MacBook Air M1 16GB vs MacBook Pro M1 for Ableton + Premiere Pro? (Limited budget, need advice)
Hey everyone,
I’m looking to buy a refurbished MacBook, but I honestly know almost nothing about laptops or tech in general. I’m really not tech-savvy when it comes to this stuff 😅
I’ve always used HP laptops before, but I now own an iPad Pro and an iPhone, and I’m starting to think it might be nice to fully switch to Apple because of the ecosystem and how smoothly everything seems to work together.
My budget is pretty limited, around €550 max right now, although I am willing to save longer if it turns out the MacBook Pro is genuinely worth it in the long run.
I mainly need the laptop for Ableton Live, Adobe apps like Photoshop and Illustrator, and Premiere Pro for video editing. I probably won’t be doing insane Hollywood-level 4K editing or anything super professional, but I do want something that runs smoothly and will last me a few years.
Right now I’m mostly looking at the MacBook Air M1 with 16GB RAM versus the MacBook Pro M1 from 2020. From what I understand, the biggest difference is that the Pro has a fan while the Air doesn’t, and that’s the part I’m struggling to understand.
Is the fan actually necessary for someone like me? I keep reading people say things like “avoid Intel Macs,” “16GB RAM is important,” and “the M1 Air is already super powerful,” but then other people say Premiere Pro really benefits from the fan in the MacBook Pro.
Since I genuinely don’t know much about specs or performance, I’d really appreciate advice from people who actually use these machines for music production or Adobe work. Would the MacBook Air M1 with 16GB RAM realistically be enough for me for the next few years, or would it be smarter to save longer and go for the MacBook Pro M1 instead? Or maybe I should buy a different one alltogether? Please help a girl out!
Thanks!