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The screen will most likely be of equivalent quality to the current M2 13" MacBook Pro/2016 - 2019 Macbook Pro's. The specs are practically identical. What I don't like about the new M2 Air is that they didn't increase the resolution like the 14" M1 MacBook Pro. 2560x1600 results in screen real estate of 1280x800 which is too small.
Yeah, it’s a shame they didn’t continue with old way of having the same resolution on the 13” MBA as the 15” MBP.

It’s seems they think the scaling options solves this but I would def prefer the old “1440x900” in 2x.
 
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Fastest EVER Geekbench single core numbers from a Mac, and folks are like "Nothing to see here really. This is what we've been expecting." Those folks don't understand processor development, thermals, or how to manage expectations.

Insanity. Absolutely nuts. For single core operations, my fully loaded 16-inch MacBooks Pro hits a single core score of 1794.

MacBook Air - no fan, limited thermal envelope, and this is the fastest ever.

Sure, synthetic benchmarks have limited usefulness and don't accurately model everyone's workflow, but I think folks have become incredibly jaded. Apple Silicon is absolutely amazing. The MacBook Air M2 is poised to be the killer Mac. Small, lightweight, long battery life, silent, and more than enough computing power for the majority of users.
It would be nice to see sustained performance. Geekbench might not run long enough to see thermal throttling.
 
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this laptop despite looking nice is a pass ... when someone is okay with 8/256GB they rather choose the M1 Air ...

with 16/512GB the price is not that far from base 14" Pro, which is better in every way
I think that's what Apple wants you to do with a such a higher base price for these unappealing lower spec. It's all intentional to get people to increase options or go to the Pro.
 
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THANK YOU! I’m a student (computer science) who needed to upgrade from my older Intel MacBook Pro (too hot, becoming slow at basic tasks), and I’m just not in the financial position right now to upgrade the storage, especially with what Apple charges. Even with the smaller base SSD (I had to upgrade the RAM though), this will be such an improvement over my 2019 MBP. Still, I need the SSD to be reasonably performant for development tasks.

Most laptop SSDs/HDDs will be fine for your CS degree. Maybe with some IDEs you need a little more RAM, but you don’t need anything remotely this powerful. My now semi-retired 2012 MBA (4GB RAM, 480GB aftermarket SSD) was already almost half a decade old when I started college and it did just fine for my CS degree for another 4 years.
 
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Apple has a big problem. Inflation and strong dollar. In Europe they have to increase prices for 20% and new iPhone will be even much more expensive.
That seems more like a problem for Europeans who want the newest Apple gadgets, not Apple themselves.
 
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Anyone who is spending 1600-1800 should seriously consider the 14 inch MBP. The XDR screen with Pro Motion is what you should be spending your money on. The Air is still an lcd screen at 60hz. Don’t be fooled by the M2, it’s not better than the M1 Pro.
 
Anyone who is spending 1600-1800 should seriously consider the 14 inch MBP. The XDR screen with Pro Motion is what you should be spending your money on. The Air is still an lcd screen at 60hz. Don’t be fooled by the M2, it’s not better than the M1 Pro.
but...M2 sounds better because it has a bigger number!

/s

i agree. probably best going for the 14" MBP. i was interested in the 16GB/512GB M2 Air which is £1749. the 14 MBP is £1899 with 16GB/512GB. Not bad for just another £150.
 
The screen will most likely be of equivalent quality to the current M2 13" MacBook Pro/2016 - 2019 Macbook Pro's. The specs are practically identical. What I don't like about the new M2 Air is that they didn't increase the resolution like the 14" M1 MacBook Pro. 2560x1600 results in screen real estate of 1280x800 which is too small.
This. If this Air had the same display as the 14” MBP with everything else remaining the same it would be the most perfect notebook ever. Love the thinness, lightness and the fan-less design, but the screen could have been better. Would even pay extra for it.
 
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To be fair, most current-gen laptop chips from AMD and Intel also outperform that old base-level Xeon.
Plus you can't really use Geekbench to compare desktops and laptops because Geekbench sleeps between tests to prevent thermal throttling. So you're comparing burst speed only and ignoring sustained speed.
 
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One happy high school teacher here.
Upgrading late 2013 13' MBP to Midnight 16gb/1tb MBA.

Cannot wait to get this in hand, heard arguments from friends/posts about getting the 14 MBP but in any case this will be a huge upgrade.
I bought the same config.

As to the 14" counter on here, I say why buy what you don't need? I don't have a need for all the ports the 14" offers, not to mention I like the smaller form factor.
 
Name a laptop that currently exists that has thin bezels and a 1080p camera.
There isn't one. My personal preference would be thinner bezels and a smaller camera like the 720p in the XPS or no camera at all like my Zephyrus. Apple chooses not to create such a device and opt for a larger camera and the notch. It's not a huge deal, I just don't care for it, I am sure you'll get used to it like on the iPhone.
 
Yeah, it’s a shame they didn’t continue with old way of having the same resolution on the 13” MBA as the 15” MBP.

It’s seems they think the scaling options solves this but I would def prefer the old “1440x900” in 2x.
Yeah, the problem with scaling though is that will always look slightly more blurry than a true 2x.
 
Anyone who is spending 1600-1800 should seriously consider the 14 inch MBP. The XDR screen with Pro Motion is what you should be spending your money on. The Air is still an lcd screen at 60hz. Don’t be fooled by the M2, it’s not better than the M1 Pro.
What if you already own an M1 iPad Pro with its XDR display? That's my scenario right now. I find that I consume most of my content on the iPad due to portability. I have a 2016 Macbook Pro, but I'm using it less and less; mostly for personal apps that I want to build.

Going with M2 Macbook Air saves me money with a lower starting price, longer battery life, thinner and lighter design and does the job for general software development needs.
 
If I currently have an m1 MBP 8/256 and want to go the the M2 air would you suggest 8/512 or 16/256 configuration to maintain the same or better performance that I currently have? I use onedrive and iCloud so I don’t really need the extra storage I just keep reading about the SSD and slow downs on the m2 pro. FWIW I have NOT had the fan turn on once since I bought this in 2020! Super impressive. I run Teams, outlook, 5-10 PowerPoints, 20 tabs and never a stutter. I just like the new Lighter design to carry all day.
 
Because they're focusing on sequential reads (and writes?) which isn't the best benchmark for low-performance work. Random read and writes is usually more important.

So what's the difference in random reads and writes?
Again, more information is important - it means they can better assess their needs.
People that have a use case that calls for that kind of performance can take a view, others that don't can say meh, or opt to get something else.
 
If I currently have an m1 MBP 8/256 and want to go the the M2 air would you suggest 8/512 or 16/256 configuration to maintain the same or better performance that I currently have? I use onedrive and iCloud so I don’t really need the extra storage I just keep reading about the SSD and slow downs on the m2 pro. FWIW I have NOT had the fan turn on once since I bought this in 2020! Super impressive. I run Teams, outlook, 5-10 PowerPoints, 20 tabs and never a stutter. I just like the new Lighter design to carry all day.
Wait for reviews. Nobody knows for sure yet if the 256GB SSD is actually the same as the one in the new MacBook Pro M2. It is theoretically possible it isn't.
 
If I currently have an m1 MBP 8/256 and want to go the the M2 air would you suggest 8/512 or 16/256 configuration to maintain the same or better performance that I currently have? I use onedrive and iCloud so I don’t really need the extra storage I just keep reading about the SSD and slow downs on the m2 pro. FWIW I have NOT had the fan turn on once since I bought this in 2020! Super impressive. I run Teams, outlook, 5-10 PowerPoints, 20 tabs and never a stutter. I just like the new Lighter design to carry all day.

Definitely go for the 16/256. Your workload sounds very similar to mine (currently on M1 air 8/256), and 8GB is not nearly enough to avoid the heavy disk swapping that does unfortunately affect performance. With enough RAM you can mitigate any swapping-related performance issues altogether. For this reason I briefly considered the 24GB config for my M2 air, but doing the math I realized 16 was enough to last me for at least a few years until I'm tempted by the next MacBook :D
 
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Apple is just making a smart business decision by providing an ssd that’s 50% slower. They’re only a 3 trillion dollar company. Don’t you understand that they need MORE?! The average consumer won’t notice so it’s totally justified. 🤡
 
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