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An older Mac usually starts to feel slow for one of three reasons: it has run out of memory, it has run out of storage, or it no longer receives the current version of macOS. Only the third is a hard stop, but on Apple silicon none of the three can be fixed by fitting parts, because the memory and the SSD are part of the chip package.
That makes the choice simple to frame. Decide how much unified memory you need for the life of the machine, decide how much internal storage you want to carry, and then choose between MacBook Air and MacBook Pro on how hard you intend to work the machine and for how long at a stretch.
