Macbook Air or Macbook Pro?

[xan]

It's a MacBook Air realistic for photo editing with occasional short videos? Or do I need to go with a MacBook Pro?

You can do all of that on a (current gen) M3 MacBook Air. Until recently I was using the M1. It felt slow mostly when I was rendering from DaVinci and using an external monitor, or using Backscatter Xterminator from Photoshop. For most Lightroom photo editing, it was quite usable. I'm sure the M3 is much better.

I did, however, get a M4 MacBook Pro recently, and it's fast. No waiting times for most of the kinds of workloads you're describing, in my experience, while using multiple external monitors. Rendering or using BSXT isn't instant, but close enough, orders of magnitude speed ups easily. Great battery life even when using these workloads. I also wanted the nano-texture display, especially useful for photo/video editing, or using the laptop in brighter environments. Not available on other portables at this time.

If you choose to get the Air, I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's definitely much lighter, so travel is easy. If it weren't for the display, my own decision might've been much more difficult, I'm sure. A final note is that M4 Airs are rumored to get released soon (but, who knows when… could be the Apple event this coming Wednesday the 19th; could be later this year) which might be worth waiting for, if you do decide to go that route.

 

[pauldw]

The "Macs are better for creatives" thing is a myth and always has been.

It's possible that it's a myth now, but it's silly to say that it always has been.

[What's wrong with Windows?] You can only answer that question once you have worked on a Mac.

I will opine that for photo editing, I like PaintShop Pro much better than Photoshop, but unfortunately PSP is Windows only.

 

[MB NZ]

I don't want to get in to a pissing contest about PC vs Mac, but after I got my first Mac, I realised I had some more time on my hands. I wasn't constantly reinstalling drivers, reinstalling windows or deleting bloatware and viruses. It was kind of a hobby I suppose.

 

[scubaozy]

I have just gotten a whole new rig (Sony A6700 with 16-50mm lens, Nauticam Housing, Backscatter Hybrid strobes, Macro wet lenses, and Nauticam WWL-C lens. Now I'm on the hunt for a laptop for editing. This is all new to me... as I previously used a SeaLife Micro 3.0 and did no editing.

I have been a lifelong Windows user but am really leaning toward a Mac. It's a MacBook Air realistic for photo editing with occasional short videos? Or do I need to go with a MacBook Pro?

Do you need to travel with it? If not, currently mac minis are great value for what they are.

 

[Hoag]

I just upgraded both my desktop & my laptop computers. For my desktop, I went with a new M4 Mac Mini with 32GB Unified memory.

I took a different approach for my laptop. If you go right to the bottom of the page on the Apple Store Website, there is an area for Apple Certified Refurbished. I got a current (as of about a month ago) M3 MacBook Air with 24GB Unified Memory. Because it was a Certified Refurbished, I knew I could trust it to be up to "Factory Spec", but I saved several hundred dollars over buying a brand new one.

For photo editing, I use ON1 Photo RAW 2025.1 and both of these computers run it (including AI) quickly and effortlessly. Any of the Apple M3 or M4 chips will be plenty powerful enough to run photoediting, but RAM is king. Get as much RAM (Unified Memory) as you can afford. Photo editing tends to be very RAM intensive.

I have bought several computers from the Certified Refurbished option and have no problem recommending that as an option to consider. There are a few idiosyncrasies. Get an idea of what you want both in terms of an ideal configuration and minimum acceptable configuration. Check back often and if you see one you like, and at what you consider to be the right price, buy it - it might be the only one like it and you could be an example of "You snooze. You lose."

 

[Hoag]

Do you need to travel with it? If not, currently mac minis are great value for what they are.

I even considered getting a Mini (with a portable monitor) for traveling. I agree, they are an amazing "bang for the buck"!

 

[David Haas]

Being an Apple fan for decades I also bought a Refurbished 13.6" M2 MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. The thing screams on all functions so a M3 or M4 Air would be more than enough especially as Hoag says you start at 24GB RAM......

My laptop replaced an 8 year old 11" MacBook Air that still runs. It was getting slow plus I wanted a bigger screen without getting too heavy for travel. Once the M chips came out it was a game changer worth investing in.

I still also have a 2017 iMac 27" size screen with 1 TB and it runs noticeably slower than my M2 machine. Again, it was bought refurbished.

I'm considering going the Mini and a monitor route too but after having a 27" screen for so long the M4 iMac with a 24" screen even though it's very fast and nice is smaller than what I'd like.

As others have said you may pay a bit more up front but I consider Macs like buying a Toyota.

They run and run and run and give the user very little problems. Plus if you're an iPhone user, iPad, Air Pods, Apple watch etc. it all just work seamlessly.

Your mileage may vary.......

DH