I’m torn. I purchased a base M3 Pro MBP (18GB RAM and 512GB storage). I am using it for work but all of my work is productivity based, not coding or audiovisual. What I will have is multiple open tabs and windows of Safari, multiple calls and conversations in Teams, Slack, and Zoom, and some diagram building. I know that the MBP is overkill for those purposes but I have been able to push my 8GB M2 Mac Mini to lag and show me the beach ball doing a combo of those tasks, so I would need to get the 16GB MBA.
The issue for me is that I got the MBP on sale for $1749 at Best Buy, and if I exchange it for the 16 GB 13” M3 MBA, that is currently selling for $1449, so it’s only a $300 difference. And I feel like the additional niceties of the MBP might justify the cost, like the additional USB-C port, HDMI port and SD card reader, the HDR Mini LED screen with promotion, the fans used for cooling, etc. I’d also lose 2 GB of RAM and have a lower power chip with fewer cores which shouldn’t affect my day to day but could be useful for the longevity of the device.
I’ve gone back and forth on this and am mostly leaning in the direction of keeping the Pro, but the prospect of saving some money and getting a lighter machine as well are tempting.