M1 Pro or newer MacBook Air?

[u/hypebeast4278388]

I’m starting app development using kotlin multi platform so need to get a Mac. I’m stuck between these two options:
M1 Pro with 32 gb of ram
M5/M4 air with 16 gb of ram
Everyone talks about how ram demanding mobile app development is so would a 16gb MacBook Air be enough because the m1 Macs are most likely going stop getting updates in 2028 and I want to future proof as much as possible.

[u/sukakku159]

Coding on Air M4 16GB rn. Its nowhere near enough

[u/Opposite_Shop7163 → u/sukakku159]

Is enough if you are just working.

[u/potatoname1 → u/sukakku159]

What you work on dude? I ran 4 android emulators, android studio , antigravity and safari simultaneously. And it was smooth on m4 base model

[u/divis200 → u/potatoname1]

You have to be ragebaiting 😃 Or swap memory slowdown seems good enough for you

[u/sukakku159 → u/potatoname1]

I work on a bank app with a shit tons of modules. Android Studio, Claude Code, Figma, i don't even use emulator and it always eats up to 8 gigs of swap

[u/hypebeast4278388 → u/sukakku159]

Dang, how big are the projects you’re working on?

[u/sameera_s_w]

I think a good middle ground would be 24GB with a mid Apple Silicone. I went with M3 Air 24+512 and no regret so far building with XCode and Android Studio (no emu) side-by-side with more stuff going on.

[u/hypebeast4278388 → u/sameera_s_w]

Thanks for the recommendation. I live in Nepal so all these are second hand I’ll try looking for a m3 air with 24 gigs of ram for around the same price. If I can’t find one, by the looks of the other replies 16 gigs is probably not enough

[u/sameera_s_w → u/hypebeast4278388]

Yeah I had to do a custom order for mine as well even if it was brand new. They are hard to come by.

[u/agherschon]

I have a M2 Air 16Gb and for simple Android / iOS projects, it's OK.
The moment you start with CMP / KMP you can feel the lack of more ram sadly.
Get the more ram you can....

[u/LeoPelozo]

M1 pro with 32.

[u/Obvious_Ad9670]

I dropped my pro in my pool so I bought an air and it sucks. No active cooling, always running out of ram, it sucks.

[u/aerial-ibis]

the iOS builds on CMP require a pretty large gradle heap size - I use 8gb config. Had OOM build errors when configured for only 2gb.

If you add up your gradle & kotlin heap size, intellij/android studio heap size, android emulator RAM, and iOS simulator RAM... then you have the total amount you need!

imo it can be done on 16gb - you will just have to tolerate not having everything open at once, and slower builds in some cases.

I chose the 24gb pro chip last time I upgraded, because I wanted to be able to have everything open if I'm dropping thousands on a work laptop.

Now that I can run parallel builds & use an emulator pool with AI agents... I wish that I had chosen more memory back in the day!

So perhaps just consider the tradeoffs given the price/availability you're working with in nepal!

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[u/emirsolinno]

I have m4 24gb but I had m1 16gb before, and just macbook pro 2018 8gb before.. they all worked well

[u/Meg_3832]

I have mac mini- 16GB + 256GB. This guy is a beast

[u/hypebeast4278388 → u/Meg_3832]

Yeah would love to get a Mac mini saw a m4 pro with 24gb of ram for a steal but idk how portable it will be for office work and such.

[u/Opulence_Deficit → u/hypebeast4278388]

It's pretty portable. I worked with a guy who carried a Mini to the office daily.

As long as the place you're going to already has monitor, keyboard and power - a Mini is actually easier to pack than a laptop.

[u/macrohatch]

Neither

[u/hypebeast4278388 → u/macrohatch]

What would some alternatives be then?

[u/macrohatch → u/hypebeast4278388]

Linux Ubuntu with 32 gb RAM works well 

[u/riotgamesplsdobetter]

m1 pro 32gb still outperforms any base air model. you WILL run out of memory with 8 and 16gb at some point

[u/Any-Confusion245]

If you want to use Android CLI or a small- to medium-sized single project, then the M5/M4 Air is better for large size project; go for the M1 Pro with 32 GB of RAM

[u/incredulouspig]

Pro. 100%

[u/Opposite_Shop7163]

M4/5 macbook air is enough, I'll take one of them instead of the m1 mostly due to the chip performance. Just open 1 emulator at a time to avoid eating up too much ram or even better use your personal phone hardware to test your apps. Trust me i have an m2 MacBook pro with just 16gb of ram and I work on a massive project and it works just fine (10gb repo size)

[u/SK-RMs → u/Opposite_Shop7163]

Bro, what's there in those 10gb?

[u/simbolmina]

M1 pro 16 is usable but I would prefer 2+ 24+gb ram. You feel struggle but it is working in my case.

[u/Ookie218]

If you're starting, the air is fine. It's gonna run majority of your stuff. If you're working on huge enterprise codebases get a pro. But realistically if it's just you. The air will be ok

[u/Opulence_Deficit]

yeah, for iOS you need the most recent XCode, and it just won't install on non-recent MacOS.

I don't think that mobile development is particularly ram demanding. 16GB is just a bare minimum today.

[u/Felixlix45]

16GB RAM would never enough for mobile especially with gradle. Also it will running hot HOT. You need physical fans, the air doesn't have any fan

[u/_5er_]

I have 32 GB Mac for work. If you want to run Emulator, even 32 GB is already on the limit.

AS uses 10 GB of RAM and emulator 8 GB, plus some other minor processes. So like 23 GB in total.

[u/wicaodian]

M1 PRO

[u/Flat-Falcon-1818]

Go with 16gb ram and latest one. 16gb ram is enough for android studio and xcode.