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Comment by hwc | Hacker News Reader

Other than battery mass and screen size, is there a significant difference between the new Macbook Air and the low-end Macbook Pro?

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Compared to the M4 MacBook Air, the base M4 MacBook Pro has

- Larger display with higher resolution and DPI

- Brighter display (1000nits vs 500nits) with mini-LED backlight, local dimming, and HDR

- 120Hz display

- 24hr battery life vs 18hr

- Active fan cooling vs passive cooling

- 6 speakers vs 4 speakers

- 3 TB4/USB-C ports vs 2

- HDMI port

- SDXC card reader

https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Air-M4,...

There are quite a few little differences like screen brightness, number of displays in can drive, faster unified memory, etc...

https://www.macrumors.com/guide/macbook-air-vs-macbook-pro/

There is no difference in the number of screens supported when it comes to the base M4 chip.

The better screen and better keyboard are probably the most day to day practical reasons to upgrade. But that’s countered by the extra weight and thickness of the Pro, too. So it’s really a choice of mobility versus usage ergonomics.

The Pro is also fan cooled, but with Apple Silicon I’m not sure that matters all that much at this performance band. If you need fan cooled performance you probably want to start thinking about a Pro level SoC, at which point you’re all in on a Pro machine anyway.

Is the Pro fan cooled? I have never heard a fan on my M2 Pro.

Yes.

120hz display

Active cooling on the pro.

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