I want to eventually develop apps but I wonder if I could do just as well with an Air and just maxx out the specs.
Under what circumstances should a Pro overrule the Air for my use case?
(Can linux also be dual-installed to be able to run some flavor of linux alternatively/parallel to MacOS? Might get a Framework one eventually as well
I used to develop iOS apps professionally. For a solid 5-6 years, used nothing more than a Macbook Air. It was light, easy to take to a coffee shop, and I could run VMware or Parallels on it for Linux and Windows development. Worked great, especially if you could connect it to an external monitor so each window could be its own OS. The two things you can’t change are RAM and built-in SSD storage. I’d take those higher if you can afford it.
My current machine is a Macbook Pro, but that’s because I run local LLMs and databases on it. If I was only doing mobile development, it would be way overkill. Not sure if the Neos have enough power to run Xcode.
Wat local models are you running? How do they compare to Claude sonnet 4.5 or something like that?
Also, how good is the speaker/sound for the Pro vs Air? Like, is the Pros legit good to the point its just as enjoyable as when its using an actual proper speaker or sound system?
The Macbook has 128GB RAM so it can run some beefy local models. The Qwen family of models are pretty good, but I use LMStudio to switch around. For experimenting, kt’s good to have a large SSD drive. None of the local models are as good or fast as the big/centralized ones, but the code stays on the machine, and you don’t have to pay monthly or token fees.
For serious dev work, you’ll still want at least one of the big ones, in case the local one gets into a loop.
The Macbook has slightly better speakers, but I mainly use bluetooth headphones to listen to music or videos.
No.
Develop “apps”? Like as in for phones? Air will be fine. Pro is overkill and you’re just throwing money away at that point.
No you can’t run Linux effectively on anything higher than an m2 (yet).
An air would is fine for most people.
Most people can get by just fine with an Air. Actually, most people can get by with the new Neo. I can certainly do well with the Air, but I went with the Pro with nano texture screen because the screen and audio are just better. Like getting a luxury car.
Honestly, you should at least consider the Neo. Air if you think you need the RAM. But what you’re describing definitely doesn’t need the Pro.
Is that true about audio? Are they actually not only better but objectively like “good” enough to justify the extra cost?
Audio, screen, and performance are all objectively better than the Air, and the Air is already pretty good.
Any one of those metrics good enough to justify the extra cost? Probably not (especially if you don’t need the horsepower), but taken together it did justify the additional cost for me.
Whats the weight difference qualitatively?
Good question. Answer is, significant.
13” Air: 2.7 lbs.
14” Pro: 3.4 lbs.
15” Air: 3.3 lbs.
16” Pro: 4.7 lbs.I have the 16”, again, for luxury. The 13” Air is probably the best value overall while being very nice, but the 14” Pro is a nice upgrade while still being very portable.
If you need to compline code into a binary file, having a faster CPU will make it faster. If you’re just running python scripts, you won’t need to worry about that.
