[wanye]

its not really about pros and cons of a laptop vs a desktop.

also, if you already have a reasonable monitor going spare, you could do a lot worse than the new m1 mac mini.

consider what apps will be run on it. video editing, photoshop, recording music? similar intensive apps need a beefy machine, or at the very least, more RAM and storage

if its just being used for web browsing, ms word, or similar, then the macbook air is more than capable

i have a 2018 mac mini (i7, 64gb ram), a 2014 macbook pro (15", i7, 16gb ram) and a 2020 macbook air (13" m1 base spec) and they all work perfectly for their tasks. the MBA is my portable that i use most of the time, especially when on the sofa, or away from home. the mac mini is more powerful and has much more ram, but it doesnt have the latest m1 chip, which so far, i've had no issues with on the MBA. i use that for heftier stuff, like video editing and encoding. its nice to sit at a desk, with two 28" screens (a 2k and a 4k) and plugged into a nice hefty set of speakers. but it's not very portable!

the 2014 mbp is my main DJ laptop, and has been used for ~5-8 hours a day, 1-3 days a week since i got it in 2014 (not counting last year, where i didnt work in 18 months) and even though its 7 years old, it is still more than capable at the task in hand, so assume it will last me another 5 years before it needs replacing

so yeah, only you can work out pros and cons, because your usage will be completely different from mine!

hth