iPad Pro vs MacBook Air

Apple's hardware lineup is becoming increasingly confusing. CHARLOTTE HENRY tries to unpick it all

- CHARLOTTE HENRY

There is little more thrilling for an Apple fan than getting to pick out a new Mac. You walk into the shop and tell the staff member which new essential work item you’re going to buy; almost as thrilling is building your perfect machine in the online store.

In recent years, that process has become a lot more confusing though. Products across the company’s range seem to have become more and more similar, and it’s not just across the Mac offerings. Some iPads are now so powerful it is hard to distinguish them from what we would traditionally think of as a laptop.

So, for example, assuming you do not need the most powerful Mac and are mostly looking for portability, do you want a MacBook Air or an iPad Pro? Making a decision based on price and features is not straightforward.

The lowest specification MacBook Air available at the time of writing contains the M1 chip, an 8–core CPU and 7–core GPU. The iPad Pro, meanwhile, also has an 8–core CPU but boasts a 10–core GPU and M2 chip. The MacBook Air does have a slightly larger display — 13.3 inches compared to 11 or 12.9 inches offered by the iPad Pro — but that is one of the only key criteria on which the laptop “wins”.

The iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 11–inch or $1,099 for the 12.9–inch display. However, including a keyboard adds either $179 (Folio Keyboard) or $299 (Magic Keyboard) to the bill. The MacBook Air costs from $999. There is a newer M2 version of the laptop available, but this doesn’t exactly help clear up the confusion. It can be purchased with a 10–core GPU and 13.6–inch display for $1,499. It all just means that both the Air laptop and the iPad Pro are running on the same Apple silicon, and depending on your needs may lead to similar costs.