The MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops for astronomers, delivering processing power, portability, and incredible display quality. For professional and amateur stargazers it's an invaluable asset offering some of the best-in-class image processing, data analysis, and telescope control.

The Apple MacBook Air laptop with the M4 chip offers promising performance at a very nice price, Consumer Reports says.

The screen on the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 is a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display. That gives you a 2880x1864 pixel resolution (the 13-inch is 13.6-inch at 2560x1664 pixels) and 500 nits of brightness. This is one area where the Air lacks compared to the MacBook Pro – which gives you up to 1600 nits peak HDR brightness and 1000 nits sustained.