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14-inch MacBook Pro to M2 MacBook Air?
- Thread starter netnative
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I bought my MBP 14 in October and I love everything but the weight. I've already ordered my new Air. The 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound will make a huge difference to me at my advanced age (senior citizen) but still commuting to work by subway, train, and foot. All other things being equal, I'd prefer to have my laptop to my iPad. I'll pass my Pro on to my artist daughter-out-law and that will be that. I should add before someone says it that it is a luxury, I know, to be able to afford to replace my one year old Pro for a new Air to shave 3/4s of a pound.
The weight difference is not insignificant. You would lose multiple external support and higher scaled resolution features on certain monitors. Not sure if the 10-core GPU variant can handle the latter, if so, I’ll be swapping my M1 Pro 16” for the M2 MacBook Air.
Agreed. I am a writer so the most I ever need is one external monitor -- and I can often just use my 12.9 iPad Pro. In other words very light needs. The keyboard is as important as anything to me. I understand my needs are unusual in this crowd.
In my experience it's always nice to have a secondary or back-up option, and I currently use the 14-inch MBP for both my company work either at home or in the car, and my personal gaming direct captures. Doing both on one machine is perfectly adequate and I never experience slowdowns, but I fill up the storage drive easily once per week and I do slightly regret not speccing the MBP up to 4 or 8TB originally. I do enjoy Mac desktops but MacBooks make more sense most of the time, and the product line overall has turned a corner in terms of design, where the bar has yet again been raised of what people should expect from the laptop category in terms of build quality, daily battery life, and longevity. The 14-inch MBP has been an almost perfect experience, and when I need the extra power inside to edit gobs of video, or drive more than one 4K display, it's ready to grind. However most of the time for my job I don't need all that power, and I just need web browsers, spreadsheets, slideshows, and email... that's where the M2 chip comes in.
The efficiency of Apple Silicon is already very noticeable as my 14-inch MBP battery lasts easily almost twice the time off of a charger than my 16-inch Intel MBP from 2019 could (especially in sleep/standby). The Pros/Cons definitely starts with the best display I think I've ever seen on any electronics product, the raw power beyond even an iMac 5K/iMac Pro on the go, Apple's industry-leading sound, trackpad, and keyboard experience, and the return of MagSafe, SD, and HDMI. I need to charge the M1 Max 14-inch every other day just about, which is already killer. The only Cons that feel meaningful is the really high pricing of the new MBP designs, the added heft to this 13/14-inch size category is noticeable, it's difficult to lift off of a table or desk with one hand without really gripping one of the intake vents on the sides, a sore lack of color options, and there is no Face ID despite a notched screen which is bad/mixed messaging from Apple in my opinion.
Today marks my very first MacBook Air purchase from Apple. I owned a white plastic MacBook from 2008 until it bit the dust in high school, a golden (and later space gray) 12-inch MacBook that I loved and used the heck out of for notes and classes in college even if it was as slow as an old dog on too many occasions, then my first MBP purchase a few years later would be my final Intel model. The MacBook Air for many years just felt like Apple's cheap lineup that excludes many of the Pro features for only a slightly thinner and lighter body, while mainly just being less expensive.
I've heard even greater experiences about the battery in the lower M series chips, so to have a MacBook that consistently doesn't even need to be plugged in until it's 3rd or 4th day sounds amazing. While 0.8lbs doesn't sound like much of a difference at first between the 14-inch Pro versus 13.6-inch Air, it's a bigger jump than in previous years as Apple's new designs allow the Pros to be thicker and heftier (which they should) and definitely adds up when carrying it around with an iPad Pro also inside a bag between meetings. The new Air design (and hopefully a new 12-inch and 15-inch to follow in 2023 or 2024!) marks the very first MacBook enclosure that Apple has designed specifically for their own silicon while also being silent and fan-less. I'm really interested to see how it works out, and I had an inkling it would be overall my new favorite, so I got the most spec'd out model possible.
Why I bought The M2 MacBook Air to Replace My 14" MacBook Pro! | GregsGadgets
Actually I ordered the MacBook Air, but the more I think about, the more I want to cancel the order. The 14" MacBook Pro is perfect for me. The MacBook Air would just be a luxury item for me, used as a secondary laptop, more like an iPad. The 14" MacBook Pro is portable, has a better display and wins every category apart from battery life and weight. So, for people that value lightweight laptops with great battery life, the MacBook Air is a great choice. The thing is though, that the 14" MacBook Pro is also portable and has a very good battery life too. The question is though, are 3-4 hours more battery life that important?Probably mostly people who realized the Pro is overpowered for their workload and prefer a thinner, lighter, more portable laptop with better battery life. Or maybe they just want the midnight color
Actually, I posted my thoughts on my blog: https://techwelt.blog/2022/07/08/das-macbook-air-als-zweites-laptop-ist-es-uberhaupt-sinnvoll/ (it's in German but you can translate it easily in Safari or Chrome)
Actually that would be the way to go, but we would lose a lot of money in doing that. The 14" MBP is actually the perfect size. If you want more then just connect the laptop to an external display.
Didn't you buy one already and sell it?
Looking forward to hear your thoughts once you’ll get the 10c GPU-24GB-1TB version.
I would have taken this up with management and gotten them to fix it on the spot - this isn't acceptable
I am currently debating on what to do... I have the base MBP 14" that is still returnable to the store... I ordered the MBA M2... still debating on which route... take back the MBP and go with the MBA, or cancel the MBA and keep the MBP... UGH The MBP is nice, but I don't use 1/2 of what it can do... I use for school and want to get into some development... from everything I've seen the air is capable of many dev programs.
I am partial to light and slim laptops. However, I don’t know if I will be able to do without the exquisite XDR Pro-Motion display in the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Are those stock wallpapers? Looks good!Meet the family!!
Plus I love how they all share the same power MagSafe 96w cable which sits behind the middle one at the back of the desk out of sight.
If you currently have a 14in. MacBook Pro it would be a downgrade to flip to an M2 MacBook Air. Stay with what you have.
If it’s a matter of choosing which one to purchase then it’s a matter of deciding what you need from the machine and what you’re willing to pay. Very few people are going to need the capabilities of the 14 Pro.
If it’s a matter of choosing which one to purchase then it’s a matter of deciding what you need from the machine and what you’re willing to pay. Very few people are going to need the capabilities of the 14 Pro.
Do and buy what you want whenever you want - but some people here come up NOW with questions as if they wouldn't never ever been able to estimate that these new Pro-like MacBook Airs are coming. They have bought the Pro's a few months ago and now it seems there are the big "news" about these super slim M2 MacBooks.
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I have option to buy both MBP M1 14inch or MBA M2. I will be going with 16GB of memory whichever of the option I choose from. My usecase will be spinning of couple of dockers, simply python code testing and using notebooks for machine learning on smaller datasets. Please suggest if the new MBA 16gb would be more than enough for this usecase?
Statement from the kindergarten?
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yeah I did, I will see where it fits in with my work flow... if its fine will keep and get rid of the 14! Crazy ya i know... but hey if it does the job, then it does the job!
For me the biggest issue is the non 2x integer scaling of the MBA display (As default). Promotion and the lack of hdr support are also important regressions. As an iPad Pro replacement the MBA will be great. Definitely not as a replacement of the 14“ MBP
Exactly how I see that. For similar reasons. I consider M2 MBA as replacement for my M1 iPad Pro 12.9. (The lack of possibilities in iPadOS is main factor.) Howewer I will wait for iPadOS16 beta, try it and maybe buy M2 MBA. But if display will be significantly worse than the iPad one then I will cancel my order/return. But MBP 14” will stay as my main computer.