Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Is it really worth spending 300 pounds extra on the MacBook Pro over the MacBook Air?
00:06So this is the base MacBook Air with the M1 chip, 8 gigs of RAM, 256 gigs of storage and it'll set you back a thousand
00:13Pounds, same in dollars. Whereas this guy is the MacBook Pro 13 also with an M1 chip
00:18Also with 8 gigs of RAM, 256 gigs of storage. It's the base model as well
00:22It'll cost you 1,300 pounds or $1,300 and there really isn't that much difference between them anymore
00:28And on paper at least really it comes down to the Pro having an extra graphics core, a fan, a slightly brighter screen
00:35Bigger battery and better mic and speakers and in favor of the Air
00:39It's a little bit thinner and lighter and also a fair bit cheaper
00:42So let's put these to the test and if we start with the design this shouldn't take too long because you know
00:47They're both beautifully well made, all aluminium, one finger opening, premium laptops with chunky bezels
00:54They're pretty familiar by now and arguably getting maybe a little bit dated
00:58Especially when you compare it to the likes of say the Dell XPS 13
01:01But crucially we do have the fantastic Magic Keyboard on both
01:05Now the MacBook Air is a hundred grams lighter and tapers in toward the front
01:09So it's a little bit sleeker than the Pro, but we do miss out on the touch bar
01:13Although personally, I don't think that's a great loss
01:16They also both come with two USB 4 ports with Thunderbolt 3 support. As for the screens
01:21Well, they're exactly the same size, same resolution, same sharpness and they both support True Tone
01:27And also as it turns out they're just as color accurate as each other
01:30So if you're a photo or video editor and thinking I probably need the Pro for the more accurate screen
01:35Nope, the Air is just as good and I'd be happy to edit on either of them. One minor difference though
01:40Is that the Pro actually peaks at 500 nits of brightness, whereas the Air here maxes out at 400 nits
01:46So yes, you can see the difference, but I don't think it's a real reason to go for one over the other
01:51So far so similar then, but before we get to performance
01:54Let's talk about battery life because the Pro does actually have a slightly bigger cell inside
01:59We've got a 58 watt hour battery in here versus
02:0249.9 in the Air and Apple claim this will get you an extra couple of hours
02:06However in my pretty extensive tests, I found it to be neck-and-neck
02:10Firstly, I ran a long YouTube playback test with both laptops set up exactly the same screens measured at 150 nits
02:17I then left them overnight and in fact the Air lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes versus 10 hours and 26 minutes on the Pro
02:24Just 16 minutes longer
02:26Now, I'm not sure how many people watch 10 hours of YouTube straight, especially not my videos all in a row
02:31So I wanted to run a slightly more realistic battery drain test as well
02:35And so starting with an hour of YouTube and then an hour long zoom call followed by some fortnight
02:40Streaming a show on Apple TV
02:41Doing some office work in Word and Google Sheets and then finally the best part of an hour doing some video editing in Final Cut
02:47By which point they both died within literally a couple of minutes of each other. There really wasn't much between them
02:53It will of course come down to how you use it
02:56Maybe the programs you use and of course Apple do claim that you'll get a little bit more out of the Pro
03:00But from my experience at least it really is pretty much the same
03:04Although the Pro does charge a little bit quicker
03:06Although not by as much as you'd think given this has a 61 watt charger to the Air's 30 watt
03:12Whichever laptop or phone or tablet you're using though. Why not give Surfshark VPN a try?
03:18I'm always hugely proud to work with these guys and honestly
03:21They're the only VPN that I use with a handy Chrome extension desktop and phone apps
03:25You can get Surfshark everywhere and it basically helps keep you safe online preventing tracking malware and other nasty things
03:32But it also lets you watch movies and TV shows
03:35You can't normally get in your country like HBO max and Hulu for me here in the UK as always though
03:40Just click the link below or use the code tech chap for a whopping
03:4484% off and three months extra free or actually four months free during this exclusive Cyber Monday deal
03:50Plus there's a 30-day money-back guarantee if you're not absolutely loving it
03:54So why not give Surfshark VPN a try?
03:57But the big question is how much of a difference does that extra GPU core and also having a fan make in terms of speed
04:03And performance over the air?
04:05Well, let's get a couple of boring old benchmarks out of the way first and in Cinebench R23
04:10There's really nothing between them in single-core
04:12But interestingly the Pro is 12% faster in multi-core
04:16Then in Geekbench 5 CPU test this time both single and multi-core scores are neck-and-neck
04:21Although running the OpenCL graphics test the Pro with its extra GPU core takes a 12% lead
04:27So why is it then that in Geekbench CPU test these scored pretty much exactly the same but in Cinebench
04:33This was about 12% faster
04:35Well, I think that all comes down to the fan and because Cinebench R23's tests now run for 10 minutes
04:41Which is much longer than Geekbench
04:43It takes into account throttling because while they have the exact same processor with the same
04:483.2 gigahertz clock speed the air has to throttle back sooner to avoid overheating
04:53So as I'm sure most of you guys probably guess the big difference with the Pro then comes down to sustained performance
04:58How fast it is over longer periods and actually my gaming tests back this up
05:03When I ran fortnight for an hour during my battery test
05:05I also measured the frame rates along the way and with high settings at full HD to begin with there's only a 4 FPS difference
05:12But then just 10 minutes later
05:14I checked back and the air was now averaging 30 FPS a drop of 8 and the Pro was on 40 a drop of just 2
05:20So even just with 10 minutes of gaming we see the air lose about 20% of its performance and the Pro loses only about 5%
05:27Although interestingly when I came back to check it again at the full 1 hour mark
05:30They actually hadn't gone down any further
05:32So it seems that we do see that sort of drop off that throttling on the air
05:36particularly within the first or 5, 10, 15 minutes of use
05:40Sticking with gaming for a minute and I fired up a bit of Shadow of the Tomb Raider and after 5 repeat runs on both
05:46Again at full HD high settings the Pro held firm at 24 FPS
05:50Whereas the air averaged 22 for the first two cycles, but then dropped to 20 for the last three
05:55So they're both actually quite capable little light gaming machines
05:59Although you are still limited by the range of games available on Big Sur and also there is still some compatibility issues
06:06With the M1 chip and games running through Rosetta 2 as I mentioned in my MacBook vs. XPS video the other day
06:11There's actually a really handy spreadsheet with compatibility and performance in games running on the M1 chip
06:17Now I suspect most people probably aren't going to spend a whole lot of time gaming on their MacBooks
06:22So for me at least more importantly is how they perform when it comes to video editing
06:26Well, I loaded up my 10 minute 4k 30 test project in the latest versions of Adobe Premiere Pro DaVinci Resolve Studio
06:3417.1 and also Final Cut Pro to test how long the render times were on each for this roughly 5 gigabyte file in Premiere Pro
06:41The MacBook Pro was about 10% faster to export and just 6% quicker in both DaVinci and Final Cut
06:47Anything that puts it under more sustained load, you'll see the Pro come out further on top
06:52What's really interesting though is despite the Pro having a fan
06:55I could barely hear it even putting my ear right up to it while exporting and having just come from some gaming tests
07:01I couldn't hear anything and surface temperatures were broadly similar as well. The Pro was only a couple of degrees cooler
07:07Now for this bit I need your help
07:09Tell me if you can hear much of a difference in the audio quality because the Pro
07:14Has what Apple call three studio mics versus just presumably three regular mics on the air
07:20So as I switch between the audio see if you can hear much of a difference
07:24Let me know in the comments below and while you do that
07:27Let me give you my experience on the speakers because again, there's only a very small difference
07:31But Apple says the MacBook Pro has HDR speakers slightly better high dynamic range than the air in my experience
07:39It's not really noticeable only when I had them side-by-side
07:42Volume right up to 100%
07:44Turning up to 11 and I play some music or watch the movie
07:47Could I hear just a little bit more sort of distortion from the air?
07:50But it wasn't much and if they weren't side-by-side, I really wouldn't notice
07:55So on the one hand you may be thinking that's a little bit disappointing that we're not getting more from the Pro
07:59But then the way I see it is that most people then can get away with buying the cheaper MacBook Air
08:05It all depends on your use case though
08:07If you're editing rendering or gaming all day, then the 10 to 20 percent boost in performance with the Pro may come in handy
08:14Although going for the high spec air with the full 8 core GPU chip would certainly narrow the gap between them even more
08:20What I'd recommend doing is buying the air for a thousand pounds and then maybe because of the saving from the Pro
08:26Pay 200 pounds extra and either double the RAM or double the storage and even then it's still a hundred less than the Pro
08:33So that's what I would do personally. But what do you reckon? Which one would you go for or not in the above?
08:39Let me know in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching guys
08:41I really do hope you found this video useful. And if you want to see more from me
08:44Don't forget to hit that little subscribe button below
08:46I've got tons more videos coming soon and I'll catch you next time right here on the tech chat
08:51And just quickly guys, don't forget to click the link below and give Surfshark VPN a try
08:56It's so easy to use lightweight and it just works
08:59It really is the only VPN that I use click the link below or use the code tech chat for the best deals
09:05Including an exclusive cyber Monday offer. So why not give Surfshark VPN a try?