The score of the college entrance examination is on the edge of the undergraduate line. Should you find a professional that you have read in a college, or do you want to squeeze into an undergraduate school?

Hands 200,000, should you buy a top-class A-class car, or buy a B-class car with an entry configuration?

There are many similar problems in life. With the recent update of the MacBook Air with the original color display and the entry-level MacBook Pro, if you want to buy a MacBook for about 10,000 yuan, I believe you will encounter similar problems:

The price difference is four hundred. Should I buy a high MacBook Air or a low MacBook Pro?

Portability: Air’s aura does not bring much difference

Since Steve Jobs took the original MacBook Air from the kraft envelope, this product line has always been a light and thin route.

But if you decide which one to pick by the lightness, it may not be appropriate.

Apple updated the MacBook Air mold last year. Compared to the previous generation of molds, the new mold lost its luminous logo representing the soul, in exchange for lighter weight and a three-dimensional circle.

The new 2019 is exactly the same as last year in both 3D and weight: weighs 1.25 kg, 21.24 x 30.41 x 1.56 cm (the thickest).

The weight and three-dimensional of the entry MacBook Pro: 1.37 kg, 21.24×30.41×1.49CM.

From this set of data, we can draw three conclusions:

  • In terms of weight, the difference between the two is 120g, which is even less than the weight of a mobile phone.
  • The projected area on the A side is exactly the same.
  • The thickest part of the MacBook Air is even thicker than the MacBook Pro.

Because the MacBook Air uses a “blade design,” it is actually visually thinner than the MacBook Pro. Of course, from the paper data, the former is indeed a little lighter than the latter.

But, is this 120g really sensible?

If you take these two computers in your hands and measure them, the weight between the two is really sensible.

But if you look at the combination of the scene, in fact, this 120g is not so obvious.

Recalling the usage scenario, my computer is mostly used on the desk, and the weight difference is almost insignificant.

Of course, I will put it on my lap and hold it in my hand. However, these situations often only occur when the airport is waiting for a flight and need to stand on these small probability scenes when the meeting is not enough.

And believe that the usage scenarios of most people are similar.

As for you, can you perceive it with your back? After using the backpack, I divided the 120g into two shoulders. To be honest, I have not perceived any gaps.

So you said that portability can open the gap? I don’t think so anymore.

Touch Bar: Even if it doesn’t, I don’t feel sorry.

Before, the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro is not equipped with a Touch Bar. After this upgrade, all MacBook Pros are equipped with this advanced shortcut menu bar.

With or without the Touch Bar, it’s the most intuitive difference between the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air after opening the screen.

So, what about the Touch Bar?

In fact, in 2016, after Apple added the Touch Bar to the MacBook Pro, I started a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar.

It’s a pity that three years have passed, and even though the app has been getting better and better for the Touch Bar, I still haven’t developed the habit of using it.

The reason is one, it seems convenient, and the actual is not efficient.

In fact, whether it is the system level or the third-party application plugged into the Touch Bar can be achieved through the keyboard combination. With the shortcut key, it is more convenient and quicker to click the Touch Bar located above than to remove the handle from the keyboard.

Some people may think that this is an editor, as a text worker, because the use of the scene is limited, can not really play the real use of the Touch Bar.

In fact, I also asked some of my friends who designed and made videos. According to their feedback, although many professional software will integrate some functions such as color correction and editing timeline on the Touch Bar. However, in fact, due to insufficient operating space, insufficient operational accuracy, etc., they rarely use the Touch Bar.

And compared to the Touch Bar, I think the Touch ID will be more practical. After three years, I’m used to using it to unlock and pay for the App Store.

So even if the MacBook Air doesn’t have a Touch Bar, I don’t feel a pity at all, and seeing the Touch ID on it is the place that really excites me.

Speaking of the B side, we will mention the butterfly keyboard that has been updated again. This update is actually to replace the film covering the button switch in the keyboard from polyacetylene to polyamide. According to the data, the latter will be more durable and will not age for a long time.

This is actually to solve the problem that the butterfly keyboard that has been criticized for a long time will have viscous or inconsistent key feedback.

But obviously Apple has no confidence in this improvement. Because the new computer was introduced, it has been included in Apple’s own keyboard warranty plan.

As for the feel, I really don’t feel any difference with the 2018 model, but compared with my 2016 first-generation butterfly keyboard, I can feel that it has improved.

But, from poor progress to poor, is it worthy of praise?

Performance: This is really the home of MacBook Pro

Before comparing performance, let’s take a look at the configuration of the two computers.

2019 models with MacBook Air:

CPU: 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz)

GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 617

Memory: 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3

Hard Disk: 256GB PCIe Solid State Drive

2019 Starter Edition MacBook Pro:

CPU: 1.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz)

GPU: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645

Memory: 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3

Hard Disk: 128GB Solid State Drive

In order to visually reflect the new performance compared to the previous generation’s improvement, and the gap between the two, we also ran a point through GeekBench.

We can see from the running scores that the MacBook Air has not improved significantly compared to the previous generation. But the new MacBook Pro, even with the Starter Edition, is already comparable to the previous generation.

This is actually what everyone is expecting, because the new generation of Air does not update the processor. The new generation of entry-level MacBook Pro has been upgraded from dual-core to quad-core.

In a nutshell, the MacBook Air is on the go, and the entry-level MacBook Pro is a big step.

If you compare this generation of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air separately, the gap is also very obvious. Although the score on the single core is small, the gap is small. But after all, the MacBook Air has only dual cores, and the MacBook Pro is quad-core, so in the multi-core results, the MacBook Pro is almost rolling.

As for image processing, although both MacBook Pros use integrated graphics, the gap in graphics processing is still very obvious, as can be seen from the scores of OpenCL.

Before foreign media mentioned that the new MacBook Air is slower in reading and writing speed of the hard disk than the old one.

To verify this claim, we also found a 2018 MacBook Air to be tested with the BlackMagic Disk Speed ​​Test. The results are as follows:

From the results, the new MacBook Air is actually slower than reading the 2018, and the gap is more obvious than the MacBook Pro.

Therefore, the conclusion is obvious. In terms of hardware performance, the new entry-level MacBook Pro is an entry-level model, but it can be said to be crushed compared to the top-of-the-line MacBook Air. The only downside is probably the 128GB hard drive.

If you want to combine the use of the scene, if it is just a simple document processing, web browsing, etc., bothCan be competent. And if your use involves image processing, video editing, or even some simple modeling work, then MacBook Pro is the only choice.

Life: about the difference “60 East”

The MacBook Air is equipped with a 49.9 watt-hour lithium polymer battery, while the MacBook Pro is equipped with 58.2 watt hours.

Although the battery capacity of the latter is larger, the MacBook Pro is not as good as the MacBook Air in terms of battery life due to the different power consumption of the processor and the work of the Touch Bar.

In fact, I also used the two machines to conduct a one-day actual use test to see how much the battery life gap between the two is.

Because it was a test, I specifically controlled the variables: the brightness was adjusted to 75%, and the network was always in Wi-Fi connection.

In one day of use, I spend most of my time browsing and editing documents on the web, and three hours of it will connect to AirPods and play music through Apple Music. There will be an hour of online video playback at noon.

With this intensity of use, the MacBook Air adhered to nearly 9 hours of usage time of nearly 9 hours. The MacBook Pro has only bottomed out for more than 7 hours.

obvious conclusions

As stated at the beginning of the article, the whole article is actually only about a problem: in the case of similar prices, should you buy a top MacBook Air or buy an entry-level MacBook Pro?

We also analyzed it from portability, the impact of Touch Bar, performance and battery life.

In terms of portability, since the MacBook Pro has done a great job, even if the MacBook Air is still a bit lighter, it is really only a little bit, and it is hard to detect it in actual use.

The Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro can only be said to be the icing on the cake. It’s enough to have a Touch ID on your MacBook Air.

In terms of performance, the MacBook Air is just a step away from the previous generation, and even the hard disk read and write has regressed. The introduction of the MacBook Pro is quite sincere, and it is not too much compared to the MacBook Air.

Someone may say that I really just took the codeword and looked at the documentation, not using such strong performance.

Follow a sentence I said before writing a new iPad Air review:

Performance is like deposit, you can’t use it, but you can’t have it.

At the end of the battery life, in actual use, under the same intensity of use, MacBook Air will be more durable than MacBook Pro, probably will be “60 East”. But think of more powerful performance, I will choose to forgive.

The final summary, I believe it is also very simple, one sentence can be summarized: 2019 entry version MacBook Pro, really incense.