Apple Now Accepting Pre-Orders for New MacBook Air With M2 Chip

[3460169]

I have a base model Mac Studio. It's amazing! Love it. It's my first Apple Silicon Mac. But because I don't do too many sustained processing tasks—at least not daily—I'm picking up the Air to see if I will prefer it. If so, I'm gonna miss this little guy. He's the future of desktops.

What are you using yours for?

The Studio is a pretty great machine indeed! (If you can get past & tolerate the fan noise/whine stuff.)

It's actually quite a bit overpowered for most of my everyday usage. I do IT stuff for living -- specifically tech support for a particular SaaS product that's used for for performance testing of other web stuff. It's a bit complicated but suffice to say, any amount of computational time that can be spared is actually hugely beneficial and increases overall throughput. Time is literally money and having a fast machine, even if "overpowered", is ideal. I also do some coding stuff and I simply despise waiting for compilers to finish, well, compiling. ;-)

My motive was actually more about two things a) moving to Apple Silicon and b) moving to a desktop-class system for my everyday usage patterns. For point (a) I just felt it was time (the Studio is also my first Apple Silicon system) considering Apple has been doing their own chips for, what, two years now. My prior system is a 2019 MBP and normally I'd go 5 to 7 years, give or take, between Mac hardware purchases. macOS 13 (Ventura) supposedly will run on Macs that are within 5 years old or so, so my 2019 MBP makes the cut by a couple of years and should see another year or two of macOS compatibility. That MBP can go to a new home and still be useful, i.e. not on its last legs or last supported OS stuck in the past. More importantly for me was point (b) though. I wrote a short dissertation about it over here. The short of it is that, especially after 3 years of work-from-home life, I know I prefer a desktop system. (I work from home 100% of the time, even since before the pandemic.). I eyeballed the Mac Mini but it seemed a tad underpowered, and it didn't have enough connectivity. (The MBP experience also taught me that I severely dislike dongles and hubs!). The Mac Studio has 8 USB-capable ports and I'm using 7 of them.

For my needs the Mac Studio is a powerhouse of a system that I'll have a hard time outgrowing within the next 5-10 years, I figure. It'll be with me for a long while! The M2 Air that I ordered on my employer's budget should be with me for the long haul as well as my go-to mobile computing system.

 

[canadianpj]

What is your justification of maxing the RAM on the MBA M2 instead of getting a more powerful 14" MBP M1?

Better screen, new design, no touch bar, better speakers, better front-facing camera, etc, etc. Lots. I got a maxed out as well and the M2 MBA had no appeal to me in comparison, none.

 

[mi7chy]

After the bad news about the M2 MBP SSD is there any word out there about the MBA's SSD speed?

Everyone still waiting for review embargo to lift.

 

[PatriotInvasion]

Midnight M2 8/10 core/8GB/512GB MBA ordered at 8:00:27am. July 15 delivery. Will be a nice addition to the Studio Display.

 

[waterfta]

Better screen, new design, no touch bar, better speakers, better front-facing camera, etc, etc. Lots. I got a maxed out as well and the M2 MBA had no appeal to me in comparison, none.

you know the 14" MBP that is being spoken about has all of those things too....

 

[waterfta]

The TL;DR is that it is not going to matter in the larger scheme of things.

All it is really accomplishing is to spam prospective buyers for weeks about how crappy their new laptop is going to be. It’s literally nothing more than concern trolling and fake cynicism for the sake of rage clickbait.

While yes, most people wouldn't have known if not told, I think the idea of knowing what we are paying for is still important. Otherwise, anytime it isn't "quite" as snappy as we like, we may feel some buyers remorse by not waiting for reviews to come out to see if it's a 128/128 config and/or not stepping up to the 512 option.

Maybe doesn't matter to you, but for others that make a purchase like this once every 5 years or more, we would like to be fully informed.

 

[NY Guitarist]

The TL;DR is that it is not going to matter in the larger scheme of things.

All it is really accomplishing is to spam prospective buyers for weeks about how crappy their new laptop is going to be. It’s literally nothing more than concern trolling and fake cynicism for the sake of rage clickbait.

For most buyers SSD speed won't matter too much but SSD speeds are critical for even the most basic video editing.

My concern is how I will use it, not how anyone else does.

 

[Abazigal]

For most buyers SSD speed won't matter too much but SSD speeds are critical for even the most basic video editing.

My concern is how I will use it, not how anyone else does.

It still has a read write speed of over 1400. The Samsung T7 drive maxes out at 1050, and people are comfortable editing video directly off those over usb c.

I am willing to bet that there isn’t going to be any noticeable difference in how people interact with their devices.

 

[halfapie]

are these on display at Apple stores now? Or is that also starting July 15th?

 

[JippaLippa]

I have no need for a macOS ultrabook (I already have a mac studio, and I'll get a 14" M2 Pro eventually), but this computer looks great.
Paradoxically I always have a windows ultrabook on the side, as I sometimes need windows.

 

[akbarali.ch]

Boom, order placed. Early August estimate.

Starlight, full chip, 24GB, 1TB.

Edit: after purchase the estimate dropped a bit to "July 26th - Aug 2nd".

I like the way mention the chip as full chip, 👍

 

[Aboo]

its a hold?

Yes - it usually charges as a separate line item when it ships

 

[Aboo]

it is pretty weird and confusing how it is presented.

Says $150 instantly off and shows the financing for edu price less $150 ($79.08 for 12 months)

then a separate charge of $150 gift card financed too ($12.50 for 12 months) haha.

Combined $91.58/mo give or take over 12 months.

In the end no matter how you slice it, its $1099 (if base) and you get a $150 gift card.

It’s done that way I suspect because if the computer is returned and the gift card already redeemed, it’s a separate charge so minimizes issues for apple in recuperating those funds.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Now that it’s available to order I’m more confident in my decision of the 14” MacBook Pro in the conventional Silver.

 

[surfzen21]

Funny you should ask as I've been vacillating between the two. I already have an M1 16" Pro, and it serves its purpose as it's my main WFH Mac, but I wanted something not as big, bulky and heavy for lighter more portable use. I need 2TB of storage as this will be my Music/Photos Mac, so there is still a decent price difference between the two and the Air is a bit lighter and thinner.

However, I kind of gotten used to the MiniLED display on my 16" with those deep true blacks, etc., so if the M2 Air doesn't run cool and doesn't last all day on a single charge, and the display isn't great, I may just return it and get a similarly spec'd 14" Pro, even if it's a bit heavier. The MiniLED display would justify the price difference for me.

Oh cool. That makes sense then. You definitely wont have a SSD speed issue with those specs.

I'm imbetween getting the new Air and a 14Pro. I have a feeling im going to wind up getting the 14Pro for the display alone. The 14Pro is still smaller than the MacBookPro 2010 Im currently using 😂. This 2010 just wont quit.

 

[holyrita]

are these on display at Apple stores now? Or is that also starting July 15th?

I would call your local stores and check. The one closest to me said they would not have it on display until next Friday, a larger store a little further away said they were on display. I'm going to check them out this afternoon!

 

[Maskman7]

I would call your local stores and check. The one closest to me said they would not have it on display until next Friday, a larger store a little further away said they were on display. I'm going to check them out this afternoon!

Let us know how that works out…

 

[halfapie]

I would call your local stores and check. The one closest to me said they would not have it on display until next Friday, a larger store a little further away said they were on display. I'm going to check them out this afternoon!

My local Apple Store said no Apple Store has the m2 airs on display right now. All stores will have the M2 airs on display starting next Friday (the actual launch day).

 

[holyrita]

Turns out I spoke to someone who was a misinformed remote specialist and not someone working in the store. No display models until next Friday!

 

[NY Guitarist]

It still has a read write speed of over 1400. The Samsung T7 drive maxes out at 1050, and people are comfortable editing video directly off those over usb c.

I am willing to bet that there isn’t going to be any noticeable difference in how people interact with their devices.

I disagree, internal vs external SSD speeds are very noticeable.

Having said I think you're right that many buyers won't notice or care. After all the MBA is not best as one's primary machine for content creation.

 

[Sowelu]

Turns out I spoke to someone who was a misinformed remote specialist and not someone working in the store. No display models until next Friday!

Yes, Apple typically waits for the official launch day to put display units out (even if they are sitting in the back ready to go). A friend who worked at an Apple Store said that they typically setup new items the night before launch (after closing).

 

[kevigrif]

You want the 10GPU if you plan to do some gaming.

Ach I’m only playing silly little games like Sims and Cities: Skylines so not too graphic intense. My current MBA runs fine playing them so fingers crossed I’ll be fine 🙈

 

[kazmac]

May everyone enjoy their M2 MBAs.

 

[rr23]

Let's disagree. I'm looking at the historical value chart for the Euro and I can see four other similar drops in Euro value since 2008 that are about the same percentage drop in a year. I think the 2014 to 2015 drop is about the equal of this drop. So I wouldn't say the Euro was destroyed in those other four drops and I wouldn't use the term now. If FOREX traders use the term "destroyed", I guess that is fine. Seems overly dramatic to me. Not sure what word they would go to if the value dropped 50%. "Super-duper destroyed?" I've also traveled through Europe at different times, including when the Euro was worth less than the dollar (and when it was worth substantially more than a dollar). Some of that travel probably colors my emotional thinking on this because 1:1 just doesn't seem that unusual to me. But I remember when the Euro was formed and the value of it then was about the same value it has today.(Side note, I remember some shock and nashing of teeth when the Euro dropped below the dollar coming from Europe at that time. They seemed almost offended by that turn of events.)

Also, as you say, this seems predictable in a time of international economic uncertainty. And then, for the Euro, you double up that because there is a war going on in Europe right now. If the Ukraine war is resolved, the Euro should get a bump. So would getting through this coming recession (or we get past believing that there will be a recession).

When the value of a currency drops 30-40% in a decade or two, it’s considered destroyed. When it drops 50%+, it signals an economic collapse and a real crisis ensues. Enter Venezuela, Argentina, etc.

Currencies don’t have to crash much beyond 40% to trigger total chaos and anarchy resulting from massive instabilities in exchange rates.

This chart shows why the Euro crashed against the dollar.

EU’s trade surpluses have been completely wiped out because of energy crisis caused by the governing morons in Brussels (not by the war, even though everyone looooooves to blame Putin for every single issue known to mankind today).

Germany has slipped into trade deficit for the first time in 31 years! Trade in France and other EU countries also got rekt.

Likely to get much worse before it gets better.

 

[TallManNY]

When the value of a currency drops 30-40% in a decade or two, it’s considered destroyed. When it drops 50%+, it signals an economic collapse and a real crisis ensues. Enter Venezuela, Argentina, etc.

Currencies don’t have to crash much beyond 40% to trigger total chaos and anarchy resulting from massive instabilities in exchange rates.

View attachment 2028135

This chart shows why the Euro crashed against the dollar.

EU’s trade surpluses have been completely wiped out because of energy crisis caused by the governing morons in Brussels (not by the war, even though everyone looooooves to blame Putin for every single issue known to mankind today).

Germany has slipped into trade deficit for the first time in 31 years! Trade in France and other EU countries also got rekt.

Likely to get much worse before it gets better.

Interesting. But I don't think those examples of Venezuela or Argentina are particularly applicable to what has happened in Europe. I go back to the fact that we've seen four other major drops in Euro's value in just the last 15 years. It recovered after each of those four drops. And while the last 15 years have been a major decline, it was preceded by a major increase between 2001 and 2008. Was the US dollar destroyed in those years because the Euro gained something like 50% in value in less than a decade against the US dollar? Obviously the US dollar was not destroyed.

But if this is the terminology in the FOREX market, fine. If it is based on trade imbalances, fine. If folks think the trade imbalances are largely permanent, then I guess the Euro will stay low.

Side note, I remember seeing a recent interview with one of the German leaders who set it on the course to relying on Russia's fossil fuels. He laughs at the complaints today regarding setting up this dependance. Basically, his view is that Germany got the benefit of access to cheap energy from Russia (which helped Germany export more among other things) for years and that it is silly to complain about the situation now because it was obviously a risk that everyone should have known. Germany transformed its economy into being dependent on pipelines from Russia. That came with the risk of being reliant on Russia actions.

Similar predictable issues were created by Germany when it decided to start shutting down its nuclear power plants.