Day: October 2, 2026

It can be difficult trying to decide which MacBook is the right laptop for you. Apple laptops are not a cheap investment. Sadly, there is no perfect computer in the MacBook line up right now. Business Insider Senior Tech Correspondent, Steve Kovach breaks down the MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. You may be surprised as to which laptop is the best option for now.

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Following is the transcript of the video:

Steve Kovach: It’s never been a worst time to buy a new MacBook. Apple has three different models: The MacBook Air, the regular MacBook, and the MacBook Pro, but each one comes with this killer trade-off that makes it hard to recommend one over all of the others.

This is the MacBook Air. It has a lot to like here. It has all the ports a lot of people need: Standard USB ports, an SD card reader, a display out. And that’s good because today, a lot of modern laptops require you to buy dongles and other accessories in order to work with stuff you want to plug into it. There are some drawbacks though. It’s barely changed in the last eight years, and meanwhile, Windows laptops and some of the more expensive MacBooks have really upped their design game, reducing the bezels, putting on hi-res screens. It’s not great for watching video, or doing graphics, or anything like that. It’s just a basic machine that you can get at a pretty good price. It’s still under 1,000 bucks and there are rumors that it’s gonna drop even further later this year.

But under the hood, it checks all the boxes you’re gonna want. It has one of the most powerful Intel processors in a form factor like this. Battery life is incredible; you could get, at least, 12 hours a day on it, meaning you don’t have to worry about carrying around a charger everywhere you go, and even though it does look a little bit older, it’s still plenty portable and light enough to take around with you.

Now let’s talk about the regular MacBook. This one came out a few years ago you might remember, and it looks great. It wowed a lot of people. The design is impeccable. It’s almost like an iPad bolted on to a keyboard. It’s super thin, super light. It has a full-sized keyboard and, of course, that gorgeous hi-res Retina display. But there are also a ton of drawbacks to this one. First of all, it only has one port that you use for everything. But the problem is, without a dongle, you can’t charge and plug in an accessory at the same time. And most accessories don’t work with Thunderbolt right now, so you’re gonna need a dongle anyway.

Another problem with the MacBook is the power performance. It’s way underpowered compared to the, even the MacBook Air. You’re not gonna be able to do a lot of photo editing, or video editing, or other intensive tasks. And it’s way too expensive for what you get, spec by spec. At 1,300 bucks, you’re essentially paying for the design and portability above everything else.

Finally, there’s the MacBook Pro. This is Apple’s top-of-the-line laptop, and it comes in two sizes: 13 inch and 15 inch. On top of the new design, which was inspired by the regular MacBook, the MacBook Pro has four Thunderbolt ports, meaning you can plug more stuff in it at once, and charge, but the marquee feature of the MacBook Pro is the new TouchBar. When Apple first introduced the TouchBar, it tried to make it seem a lot cooler than it was, but really what it does is it makes it more annoying to hunt down the keys you wanna find. A lot of users who have bought the MacBook Pro for the last couple of years, have complained that specs of dust or dirt can get caught in the keys, and, essentially, ruin the device. That seems like a stupid, fatal flaw for something that’s so expensive to use, and Apple still hasn’t really addressed the issue.

There is one dark horse candidate. If you can find the older version of the MacBook Pro, the model before the big redesign a couple years ago, get that one instead. Some resellers have refurbished models, and it performs just as well as today’s MacBook Pro. There’s no perfect answer when it comes to picking a new MacBook right now. Each model has it’s own critical flaw, and the whole lineup is in dire need of a refresh. If you absolutely need a new MacBook, take a look at the MacBook Air first. Yes, it feels old and antiquated, but at least it checks all the boxes for what most people need.

Steve Jobs: It’s so thin, it even fits inside one of these envelopes that we’ve all seen floating around the office. And so, let me go ahead and show it to you now.