You may remember that, before the start of the Summer Olympics in Paris, I got my hands on a MacBook Pro M3 Max and a MacBook Air. At this point you might be wondering why I would want both laptops. And the quick answer is this...I was not sure which laptop would be best for the Olympics, my photo tours, and for my photo business at home.
As it turns out, there was no easy answer as to which laptop was best for all situations, and that each had their own best use cases.
Let me start with the MacBook Pro. This laptop is larger and heavier than the MacBook Air but also has a lot more processing power and storage capabilities. When choosing a laptop for the Olympics, this was an easy decision. Since I have crazy tight deadlines for Team USA, I need all the power and speed that I can get. The MacBook Pro gives me the following advantages over the MacBook Air:
* Faster processing speed
* More storage (since the SSD option goes up to 8TB)
* More DRAM which helps decrease editing time
* Faster GPU to speed up the screen redraw
* More ports (for connecting card readers, SSDs, HDMI and more)
* Slightly larger screen (making it easier to view and retouch my images)
Not only is the MacBook Pro great for the Olympics, but I also use this computer for my photo tours in Costa Rica. Why just Costa Rica and not all the others? Because in Costa Rica we are basically in one location the whole time. This way I can take the larger and heavier laptop, knowing that I do not need to lug it all over the country. I can pop it down on my desk at the resort and never have to move it for the entire trip.
Even though the MacBook Air is not as fast as it's bigger brother, I still choose it for many of my photo tours and for those times when weight is a factor. Not only do I appreciate the lighter weight and smaller size, I also love that the power supply is tiny. This all makes for a very portable solution, which I love for all those times when I am moving from one hotel room to another. This was the case for my recent photo tour in Indochina. We were constantly on the move, changing hotels almost every night and having to travel on numerous flights, trains and buses. Every bit of weight saving was appreciated. The MacBook Air provides very good speed with the ultimate in portability. With that said, I can tell the difference in speed when working with the Air. When scrolling through images in Photo Mechanic, there are times when the image needs to render before I can see it clearly, and this never happens with the MacBook Pro. People sometimes ask me if I use the 13" MacBook Air or the 15" model and my answer is always the same. "I find it difficult to work on my images on the smaller screen and always opt for the larger size."
To recap, the MacBook Air has these advantages:
* Light weight
* Thin design
* Very small power adaptor
* Larger screen option (since 13" is not enough)
I have used the Mac laptops for the last 20 years and really prefer them to all the others. I love that Apple controls the hardware and software, making the solution more reliable than any PC (in my opinion). I also love the quality of the screens that they use. Not only are they very color accurate, but they hold calibration better than most laptops.
I hope that this helps you if you are trying to decide on which laptop you want to purchase.
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