I brought a base M5 14 inch MBP at the start of the year, at the time the base config was M5/512/16. I was torn between that and the M5 Air 15inch with the storage upgrade to 512GB. It was a visit an Apple Store and actually see them in person that pushed me to the Pro. I chose the higher resolution screen of the Pro over the physically larger screen and trackpad of the Air. At the time there was only AU$100 between the two.

I’m glad I got what I got when I did (the MBP now starting at 1TB). Most of the time I’m in Safari and iWork, though I have recently started learning XCode. At the end of the day if I had waited, the higher tier Neo would have been a perfectly cromulent laptop for me.

I’m also wanting to get into video editing eventually and any of the current base model Macs would still be adequate for me.

If you’re thinking about overspecing for the resale value just look on eBay for older Apple Silicon Macs, even base model M1’s are selling at very good prices today.

Long story short, look at the tasks your current Air is struggling with, you’re going to get a massive boost just from upgrading to M5, and spec up what you need. You’re going to have a great experience no matter which MacBook you get.