I prefer 16gb ram for future OSX updates

Air with 16gb out of these two but if possible I would go for M1 Mac pro 16gb/512gb from Amazon or refurbished from Apple Store (they are almost brand new).

That 8GB will work but pushing it day and day out will hurt in future and you won’t need the fan from Pro based on your usage. I’ve had my m1 air base for 3 years and it worked great and got me through grad school as well but now with just 5 tabs on Firefox it starts feeling laggy and uses swap right away. Now I got a Mac mini with 24gb for extensive dev work!

You’ll be happy with either but make the right choice so you don’t have to buy a new one in a few years. Hope this helped!

Officeworks has the best deals ever. Will always buy macs from them from now on. Depends on what u want. Apple is shit for the way they price it, a fan is great for performance and future proofing but so is ram. Idk, ur choice, I would get the MacBook Pro, because it has better everything than the Air, however if you do ram intensive tasks then I would consider a refurb M1 14 pro

The Air.

Macbook Air

Go with the MacBook Air or find a 16gb MacBook Pro because 8gb will not be enough for anyone

Easily the Pro. Better display, speakers, chip, connectivity, ports, etc.

Any possibility you can get the pro with 16gb ram? Maybe refurbished?

If you value a slight boost to portability and no fans/noise the air. If you value some extra ports and a higher refresh rate the pro.

I use my MacBook more heavily than you and I chose the m2 air, for what it’s worth

they both awful offer since for 2600 I got an M3 pro 1TB

Neither if you don’t want to get ripped off.

Go for M3 (18GB Ram) 512 GB

Neither of those two. Get a M1 air, till take care of everything you’ll need and waaaaaay cheaper. You can also spend the extra money saved for bigger storage and or ram.

If you can upgrade the M3 to the M3 Pro or 16GB I strongly recommend that one.

There is a Big Performance differences between those 2. Not to mention the Screen Quality is also Waaaay Better.

I do have to say the M3 is better. I know people are saying go with the 16GB and I fully understand it, but I don’t think they are weighing the whole MacBook Pro.

This is how it is Basically.

Pro’s on M3 are Everything Except Ram.

On M2 Air Cons are Everything Except Ram.

For what you are doing 8GB should be fine. Not to mention you will be getting a Stronger Chip more Future Proof a Way better Display Brighter and Twice the Resolution with ProMotion and so much more.

That is my take. I personally have the M3 Pro MacBook Pro in Space Black.

On Day 1 though I bought the M3 Silver over the same thing as you and I was happy. Only upgraded because in Best Buy the M3 Pro got a big Discount that for 200$ more I was able to upgrade to the M3 Pro.

I would say look into it yourself.

For what you do 8GBs are enough and the new M3 MacBook Pro will take you further with a much better experience.

Again please go to YouTube and look at Comparisons.

Most everyone says Ram is the way, in this case there is so much more to account for.

Again Display, Performance etc. I for your case do recommend the M3 but I would still say Again lol, look into them and make your choice since you will be the one using it.

Also, if you watch a lot of Videos/Movies/Shows on the MacBook Pro than Again the Mini LED higher brightness Display of the M3 would be better not to mention the Speakers.

M2 with 16GB is better.

8GB of RAM, no matter how much Apple likes to say otherwise, is not the equivalent of 16GB on PC and 8GB is barely enough to run a web browser + a random program.

8GB is the bare minimum you want for casual use. You need/want more for photo and video editing.