Which Apple MacBook should you buy in 2023 or early 2024?

Bottom Line Up Front: MacBook Pro M3 Pro 14-inch.

It can be difficult to decide which MacBook to buy and which features to upgrade. Based on my view of the popular YouTube reviews and tests, 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage is the sweet spot for minimum requirements to cover your essential needs whether it be 20 browser tabs, coding, or video editing. But which version of the MacBook with those minimum specifications should you get? You still need to decide on a number of things, such as screen size, CPU version, etc. Below is a table where I compiled the cheapest MacBook versions with 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.

The preference in this table is for a small MacBook with the most features. Green indicates that compared to the other versions, it was the smallest size or had the best feature. Yellow indicates is was rated in the middle compared to the others, and red means it was either the largest or least in features.

Finally, at the bottom, I included education and standard pricing. In addition, I calculated how much more you would have to pay compared to the MacBook Air version. This is intended to illustrate how much more you would have to pay for the additional features.

The color coding clarifies that the MacBook 14 versions offer the best balance of size and features. It will only cost you $300-$500 more for a better CPU, display, Wifi, and longer battery life. The fundamental difference between the M3 and M3 Pro versions is the number of cores. In addition, you get one more Thunderbolt port. I think you will know whether the extra $200 is worth it.

I hope this helps.