A. Aside from the stated specification, the Pros have an improved screen, more Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, and an SD Card reader. Most importantly, the Pros are cooled by fans, where the cooling in the Air is achieved passively. Even if both machines are using the same processor, the Air will need to throttle its speed once it builds up too much heat. The Pro will turn its fan speed up to compensate while maintaining its performance level. The result of this is that both machines will run at the same speed at the beginning of a task, but after a few short minutes the Air’s speed will decrease significantly compared to the Pro.
A. We recommend trying to find one in the Certified Refurbished section on Apple’s website. These have been refurbished by Apple, and you can also purchase Apple Care insurance on these models. The stock in this section is limited and changes from day to day.
If you go outside of the Apple store, make sure you purchase from a certified Apple retailer. We have had numerous students over the years try to save money from an online marketplace, only to realize that what they purchased was either faulty or not the stated specification. This resulted in them falling behind on assignments while they tried to purchase a new laptop mid semester. Some were not even able to return their original purchases due to the return date being passed by the time they realized the laptop would not make it through the year.
A. Go to the bottom of Apple’s main page, in the second column from the right there is a “For Education” section. Choose the “Shop for University” option.
A. Memory (RAM)! Both the internal storage and memory are not upgradable; you are stuck with the configuration that you select at time of purchase. However, storage issues can be solved cheaply by adding external hard drives, there is no similar option for memory. Apple silicon’s memory is used with both the CPU and GPU, the common advice for purchasing an Apple silicon computer, is to purchase it with as much memory as you can comfortably afford to do so. The base units recommend by us will be 100% adequate for your classes and assignments during your time in MIA, but adding memory will increase the usable lifespan of the computer.
A. Aside from having a larger screen on the larger laptop, the base model 15” Air does have 10GPU cores instead of the 8GPU core on the base 13”. Also, because of the nature of the passive cooling in the 15” has a larger body to dissipate heat into, which can delay processor throttling and aid in cooling.