The vast majority of these videos are using video editing/exporting tasks for benchmarking these machines. I think if I ever edited video I would go for an MBP. For my use case, running a small business doing web development, the Macbook Air is perfect for me. The most intensive tasks would be running development servers, keeping a multitude of browser tabs open and editing text files locally. The M2 MBA is going to be perfect for my use case and can't wait to get my hands on my new machine to replace my 2018 Intel 8gb 128gb MBA. Due to it being for work and hopefully being used for another 4+ years, I opted for the 24gb/1tb M2 in Midnight Blue. Can't wait!
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All of these new M2 videos have me feeling even better about my decision
- Thread starter inglishmayjur
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Full Stack Web Developer here.
I am reading all the reports of the M2 throttling after a few minutes of heavy work and I am sitting here and thinking "OK, cool, I don't care. If I type 'npm run dev' and that's taking 3 seconds instead of 10 I am actually in heaven". Having that power combined with portability, fanless design, better screen, magsafe and all day battery... oh boy, let's gooo!
I am also baffled why the vast majority is just talking about media editing and not coding. On the M2 MBP I think I only saw two videos that bothered to mention XCode at all.
When the new M1 Max/Pro MBPs came out I was amazed but also thinking "well but these are a bit overkill for a webdev maybe, I am gonna wait for the next Air!" and now that these are out I gotta say it was worth it. Can't wait to receive my BTO in two weeks hopefully.
I am reading all the reports of the M2 throttling after a few minutes of heavy work and I am sitting here and thinking "OK, cool, I don't care. If I type 'npm run dev' and that's taking 3 seconds instead of 10 I am actually in heaven". Having that power combined with portability, fanless design, better screen, magsafe and all day battery... oh boy, let's gooo!
I am also baffled why the vast majority is just talking about media editing and not coding. On the M2 MBP I think I only saw two videos that bothered to mention XCode at all.
When the new M1 Max/Pro MBPs came out I was amazed but also thinking "well but these are a bit overkill for a webdev maybe, I am gonna wait for the next Air!" and now that these are out I gotta say it was worth it. Can't wait to receive my BTO in two weeks hopefully.
Glad to see some common sense being posted amongst the outrage.
I do not understand using video production as a way to evaluate the performance of this machine. Yes it can help benchmark agains the Pro machines, but it's like seeing if a hand saw is good for chopping down a forest when there are already chainsaws available.
Too bad there aren't other professionals doing tech review videos like consultants, marketers, or medical professionals to see other use cases. YouTubers are naturally focused on video editing, but that's such a small segment of laptop use cases.
Too bad there aren't other professionals doing tech review videos like consultants, marketers, or medical professionals to see other use cases. YouTubers are naturally focused on video editing, but that's such a small segment of laptop use cases.
Yeah indeed. I want to know how it does running VMs and containers, compile programs, run IDEs. Does it overheat and burn your thighs like when exporting large videos?
The 'big name' YouTube reviewers decided that they'd pit the M2 Air against the M2 Pro, with active cooling, and run benchmarks based on intense video editing, which the Air is not designed for, then created this narrative that the M2 Air may be lacking, even though they didn't compare it to the M1 Air, which is what they should be doing.
Maddening.
The new design, bump in performance, battery life and better display compared to its predecessor is the story not many are telling. I get that price and size will put this against the M2 Pro, but this should not be the main comparison and summary of these reviews. It's really about how the newly designed M2 Air compares to the M1 Air.
If you want a similarly priced and slightly more powerful MacBook, the heavier M2 Pro with a dated design is available. My only gripe is (so far) with the M2 Air is that Apple didn't use a significantly larger battery now that they have room with this new design, but I think this decision was based on keeping the weight at or below the M1's weight.
Maddening.
The new design, bump in performance, battery life and better display compared to its predecessor is the story not many are telling. I get that price and size will put this against the M2 Pro, but this should not be the main comparison and summary of these reviews. It's really about how the newly designed M2 Air compares to the M1 Air.
If you want a similarly priced and slightly more powerful MacBook, the heavier M2 Pro with a dated design is available. My only gripe is (so far) with the M2 Air is that Apple didn't use a significantly larger battery now that they have room with this new design, but I think this decision was based on keeping the weight at or below the M1's weight.
I remember everyone being angry at the price bumps when they announced them a month ago and I feel like now with the "Fan M2 Pro comparsion"-thingy everyone seems to just be looking for some argument that would fit the "way more expensive but not way more better"-narrative in their videos.
But honestly, haven't they heard the news? Inflation and all? The upcoming MBPs will also get a price bump. I don't expect any M2 Pro/Max to sell below 2.5k. If you want an affordable option from Apple you need to stick with the M1 models. And I bet it will be like this for a while.
But honestly, haven't they heard the news? Inflation and all? The upcoming MBPs will also get a price bump. I don't expect any M2 Pro/Max to sell below 2.5k. If you want an affordable option from Apple you need to stick with the M1 models. And I bet it will be like this for a while.
Maybe I am the odd one, but I feel like the new design and better display (not to mention the bump is performance and battery life) are worth the price increase. This is Apple, this is how they roll with shiny new products. I am thinking there will be a price drop next year, perhaps when (or if) there is another model of the Air released (bigger or smaller, based on rumors we really can't rely on).
I've seen just one video about the M2 MBA and he describes it perfectly. If you wanted a computer to do all kinds of intense tasks, you wouldn't be buying a MacBook Air.
All these reviewers keep banging on about 4k video editing as though it's the most important thing in the world. It may be important for them but for the rest of us it really isn't.
Today is the first time since I got my launch day M1 MBA that it's got warm to the touch and that's because I'm running a two hour video through Handbrake to reduce the size.
The bottom line is that 95% of people will never get these machines warm enough to throttle in normal use. It's a non issue.
All these reviewers keep banging on about 4k video editing as though it's the most important thing in the world. It may be important for them but for the rest of us it really isn't.
Today is the first time since I got my launch day M1 MBA that it's got warm to the touch and that's because I'm running a two hour video through Handbrake to reduce the size.
The bottom line is that 95% of people will never get these machines warm enough to throttle in normal use. It's a non issue.
It's not even that bad, it's just a noticeable difference you can show... so it gets a headline. I think the big point is that a MBA can do these things and keep up really well. It'll take 7/8ths as long to compile massive projects or export 30min videos...does that even matter when it's an entry laptop that focuses on portability? The fact that it can do this and keep up is amazing.
The old MacBook Air and MacBook were anemic compared to their Pro contemporaries... this performance difference is noticeable but it's not that much really.
The old MacBook Air and MacBook were anemic compared to their Pro contemporaries... this performance difference is noticeable but it's not that much really.
I'm not familiar with coding or how intense it is on a laptop - but I'm guessing it's less taxing on the computer than video editing would be. It seems video editing is one of the most intense tasks to deal with when it comes to system specs and really uses everything the system has (I would imagine this is why people use it as a way to showcase new system configs).
The Air (including the M1) seems to be plenty of power for any user except for a very small percentage of people who require a great deal of power. I purchased an M1 Max 14 inch last year and couldn't be happier. Cuts through large Photoshop files, intense Ableton sessions and a plethora of other browsers / apps connected to an external display like butter. Glad to see that Apple is starting to dominate again across their entire lineup.
The Air (including the M1) seems to be plenty of power for any user except for a very small percentage of people who require a great deal of power. I purchased an M1 Max 14 inch last year and couldn't be happier. Cuts through large Photoshop files, intense Ableton sessions and a plethora of other browsers / apps connected to an external display like butter. Glad to see that Apple is starting to dominate again across their entire lineup.
Apple did include their media engine on the M2 where they didn't have one on the M1 so some testing of hardware accelerated video encode/decode seems appropriate. I think the reason a lot of reviewers focus on video is that it is an easy way to stress a machine. YouTubers focus on it because that is how they make their money.
Most software development is less intense than using Word. It's mostly typing. There are brief periods (transpiling/compiling/linking etc.) where the CPU is going full bore but in most cases not for long enough to actually get to the point of throttling. It probably would be different if you were working for Google on Chrome but most software development is pretty small scale enterprise stuff.
You didn't get the super slow ssd so you'll be ok.
You'll get a fundamentally different machine than the majority who'll get the base model that people are rightly complaining about.
You'll get a fundamentally different machine than the majority who'll get the base model that people are rightly complaining about.
I really don’t understand the outrage. Extreme multitasking on 8GB RAM uses SWAP. And that slows down if the SSD speeds slow down. Surprise pikachu faces going around here. If you are that worried about swap SSD performance, you need more than 8GB of RAM.
“Super slow SSD” comments are ridiculous. My 2010 workhorse of a Mac Pro is still used for a video compressor system. It has 8GB of RAM and….guess what….SATA SSDs that are even running at SATA 2 speeds.
“Super slow SSD” comments are ridiculous. My 2010 workhorse of a Mac Pro is still used for a video compressor system. It has 8GB of RAM and….guess what….SATA SSDs that are even running at SATA 2 speeds.
It’s because all of the reviewer space consists of youtubers only seeing it through their own workflow. Which probably is a miniscule share of the target demographic.
I'm sitting here using the new Air - its doing the initial setup - downloading apps; synching photos; emails etc. I've got a dozen apps open, a Windows 11 VM running and the machine is cool to the touch and as-responsive as my other more powerful Macs would be under a similar load.
As for the base model, "super slow ssd" is just not giving the issue the context it deserves. People are complaining (rightly so) that Apple should be saying something about the single SSD in the base models, but at the same time, a lot of the pieces I've read about the situation are just as bad in their use of hyperbole and lack of context.
That's the age we live in though and Apple are always held to a higher standard than other similar manufacturers.
Its also worth looking at some of the benchmarks and tests that people have had to run in order to get the M1 and M2 to throttle which just don't reflect how the machine will be used. Again, context!
As for the base model, "super slow ssd" is just not giving the issue the context it deserves. People are complaining (rightly so) that Apple should be saying something about the single SSD in the base models, but at the same time, a lot of the pieces I've read about the situation are just as bad in their use of hyperbole and lack of context.
That's the age we live in though and Apple are always held to a higher standard than other similar manufacturers.
Its also worth looking at some of the benchmarks and tests that people have had to run in order to get the M1 and M2 to throttle which just don't reflect how the machine will be used. Again, context!
I would only call the base model SSD "super slow" when comparing to pretty much every other recent mac. People that don't know any better will be fine. But people that do know better can't unsee it and will either go for 512GB or a different model. Not that is is terrible - just that it is a compromise for a brand-new model that frankly people shouldn't have to make.
If you are the kind of person that needs 16GB ram and 512GB (or better) storage for your workflow the use case for this versus the 14" pro narrows significantly.
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Even throttled it outperforms a fan-equipped M1 and has a hardware prores-encoder on top of that. As someone who works with video I'm going to push this little laptop hard and based on the numbers so far it's still going to crush my i9 MBP which means performance for video work is still pretty darn good.
Maybe not "desktop replacement"-level for this line of work but I'm not planning on getting rid of my desktop.
Maybe not "desktop replacement"-level for this line of work but I'm not planning on getting rid of my desktop.
those pushing hard the Macbook Air just show how much the apple silicon made them think of performance on the entry level mac...something they never did on the Intel era...but now they do it because they can. To be able to edit 4k/8k its a big plus if you ever needed sometimes...something that before you could never do. I mean 4k final cut pro is fantastic on this M2 macbook air...again macbook air..something we all did with the 15" Macbook pro intel inside and those even at 2k editing were throttling no matter what. Hey you maybe thinking that were old time with old gen Intel...no, i have the current Dell ultrabook with 12th intel i5 and it throttle like heaven and take double the time at least on the same project while the battery from 100% gets to 67% on Dell and on the M2 Mba from 100% gets to 89%
It is an extraordinary little device
It is an extraordinary little device
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You see video production in most of the videos because that is all gals and guys can really speak about, because that is what they spend most of their time doing. They live in a bubble and truly think that showing off benchmarks based on FCP with the M2 Air is daily reality for this product market when it isn't. As such, most of the videos are worthless.
I'm sorry, but 1400 - 1500 MBs is not a "super slow" SSD. Compared to the average computer that's still a pretty speedy drive. Yes a single drive is absolutely slower than a striped pair. (single 256GB NAND in base M2 vs (2) 128GB NANDs in base M1.) But, for the majority of people buying the base model, this will be a non-issue unless they are moving very large files around or running lots and lots of programs while having tens of tabs open in Chrome. If that's their typical workflow, then they should either upgrade the SSD to the 512 or maybe just get a 14" Pro. Otherwise, I think this whole issue has been blown way out of proportion. On the other hand, maybe you're right and all the base M2 owners will be angry and return them to Apple. I'll find out soon enough when my base model arrives in the next (hopefully) few hours.
Has anyone gotten a Geekbench score from the M2 Air under its hottest throttling conditions?
Because the M1 Air, when fully throttled down, is still more powerful than my classic Mac Pro, a machine that I have never once found the limit of.
Because the M1 Air, when fully throttled down, is still more powerful than my classic Mac Pro, a machine that I have never once found the limit of.
Is anyone able to provide a summary of what the throttling is like to save me the pain of having to watch 15 minutes of bro-chat pseudo-techno-nonsense?
At what task does it throttle and what is the completion time for that task relative to the M1 MBA, M1 MBP and M2 MBP?
I understand wanting to push the limit of the Air cooling system to see where the boundary really is-- especially after the M1 MBA made the M1 MBP look rather redundant. Pushing it hard and seeing it slow down is a valid test.
What isn't valid is making that the story. It's one technical detail. If video editing is the only way to bog it down, then that's also an important thing to know. I keep hearing people say "massive throttling", but nobody has put a qualitative measure on that that I can see. And one workflow doesn't describe the system either-- what workflows throttle it and by how much?
Likewise I don't see the fact that the base model has slower SSD speeds, but still as fast or faster than I'm getting on my external drives as anything more than a detail. It's the base model, expect base specs.
BTW, am I doing the math right on the SSD? If we assume 200GB of the 256GB are free after OS and application install, and the M2 Pro writes at 1.4GB/s, it takes about 140 seconds to fill the available space if the drive is clean and you write contiguously to the entire space. The M1 Pro wrote at 2.2GB/s, taking 90 seconds. So the biggest difference this can make to a carefully crafted workflow is a onetime hit of less than a minute?
I mean, I like to have fast stuff too, but it seems like people are more up in arms about what they imagine this computer isn't than what it actually is.
This is a machine targeted at light workloads and portability.
At what task does it throttle and what is the completion time for that task relative to the M1 MBA, M1 MBP and M2 MBP?
I understand wanting to push the limit of the Air cooling system to see where the boundary really is-- especially after the M1 MBA made the M1 MBP look rather redundant. Pushing it hard and seeing it slow down is a valid test.
What isn't valid is making that the story. It's one technical detail. If video editing is the only way to bog it down, then that's also an important thing to know. I keep hearing people say "massive throttling", but nobody has put a qualitative measure on that that I can see. And one workflow doesn't describe the system either-- what workflows throttle it and by how much?
Likewise I don't see the fact that the base model has slower SSD speeds, but still as fast or faster than I'm getting on my external drives as anything more than a detail. It's the base model, expect base specs.
BTW, am I doing the math right on the SSD? If we assume 200GB of the 256GB are free after OS and application install, and the M2 Pro writes at 1.4GB/s, it takes about 140 seconds to fill the available space if the drive is clean and you write contiguously to the entire space. The M1 Pro wrote at 2.2GB/s, taking 90 seconds. So the biggest difference this can make to a carefully crafted workflow is a onetime hit of less than a minute?
I mean, I like to have fast stuff too, but it seems like people are more up in arms about what they imagine this computer isn't than what it actually is.
This is a machine targeted at light workloads and portability.
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