Me (postdoc) and my wife (PhD), both working in plant biotechnology, are planning to buy a macbook as both of our laptops are on their latest part of their life and we want something that will last us for at least 5 years (or more).
I previously had a 2012 macbook pro that last me about 10 years (with 16 GB of RAM and 512 SSD upgrades), so I naturally wanted a Pro but when I compared the specs and realized that I could have the same specs in the macbook air (M5 chips, 24 GB RAM, and 1TB SSD) and in the pro for a lesser price, I started wondering if just a nicer screen, speakers, ports and a fan is worth the bigger price.
Our usage would be mainly for analysing general lab small datasets, and once in while analysing large omics datasets with R and python, asides for the basic browsing, reading, personal usage.
We are also on a budget as we are living abroad so we want to make the right decision.
Even though 512 is pretty ok and we already have 1 TB of icloud storage (family plan) I think 1 TB would be nice in the long run.
About the RAM, because of these days costs and the fact that the apple prices have not skyrocketed as others, we think it would be wise to pay extra for the 24 GB.
What do you think, would the Air be the best option?
How many years would it last?
Thank you in advance for your help!