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Very interesting. I had assumed I'd buy a 13" Pro as a personal laptop replacement for my 2011 Air when they updated the keyboard. However, when the 2020 Air d

by rconti 7y ago

Very interesting. I had assumed I'd buy a 13" Pro as a personal laptop replacement for my 2011 Air when they updated the keyboard. However, when the 2020 Air dropped, I snapped one up because it ticked all the boxes, and I really don't need the "power" of the Pro, especially given its presumed expense. I bought a loaded Air with 512gb which was I think $1650. Speccing out the Pro, the pricepoint for a similar machine is actually $1600; $50 cheaper. Air is 1.2ghz quad core i7 10th gen / 16gb 3733mhz memory / 512gb Pro is 1.4ghz quad core i5 8th gen / 16gb 2133mhz memory / 512gb. In the Pro, you also get the touch bar (for better or for worse; I kind of like it, but no big deal). But its' also a heavier, thicker machine. Also, that Pro is limited in the same way my Air is -- only 2 ports. So I suspect it's kind of a wash. I bet we'll start seeing benchmarks soon comparing these 2 machines. I haven't dug into bus speed or cache amounts, but it's interesting how much faster the RAM on the Air is; I'm guessing slower bus speed but a higher multiple or something? For my (home) use case, it really doesn't much matter, I just figured an 'acceptable' Pro would be $1800+, and figured the Air would be more in the $1400 range. FWIW I only really paid for the $150 CPU upgrade on the Air to get it a couple weeks sooner, I'm sure the 1.1ghz quad core i5 was the sweet spot in the lineup for price/performance.

RussianCow 7y ago
> it's interesting how much faster the RAM on the Air is Isn't that just the difference between DDR4 and DDR3? Edit: Yes, I just confirmed that the last generation of MacBook Pros used DDR3 memory, whereas these new ones will use DDR4, so that's why there is such a big difference in speed. The new ones run at 3733MHz.
- rconti 7y ago
  Ah. Looks like the store's "upgrade" button hasn't been updated to reflect the actual RAM speed. Or wasn't when i looked.
trymas 7y ago
I wonder if TDP of MBA vs MBP cpus is different and if yes - how much difference does it make?
- abrowne 7y ago
  It has been: - the retina MBA is ~ 5 W (but I think it's configurable by the manufacturer and configured up, since it has a fan, though no heat pipe, unlike the 12-inch MB that was fully passive) [Edit: I think it's 10 W.] - the 2-port (originally no touch bar) MBP is 15 W - the 4-port 13-inch MBP is 28 W Of course Apple never mentions this, or the Intel CPU model numbers. (And FWIW the pre-retina MBA is 15 W, and before the USB-C models the 13-inch Pro was 30 W only.)
llbeansandrice 7y ago
Huh, I'd been holding out to see the new MBP but if this is how it compares to the Air I think that might be my choice. I've been using an old Air which does okay but I like the newer track pads and 4gb of RAM is painful with even a single browser window open.
- rconti 7y ago
  Yup, that was my main issue. I always wanted a higher res screen than my 2011 but the 4gb was really the killer. That and, you can't even install MacOS Updates on 128gb if you have any photos :) I think 8Gb is plenty for "normal" air usage, but why not max it out to future-proof it.
mgraupner 7y ago
Previous generation MacBook Pro 13 with i5 1.4Ghz (2019) was 14% faster in single core at Cinebench 15 and 42% faster in multi core benchmark than 2020 MacBook Air i5. Most important difference between these two processors is TDP, Air CPU is allowed to use only 10W and Pro is allowed up to 28W. Especially in sustained multicore usage the Pro has a lot of advantage, better cooling system too to get rid of the heat...
pier25 7y ago
But the CPU on Air 2020 is passively cooled which means the case fan has to work twice as hard and you get hard throttling if you do anything that needs sustained work.
mekster 7y ago
If you look around, the difference between the i5 and i7 on Air is negligible even though it's $300 apart. i3 to i5 makes bigger difference for smaller difference in price.
- rconti 7y ago
  The Air upgrades, as I recall, were dual core i3 to quad core i5 to quad core i7. The quad core i5 is obviously the best one for the price. Though the i7 is only $150 over that, which was only worth it to me for the quicker shipping.

by rconti 7y ago

RussianCow 7y ago

> it's interesting how much faster the RAM on the Air is Isn't that just the difference between DDR4 and DDR3? Edit: Yes, I just confirmed that the last generation of MacBook Pros used DDR3 memory, whereas these new ones will use DDR4, so that's why there is such a big difference in speed. The new ones run at 3733MHz.

rconti 7y ago
Ah. Looks like the store's "upgrade" button hasn't been updated to reflect the actual RAM speed. Or wasn't when i looked.

trymas 7y ago

I wonder if TDP of MBA vs MBP cpus is different and if yes - how much difference does it make?

abrowne 7y ago
It has been: - the retina MBA is ~ 5 W (but I think it's configurable by the manufacturer and configured up, since it has a fan, though no heat pipe, unlike the 12-inch MB that was fully passive) [Edit: I think it's 10 W.] - the 2-port (originally no touch bar) MBP is 15 W - the 4-port 13-inch MBP is 28 W Of course Apple never mentions this, or the Intel CPU model numbers. (And FWIW the pre-retina MBA is 15 W, and before the USB-C models the 13-inch Pro was 30 W only.)

llbeansandrice 7y ago

Huh, I'd been holding out to see the new MBP but if this is how it compares to the Air I think that might be my choice. I've been using an old Air which does okay but I like the newer track pads and 4gb of RAM is painful with even a single browser window open.

rconti 7y ago
Yup, that was my main issue. I always wanted a higher res screen than my 2011 but the 4gb was really the killer. That and, you can't even install MacOS Updates on 128gb if you have any photos :) I think 8Gb is plenty for "normal" air usage, but why not max it out to future-proof it.

mgraupner 7y ago

Previous generation MacBook Pro 13 with i5 1.4Ghz (2019) was 14% faster in single core at Cinebench 15 and 42% faster in multi core benchmark than 2020 MacBook Air i5. Most important difference between these two processors is TDP, Air CPU is allowed to use only 10W and Pro is allowed up to 28W. Especially in sustained multicore usage the Pro has a lot of advantage, better cooling system too to get rid of the heat...

pier25 7y ago

But the CPU on Air 2020 is passively cooled which means the case fan has to work twice as hard and you get hard throttling if you do anything that needs sustained work.

mekster 7y ago

If you look around, the difference between the i5 and i7 on Air is negligible even though it's $300 apart. i3 to i5 makes bigger difference for smaller difference in price.

rconti 7y ago
The Air upgrades, as I recall, were dual core i3 to quad core i5 to quad core i7. The quad core i5 is obviously the best one for the price. Though the i7 is only $150 over that, which was only worth it to me for the quicker shipping.