I had a touchbar Pro and I now have an M1 air. I would go for the Air.
The touchpad is slightly too big on the Pro and the palm rejection is insufficient, leading to unexpected mouse movements and occasionally unintended selection and mass-overwriting of text. This issue is magnified further with the 15" devices on which the touchpad is comically oversized.
The touchbar leads to unintended behaviors like sending half-written emails because you unconsciously brushed against it while entering a number, and only make it more difficult to do basic things like adjust brightness and volume.
The Air, on the other hand, is a well-engineered little machine that is just as usable as a 2015 Pro or Air. Pity about the limited ports. You've seen the rumors that the next Air will ship with more ports?
I have the pro. I should have got the air. I dev mobile and web and fans almost never on, so thermal throttling on air would likely be minimal. The Touch Bar is horrible, accidentally hit “back” button all the time.
We bought one of each on day one for R&D purposes. I absolutely agree. The Air is absolutely the better machine and it’s cheaper. In our benchmarks we actually saw better performance out of the Air most of the time (bursty workloads) and the only thing we could think of was that the bigger heat sink in the Air provides better cooling than in the Pro most of the time, unless you have really long compiles where the fans kick in.
You can even do a little (reversible) mod to the Air where you add some thermal pads, effectively turning the entire bottom into a giant heatsink. It'll get a little warmer to the touch than before, although not uncomfortably, but the sustained performance gains are definitely worth it.
Think of it this way: The Air is not the underpowered almost-macbook anymore. The Air is THE M1 MacBook now. The performance is all there. The magic is all there.
The Pro is like a Plus version, with some bonuses for a higher price -- no thermal throttling whatsoever, a brighter screen, the TouchBar, a bit more battery, better microphones, stuff like that. Get it only if you want those and don't mind a little heavier machine.
I got my M1 MBA recently. I also own 2015 MBA and I've to say the decision taking MBA instead of MBP is legit. I feel like I'm using iPad instead of Mac, all things are buttery smooth. I open these apps vscode-insider, Safari 6 to 9 tabs and terminal with three process in each tab. Apple Music with bluetooth.
I replaced my 2017 MBP with the M1 MBA. Only downside is the smaller screen, and fewer ports (I have a dock though). It's better in every other way.
As others mentioned, the performance of the new MBA vs new Pro is similar. I think the MBA really highlights what's great about the first iteration of the m1. So, if you're ok with the smaller screen, I would go with the MBA. If you feel yourself leaning towards the pro, I would wait for the actual pro's coming later this year.
I do mobile dev and moved from a 2018 Pro to M1 Air and super happy with it so far. All my tools work great on the M1 and most are fully supporting the M1. I always like the smaller screen so even my pro was the smaller screen.
Does anyone have experience of Pro vs Air as a dev machine. I’m assuming the pro is an around better machine, but that touchbar....