Apple MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro – get the best deal

The new MacBook Air is cheaper than ever and saves $200 over the base MacBook Pro, but which is best and is the Pro worth the extra money? What's the difference and which should you buy?

A couple of immediately obvious difference between the 13in MacBook Air and the 13in MacBook Pro is the colour and the Touch Bar. Both have the Touch ID sensor, but only the Pro has the Touch Bar that provides extra features and functions that change with the app you are using. It isn't really a killer feature, but it can be useful for some applications. The Air has an extra colour and while both are available in Space Gray and Silver, only the AIR comes in Gold.

Processor power

• The MacBook Pro has a 1.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz.
• The MacBook Air has a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost to 3.6GHz.

The Air has a faster clocked processor? Yes and no. Clock speeds don't tell the whole story and the Pro's quad-core CPU is the one to choose if you do a lot of heavy duty work on your MacBook. Those four cores can step up to 3.9GHz when needed and that makes a big difference over two cores at 3.6GHz when multi-tasking.

For everyday tasks like web browsing and word processing the slightly lower powered Air is fine and you will not notice any difference reading this web page for example, but give the Air and Pro some serious work to do and the Pro pulls ahead.

MacBook Size and weight

• The MacBook Air is 11.97 x 8.36 inches and 0.61 in at its thickest.

• The MacBook Pro is 11.97 x 8.36 inches and 0.59 in at its thickest.

The MacBook Pro is thinner than the Air? Surely not! The Pro is exactly the same width and depth as the Air, but at its thickest point, the Pro is actually thinner than the Air by a hair's breadth at 0.59 inches. The Air does taper to a minuscule 0.16 inches, which makes it feel a lot thinner. So the Air goes from extremely thin at one edge to just over the Pro's thickness. Because of the tapering the Air wins on thinness.

As you might expect, the Air is lighter than the Pro. The difference is small, but noticeable. The Air is 2.75 pounds and the Pro is 3.02 pounds (1.25 vs 1.37 kg). Both are pretty light for laptops but the Air wins here.

Screen display

Both the Air and the Pro have 13.3-inch LED-backlit displays with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. You would be hard pressed to tell which screen was which if you could not see the rest of the MacBook, but maybe the Pro is a bit brighter when turned up to the max.

• The Air has Intel UHD Graphics 617.
• The Pro uses the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645.

Which is best? The graphics performance of the MacBook Pro is superior to the Air and if you intend to run graphics intensive apps like games, the Pro is the MacBook to choose.

If you want to drive an external display, the Pro offers slightly more options, such as two 3840 x 2160 screens with over a billion colours.

For everyday web browsing, email, word processing, and similar tasks, the Air is fine, so the best choice depends on gaming and external displays, where the Pro is superior.

MacBook storage and memory

The memory and storage are identical in the Air and Pro, except there is one extra option for the Pro, a 2TB SSD. Seriously though, would you ever fill a 1TB drive in an Air? You can always add an external drive if you do. The base models both have a 128GB SSD, so there is no advantage in either.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

The Wi-Fi is the same on both the Air and Pro, however, where the Air has Bluetooth 4.2, the Pro has Bluetooth 5.0, which is more recent and up-to-date technology. Will you notice though? Probably not, but it is always best to have the latest tech and the Pro has it.

Battery power

The MacBook Pro is better in many ways than the Air, except when it comes to running on the battery and this is where the Air excels.

The Pro has a bigger battery than the Air, but even so, it does not last as long because its components are more power-hungry. You can expect to get around 10 hours web browsing or iTunes movie playback the MacBook Pro.

The Air uses power much more efficiently, and even though it has a smaller battery (49.9 Watt hour vs 58.2 Watt hour), it runs for an extra two hours web browsing and an even more impressive three hours with iTunes movie playback. It is clearly the best if you need a MacBook that will be used away from mains power for long periods. Thirteen hours on battery power is amazing.

Both Air and Pro have 30 days of standby time.

Expansion sockets

Both the Air and the Pro are identical here and have two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports for power and peripherals like external drives

The best MacBook to buy is...

The MacBook Air is certainly a great general purpose laptop with some excellent features and superb battery life. Most people will find it suits their needs. However, the Pro is better for heavy duty tasks because it has a quad core CPU and faster graphics. Those will be appreciated if you play games and other tasks that work the Macbook hard.