For those of you who have been spoiling yourselves with higher ppi screens, miniled, and ProMotion, do you find you miss this stuff on the m2 MBA? Does the screen feel a little low quality when viewing pictures, or even small font, etc?
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For the spoiled: how bad is the m2 MBA display?
- Thread starter GooseInTheCaboose
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Soooo this comes up from time to time when discussing apple displays, sometimes the phone, sometimes the iPad, sometimes the computers and you will find people that insist only on one the best, got to have OLED 120 Hz or its a fail. Period. I am not one of them.
I own a wide variety of Apple devices with a wide variety of screen tech, and truly the only one that really knocks my socks off is my iPhone Pro Max oled screen, you will have to kill me to get me to go back to the old style.
But otherwise I tend to use literally whatever is on hand, and if I notice the screen isn't as good on my old iPad versus my 12.9 iPad Pro, its not enough to make me get my pro. And likewise the screen is 'better' on my 16 inch MacBook Pro than my M2 MBA, but when I want portable those 2 lbs count and I have been grabbing my M2 MBA.
I found the M1 MBA to be a bit dim for my taste but usable, the M2 is definitely better and has hit the point where it doesn't distract me. When I hook it up to my Studio display, sure the nod goes to the studio display, but not enough to make me regret my M2 MBA.
The point I am trying to make, is it comes down to the individual. How picky they are, what their priorities are. I am lucky to have Apple's best, but I find the M2 MBA to have its place in my lineup because of it's weight and low power requirements meaning less to carry.. The screen is fine.
I am used to 16 inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iPhone pro. I tried an iPad mini when it was updated and could not stand the screen. is the air screen on par with an iPad mini?
I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the display on the 16in M1 Max, It's my favorite thing on that laptop. However I use a lot of different displays throughout the week. BenQ 4K monitor at home, HP 4K and 2019 MBP for work, and M1 Air sofa surfer. While the difference is noticeable if you're paying attention to it, Apple's displays have always been pretty bright and clear in my opinion. At one time I had a Razer laptop, their competitor to the Air. That was a very noticeable difference but mostly because that had a 400nit screen. My M2 Air is coming next week but the extra brightness and slightly taller screen will be most welcome but I don't think it will feel low quality since I don't feel that now with M1 Air.
Air screen, at least on M1 MBA, is much better than Mini 6
The mini 6, in my view, is one of the most subpar screens Apple has ever released
(I'm thinking about it in relative terms vs all their other current products)
I also use a 5K iMac, 2021 MacBook Pro 16”, iPad Pro, and iPhone Pro Max. The M2 Air screen is fine and the minor trade offs required to no longer tote the MacBook Pro are well worth it for me.
Nice—since you have both, have you noticed any of the performance limitations for the m2 air?
Ive been wondering how much of a compromise it is compared to the m1pro mbps for keeping lots of apps open, displaying lots of windows/tabs open in chrome/safari, big photography libraries, occasional video importing/exporting in the background while all of that stuff is running?
Do you find the air capable of being a primary computer? Or just for on the go light surfing the web etc?
The M1 and M2 Air's can do a lot more than light internet surfing. If that is the picture you have formed from the forums, you have been grossly misinformed. Outside of the single display limitation, the Air's can do the same thing the MBP can, albeit just a little slower at times, depending on what is being tasked
The main difference I notice from the 14" MacBook Pro is that the PPI is lower, so I can't fit quite as much text on the screen (e.g. spreadsheet) at the standard scale. Scrolling is a bit less smooth at 60Hz vs. 120Hz, but for everyday usage the Air is fine.
what is your overall impression of the portability and screen quality of the m2 air? I am thinking about one for travel. I have the 16 inch MacBook Pro which I am keeping.
Compared to the 16" Pro, the MacBook Air is much more portable. It is 2 lbs. lighter, meaning you can have a MacBook Air and a 12.9" iPad Pro and still be ahead. Even compared to the 14" it is noticeably lighter. The screen is good. Of course, you don't get the HDR, so if you are photo editing you will notice it. But for office applications you probably won't (apart from the smaller viewing area). It would be a great travel Mac.
How close is the screen to iPhone pro and MacBook Pro. What is the better screen 12 iPad Pro (keyboard) or m2 air?
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The iPad Pro 12.9" has a better screen than the M2 Air.
It's still a phenomenal screen. Way better than the LED Cinema Display of yore, which I also own, and is still a good screen.
I have the iPad Pro already so MacBook Air is a downgrade?
In terms of screen, I believe it is. The ppi is significantly lower (220 vs 250), the air lacks miniled (deep blacks) and ProMotion (120hz refresh rate for super smooth scrolling, animations etc).
So it is worse. However, although those features are great in an ipad, it is a legitimate question to ask whether they are noticable when missing in a laptop.
The 14/16” m1pro/max mbps were the first apple laptops to ever include them.
I just got my M2 MBA and am impressed with the screen. I'm not sure why, but it seems far better than the M1 MBA that I'm trading in.
Because the new Air has extra 100 nits
It's very good. Received the machine yesterday and already prefer it to my 11" iPad Pro, despite the fact that the iPad Pro has ProMotion and the M2 MBA does not. Scrolling is fluid, colors are vivid and appear accurate, and everything is bright and crisp. Just finished watching a baseball game via mlb.tv in Safari, and it looked great. Definitely better than watching on my iPad Pro. (Full disclosure: I don't have either the 14" MBP or the 12.9" iPad Pro.)
perfect! I have the 11” m1 pro as well. I did try the air m2 in store and thought the display looked fantastic anyways.
About the m1 vs m2 comparison:
Yeah, the M2 air got 100 more nits and is a bit larger and that will make it brighter and better that way. But on paper you can see that the M1 air has tiny bit higher pixel per inch, ppi (227) vs M2 air (224). But the difference is so minimal so I don’t think it will be noticeable. I rarely see anyone talking about it.
I’m waiting for my silver m2 air 8/16/1tb to arrive. The screen will be a huge upgrade compared to my iPad Air 3 and my MacBook Pro 13 from early 2011(!!).
Yeah, the M2 air got 100 more nits and is a bit larger and that will make it brighter and better that way. But on paper you can see that the M1 air has tiny bit higher pixel per inch, ppi (227) vs M2 air (224). But the difference is so minimal so I don’t think it will be noticeable. I rarely see anyone talking about it.
I’m waiting for my silver m2 air 8/16/1tb to arrive. The screen will be a huge upgrade compared to my iPad Air 3 and my MacBook Pro 13 from early 2011(!!).
Im looking into possibly getting either M2 Air or 14" MBP.
However, I also own 12.9 M1 iPP, thus - on one hand M2 display would seem like "downgrade" from my miniLED iPad Pro, on the other hand, however, their displays are pretty similar in size, so, they kind of overlap depending on ones usage scenarious between both devices. In short - I can always watch high quality HDR content on my iPP with miniLED without loosing much of screen real estate compared to M2 Air. The same applies to color accurate work on M2 Air, you can always use XDR iPad's display as external reference screen through Sidecar, no?
I hope that made sense and might help someone else with reasoning in choosing the "right" laptop display in case they already own similarly sized device with higher screen tech.
However, I also own 12.9 M1 iPP, thus - on one hand M2 display would seem like "downgrade" from my miniLED iPad Pro, on the other hand, however, their displays are pretty similar in size, so, they kind of overlap depending on ones usage scenarious between both devices. In short - I can always watch high quality HDR content on my iPP with miniLED without loosing much of screen real estate compared to M2 Air. The same applies to color accurate work on M2 Air, you can always use XDR iPad's display as external reference screen through Sidecar, no?
I hope that made sense and might help someone else with reasoning in choosing the "right" laptop display in case they already own similarly sized device with higher screen tech.
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I’m typing this on a return flight on my m2 mba. Left the 16 mbp home. Short business meeting around the conference table …light work. The m2 mba was perfect. The weight and size difference was such i got paranoid and checked my bag twice. No big power brick either. Did carry the hdmi dongle.
Having said that, for longer trips doing real work in a hotel room where I want the screen size I’d probably take the 16 mbp.
I’m keeping both