Macbook Air vs Macbook Pro

stevefrombrooksville wrote:

I did kind of forget about the lack of ports on the Air. I'm pretty sure she's going to use an external keyboard and monitor with it.

As far as the processing power, i was thinking the new Silicon chips could very well outperform the older Intel parts her dinosaur workhorse has.

Yes, a new MBA will put her 2012 MBP to shame.

As for ports, that's easily dealt with using a USB C hub.

The MacBookPro is, overall, a more powerful computer. I would lean toward a new MBP for longevity of use. Among other things, it has more ports (3 Thunderbolt/USB, HDMI & SDXC card slot), a brighter screen and longer battery life.

You stated that she already has a "pretty well-equipped 2012 MBP" so that should be your reference point. The MBAir is a nice model but it's intended for light uses. You can compare all models here -> Compare Mac Models

One more note, since these machines cannot be upgraded after purchase, consider long term needs when doing a configuration. I suggest at least 24GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Don't go with a base model.

The line between MacBook Airs based on plain M-series chips, and entry-level MacBook Pros based on plain M-series chips, has been somewhat blurred – especially with the 13" M1 and M2 models.

In the current lineup,

• The MacBook Pros have more ports: 3 USB-C / Thunderbolt ports, a HDMI port, a SDXC card slot, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack. The MacBook Airs do not have HDMI ports or SDXC card slots – and have only two multi-purpose USB-C (USB, USB4, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt) ports.
• The MacBook Airs are only available with plain M4 chips, whereas the MacBook Pros are available with plain M4 chips, M4 Pro chips, or M4 Max chips. As you go up to higher processor levels, you get more of various things, like CPU cores, GPU cores, ability to address RAM, or maximum number of external displays.
• The MacBook Pros have mini-LED backlight displays with support for playing HDR video content – and PPIs that are higher than most other Apple Retina displays.
• Even Mac notebooks with plain M4 chips can support two external displays with the lid open – a first for any Mac notebooks based on plain M-series chips.

stevefrombrooksville wrote:

As far as the processing power, i was thinking the new Silicon chips could very well outperform the older Intel parts her dinosaur workhorse has.

Going by results in MacTracker, a MacBook Pro with a M4-family chip will beat a 2012 MBP by at least 5.4x on single-core CPU benchmarks.

The multi-core beat-down will be by 6.4x or more, and may be much greater if

• The 2012 MBP is a 13" model, and/or
• The 2024 MBP has a M4 Pro or M4 Max chip

The CPUs in the 13" 2012 MBPs had only two cores, and if you compared the slowest CPU in a 13" 2012 MBP against the fastest version of the M4 Max, the Max would have something like a 23.4x higher multi-core score.

I suspect the new machines will easily win on GPU performance, too.

I would not think that Minecraft or The Sims are super-demanding as far as games go – if they are compatible with new Macs. One problem with some old games is that the developers wrote them as 32-bit applications and never released 64-bit updates. Catalina dropped support for 32-bit applications and none of those applications will run on modern Macs.

The release notes for "The Sims 2: Super Collection" in the App Store indicate that it is now a 64-bit app (a good sign), but I don't know if the vendor ever released an Apple-Silicon-native version. One review there was from someone who claimed they were running it on an Apple Silicon Mac, so even if there's not a native version of that game, it might run under Rosetta 2 translation.

I think that a MacBook Air M1 will handle pretty well light gaming, like Minecraft or SIMS, and all the college work. The "only" disadvantage is the lack of ports (it only has 2 USB-C and 1 headphones jack).

All good advice so far - but another question to consider is what is she studying at college? If she is going to be in a B.A. program and light gaming and streaming is the major workload on the computer, a MBA with a decent amount of storage and RAM is great.

If she's going into computer engineering and is going to be compiling code - especially in later years doing advanced projects in AI/ML - you probably want a MBP with as much storage and RAM as you can comfortably afford.

If it's in between - data crunching for stats using MatLab, or something like that is involved, tip towards the MBP.