MacBook Buying Guide for 2025 — Air or Pro?

MacBook Buying Guide for 2025.

So now that we have
the MacBook Air with the M4 chip,

we have the M4 Pros,
the M4 Maxes, and stuff like that.

Basically, we have the whole line-up.

I wanted to go through what I think

are the ones worth buying,

which ones are maybe--

Maybe you should avoid.

And sort of just going through

which one you should buy

based on

what you're going to use the machine for,

because I think pretty much

all of the MacBooks for sale, right now,

from Apple brand new,

are all good buys.

Now, of course,

some of them are better buys than others,

which I wanted to go through in this video.

So I have a bunch of MacBooks here.

I have the 13 inch Air,

I have the 15 inch Air,

this 15 inch Air, by the way,

it's it's an older model,

it's M2,

but I just have it here

for demonstration purposes

to show you the size difference, basically.

And then I have 14 inch Pro,

I don't have a 16 inch Pro on hand,

but just imagine this but a bit bigger

and a bit thicker.

I have a table here,

which I'll put on screens

that you guys can see.

In the table,

I have the MacBook Air 13 inch,

the MacBook Air 15 inch,

the MacBook Pro 14 inch with the M4 chip,

the MacBook Pro 14 inch
with the M4 Pro chip

and the MacBook Pro 16 inch
with the M4 Pro chip.

So all of these are the base models.

I am primarily going to be covering
the base models.

Now, when it comes to sort of upgrading

the base models

with different options and stuff,

of course, there is the so-called
Apple tax, right?

They do charge a premium

for upgrading the models.

So I would highly recommend actually

trying to stick with the base models

as much as possible

and then only upgrading

if you absolutely need to

on unified memory and storage.

Because right now

what makes the Air models

so, so good value

is that they've lowered the price,

Apple have lowered the price,

which is unheard of,

they never lower the prices
of their products.

They have lowered the price of the M4 Air,

both the 13 inch and the 15 inch.

You can now save $100 on them.

So it starts as $1,000.

At $1,000, the M4 Air really is

absolutely incredible value.

I can't state enough

how good value this is.

This is one of the best value laptops, period.

I don't know why

you would consider anything else

when you're looking for a laptop

around the thousand dollar mark.

It also has now
the upgraded unified memory.

So before, 8 GB was the minimum.

Now, it's 16 GB.

And let me tell you,

I've been using this over the last week

for all of my work,

and I've kind of just realised that 16 GB,

even for the heavy stuff that I do,

is fine.

If it's fine for me,

with what I'm doing,

video editing, photo editing,

sort of heavy stuff,

then for everyone else

who's doing a lot less intensive stuff,

they are going to be completely fine.

This is out of all of the MacBooks,

I think, out of everything in the line-up,

this is the best value MacBook

you can get right now.

However,

if you're not interested in a MacBook,

bit of a sidetrack here,

if you're not intered in a MacBook,

and you have a monitor,

you have a keyboard and mouse,

this is actually the best value Mac.

This is the Mac Mini with M4 chip.

Yeah, if you don't need a MacBook,

and you're happy to have
your computer on a desk

connected to an external monitor

or whatever else,

then yeah, this is the best value.

But considering that you're paying $1,000

and you're getting a display,

a keyboard, mouse,

everything all in this one package

which you can carry around,

which is also incredibly thin,

blows me away every time,

when I look at this thing,

how thin it is.

It is so, so thin.

It's just insane.

Yeah, this is by far
the best value machine.

With the base model M4 Air,

you get the 10-core CPU

and the 8-core GPU.

But if you do upgrade to the 15 inch Air,

you get the 10-core CPU

and the 10-core GPU.

So you get two extra GPU cores
with the 15 inch Air.

But with the 15 inch Air,

the only reason you would choose this

is for the larger screen size.

I don't think there is anything else
really going for it,

because you are paying $200 extra

for the larger screen size.

I think this actually makes it

one of the worst value MacBooks
in the line-up,

but that doesn't mean it's bad.

It's like saying

all of them are amazing

and one is just less amazing
than the other.

That's the way it is.

So yeah, if you really want that 15 inch size,

and you don't want
the 16 inch MacBook Pro,

which is quite bulky and big and thick,

then yeah, it probably makes sense.

Maybe it might make sense for you

to spend that $200

to go for the 15 inch Air.

I think either of the MacBook Airs

are great for anyone

who is just doing simple day-to-day stuff

like you're browsing the web,

you're maybe editing
the odd video here and there

doing some odd photo editing,

spreadsheets, documents,

anything like that.

This is going to be
completely fine for you.

Because I've been using it for the past week,

it has made me realise

how this pretty much covers 80 to 90%

of what I need it to do.

I'm only paying the extra

with these sort of M4 Pro, M4 Pro Max,

the 14 inch MacBook Pro.

Just so that the sort of
10, 20% frustration

that I get from this

is handled by these machines.

That's really it.

The other limiting factor with these

is that you do only have
two Thunderbolt ports.

They are Thunderbolt 4, which is good.

You have two Thunderbolt ports

and obviously you have
the MagSafe charging,

which is nice.

So you can still have the two ports free

while you are charging the device.

There is, of course, a headphone jack,

but maybe it would have been nice

to have maybe an extra Thunderbolt port.

But I think a lot of people

who are buying a machine like this

probably aren't actually connecting it up

to many peripherals very often.

So I can see why they have
two Thunderbolt ports in here,

it's probably enough for most people.

Battery life on these machines
is up to 18 hours

depending on your usage.

And yeah, you will have
no issue whatsoever

going through a full day

without having to connect it up to power.

Unless you're doing something
like super heavy,

like video editing or something like that.

Most people are going
to be able to go a full day

without having to connect to power.

And that's the experience
that I've been having

with these two machines.

If you do feel like you need
to upgrade the storage

on either of the Airs,

I would think very, very carefully,

I would think very hard

about how often

and how much storage do you actually need

and is it worth instead

buying an external SSD, an external drive.

Because you can get drives

which are much thinner than this,

This is quite thick,

but you can get drives,

which are much thinner

that can just fit in a bag or whatever,

fit in your pocket

and you can have extra storage

without having to pay the sort of
premium Apple tax,

because they're charging $200

each time you wanna upgrade the storage,

which is a lot of money.

For $200,

you can get a 2 TB
external drive no issues,

and you'll be completely fine
with these machines.

---So think very, very hard

if you do actually need
to upgrade the storage

because I don't think it is worth it

unless you have a very specific use case.

Next up, bang in the middle of the line-up,

is the MacBook Pro 14 inch
with the M4 chip,

not the M4 Pro chip but the M4 chip,

the same chip that you get in the Airs.

That model goes for $1,599.

You get 16 GB of unified memory

and you get 512 GB of SSD storage.

But there are some other benefits
to that model.

You get three Thunderbolt 4 ports,

so an extra port compared
to the standard Airs,

you get an SD card slot,

and you get an HDMI port.

So there's a lot more connectivity

when it comes to the 14 inch.

But the 14 inch is thicker and heavier.

I have the 14 inch here.

And yeah, it's such a big difference

compared to the 13 inch.

The 13 inch is so light.

This is actually quite bulky,

even though it's not even a 16 inch.

This is a 14 inch.

I don't have any issues
carrying it with me,

when I'm travelling,

when I'm going on holiday,

when I'm going for any work trips
or anything like that.

It's not an issue carrying it.

And it's also my personal favourite,

the 14 inch size.

For me it makes a lot more sense.

I actually think the 16 inch
is too big for me,

especially because if I do need
the extra screen estate,

I usually just connect it
to an external monitor.

The other huge benefit
of the 14 inch Pro

over the Air

is the better display.

You get 120 Hz has ProMotion display,

which is also Mini LED.

It's big significant difference

compared to the Air.

It also is double the brightness.

The Air is a 500 nits in brightness,

but the 14 inch Pro goes
to a 1,000 nits in brightness

and that's sustained.

It can even go up to 1,600

when you're watching HDR content.

So if you plan to use your laptop outside

and maybe in brightly lit rooms

like cafes or whatever else,

yeah, that can actually make
a big, big difference.

Just being able to see
what you're working on.

The battery life as well is 6 hours more

compared to the Airs.

Naturally, because it's a thicker machine

they can fit a thicker battery in it.

So if you are someone
who wants better battery life,

who wants a better screen,

who wants the ports and stuff like that,

but you're happy with the performance
of an M4 chip,

this is, I think, actually
pretty worth the upgrade.

I think $1,599 that it goes,

I think that is actually
a good price for it.

In the past,

I wouldn't have recommended the laptop

in the middle of the line-up,

but right now,

if you don't wanna spend $2,000

going up to the M4 Pro machines,

yeah, $1,600 dollars,

I think this is really good value.

You're getting a lot

more sort of Pro features

compared to the standard Air.

And then the 14 inch Pro

with the M4 Pro chip,

it goes for $2,000.

So you are spending $400 more
compared to the one below it,

which just has the M4 chip.

But you do get the M4 Pro chip

and as the name suggests,

that's a Pro chip, Pro level chip,

you also get 24 GB of unified memory.

So 16 GB,

16 GB, 16 GB,

but 24 GB when you go up to this model.

So for the $400 extra,

you're essentially getting the same design,

the same chassis,

all the same ports and everything,

but you're getting the M4 Pro chip

and you're getting 24 GB
of unified memory.

Again, that's actually,

I think, worth the money.

I think that's worth the price that it goes for.

For $2,000,

it's a Pro level machine,

people who are buying this machine

are usually buying it

for specific use cases,

which are probably tied to their job

or tied to them making money

in some way or another.

So it really is incredible value, I think.

I think

if you're someone

who does sort of any video editing,

AI work,

photo editing or anything like that,

this is the best value machine

this is what this machine is perfect for.

I think the only reason

you'd be going up to the M4 Max chips

is if you're looking for very heavy stuff.

But I think

people who are interested in those chips

already know what they need

and what they want.

They already have a good idea

of how capable the machines are.

They're simply just adding
incremental things

that will make a difference
to their workflow.

The base model, M4 Pro chip

has the 12 core CPU

and the 16 core GPU,

so it is a big jump up

from the standard M4,

which has a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU.

Yeah, the GPU cores, especially,

will make a big difference

for any sort of just art-related stuff

and video-related stuff,

it just makes a big difference.

You also have the Media Engine and stuff.

But I think they all have Media Engines now,

as far as I can remember,

I don't have it written down here.

The battery life, though,
is less compared to the M4

because it's M4 Pro,

it obviously uses more power,

but it's around 2 hours less,

so 22 hours,

24 hours, 22 hours.

22 hours is still a lot.

You're going to be fine
throughout the day.

I think, though,

if you're someone
who does heavy video editing,

from my experience,

when I've been video editing on this,

on the M4 Pro

or the M4 Max,

any of those chips,

it lasts around 4 to 6 hours.

That's all I'm doing for those hours.

So that can kill battery life
very, very quickly.

But with these machines,

you do get the upgraded
power supply as well,

the charger,

which charges the machines quicker

than it does the Air models.

I think the Air models,

you can choose between 35 or 60 watt.

But with these,
I think they're like 70 and 96,

and even 140 watts

for the 16 inch models.

So yeah, you do have
the upgraded power supplies,

which makes it easier
to keep them topped up.

This is my personal favourite,

so my machine actually has
the M4 Max chip.

It also has upgraded unified memory,

and it has upgraded storage up to 4 TB.

So I paid a big premium for that 4 TB,

even though it starts at a 512.

I have a very specific use case.

For my work and for everything I do,

this is worth the upgrade

because, basically,

my work easily pays for it.

It just easily, easily pays for it.

This is just actually quite a small expense

considering how much

work I can get done on it

and how much it helps my business.

I also much prefer the 14 inch size

over the 16 inch size

because I travel quite a lot for work

and I'm moving around a lot.

I just prefer the smaller form factor

over the 16 inch.

It just makes more sense for me.

And I think this design as well,

it's pretty much perfect.

Obviously would be nice
if it was thinner,

like the Air,

but then you're obviously
not gonna get the thermal

output sort of capacity

and the better sort of
battery performance.

But this is an incredible machine.

---- This is so, so good.

And I've been very, very happy

since I bought it in October, November,

whenever the M4 line of chips

came into the MacBook Pros.

Next up is a 16 inch.

So I don't have a 16 inch here,

but the 16 inch MacBook Pro
starts at $2,499.

It has the M4 Pro chip,

but it's actually an upgraded version

of the one that's in the 14 inch Pro.

So instead of a 12-core CPU,

you get a 14-core CPU,

and instead of 16-core GPU,

you get a 20-core GPU,

everything else stays the same.

So you still get the 24 GB
of Unified Memory,

the 512 GB of SSD storage,

the screen and everything is all the same,

but obviously it's just bigger.

You get the 16 inch size.

And 16 inches is big, guys,

I've used a 16 inch and it is massive.

It's much bigger than you expect.

This already looks quite big, the 15 inch,

and then the 16 inches
is obviously a whole inch bigger,

so it definitely makes a big difference.

If you're someone who does work

a lot on the go

and you don't have access

to an external display

on a regular basis,

I do think the 16 inch

just makes the most sense.

Also, if you're someone

who's doing a lot of heavy

sort of graphic intensive,

CPU intensive work,

and you need to upgrade the chip

to the M4 Max or whatever it might be,

Yeah, it just makes a big difference.

I think that machine is obviously

the top dog for a reason,

but you are paying
top dollar for it as well.

The other benefit of that machine

because it's bigger,

you also have a bigger battery,

so the battery does last longer

and you also get the 140 watt charger,

so you can charge it more quickly.

The 16 inch is definitely much more

just targeted towards the pros.

For the price that you're paying,

everything that you get
with that machine,

I think most people

who are probably interested in the 16 inch

probably aren't even watching this video.

They know a lot more

the sort of technical output
of that machine.

But I think for people

who are watching this video,

you're probably more interested

in sort of the Airs and the Pros.

The sort of base model Pros,

and comparing them

and seeing what makes sense for you.

By the way, for anyone interested

in the difference between Space Black,

Space Gray, and Silver,

I have all three colours here.

So we have Space Black,
Space Gray, and Silver.

I am, of course, biased towards Space Black.

I just think it looks incredible.

But here,

I feel like they almost look very similar,

the Space Gray and the Space Black,

but in person,

the Space Black is definitely darker.

It's hard to show on camera really.

Maybe at this angle you guys can see.

Depending on the light on the machine,

you can see how much it changes.

And then there's the Silver.

I actually like the Silver
more than I expected.

I think it looks really clean.

Like I said earlier,

if you're going to get
any of these machines,

think very hard about

if you need to upgrade
the Unified Memory

and the storage.

I think the Unified Memory right now

across all the machines is pretty good.

16 GB on the Airs

is more than enough for most people.

I think, like I said,

for the edge cases,

like the 10, 20% edge cases,

you might need to upgrade

to the other machines,

but you've gotta really think about it.

A lot of people who are
also buying these machines

want them to last a long time.

So, say you want to buy a MacBook

that lasts around five years or more.

Let's just say five years or more.

I think all of them

are actually a good choice,

which is insane to say.

Any MacBook that you choose in the line-up,

any of the base models,

are all going to last five years or more.

I've had personal MacBook Airs,
older ones,

last ten years, which is just outrageous.

I've had to change the battery

because the batteries have sort of died,

but it's easy to change the battery.

MacBooks are designed to last a long time.

So don't worry too much about, you know,

is it gonna to feel old in a year or two?

It will not.

I think these machines

are going to last

four, five, six years quite easily.

I would also think about these machines

as an investment.

So I've written down a few things here.

How much time will it help you save.

Are there any current
frustrations that you have

with your current laptop

that it might solve?

Will it help you make money

or get your job done quicker?

I think that one is a very important one,

because if a machine
is gonna help you make money,

or get your job done quicker,

then surely it's worth the investment.

How much will you use it every day

and what are you going to use it for?

So very much,

do think about these as investments.

Don't think of them as toys.

I think a lot of people think,

"Oh, MacBook, it's just a fancy toy, whatever."

No, no, no, no.

I think especially the Pro models,

think of them as investments.

Think of them as

how are they gonna help you
day-to-day,

how they're gonna help you

with your work, with your job,

with making money, all this sort of stuff.

The reason why I'm happy to spend

$3,000, $4,000, $5,000

on a MacBook

for myself is because I know for my work

and for what I do

that is well worth it.

That's actually a very small cost

in the grand scheme of things,

of how much I make.

It's just a very small investment,

but it's such a good investment.

So very much do think of it like that.

Also, something
I would highly recommend,

if you don't care about
getting the latest or greatest,

look at the older models.

Look at an M2 chip or an M3 chip,

especially the Pro machines

and the Max machines.

Those machines are still amazing right now.

This machine in particular here
is actually the M1 Max

and it is still ridiculously powerful,

it still handles pretty much
everything I throw at it.

I've upgraded to the M4 Max specifically

just for like the storage,

the Unified Memory.

But when you look at the older models,

with those chips in them,

they're also still gonna

last three, four or five years.

They're so, so powerful.

And you can save a lot of money

by going for one of those models.

Whether it be on Apple's refurbished section,

they do have a refurbished section

on the website

which actually updates daily.

So when you see products on there

you gotta be quick,

they go quite quickly,

But obviously you can look
on Amazon, eBay,

for renewed or refurbished models,
for older models

because they're usually going

for quite a heavy discount.

And if you wanna save some money

and you don't care about
getting the latest or greatest,

that is such a good way
to save a lot of money.

So just to quickly wrap up,

if you're someone
who's doing standard work,

Word processing, Excel stuff,

and you just need maybe
the odd sort of

video editing or photo editing,

the Airs are great value.

These machines are fantastic.

If you're someone who's looking
for a Pro level machine,

I think you already know the answer.

If you're someone
who's doing very heavy video editing,

AI work, photo editing,

whatever it might be,

then yeah, the Pros obviously make sense.

Right now, I don't think
any of the machines are bad value.

They're all really good value.

And, you know,

if you don't even need a MacBook,

you still have the Mac Mini.

And you can connect this up

to like a display or whatever.

And you still have great value here.

It's just really impressive to me

that Apple are now at the stage

where all of their machines

are pretty much good value.

Upgrading them,

maybe it's a great value,

but the machines themselves,

the base models,

they're all really great machines.

Make sure to check out
one of my other videos.

I've done videos on the best
Mac displays for Macs right now.

If you wanna connect it
to an external display,

I've also done a Mac accessories video.

Hopefully, you guys enjoyed it.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter.

And subscribe for more.

[closing gentle music]