Introduction:
Okay, so which MacBook should you buy, and how much do you actually need to spend? Because with Airs and Pros, M2 and M3 chips, different sizes, and prices ranging from £999 up to over £7,000 for a top-spec Max, there's a lot to think about. But that's why I'm here, and hopefully by the end of the video, you'll have a better idea of which one is right for you so you don't spend too much money.
And if you do enjoy the video, a little like and subscribe would be lovely. But why am I making this video now? Well, it's because Apple has just refreshed the MacBook Airs with M3, the 13 and the 15, and these come in at the same price as the previous M2 Airs. This is the 13, which has now had a price cut down to $999—it's 100 quid off, meaning it replaces the old M1 Air as the new entry-level model.
This came out back in 2020, still a very nice laptop, and it does have that nice taper design that we've lost with the new models. But this is now no longer officially sold new by Apple. You can still buy it refurbished, you can buy it from retailers, and actually for around 750 quid or so, it's not a bad idea, although the webcam is not very good, and it is a 4-year-old laptop.
So now you have five options to choose from. You've got the cheapest entry-level MacBook, the M2, which will set you back £999, then for 100 quid more, you've got the new M3 Air, and for 200 more than that, the 15-inch if you fancy.
And then for those of you who can spend well, quite a bit more actually, you've got the MacBook Pros, both 14 and 16 with brighter screens, more ports, better performance, and a crazy number of options including the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. So these can get much more powerful, but also they cost a lot more expensive.
Basic:
So now the entire lineup by the cheapest M2 MacBook uses Apple's latest M3 chip which makes them all a bit more future-proof, and also we're not really expecting any new releases to the MacBook lineup for probably the rest of the year we will probably see new Mac Minis and Mac Studios and the desktop Mac Pro with the M3 chip come at Apple's June event WWDC or launch just after.
But they're the sort of desktop versions in terms of laptops MacBooks I don't think we're going to see anything else new for a while so it could be a good time to upgrade so number one let's talk about the M1 the M2 and the M3 Apple switch from Intel to using their own chips with the M1 back in 2020 was a huge deal their own macOS software running on their own incredibly efficient Hardware.
It revolutionized the laptop Market pretty much overnight, and it certainly made me switch from my old Del xps15 then a couple of years later in 2022 Apple introduced the M2 Chip which was around 20% faster but more importantly the M2 powered MacBook Air came with a big design refresh bigger brighter screens much better webcams.
New colors faster connectivity it was a bit more expensive, but it was also a much nicer laptop but then fast-forward to Halloween 2023 an Apple's spooky fast event unveiled the new M3 chip which first came to the MacBook pros and now a few months later we have the M3 s which as I say come in at the same price as the previous M2 which has become the new Eng ENT level model now who said Macs aren't for gaming because I've been playing a bunch of this on my MacBook honey impact 3D it's a Sci-fi Adventure game.
Which has just had a massive update with a ton of new features including and making it the perfect sponsor for this video being able to play it on my Mac and in case hon Kai impact third rings a bell it's from hole who also made genie impact and honey star Rail and you can find it on iOS Android and steam and Epic on PC.
But this is their first game of available on M series Max via the App Store with full screen resolutions 120 HZ refresh rates, and it will also support Apple's upscaling Tech metal FX it's a genuinely massive game you can SN dozens of hours into this.
Features:
Going forward slightly better voice isolation for the microphones and the storage on the base model with 256 GB is a bit faster is all that worth paying £100 more for the new M3 probably I mean it's not a huge upgrade.
But it makes it a bit more future-proof, and it's not that much of a difference the problem is if you do go for this, and you can just go for the base model at £1,099 but if you do fancy yourself more RAM 16 GB or more storage 512 which you might want to and perhaps even you might want to go for the 15in if you get this the 15-in M3 with 16 gigs of RAM 512 storage a decent spec at which point you could just get yourself a MacBook Pro.
So M2 are 999 M3 a199 Pro 14in $6.99 so which is better the benefit of going for a MacBook Air is its cheaper it's thinner it's lighter, and it's also fanless so it's completely silent however the pros have well a lot more of everything they can be sped with more powerful M3 Pro and Max chips they come with 52 gigs of storage as standard double the air.
And you can get up to 8 term of The Stuff Plus up to 128 gigs of memory it also has a much brighter and faster mini LED screen the air is 500 nits it's 60 HZ, and it is a regular LED LCD screen the pro is 600 nits in SDR and goes up to 1,600 nits in HDR and if using an app like Vivid you can unlock across the whole desktop making it a lot easier to see if you're out and about on a sunny day it's also 120 HZ or promotion as Apple call it.
So everything feels a lot faster and smoother, and it's using a mini LED backlight so you get much better contrast deeper blacks richer colors not everyone will care that much about those things, but certainly the pro screen is much nicer we have more ports with HDMI 2.1 and a full size SD card reader significantly better speakers.
Although the 15-in air does also have six speakers and is notably better than the 13in also most models of the pro have a longer battery life than the air except for the 14in with a pro on Max chip which is roughly the same, but all other Pros last a good couple of hours longer and finally the pro has a fan and while it is silent most of the time for just you know everyday stuff when it needs to it'll wow up to help keep the chip cool meaning you get better performance.
Although that is almost exclusively under sustained load so everyday opening of apps and basic stuff you probably wouldn't notice what I would say though is that for 95% of people a MacBook Air is the one to go for it's all you need, they're incredibly powerful laptops and unless you need a brighter HDR screen and a lot of extra performance for uh gaming or Graphics Work video editing photo editing designing you know music production then you know it's in the name it is a professional laptop.
And it's a lot more expensive for most of us get yourself an air but if you do want the extra power and the nicest screen, and you can afford it or perhaps your business is buying it for you then which MacBook Pro should you go for well you've got two sizes 14 and 16, and I feel a bit precarious holding them like that given how much they cost because the base model MacBook Pro 14 will set.
Conclusion:
If you're going for the cheapest M2, then you want a tighter budget, and you just want a good all-around laptop, probably stick with the base model. I think the M3 is a little bit trickier because you do have a lot of performance there.
You might want to do some more intense multitasking and have tons of Chrome apps open and things like that, so I would probably go for 16 gigs of memory in this guy, which brings it up to 00. And I do appreciate that Apple actually now stocks a pre-made version of it. You don't have to customize it and then wait like weeks and weeks for it to ship.
You can walk into the store and get one of these with 16 out of the box. Oh, and also if you do upgrade the memory, Apple also gives you the slightly higher power processor, an extra two GPU cores, so that's normally 100 quid by itself, so it makes it a little bit less painful, I guess. The M3 Air is probably the best bet all-around; it's future-proof, and it's only 100 quid more than the M2.
Also, don't just look at Apple's website; Amazon and other retailers can be cheaper. And just because Apple doesn't stock it like the old 15-inch M2, keep an eye out for good deals. And finally, dare I say, consider a Windows alternative to these MacBooks.
I mean, for similar money, you'll get better screens, similar performance, especially with Intel's new core Ultra processors, lots of different form factors, and of course, the problem with MacBooks is they're very expensive, starting at £999 for a new model.
Obviously, Windows laptops, you can get a decent one for 5 or 600 quid, but I do also love a MacBook, and I think unless it's a specific Windows app you need, or you're playing a lot more games, then something like the M3, probably just the base model, maybe with 16 gigs, is the one to go for. So hopefully that helped, and if you do have any other questions, drop a comment below. Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time. Oh, that's actually heavier than I thought, right here on the tech chat.
