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Base M2 13/15 MBAir owners - when are you upgrading?

thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Original poster
I have 15 inch M2 Air with 8/256 still on Tahoe 26.3.1 and pretty happy with it overall and can manage half storage left since I use external SSD's and such for cold storage needs.

I did try a 13" inch M4 with 16/256 a few months ago but returned it because I am still happy with my machine.

And something off-putting about paying that much for 256gb storage (I think $899 but even still).

Now that it's 16/512 with M5 onward, I will be more tempted to upgrade eventually. I am thinking maybe when there's a re-design as I can sometimes be a sucker for re-design style upgrades (17 pro, M4 iPad Pro, this 15-inch from 13" M1 MBA)
 
GregoriousMan said:
I’d wait for a redesign. The M2 is still more computer than most people need.
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I was in that camp but decided to do it earlier because I’m 90% sure the next MacBooks coming out are coming with a price jump. Between a possible redesign and Apple only able to hold off on ram and ssd increases for so long, it seems inevitable.

Decided to get the latest and greatest air now and better chance of riding out the insanity of these incoming price increases which they are saying could last till 2030 now
 
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1BadManVan said:
I was in that camp but decided to do it earlier because I’m 90% sure the next MacBooks coming out are coming with a price jump. Between a possible redesign and Apple only able to hold off on ram and ssd increases for so long, it seems inevitable.

Decided to get the latest and greatest air now and better chance of riding out the insanity of these incoming price increases which they are saying could last till 2030 now
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Did you stay same size? And go to 16/512 M5 base or higher?
 
My M2 MBA more than meets my current needs, so I won't be upgrading any time soon. I did spring for the 16/1TB aiming for longevity.
 
I have 13" M2 MMBA 16/256. I won't upgrade as long as my current MBA does what I want or until a new MacBook gives me something new which I care about. Lighter and smaller are two examples.

Also I don't need a lot of storage since I'm using iCloud Drive/iCloud Photo Library. I dislike that Apple increased the base storage and the starting price for the MBA.
 
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I went from 16/512 M1 to 24/512 M4. It didn't feel like a "required" upgrade as the M1 was still running great, but I had financial incentives from work for the upgrade. I was planning to hang on for M5.

For every day use the M2 is still a superbly capable machine. If you're not seeing constraints I'd hold off for the M6 or even M7.
 
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M5 finally showed up! Definitely snappier, much quicker wifi. Will enjoy putting it through its paces over the next little while, I don’t do anything really heavy but just daily usage and opening stuff up, bit of photo editing. Doing great
 
What is the “sweet spot” to upgrade from an M2 this is meeting all my needs at this point? I don’t need an upgrade, but my spouse needs a new laptop. She’s willing to take my M2 and let me get something new as her use is light. My current M2 ticks all my boxes for my needs. The only thing I would like to upgrade (like, not need to) would be the screen, but that would mean going to a MBP which would be far beyond my needs.

So, where is the financial sweet spot? I’m thinking it is the M4 refurbished.

The problem for my situation is that at some point Apple will upgrade the screen and I’ll be “stuck” with a computer that is plenty good enough and no need to upgrade when I actually desire. All first world problems.
 
I must be pathetic. Running a M1 Air, 8gb 256. As basic as you can get on that model and it is still running fantastic. Only thing I really miss is the ability to run multiple displays.
 
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UPBaylor said:
What is the “sweet spot” to upgrade from an M2 this is meeting all my needs at this point? I don’t need an upgrade, but my spouse needs a new laptop. She’s willing to take my M2 and let me get something new as her use is light. My current M2 ticks all my boxes for my needs. The only thing I would like to upgrade (like, not need to) would be the screen, but that would mean going to a MBP which would be far beyond my needs.

So, where is the financial sweet spot? I’m thinking it is the M4 refurbished.

The problem for my situation is that at some point Apple will upgrade the screen and I’ll be “stuck” with a computer that is plenty good enough and no need to upgrade when I actually desire. All first world problems.
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How about keeping the M2 MBA as it still covers your needs, and buying her the new MBN instead?
 
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I only upgraded from an M2 to an M4 for the extra external display support. I went with the 24/512 variant and it's been awesome. Otherwise, I would still be with the M2. It's still a great computer.
 
How about keeping the M2 MBA as it still covers your needs, and buying her the new MBN instead?
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Definitely a consideration. The issue is that she wants the fingerprint scanner, so the $700 model and would prefer a 15” screen. So, at $700, it’s not a big leap to get to a refurbished M4 (for me) and have a much more robust overall setup for both of us.
 
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I upgraded to the M5 a couple of weeks ago. I always keep my old laptop as a spare in case something happens to the new one, and my old computer until I bought the M5 was a 2105 MacBook Air, so barely worth using. The M2 should be a decent spare for years to come. But the main reason I did it now rather than wait one more year, as was the original plan, was because I expect RAM and storage price increases to hit Apple at some point, and I thought this year was a good time to jump. Hopefully I'll be able to wait until 2032 to upgrade again.
 
doogm said:
I upgraded to the M5 a couple of weeks ago. I always keep my old laptop as a spare in case something happens to the new one, and my old computer until I bought the M5 was a 2105 MacBook Air, so barely worth using. The M2 should be a decent spare for years to come. But the main reason I did it now rather than wait one more year, as was the original plan, was because I expect RAM and storage price increases to hit Apple at some point, and I thought this year was a good time to jump. Hopefully I'll be able to wait until 2032 to upgrade again.
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You had a 2105 MBA and replaced it with an old M5 MBA model...? 😂
 
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doogm said:
I upgraded to the M5 a couple of weeks ago. I always keep my old laptop as a spare in case something happens to the new one, and my old computer until I bought the M5 was a 2105 MacBook Air, so barely worth using. The M2 should be a decent spare for years to come. But the main reason I did it now rather than wait one more year, as was the original plan, was because I expect RAM and storage price increases to hit Apple at some point, and I thought this year was a good time to jump. Hopefully I'll be able to wait until 2032 to upgrade again.
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Exactly why I decided to upgrade early to an M5. I rather get the latest and greatest now before the jump in prices that are inevitable at this point. An M5 should easily last me 5-7 years now. I had the financial means now, I sold my m2 for a good price so got it now before having to feel the squeeze of the incoming price jumps
 
geta said:
You had a 2105 MBA and replaced it with an old M5 MBA model...? 😂
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No. I always keep my old laptop as a spare. When I bought the M2 in 2022, my previous laptop was the 2015 MacBook Air, so that was my spare until 2 weeks ago.

The M5 is my main laptop, the M2 is a spare, the 2015 is now being recycled.
 
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m2a 15” 15/512:

i’d upgrade if/when the screen gets some love (oled, higher brightness). otherwise, it keeps chugging along on sequoia until i can’t use it anymore! fantastic machine.
 
thadoggfather said:
Cool to see lots of people hold out 🙂

They are still great machines
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Definitely nothing wrong with the M2, still an awesome machine, i had no complaints with mine when i had it. Was very confident selling that to someone knowing they would love it. The guy messaged me a few hours after buying it to thank me again and telling me how much he loved it lol
 
Just upgraded my wife's M2 8/512 Air this afternoon to the M5 16/512 . Got $445 as a trade at the apple store. They would have done 10% discount as a price match to BestBuy, but the BB price (and Amazon's) was $40 better than 10% off. Apple's trade value was greater than BB. Apple would not do the 12 month financing on a price match item, just a full payment at time of purchase. So....

After I traded the M2 to Mr. Cook's store, I drove a short distance to BB, bought the M5 with 12 month financing, and the better price of $949, which supposedly ends tonight. Her M2 was an open box from BB originally (which did not look like it had been used).

Given the noise about memory costs increasing due to supply issues, I figured it was a good time to upgrade, especially the RAM since she likes to keep a lot of windows open . Plus she now has a faster MBA than my M4 15 inch ;-)
 
tenordrum said:
Just upgraded my wife's M2 8/512 Air this afternoon to the M5 16/512 . Got $445 as a trade at the apple store. They would have done 10% discount as a price match to BestBuy, but the BB price (and Amazon's) was $40 better than 10% off. Apple's trade value was greater than BB. Apple would not do the 12 month financing on a price match item, just a full payment at time of purchase. So....

After I traded the M2 to Mr. Cook's store, I drove a short distance to BB, bought the M5 with 12 month financing, and the better price of $949, which supposedly ends tonight. Her M2 was an open box from BB originally (which did not look like it had been used).

Given the noise about memory costs increasing due to supply issues, I figured it was a good time to upgrade, especially the RAM since she likes to keep a lot of windows open . Plus she now has a faster MBA than my M4 15 inch ;-)
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I honestly didnt know you could do that. So you didnt technically trade it, you sold it to Apple for $445, and they paid out cash and not a gift card?
 
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