Best MacBook 2024: Which MacBook should you buy?

The MacBook Air is the cheapest way to get a Mac laptop. Starting at $999/£999, there are five standard MacBook Air models to consider: one 13-inch model with an M2 chip, two 13-inch models with an M3 chip, and two 15-inch MacBook Airs with an M3 chip.

It’s easy to think that the cheapest Mac laptop will be the one that has the best value, but that’s not necessarily the case. The M2 MacBook Air (see our M2 MacBook Air review) is the cheapest Mac laptop you can buy right now, but for another $100/£100 to get the newest machine with an M3 chip. Both models offer the same amount of storage 256GB and the same 8GB RAM as standard. With both models, you get Apple’s newest Air design with a bigger (13.6-inch vs 13.3-inch) and brighter screen (500 vs 400 nits) and more color choices (midnight, starlight, space gray, and silver, rather than space grey, silver, and gold).

While the Air has an M3 chip like the 14-inch MacBook Pro, there is a difference in performance. The Pro’s chip has a 10-core GPU standard (you can pay an extra $100 for the same chip in the Air), but the lack of a fan in the MacBook Air may mean it struggles when performing more strenuous tasks compared to the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Because the MacBook Pro has active cooling, it doesn’t need to slow down to stop overheating in processor-intensive applications. It’s probably the key difference between these Mac laptops and the reason why the Pro is better suited to more demanding applications.

Another benefit of the 14-inch MacBook Pro over the Air is longer battery life. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 offers up to 22 hours compared to 18 hours for the 13-inch MacBook Air.

However, the MacBook Air is a good choice, especially now that the entry-level MacBook Pro costs $1,599 instead of $1,299 for the previous 13-inch Pro. For $999, the M2 Air is a fantastic budget option with many of the same features as the M3 model. And for just $100 more, the newest M3 models bring even more performance.

When Apple introduced the 15-inch MacBook Air in July 2023 it answered a need for anyone who wanted a larger screen without having to fork over hundreds more for a 14-inch MacBook Pro. The 15-inch M3 MacBook Air starts at $1,299/£1,399. The 14-inch MacBook Pro now starts at $1,599/£1,699 for the M3 version, significantly less than the $1,999/£2,149 M2 Pro. But even compared to a cheaper Pro, the 15-inch Air is still a fantastic option for buyers looking for a large-screen laptop for less.

If the choice is between the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, other than the bigger screen there are a few other differences to consider. Most notably, the larger model has better audio with a six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers. Also, the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Air for $1,099/£1,149 offers an eight-core GPU, while the entry-level 15-inch Air, which is $200/£250 more at $1,299/£1,399, offers a 10-core GPU. To get the same GPU option in the 13-inch Air you’d need to pay an extra $100/£100. The price gap is so small that we think it’s worth getting the 15-inch model unless you really want a smaller screen.

Apple has discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Pro and replaced it in the lineup with an M3 version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro (you can’t get the M3 in the 16-inch MacBook Pro). This move brings many benefits: it’s not just bigger, the 14-inch MacBook’s HDR ProMotion display is significantly better than the 13-inch model’s. It also offers twice the storage, HDMI, SDXC slot, better battery life, and a newer design. Mind you, the 14-inch model, while starting at the lower price of $1,599/£1,699 (versus $1,999/£2,149 for the M2 Pro model), is quite a bit higher than the $1,299/£1,349 price that the 13-inch model sold for. 

The higher starting price for the M3 MacBook Pro also means the difference between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is wider than it was. Apple did sell two almost identically specced machines for a very similar price. But now the 14-inch MacBook Pro costs an astonishing $500/£550 more than the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Air. The MacBook Pro now has a better screen, better battery life, and other benefits. It is also a chip generation ahead, but that is unlikely to be the case for long and when Apple updates the MacBook Air it will make the choice even simpler. So if budget is what is important to you. save your money and buy a MacBook Air–but wait until the M3 model arrives since it will support up to 24GB RAM. Speaking of RAM, we don’t think the standard 8GB RAM is enough.

If, however, you upgrade a 15-inch MacBook Air to make a more powerful machine, the gap between it and the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 isn’t as large as you might think. If you up the amount of RAM (Unified Memory) from 8GB to 16GB, and upgrade the SSD to 512GB (the 256GB SSD is known to be slower), MacBook Air would cost $1,699/£1,799, which is $100/£100 more than the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro which comes with the same 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 512GB SSD, while the 16GB Unified Memory update would add another $200/£200. These two similarly specced models have very similar prices. Just wait for the M3 MacBook Air to arrive.

At the same time that it introduced the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro, Apple also introduced the M3 Pro and M3 Max. Both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro can be bought with various configurations of those two chips. You don’t need to buy a 16-inch MacBook Pro to get the best specs. 

For those deciding between the 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch model the best place to start is to compare like-for-like. The 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU M3 Pro with 18GB unified memory and 1TB SSD 14-inch MacBook Pro costs $2,399/£2,499 compared to the almost identically specced 16-inch model with 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU M3 Pro with 18GB unified memory and 512GB SSD for $2,499/£2,599. So you are paying $100/£100 more to get a larger screen, but also forfeiting half the SSD. If you want an equivalent 1TB SSD in the 16-inch that’s an extra $200/£200.

On the other hand, if you are considering spending more to get the M3 Pro rather than the M3 in a MacBook Pro, the price difference is much greater. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU M3, with 8GB Unified Memory and 512GB SSD costs $1,599/£1,699, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro with 11-core CPU and 14-core GPU M3 Pro, 18GB Unified Memory and 512GB SSD costs $400/£400 more at $1,999/£2,099. The jump from M3 to M3 Pro is an expensive one, but you are getting a lot for your money: more memory, more cores, essentially a more powerful machine in every way.  

But if you don’t have that kind of budget then the M3 MacBook Pro has proven to be equal to the M2 Pro in terms of performance when measured by Geekbench 6.

The entry-level 16-inch MacBook Pro essentially offers the same specs (12-core CPU, 18-core GPU, 18GB memory) as the top-of-the-range 14-inch MacBook Pro for just £100/$100 more, $2,399/£2,499 vs $2,499/£2,599 which to be fair doesn’t seem like a bad deal given the larger screen and increased battery life.

The other big difference though is that the 14-inch MacBook in question comes with a 1TB SSD, while the 16-inch model only offers 512GB. If you really want that 1TB SSD in the 16-inch MacBook Pro it will cost you an extra £200/$200. So that’s really a difference of £300/$300 if you want the bigger screen and battery.

Back to the 14-inch model–what if you want an even more powerful machine? The M3 Max chip will offer that and more to you, but there is a high price to pay with the difference between the standard M3 Pro and M3 Max models being $800/£800.

If you want more memory then the M3 Max is the way to go though. This is not just because the M3 Max can support 48GB, 64GB, 96GB and 128GB Unified Memory, while the M3 Pro only offers 18GB or 36GB Unified Memory. The M3 Pro MacBook Pro ships with 18GB memory as standard while the M3 Max model ships with 36GB memory as standard. That 36GB memory, if you added it to the M3 Pro model as a build-to-order option would cost you an extra $400/£400, bringing the price to $2,799/£2,899, which is still $400/£400 less than the entry-level M3 Max at $3,199/£3,299, but you do get more 14-core CPU, 30-core GPU rather than a 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU. So you are getting a lot for your money if you choose the M3 Max. 

Read about why one of our editors sent their M3 Pro back and switched to an M3 Max.

The story is much the same if you are considering the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The leap from M3 Pro to M3 Max if you look at the standard options is $600/£600, but if you were to up the RAM in the M3 Pro model to 36GB then that would be $400/£400, leaving a difference of $200/£200 for the 14-core CPU, 30-core GPU (compared to the 12-core CPU/18-core GPU of the M3 Pro).

If you need the M3 Max Apple is making the upgrade worthwhile, but it’s still a high price to pay.