RESULTS ARE IN!!! 8GB M1 MacBook Air vs 16GB M1 MacBook Pro 

☕ WANT TO HELP ME STAY AWAKE? BUY ME A COFFEE!! www.buymeacoffee.com/techgeartalk ⭐️ 2020 M1 MacBook Pro: geni.us/MW3omC (affiliate) ⭐️ 2020 M1 MacBook Air: geni.us/65QGP (affiliate) What's up everyone?! I hope this comparison of the 8gb MacBook Air vs the 16gb MacBook Pro was helpful. Did I cover what you wanted to know? What else did you want to see or learn about? Would love to know what you think. Which of these laptops is the better fit for you?

I use my MacBook Air (8GB RAM base model) for everything: virtual machines, containers with Docker, coding, Azure administration, video production, university courses, general web browsing, photography and everything in between. It can match my Lenovo workhorse at work that has 32GB RAM and a Ryzen 7 processor. These are very good computers!!

I got my Macbook Air last week and I am in love with it. Thank you for all of your reviews, they really helped me!

Your videos are always on point! From the production to the information given. You are the only one I trust to give me the real information on the new macbooks and other products. I am looking to upgrade and I appreciate the honesty behind your reviews and that you have ACTUALLY used them for a time.

I'm getting ready to switch from a PC to a Mac and your videos have been helpful. I will be honest my head is spinning with all the information (mini, pro, air) etc.

The fact that you actually respond to your comment section made me subscribe today. None of my other favorite RU-vid channels respond to their community like you.

I just got the m1 macbook air because of you! loveee your reviews

I have MacBook Pro 2018 13" Touch Bar, which keyboard is broken and it's on repairs. Not being able to afford a whole month without a computer I bought the M1 Air last Friday. It's awesome! When I get the MacBook Pro back it goes for sale or to my sister. The M1 Air is so good that I can't imagine needing anything more powerful for years to come! This includes the games I play too!! I need to mention I didn't notice any heat throttling when gaming (but I rarely play for more than 2 hours, actually almost never).

Love the quality of your videos! Thanks,man.

I cannot get over how much you look like David Schwimmer from friends 😂😭

I recently got the MacBook Air 8GB & it does everything I need. There was no need to spend the extra $$. Thanks for the video!

Thank you. With most of performance comparisons, the example softwares are video/photo editing or games. What about audio editing with DAW like garageband or audacity, and how the RAM compares? I produce and edit podcasts for 2-4 hours.

You provide some amazing content. Could not stop myself from subscribing. Thanks a ton

Hands down this channel provides most value for your time. Good work.

I’m getting the MacBook Air M1 today, I’m very impressed by all the reviews I’ve seen so far, it’s very promising.

I can't wait for your review of the ipad pro 2021... I always pay attention to your reviews before buying my technology kk... Thanks for that! You're doing an incredible work 👍🏼❤️

I got the MacBook Pro M1 base model for my birthday, and I’m absolutely loving it

Ahhh, this channel is an oasis of calm, chilled-out content combined with happy, positive commenters 🥳

Tons of videos about techs out there but this put it in v short and v informative

Recently bought MBA M1 16 GB. Loving it. Activity monitor shows RAM usage slightly above 8 GB while using course learning websites.

Do the detailed battery test comparison!

Just in Time! thanks

The base model M1 MBA is some kind of Black Magic I tells ya! Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Good comparison, man! Thanks

I just have been using my refurnished MBP M1 16G. I too am considering an MBA 8G coz my routine is too undemanding for the MBP M1 16G. Thank you for he effort in this video!

Great video! You really helped me make my decision.

Student discount on the MBA drops it to $899. I added RAM to 16g and storage to 512g for a grand total of $1300. Totally worth it and this thing NEVER stutters when doing anything work or personal related. Absolutely crushes everything else I've owned and NO FANS.

Also don't forget that the MBP can output HDR to an external display whereas the MBA can't

Love your vid mate, straight to the points and no BS. You got a new subs!

Another great video. I am deciding which to get. Thanks

Great comparison video, because this is the kind of question we ask!

i'm having fantastic results with my macbook air m1 in 512gb with the 8core gpu and 8gb ram. a semi entry level computer and it's massively outperforming my 2017 imac with an intel i5 plus ssd I upgraded the OS to run on and 40gb of ram inside it. so for half the price it feels like i'm getting at least twice the performance when editing. the big imac works great for normal tasks but editing apps like logic pro, final cut, and especially affinity photo really start to weigh it down bad and it starts taking forever to load after every little thing I do. this new macbook was able to take on a 60 min 4k video easier than i was able to edit 3 min music videos on the imac. overall everything i do with editing apps is running exponentially smoother and faster. i bought it off of amazon so i figured if the ram wasn't enough i could just send it back and then upgrade but i plan on holding onto this. with the 4k video of that length it definitely heated up and probably throttled a bit during rendering times but overall everything just ran smooth and perceivably fast still. with the istat menus i can have a 4k video rendering in final cut while watching a 4k youtube video on google chrome with a ton of tabs open, while spotify and quicktime were open in the background as well and it never puts more than about a 60% load on the ram and 50-60% on the cpu and gpu of the m1. honestly i'm blown away by the results especially at this price level. my other computer has about twice the money into it almost and I don't get anywhere near the performance. that has been the general result in every video though. one after another people are buying lesser expensive macbooks with m1 chips and comparing to units costing 2-4x the price with intel etc and getting equivalent or better results. as well as it's doing right now this should be able to last for a while. 8k being the norm is a ways away still and all the 4k editing I do will be as much as the computer has to handle for at least the next few years and that's the only thing besides running a ton of plugins on logic that really gave my computer trouble which is also no longer an issue. i really can't believe what a beast of a computer is packed into something so little.

Thanks great comparison and the decision is clear for me know. Mb Air 8

Calm and clear presentation. No hysteria. No drama. No "Linus style" intensity. Easy to learn something new. Well done sir. Bravo.

Thanks bro great video I needed this to make my purchase

Loved this vid! Subbed!

For me it was worth the extra money to get the Pro. You’re right, the brightness is really noticeable (I had the Air for about 10 days before exchanging it). I also found the battery life in the pro far superior, and I LOVE the Touch Bar.

Great work

I want to go 16/1TB M1 MBA so badly but am concerned about screen brightness vs the MBP.. is it that noticeable? Is the clarity/sharpness the same? I tried the 8GB RAM and found I was living in the yellow (RAM stress) when using LR. I don’t do any 4K video editing so MBA seems perfect.. I just don’t want a screen that isn’t good outdoors. Would appreciate your feedback/opinion. .. I am also tempted to just go MBA 8/512 and just try to not look at RAM stress/swapping. Seems that’s the only way to get a silver in-store. Thank you for your videos!

Buy nice or buy twice! I'll stick with the air as it provides a fantastic price to productivity ratio and it saves a ton of money.💯 Regarding the storage one should use wisely as per his needs ✨

Can we expect a 21 iMac review from you? & btw patiently waiting for the new ipad review

Nice review. Been tempted but going to hold out for the 16in. I think the screen on the 13in is just to small for video and photo editing. I was hoping like everyone else for a wwdc21 announcement 🙈 Always been a windows man but these M1 laptops certainly seem to be the dogs dangles 🙂🙂🙂

Thanks! I really appreciate this video. I tried using your link to purchase the Air, but I need more than 256GB of storage.

Hi, can you do a review for Parallels on MBP M1 8gb? Btw, good insights, suggestions & comparisons that you did on this review. I have a MBP M1 8gb and I'm happy so far with the performance. I use this mostly for video editing & color grading. Thanks again!

Considering the life of a MacBook for a long run and I'm a basic user not using any heavy softwares for coding and stuff but just keep the video and photo editing to minimal usage. Do you suggest MacBook Air 8Gb or 16Gb Ram (unified memory) ? Irrespective of ram what do you think one MacBook's life will be ?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP ❤️

Well, to "future proof" but buy now, I think I'll be going for the Air 8 CPU, 16 GB RAM. With 1 TB storage, which should be enough for my existing Logic software, plugins, frequently used instrument libraries, etc. and video editing (so that everything software related can be inside, and to also store the video files to be edited on the built-in SSD, making sure to clear all caches and optimised media after export and also transferring the final product to an external drive).

The stop gap approach is exactly what I was planning. Happy to hear you came to the same conclusion towards the end of the video. Keep up the great content!

i like all your vids man nice work

I'm a recent subscriber to Tech Gear Talk. Your presentations are most apt - brevity with verve! What is the next MacBook Pro in the pipeline? Photography is my passion, so what in the Mac lineage is ideal for me please? (Resident of the British Isles)

You did a great job with this one. Thanks I’m going with Pro.

Enjoying the content, thanks :-) I have had my M1 Air for two weeks now. The battery life has been very impressive when using Pages/Safari/RU-vid or the Google suite. I got the base model, and it handles everything very well. The only time it got quite warm was trying to run a Cubase project with lots of tracks and effects. There was no slowdown at all, but the heat was noticeable. Overall I am very impressed with it, and would buy it again.

I just ordered the MacBook Air M1 16GB 1TB laptop. This will be my first MacBook ever and I figured this would be enough for video editing and web browsing. The MacBook Pro was just way too much for the specs that I wanted. I think I should be good with memory and storage.

Yeah, that's an awesome wallpaper, where did you find it ?

Subscribed! 👍

Thanks for making this video under 10 minutes.. why I clicked.

Could you also throw some light on using CAD Softwares( like Catia, NX, auto cad)... performance in both the MacBook. Will the MacBook Air be good enough or I’ll really need the Pro.

I have watched so many vids and still can't decide. My macbook is my primary video editing tool. I am currently using imovie, but expect.to switch to final cut pro sometime in the future. I am on my laptop for a lot of hours/day, and generally run the battery out more than once Current laptop is a 2015 Macbook Air 13" with 8GB of memory. Whatever I buy will be a huge improvement, and I intend to max out the memory and storage either way. Just can't decide which way to go? I really like the air (slim style, slanted keyboard) but don't want to make the wrong decision. Recommendation?

I have a 16" Macbook Pro (16Gb/512Gb/i7) that was my daily driver.. my M1 8Gb Macbook Air matches and in most cases exceeds the performance... its now my daily driver, even with less ram and storage.

Is your escape key back lights dimmed on the right side? It's more noticeable in the dark, but the light doesn't appear to be illuminated on the right side so the "c" in "esc" is not the same brightness as the rest of the letters. Trying to figure out if that is just how it is or if I need to take my MacBook in to see what's up.

Hi Sam, i bought the 512 MacBook Air with the 8gb ram. I will do some youtube contents but mostly college work. Have a made the right choice? Because the 200 pounds extra that i spend for the extra ssd space i would love to keep that money.

would recommend turning off v-sync when doing gaming, v-sync caps your fps at 60!

Great content! Just subscribed, definitely worth it.

I was able to save up to get a laptop. This will be my very first laptop like ever. Always have been getting some hand-me-down’s jurassic era Windows laptop and been my dream to get a Mac since forever! I am soooo tempted to get a laptop at this point but I can’t keep thinking that Apple will release a newer version possibly in the very near future so that is what’s holding me off. Do you think I should wait or just go with it and get one right now?!? 🤔

In August 2017 I bought a Macbook Pro with 16g. Last March it developed a swollen battery and a logic board problem which would have cost me $600 to fix. With this in mind I don’t think I can ever buy another Macbook Pro. This time go for the Air and hope that it doesn’t develop any costly problems in 3 or 4 years.

i got the M1 Mac Mini 16GB and bought the 8GB MBA a few months later just for convenience. But most of the day, I still spend it on the Mini.

I came to hear answer the question, "Can I excuse NOT paying $200 for 16GB RAM?" And found myself wanting to watch your video in full because you had timestamps, and brought up some pretty valid points for me to keep listening to you on before getting to the answer. I usually skip through the first 8 minutes of a video, thinking "I don't care what you think. I want my answers," but your video was paced so well I was compelled to listen.

Hi! Good video! i have a Macpro 2013 and i'm now upgrading to a latest version. Anyway i am also searching for a monitor for when i work at home to connect with the Mac. Could you suggest me a monitor? I don't work with grapich programs. I would like a monitor which do not lost the resolution and the appearance of the macbook one. thank you very much!

I just ordered my MBP 16gb can’t wait!!

i use a 2012 macbook pro until today and i'm really happy. I want a new macbook to last 10 more years. i'm strongly considering a macbok air however the macbook pro seems to be more durable, mainly because of its refrigetation. i live in Brazil and the temperatures here goes really high so there's something i always have to be concerned

I'm surprised no one is doing M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Mini with 16GB of RAM and more than 256GB SSD comparisons with other systems. Anyway, great video.

I have a question. The ipad handles storage in a different, better way than pc's. Does this apply to macs, too? Or is it similar to pcs? Im deciding on the storage here and have never had a mac, but ipads and windows pc's.Thanks!

I'm on the market for new Macs!!! Currently coming out of a 2015 MBPro 15", which unfortunately has fallen victim to the trackpad-keyboard Staingate, and rapidly degrading battery life... 5 hours of constant use (if I'm lucky). Thankfully, Staingate only recently started in the past couple months, so I got about six solid years of use out of it. I'm shopping Mac mini for at home... and the M1 MBAir for work. There's an ocean of videos on RU-vid, yet I keep coming back to your channel. I appreciate the uploads, the calm and collected manner which you present the information, and the real life input provided. Also, being able to put a face to the presenter is far better than some geek (who has probably never been laid) speeding through a spec sheet like a robot LOL. Looking forward to your uploads on the WWDC reveals next week. Thanks for a great channel. Sub'd:-).... (recommendation: M1 Mac mini monitors:-)

Thank you for this info, the Air is now 16GB not 8GB I believe so it should be even better! I wonder what monitor and speakers you are using?

*An excellent review of use in a real world situation and not based on test results and hardcore gaming.* Would love an M1 but an eleven inch wide display is much too small for me after 10+ years of using 17" laptops. Waiting for the new M1/M1X 16" as that's the smallest screen I'd be happy with. A 16" MacBook Air would be perfect for me.

You look like Ross Geller in your thumbnail. Lol! Great video, btw.

Hey, Sagi. Your Comparison is way better than Max Tech, Why? Because Your Voice is so Calm and Your look is just Good

Would you say that the MacBook Air 8 core gpu with 16GB is equally powerful as the 24" iMac 7 core gpu (1 fan only) with 16 GB? They have almost the same specs but some people say that the extra fan on the 8 core gpu iMac makes a difference in performance. Now I wouldn't mind paying 200$ more for the 8 core gpu iMac (with 16gb ram as well), the one with the extra fan, but do you think I actually need it as a graphic designer? Or would it just be a waste of money?

Hi bro you didnt talk about coding and programmers perspective ... Im a flutter developer and wants to know if android studio VSC chrome and everything that a programmer needs runs perfectly on macbook air (im a windows user and never had an apple device and dollar is really expensive in my country ) any way thanks for the hard work you have put in . good luck

I do light editing with my channel. I got the base model pro because I don’t see me doing excessive editing

What about 16gb ram MBA vs 8gb ram MBP?? I need a mac for college and im studying software system development.

macbook pro m1 battery is beast. It runs for almost 8 hours with multitasking and half brightness. I got it only because of battery

Is it possible to plug in 2 Thunderbolt 3 drives into the Air or does that suck down too much power requiring a powered dock? Just snagged 3 , 480 gig Thunderbolt 3 NVME drives CHEAP Thank you!

I recently got an m1 air 16gb ram & 512gb and it’s lovely for everyday use and moderate “gaming”

Interesting comparison

The issue with buying a machine that works sufficiently today, is that in a year, it's may start to fall behind. And since there are no upgrades available, you're stuck. Spending more to get a machine that performs better then required today may give you a few more years of use before requiring replacement, and have better resell value when you do replace it.

I bought the M1 Air with 8GB Ram and 512SSD. I wanted to be a big shot computer user, but I'm just not lol. I don't do much video, photo or sound editing, or even beat making at the moment. I've made plans to replace it for a base model M1 Air until I'm up and running on making my own stuff and buying an Peak Design Everyday Backpack V2 for all this traveling I have coming up

I think the comparison should be the other way around. 16gb Air and 8gb pro.

This will be my first ever MacBook😭 which one should I buy for university? Which MacBook will last me a couple years? I’m leaning towards the pro just bc I love the touch bar but I need a second opinion please😩

Perfect timing. I’m ordering shortly.

I did exactly what you said. I purchased the base 256GB MacBook Air and upped the RAM to 16GB for the future. Absolutely amazing little computer.

Thanks for the video. Could you recommend a 24-27" monitor for these macbooks?

Debating if I should go for the m1 13" pro or wait for the m1 16" pro to drop🥲🥲🥲 like will it really be much of a difference for basic RU-vid video editing in FCX

Hi I am little confused about buying samsung tablet or an iPad . I have samsung devices and I known that tab will work perfectly with my devices but iam afraid that it will not stand for 3 years or more with me 😅 what do you think I should do? And thanks for your nice videos ❤

to just edit simple you tube vids recorded on iphone which do you suggest?

Thanks for the comparison. I’m interested in the air. But is 256 GB SSD enough for installing programs? I mean how much GB takes up final cut or other programs. I intend to use portable ssd for storing file.

I returned an 8GB Air and got the 16GB M1 Pro because the old games I played like Civilization V and Portal made the Air VERY hot and would eventually lag. It was a $160 difference on the Apple Refurbished store and 100% worth it IMO if you play and mid tier or older games.

Dang the reason this choice is hard for me is because I have a 2017 pro with Touch Bar 8 GB RAM. It’s super slow and I need to upgrade. I’m kinda ashamed to say it but I actually liked the Touch Bar. I used it for seeking in videos and viewing lyrics to songs. So if I don’t get a Touch Bar it’ll feel like a downgrade. But $300 is a lot to justify for it. Honestly think 16 gb MacBook Air would probably be the wisest choice but this touch bar got me jealous 😭

Hello, great informative video. Please help me decide whic one to buy. I am a college professor, I work mostly with MatLab and Mathematica for science research (physics). I have a 2014 Air with 8Gb RAM and 512 GB Drive, no video editing, plus common stuff. My options are: Air M1 16Gb RAM + 512 SSD, Pro M1 8GB RAM + 512 SSD, Pro 16GB RAM + 512 SSD. My main concern is about the (probable) reduction in performance due to high intensity computing temperature, the Air M1 doesn't have fans, the Pro does.

I spent the extra cash on an external display. Validated 👍