MacBook Air M4 vs M4 MacBook Pro: Every difference that you wanted to know

Close call? Not really. If you know what you want from your next laptop—and you’re in the Mac camp—the differences between a MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, start to become as clear as a crystal. Both, in their current avatar, may have the same M4 Apple silicon, but they are poles apart. Well, there’s a reason why the Pro is pro and Air, air. The Air would get you more portability and big bang for your buck, if you’re looking to save. The Pro justifies its higher asking price by giving you more ports and intricate cooling, to go the extra mile when you need it to pull demanding tasks.  

In the current generation, there is a difference in screen size, too. The MacBook Air comes in a choice of 13- and 15-inch while the MacBook Pro is bigger with options of 14- and 16-inch, respectively. For the sake of comparison, you must know that only the 14-inch MacBook Pro, has M4. Configurations with M4 Pro and M4 Max are also available. The 16-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t have an M4 trim, just M4 Pro and M4 Max. So, we’re keeping the 16-inch Pro out of the picture, for a fair analysis.

Here’s a quick rundown on how the MacBook Air M4 and M4 MacBook Pro stack up against each other:

1. Prices: The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 starts at Rs 1,69,900. This is for a version with 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB unified memory, and 512GB SSD. The 13-inch MacBook Air with M4 starts at Rs 99,900. This is for a version with a 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16GB unified memory, and 256GB SSD. The base 15-inch MacBook Air M4 with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB unified memory, and 256GB SSD is priced at Rs 1,24,900.
2. Design: Naturally, the MacBook Air is lighter. The 13-inch MacBook Air weighs 1.24 kg. The 15-inch MacBook Air is closer to the 14-inch MacBook Pro: 1.51 kg versus 1.55 kg. The metal unibody design is shared between the duo but Apple gives you more colours on the MacBook Air: sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver versus space black and silver.
3. Display: The display is one of the biggest differentiators. The MacBook Pro has 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR “mini-LED” display with an option for a nano-texture finish for glare reduction. Promotion (120Hz refresh rate) is available. SDR brightness goes up to 1,000 nits. Both 13- (13.6) and 15-inch (15.3) models have a Liquid Retina LCD display. The screen can peak 500nits.
4. RAM, storage: You get up to 32GB Unified memory and 2TB SSD in both laptops. The MacBook Air starts at 256GB storage, while the MacBook Pro has 512GB storage at the base level.
5. Cameras: Both laptops have a 12MP Centre Stage camera.
6. Ports, connectivity: The MacBook Air M4 has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, headphone jack, and MagSafe charging along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The MacBook Pro M4 has three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, SDXC card slot, MagSafe 3 charging, along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
7. Speakers, mic: The 15-inch MacBook Air and 14-inch MacBook Pro have a 6-speaker sound system with support for spatial audio and 3-mic array. The 13-inch MacBook Air has 4 speakers.
8. Keyboard, trackpad: The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro both have the same Magic Keyboard with a full-height function row with Touch ID and Force Touch trackpad.

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