I have never used Macbook. I was using a MSI gaming laptop for 4 years. I love my laptop but it is not portable, its heavy, low battery and plastic. I want to switch to a macbook. I will use it for only work. I am a freelancer software developer. The reason I want macbook is I heard that macbooks have no performance loss unplugged and have long battery life. Budget is important. Max ~1500 $.Which one is suitable for me?
Considering your portability issue with your MSI laptop, I would suggest you to go with the M2 MacBook Air 13" with 16 GB RAM. Storage upgrade depends on you.
So I bought in at the m1 generation, maybe the situation has improved for m2 and m3. However, I’m really glad I went with the 13 pro rather than the 13 air. Even though the m1 13 pro was never really deserving of the “pro” name, having active cooling actually makes a big difference to sustained performance. Even if its just a little fan and a vent, I feel like I can really push my laptop when I need to without thermal throttling like crazy. I also appreciated the extra GPU cores and slightly brighter screen.
That being said, I’ve heard good things about the 15 air and that might be a good contender for you. The 13 does feel like it has limited screen real estate sometimes. I don’t do heavy multitasking so it’s not a big deal for me but having multiple windows open at the same time can feel a bit tight at 13.
The 13” MacBook Air is probably your best bet in terms of portability, but if you want to get something more Pro get a used 2021 14” MacBook Pro or refurbished M2 14” MacBook Pro from Apple certified refurbished