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Anyone gone from MBA M1 MBP 14" M2 and happy with it?

kitenski

kitenski

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 30, 2008
479
208
Leeds, UK
I've an M1 MBA, it is slowing down on certain tasks and I'm seeing 100% CPU in some of my use cases. I don't do one task that is particularly CPU heavy but often have work & personal browsers open, powerpoint, Excel, OneNote, Teams and run a VMWare Fusion windows virtual instance all running in parallel.

I was awaiting the M3 MBA announcements, but over here in the UK there is an offer from a 3rd party that would get me the MacBook Pro, Apple M2 Pro Chip 10-Core CPU, 16-Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 14 Inch £1499 for almost the same price as an EPP price £1456 on a new MBA M2 16gb/512GB (so I'm assuming the M3 MBA won't be any cheaper)

I know I will like the bigger, brighter screen, the extra ports will be occasionally useful and of course the extra performance. I'm assuming battery life is similar.

My concerns are weight and the fan noise, I do travel on trains and take the MBA but that might only be once every 2 months, and the laptop is in a shoulder bag or rucksack. Mostly the MBA is plugged into a thunderbolt doc, on a weekend I'll move it downstairs.

I've read all the various discussions on here, but wondering if anyone went from an Air to a 14" pro and had issues with the weight and/or the fans?
 
You wont have issues with fans… as for the extra weight and size, you’ll get used to it… if not, its time to sign up for your local gym. ;)
 
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I went from an M1 Air to a 14" macbook Pro a while back: I couldn't adjust to the larger size and weight. So went with a M2 13" macBook Air.

That said, I now have a 15" macBook Air (which is awesome), so if I'd just given the 14" Pro a bit longer it would have been fine I'm sure 😆.
 
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Do you have a Macbook Air M1 with 8GB RAM? Running any VM software on 8GB RaM will give you heavy paging and therefore slowdowns while other software runs in parallel. Chech your RAM usage in the app "activity monitor".

If you already have a 16GB RAM machine, a Macbook 14 M2 with 16GB will make hardly any difference considering your present workload.

That said, I don't consider the upgrade to M2 worthwhile when you have a M1 with at least 16GB RAM. They still perform beautifully in all realms we conquer over here, so to speak.
 
I've found Excel to be a performance killer and other people have reported Teams to be the same. Anytime I find my computer to be running slow, I check to see if I left Excel open. That's the only program I bother to shut down all the time.

Are your problems chronic or recent? If they're recent, I'd sleep on it a while before jumping to any conclusions because all it takes is one bug slipping into the wrong program to give you the impression that your computer is no longer able to handle a normal day's load.
 
I am thinking of doing the opposite, sort of.

I have a 13" M1 Air I find it fine for many things, but the screen is lacking and with 8GB its sometimes swap. So, I got a M2 14 MBP with 16GB of memory. Performance is much better, and the screen is much better. It works great, at home. However, it is bulky, especially since I travel international lightly with carry-on luggage only. And especially in comparison to the Air.

As a result, I am thinking at getting a 13" Air M2/M3 with 16 GB and 512 GB drive for my travels. I will probably trade in the M2 14 MBP and M1 Air since I also have a Mac Studio with big monitors for desktop work.
 
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