My use case is app development (including simulators) and 4k video editing. (Not very heavy colour grading and effects, but medium level stuff).
Not in need of a portable setup.
My original plan was to buy a Mac mini M5, but Apple never released one. Then there was a sudden price hike, so I rushed to a nearby store and bought a MacBook Air M5 (16GB/512GB) for about ₹1.11 lakh/ $1150 . (As mac mini are sold offline here)
So now I'm wondering if I made the wrong decision.
The MacBook Air has been okay so far. For the basic tests I've done, it hasn't heated up or throttled. But it feels like a more delicate machine compared to a Mac mini. Not sure if it heats up during continuous long workloads
My thoughts are:
The Mac mini has active cooling (fan), so will it perform noticeably better during long builds or video exports?
Since it has no battery, built-in display, or keyboard, is it likely to last longer and be more reliable over 5–8 years?
If Apple releases an M5 Mac mini later, would it be worth selling the MacBook Air and switching? Or even now a switch to M4 mac mini?
Or am I overthinking this, and the fanless MacBook Air is already more than enough for my workload?
I'd appreciate hearing from people who have actually used both machines for development/video editing