelers or college students that value a larger laptop that won't weigh down their laptop bag. It will also tick another box for those buyers thanks to 15 hours and 3 minutes of battery life in our testing.

It features the same M3 chip as the 13-inch Air and delivers nearly identical performance results on many tasks, although sustained tasks like video editing tips in favor of the 15-inch model, presumably due to improved thermal performance.

Cons: Not many. The port situation is slightly irritating as it features the same pair of Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports, MagSafe charger, and headphone/mic jack as the much smaller MacBook Air 13-inch. However, most of us that need more ports have long ago added a USB-C hub or laptop docking station to our assortment of gear.

See our full MacBook Air 15-inch M3 review.

MacBook Pro (14-inch): Best for creative pros on the go

Pros: The MacBook Pro 14 M3 arrived this fall as a new more affordable option for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, starting at $1,599. No, that's not cheap, but it's $400 less than the previous $1,999 starting point, which is still what the M3 Pro model will set you back. For most users the base M3 will get the job done, but if time is money for you then the M3 Pro and M3 Max processors Apple are among the fastest, most power-efficient chips ever built for portable computing.

The other performance specs are just as impressive, and while the base model will be more than enough for most users, you can spec the M3 Max configuration up to 128GB of RAM and an 8TB SSD. Battery life is tested at 17 hours and 03 minutes.

Moreover, that redesign from 2021 still feels fresh with the 14.2-inch, 3024 x 1964-pixel Liquid Retina XDR mini-LED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. This panel is one of the brightest laptop screens ever (at 1,600 nits of peak luminance), and the most vivid outside of OLED panels. 

At 12.3 inches x 8.7 x 0.6 inches and 3.5 pounds, the 14-inch MacBook Pro remains portable despite the power it packs underneath the hood. 

Some other nice features include a 1080p webcam, Touch ID, a six-speaker setup, and a keyboard without a Touch Bar. 

Cons: So, what's wrong with the laptop? Well, there's that notch. While you do adjust to it quickly, we still don't love that design decision, particularly since it doesn't come with Face ID. If you are thinking these are minor complaints then you are absolutely right, this is an outstanding laptop that belongs on the short list for anyone with portability and performance in mind.

See our full MacBook Pro 14 2023 review

MacBook Pro 16-inch: Best for peak performance

Pros: Everything we love about the 14-inch MacBook Pro but with a large 16-inch display. It has the same M3 Pro and M3 Max chips along with up to a ludicrous 128GB of memory and up to an 8TB SSD. Battery life is even slightly better at 18 hours and 5 minutes in our testing. Given the performance that it almost unbelievable, honestly, it seems like Apple may have created a pocket dimension that houses some additional battery in this thing.

Cons: Except for that battery life and the display size, you can get everything found in the 16-inch MacBook Pro in the 14-inch model for $500 less. If you need the larger panel, then get this 16-inch MacBook Pro. If you don't, then it probably won't be worth the price trade-off. 

Also at 14 x 9.8 x 0.66 inches and 4.7 pounds, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is considerably larger than the 14-inch model, so if you are toting your laptop around regularly that's worth considering as well. 

See our full MacBook Pro 16-inch 2023

To find out more about how much longer Apple will keep your MacBook healthy, read our comprehensive Apple Warranty Check guide.

How We Test MacBooks

We put MacBooks through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate everything from speed and battery life to display brightness, speaker volume and system heat.

We use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of a laptop's display. For performance benchmarking, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests. 

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 25GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Dirt 3 benchmark with medium settings and 1080p resolution. 

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. We consider everything over the category average (8 hours and 36 minutes) to be a good result. Of course, these tests are complemented with hands-on testing from our reviewers.

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