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Who else got an 15" M3 MBA over an 14" M3 MBP?
- Thread starter Torty
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A misunderstanding.
A commenter was saying "the 14-inch M3 Pro has 1000 nits brightness" but I was explaining that the 1000 nit claim is only for HDR mode (ie movies) and that MacBook Pros can only reach 600 nits in SDR mode—which is not much brighter than the MacBook Air's 500 nits—unless you "hack" the MacBook Pro with an app to fool the MacBook Pro into HDR mode at all times.
MacBook Airs don't have HDR mode nor the mini LED backlighting system that can reach 1000 nits, so such an app is not developed for it.
I consider the 13" MacBook Air, the 15" MacBook Air and the 14" MacBook Pro to all be very portable. Obviously the 13" MacBook Air is the most portable, but the 15" is surprisingly nimble. For many people, all three laptops have enough power for their needs for years. The 15" MacBook Air prioritizes screen size, for multitasking and such - it is superior to the 14" MBP for this purpose. The 13" is superior to both laptops for portability, and it is the lowest in price. The 13" MacBook Pro offers sharper screens and speakers, as well as the options to spec up to a true Pro configuration. At the end of the day, the laptops can price within a couple hundred dollars within each other, so it is all personal preference. Often times, I get confused as to what I prefer. However, for me - the 15" offers the best combination of portability and screen size at the moment.
That’s a very nice way of looking at it!
There is a workaround. You can create a new volume in Disk Utility and install Ventura on it. So you will end up with essentially a new partition with Ventura on it.
How accurate is that though. On battery, isn't the refresh rate capped at 60hz to preserve battery life?
So some feedback:
Unfortunately I tend to complain too often. So some good words for Apple:
I am really happy with the MBA
- Display -> really beautiful, sharp and even
- Design -> Magsafe is great und I live how thin and light the device is
- Speed: Coming from the Mid 2012 13" MBP it's lightning fast
- The keyboard is really really good and better than the 2012 MBP
- Great to be able to charge it with almost anything available if I have the adapters
- I don't care about the notch at all
- Magic Mouse 1 still works with it
- My wired keyboard w/ numeric block is working with it
- Only thing I liked more on the old MBP: Upgradability and the track pad. This was ultra smooth and 100% accurate. not so the MBA (and M3 MBP I tested in apple store)
Forgot: Headphone jack.
All in all I think it was not a cheap (Over 2700 Euros!) but a very good buy for me.
Unfortunately I tend to complain too often. So some good words for Apple:
I am really happy with the MBA
- Display -> really beautiful, sharp and even
- Design -> Magsafe is great und I live how thin and light the device is
- Speed: Coming from the Mid 2012 13" MBP it's lightning fast
- The keyboard is really really good and better than the 2012 MBP
- Great to be able to charge it with almost anything available if I have the adapters
- I don't care about the notch at all
- Magic Mouse 1 still works with it
- My wired keyboard w/ numeric block is working with it
- Only thing I liked more on the old MBP: Upgradability and the track pad. This was ultra smooth and 100% accurate. not so the MBA (and M3 MBP I tested in apple store)
Forgot: Headphone jack.
All in all I think it was not a cheap (Over 2700 Euros!) but a very good buy for me.
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I have an i9 2019 MBP 16", an iPhone 15 Pro Max and an iPad 12.9 M1.... Not having Pro Motion on the Macbook really doesn't bother me. It bothered me when I bought an iPad mini 6 without it, and i returned it because of it. I love it on the iPhone and the iPad but it doesn't do it for me on the MacBook. My bro has a 16" MBP M3 and I've used that for hours, and Pro Motion for me on a MacBook really isn't a biggie.
For now, I'll enjoy my 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD and 16" screen
Yup, and that's because it doesn't have true 120Hz.
If a display is 120 frames per second, you learn the length that each frame needs to be displayed by dividing 1 by 120 which is 8.3 ms. That means each pixel needs to be able to change colors at or before 8.3 ms long or else you don't get true 120 frames per second.
Guess how long the 16" MBP M3 displays a pixel? 75.2 ms (source).
That means the 16" MBP M3 display is 9x too slow to properly display 120Hz images in motion.
So there's not as much of a difference between MBP and MBA as people imagine. In fact the M3 Air's pixel response is 34.5 ms (source) where the M3 MBP's is 75.2 ms—twice as slow as a MBA—so no wonder the MBP does nothing for you.
120Hz won't work until Apple implements OLED in 2026 because OLED has a pixel response of less than 1 ms.
The Air has less than the Pro, but the question is: "Does it matter to you?" I shoot photography and am a developer, so I should be drawn to the MBP because of the extra ports and SD slot. But why pay for those things if one doesn't care about them? Ironically, I already have all the dongles and adapters I need after years of being forced into it by Thunderbolt-only ports for years. A built-in SD slot is handy if you don't have one, but now I have at least 3. So, the value prop is questionable. I also don't need an HDMI port either, as I've only been able to use Thunderbolt ports. So now you're down to just the screen and active cooling. Is that worth the price? If it isn't, the MBA might make the most sense. Otherwise, jump to the MBP M3 Pro.
I decided the M3 Pro MBP was more machine than I needed, and thus more cost than I should take on, and Best Buy has the 15” M2 MBA with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage on sale, so I’m currently waiting for the seemingly endless Time Machine restore to finish so I can use this beastly machine.
I am strongly considering a 15" M3 Air to replace my 14" M1 Pro but just one thing is bothering me:
* The 15" screen has a lower res and at the default resolution it doesn't have 1:1 pixel scaling like the 14" does
I haven't spent a significant amount of time with the 15" air (just checked it out at the store) but I'm very sensitive to the screen when I switch from 27" 5K ultrafine at home to a 4k 27" whenever I'm in the office
* The 15" screen has a lower res and at the default resolution it doesn't have 1:1 pixel scaling like the 14" does
I haven't spent a significant amount of time with the 15" air (just checked it out at the store) but I'm very sensitive to the screen when I switch from 27" 5K ultrafine at home to a 4k 27" whenever I'm in the office
I can only say that I am a bit sensitive too but regarding brightness/contrast. I had to reduce the white spot on my 14PM. Checking the studio display I had to immediately turn down the brightness.
The MBA’s screen is so smooth for me not aggressive to my eyes at all.
This is actually really interesting.
So how come the iPad is so noticeable, does it use an inherently better/faster screen?
If clear image happens at 8.3 ms or less
- the iPhone 15 Pro has the clearest image with 2 ms (source)
- the M3-gen MacBook Pros have the smudgiest image at 75.2 ms
- the iPad Pro 11 and 12.9 is in the middle at 43 ms (source) and 35.3 ms (source) respectively
And yet, the iPad Pro is twice better than the MacBook Pros. That's why 120Hz is more noticeable when scrolling or playing games on the iPads.
Don't get me wrong, all of these devices are pulsing 120 images per second into our eye balls, its just a matter of are they clear images or smudgy images. The clear-er the image, the more obviously beneficial it is for gaming, scanning a long article for that paragraph about the U.S. nuclear program, scrolling through that 300 page text book for that one diagram about cellular immunology, and so on. So Apple is sort of screwing us out of that benefit.
Still—120 smudgy images (per second) is still smother than 60 clear images (per second) because 60 fps is still more jittery when scrolling. So people will still prefer the iPad Pro and MBP displays based on feel. It feels and is smoother. That is a real phenomenon that ProMotion brings if at least.
Sold my 14" MBP M1P and got 15" MBA M3. Mostly due to eye fatigue from the Pro display. Very happy with the result. Only thing I miss is the right hand side Thunderbolt port.
I can confirm that I was wrong about how it feels to hold and use the 15" Air vs the 14" MBP. Despite the two looking very similar in measurements, the 15" Air feels noticeably lighter and balanced than the MBP. It feels light, probably because my brain is expecting such a big laptop to feel much heavier, and the fact that the weight feels evenly distributed across the whole body of the computer. The MBP feels denser and more bottom heavy, especially in the center of the base portion. I'd say the 15" very well deserves the Air moniker.
Agreed @Supermallet. With the two laptops, I much prefer using the 15" Air - it feels much lighter (even though it isn't) and is much more comfortable on my lap.
Yes, the larger footprint sits more evenly across my lap than the 14” MBP.