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Anyone excited about getting a Macbook Air M2?
- Thread starter Technerd108
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I really don't understand the need of people who don't own an M2 MacBook Air even commenting on threads for the new air? Some don't own or have no intention of owning an M2 but talk as though they know all the problems with them.
Any device is not going to be perfect in every way and use case is probably the most important aspect with user satisfaction.
For people who have a M1 MBP I am sure if they are happy with it, that it is best for them, but why try to disparage owners of a completely different type of laptop and say it is not a good deal because it costs the same when the use case is different?
Sure on paper the MBP 14" has better specs and is a better laptop BUT most people are not just looking at specs but the actual device and how it works for them.
I am not going to go on threads and trash people who have a MBP 14" or 16" for example and say their computer sucks or was not a smart choice for any reason. I just don't get it?
I had pre-ordered the 14" MBP M1. I returned and I got a base 16". I returned it and bought a custom config of the 16" and I was very happy with it at first. I realized, a. I don't actually need the power it has in my daily use. b. that even though I loved the screen and speakers it was just way too heavy and I use my laptop on my lap or in other settings a lot and I was not using the Mac because it was just too big and cumbersome. Before the M2 air I would have NEVER even considered an air because I hated the outdated design.
Now with the M2 I love the design and felt it would better fit my use case and I could save a bit of money too.
Now that I own the M2 I feel like I made the right decision for me. Is the M2 air perfect? No. Is it the same as the Pro? No. Do I miss the Pro features-NO! The screen is not as nice in some ways as the Pro-no doubt but the air still has a really nice screen so it is not a problem for me. Are the speakers as good-NO but again the speakers on the air are good enough for me.
For me the portability and speed of the Air with the new design work much better than the Pro. Would I like Pro-Motion and Mini Led yes but the mini led also had some drawbacks to me.
So overall I am much happier with the air and it is certainly faster than my M1 Max 16' Pro in some tasks which is frankly pretty amazing.
The device doesn't get hot or throttle in my day to day use. The battery life is SO MUCH better than the Pro was.
All of the claimed issues with the screen, poor build quality or cheap-light-hollow feel of the M2 air I don't see and I am very picky about these things.
I have never owned a device where it almost seems like people are just looking for reasons to throw shade.
Maybe there are a lot of Pro users who for whatever reason slightly regret their purchase but spent a lot of money and feel tied to their devices and because they are envious of not having the absolute fastest machine in every way just want to justify in their mind why their device is still the best.
I have news for the Pro owners, you still have the best Mac available. But not everyone needs the BEST Mac for Pro's and can be happier with a "lesser" device. You still have the Pro-motion mini led screen, ports, and way more cores and gpu power.
For me the M2 Air with its higher clock speed and single core performance, super fast web browsing(fastest laptop there is at the moment) great battery life, improved GPU, light and portable machine that I enjoy using anywhere, great screen and incredible redesign are more than enough for me. That is why I prefer it over the M1 MBP. It is also cheaper than a custom config 14" and certainly cheaper than the 16" I had. I was able to sell my 16" buy a custom config M2 air, buy a new iPad Air and have money left over which was more important to me.
So while the 14" M1 MBP is on sale and is a really good buy right now I was able to get a discount on my custom config and a apple gift card for $150. So it was not the same price but even if it was I would still choose the air for the reasons I stated. I am not in a @ick measuring contest and want to brag about my device. My laptop is a tool to help me be more efficient and productive and the M2 Air is perfect for that. If I was a content creator or other type of "Pro" then an air clearly wouldn't work for me.
But again I wouldn't go and trash Pro users when the new M2 MBP goes out and say it just has an overclocked M1 and all the other stuff thrown our way. Basically for the M1 owners that were able to snag an M1 14" base model for $1599 you got a heck of a deal and the new M2 is only going to have an upgraded processor with everything else staying pretty much the same. Your M1 is still a beast so just calm down. Take a breath and relax.
You enjoy your M1 MBP and I will enjoy my M2 MBA. The thing is for Air users this moment is like when the M1 MBP came out. It has such a better design IMHO than the older M1 Air. It is finally an air that is fast enough and modern enough for me to buy and enjoy. YMMV!
M2 MacBook Air is a good laptop? Yes it is and let me tell you why.
Space Gray just came in today and this color *slaps*. Midnight was my first ever mac, so space gray is still really new to me. At first I wanted a black laptop that is occasionally blue, but midnight is the other way around and unfortunately not my cup of tea. Really looking forward to Space Black if it comes to macbooks.
Restored everything from a time machine snapshot and I'm good to go. M2 MBA is just as good as ever.
Space Gray just came in today and this color *slaps*. Midnight was my first ever mac, so space gray is still really new to me. At first I wanted a black laptop that is occasionally blue, but midnight is the other way around and unfortunately not my cup of tea. Really looking forward to Space Black if it comes to macbooks.
Restored everything from a time machine snapshot and I'm good to go. M2 MBA is just as good as ever.
I am glad you like Space Grey. It is a cool color and when it first came out I wanted it so badly!!
I like the Midnight a lot and I think the fingerprint complaints are overblown. Only thing I am worried about is the durability of the finish over time. Otherwise I love the dark blue and matched keyboard. One thing that always bothered me on Macs was the black keyboard against silver or even space grey. Now having a matching keyboard and the dark blue metal frame around the display is just cool.
I have wanted a black MacBook for while ever since the black Surface Laptop came out. I can understand where you are coming from but for me I like the dark blue better because the color changes depending on the light and it is not the same black, grey or silver on most laptops. There are some Windows laptops with a dark blue like Lenovo Thinkpad but their blue is different. As long as the finish holds up I am happy. I would also like to see a purple color. I wish Apple would return to the more colorful past where they had a bunch of saturated bright color options. I think they would look great on the Air, like an orange, purple, green, electric blue and so on.
You sound like me, I've always been a Space Grey MBP buyer and always preferred it over the Silver. When the new MBP's came out with the black keyboard background, it was perfect.
However, when I saw the M2 Midnight it was just perfection. However, I am concerned about the longer term durability, I have a tiny pin prick speck of the silver undercoat shining through from unboxing which I cannot un-see. In addition, my ports where always chipped out of the box thus, I wonder what the longer term will bring for this colour.
Just order a silver MacBook Air M2 and could not be more excited about it! Spent lots of time reading reviews, thinking about my needs, color choices, etc. ...now I just have to sit tight for 2 weeks until it arrives. Can't wait!
Mine should be here tomorrow! It said it was going to be here around19-26 on the Apple website. UPS says it should be here tomorrow. I hope it is true. i hope you also get yours before two weeks.
OK, so, I broke the screen on my 2020 MBP 14". $850 repair, so decided to try a M2 MBA. The midnight black looks god damn amazing, I appreciate it being lighter, and the fact that the wedge shape is gone is perfect.
I decided to try the base spec because I really just need a "scout" computer for notetaking and light work. I'm still a little uneasy about only 8gb ram and being a data analyst, but I did a stress test today and it handled large datasets in Excel, SPSS, and R Studio and many browser tabs and youtube simultaneously without obvious issue, so that's about 99% of my usage right there. I'm still unsure if it will handle 10's of datasets and docs open at once, but it wouldn't be the worst thing if it forced me better open/close/organization habits.
My MBP was suffering from the popping speakers under heaving RAM load. So even though it has 16gb, it would quickly become junk when doing everything at once and trying to have audio playing. We'll see if MBA starts to have that problem.
Not sure if I'll try to DIY repair my MBP screen, sell it, or hook it up to a TV. Even if I could repair my MBP, I don't think I'd want to return the Air, I'm surprised how much I like it.
I decided to try the base spec because I really just need a "scout" computer for notetaking and light work. I'm still a little uneasy about only 8gb ram and being a data analyst, but I did a stress test today and it handled large datasets in Excel, SPSS, and R Studio and many browser tabs and youtube simultaneously without obvious issue, so that's about 99% of my usage right there. I'm still unsure if it will handle 10's of datasets and docs open at once, but it wouldn't be the worst thing if it forced me better open/close/organization habits.
My MBP was suffering from the popping speakers under heaving RAM load. So even though it has 16gb, it would quickly become junk when doing everything at once and trying to have audio playing. We'll see if MBA starts to have that problem.
Not sure if I'll try to DIY repair my MBP screen, sell it, or hook it up to a TV. Even if I could repair my MBP, I don't think I'd want to return the Air, I'm surprised how much I like it.
I came from a MBP too and never owned an air device. With all the people talking about the throttling and other issues I was skeptical I was going to like it but I thought it was worth a try.
So far I have been really impressed and it continues to grow on me.
Definitely out of warranty? If based in some European countries you'd get 2 years statutory warranty by default. If the US and it's outside the window, that's a crying shame. One super-expensive mistake.
I mean, what warranty? Warranty against me breaking it? I thought it's a "limited" warranty, against manufacturing defects in the product, not user errors.
I forgot to mention that I am sorry about the broken screen. $850 is a big chunk of change. I am always paranoid I am going to break something on all my devices. When I liked your post it was because of your experience with the M2 Air and not the situation that caused you to try it out.
I don't think a warranty would help on accidental breakage unless you got Applecare. Maybe it is something to consider? I know extended warranties are a bit of a gamble usually in favor of the Insurer but sometimes with accidental insurance it can pay for itself and you can buy it year by year to help offset that initial extra cost?
Thanks, yeah, I definitely got applecare on the MBA. No brainer considering it was on sale. The probability of damaging something like a phone is pretty high considering how much it moves, and laptops are probably in a similar risk category. I kept breaking phones too. I was able to put a rugged case on my latest phone so its just about bullet proof, but can't really do that with a laptop. Also, considering how little i trust Apple manufacturing, worth it to cover their errors alone.
Went for a silver 10-core GPU, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD. Will be arriving next Friday!
Sounds like a great configuration!! I am sure you will be very happy with your choice. Won't have to worry about scratching like us Midnight owners.
I got a similar config but with the 8 core GPU.
You will have to report back your initial impressions when it arrives. Would love to hear what you think!
Still loving mine, using it more and more each day. For me, the biggest learning curve was honestly just having a laptop again lol. Ive been using a phone and iPad for so many years, that I got used to just closing everything down, never leaving safari just open and minimized etc. The more and more I relearn how to use a laptop as a laptop, the more fun im having just grabbing it. I dont even worry about plugging it in at night because it literally drops 1% sitting in sleep mode for 12 hours.
These make for a really nice day to day machine, and I love the no fan design, I never have too worry about how im using it, not worry about using it on top of a pillow and blocking the fan vents lol. And these keyboards are so fantastic, I honestly didn't think laptop keyboards would feel this nice.
These make for a really nice day to day machine, and I love the no fan design, I never have too worry about how im using it, not worry about using it on top of a pillow and blocking the fan vents lol. And these keyboards are so fantastic, I honestly didn't think laptop keyboards would feel this nice.
I completely agree. The fan less design has a lot of benefits and all we here about is thermal throttling when the device is pushed in uses it was not designed for.
I love the keyboard and the track pad. I think the track pad is the perfect size. Typing is so accurate as well.
The Air is just an overall pleasure to use and sometimes I wonder if I need my iPad because I can use it anywhere and the keyboard works so well!
I am glad you are enjoying your and thank you for your feedback!
Will definitely let you know. I think the 8 core GPU would have been sufficient for me but at 80 CHF/USD difference with the 2 port charger included it was a no-brainer.
I am upgrading from a 2012 MacBook Pro 15" with the matte display. Still runs great but is just too heavy for my regular domestic and international travels.
I am sure there is a benefit of having two additional GPU cores! You seem to keep your devices a long time so might as well get that extra power for later on. Wow a 10 year old Mac and running great. That is awesome.
The M2 MBA should be a major upgrade. I hope you are very happy with the MBA when you get it! What is the resolution on your 15" display? You are losing a bit of screen size but I would imagine the sharper image will be nice and probably different tech like TFT to IPS. It is amazing how good the old displays on Macs are.
The screen size is 15.4-inch at 1680 x 1050. When I meet someone that know about Macs, they typically envy this display. It is indeed a great screen and I love the matte finish.
My Macbook is upgraded to 16GB and an SSD. I also did replace the thermal paste myself a few years ago to keep it running. Gets quite hot when I am using it with solutions like MS Teams, I hope this will be better with the new machine.
The MBA M2 is fanless. It’s a marvel to use. As others have said, it’ll be a tremendous upgrade for you and you’ll be very impressed.
Just picked up my base MBA (midnight) which replaced my M1 base. After just a couple of hours I am in love with the color, and definitely notice the slightly larger screen as well. Notch is not annoying at all, and battery is still stellar.
I am not a heavy user, but use outlook, excel, and of course safari and chrome with several tabs open each. Does everything perfectly, so I am a happy camper!
PS- I noticed Micro Center was $1099 (for the base) and I could have gone there, but there is a best buy just a couple of blocks from my office so I asked them to price match and they gladly obliged.
I am not a heavy user, but use outlook, excel, and of course safari and chrome with several tabs open each. Does everything perfectly, so I am a happy camper!
PS- I noticed Micro Center was $1099 (for the base) and I could have gone there, but there is a best buy just a couple of blocks from my office so I asked them to price match and they gladly obliged.