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Got my 10/1TB/24GB silver M2 MacBook Air today. It's a beast!

R

rr23

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2021
83
251
I used it for the entire day and here's what I noticed:

  • It stays cool to the touch. Not once did it get even slightly warm. Seriously, I tried overloading it with daily tasks and couldn't get it to warm up, let alone get hot.
  • I had 30+ browser tabs open and as I continued to open more, websites loaded instantaneously. Tradingview and many exchanges consume a lot of resources in browser windows that my MacBook 12 couldn't handle after a few minutes. No such issues with the M2 Air. None. Websites load at lightning-fast speed.
  • Wife called on FaceTime and she couldn't believe how good the webcam looked.
  • The battery lasts FOREVER lol. At least that's what it feels like. I'm still on factory charge after 8 hours of semi-heavy use with 20% left.
  • Magsafe charging kicks ass. It feels so solid and effortless to connect.
  • Screen is gorgeous and feels huge compared to my MacBook 12.
  • All in all, to me, this is hands down the best looking laptop in the world. From all angles, it's simply stunning.
  • Silver color looks spectacular is person. I'm so glad that I went this route. It looks like a very light silver (almost white at times), but that could be because I was so used to space gray.
  • Quality-wise, it's perfection. Zero issues or defects that I could spot. Keyboard is smooth as butter. Hinges on the screen feel incredibly sturdy. What an amazing product.
  • After all day use, I can't see any fingerprints. Nil. I don't understand why so many reviewers complained about this. Their hands must be extremely oily.

For the record, I don't do video editing and I never will. So there's that. But what I can tell you is that my old 16 GB MacBook 12 was complete trash when it came to performance. It would get scorching hot very quickly (yes, scorching hot to the point where it would burn skin if you touched the bottom) with 20 browser tabs open. It would also throttle like crazy after just 5-10 minutes of heavy use (and by heavy, I mean having many browser tabs open).

For me, this upgrade is like going from a Toyota Camry to a Ferrari. I don't know of any other way to describe it. Night and day. My goal was to buy the fastest, lightest, and most portable laptop with a native Apple ecosystem. Mission accomplished.
 

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enthawizeguy said:
waiting for mine. I saw it in person and its hard to tell how small they are compared to the 14 inch unless u see it in person.
Click to expand...

I saw the 14" Pro at an Apple Store and it seemed much thicker. Also, ergonomically, I prefer this M2 Air design so much more over the old Air/MacBook 12 because the tapered edge would always dig into my palms when I had it on my lap while laying down. The spacing between the keys is also so well thought out.
 
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Congratulations on getting your new MBA! Mine is the same config, but in Space Gray and I've been loving it.

It's a beautiful machine. I never show off new tech, but this computer I took to the office to show one of our VPs who likes Macs, because I wanted to suggest considering one as a replacement for her current MacBook Pro. She does a lot of travel, and this form factor would be perfect for her. She proclaimed it "almost too pretty to touch," which amused me.
 
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chrono1081 said:
I love mine so much. I unsubscribed from a lot of tech YouTubers due to their terrible and incorrect reviews on the M2 MBA. This machine is fantastic and I utterly hammered it when I got it. Never did I think I'd be running software like Houdini on a MacBook Air.
Click to expand...
Many youtubers have lost their credibility in my book because how they've handled this device. What's shocking is at first many posted benchmarks without even having the machine in hand. I have unfollowed many.
 
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rr23 said:
I used it for the entire day and here's what I noticed:

  • It stays cool to the touch. Not once did it get even slightly warm. Seriously, I tried overloading it with daily tasks and couldn't get it to warm up, let alone get hot.
  • I had 30+ browser tabs open and as I continued to open more, websites loaded instantaneously. Tradingview and many exchanges consume a lot of resources in browser windows that my MacBook 12 couldn't handle after a few minutes. No such issues with the M2 Air. None. Websites load at lightning-fast speed.
  • Wife called on FaceTime and she couldn't believe how good the webcam looked.
  • The battery lasts FOREVER lol. At least that's what it feels like. I'm still on factory charge after 8 hours of semi-heavy use with 20% left.
  • Magsafe charging kicks ass. It feels so solid and effortless to connect.
  • Screen is gorgeous and feels huge compared to my MacBook 12.
  • All in all, to me, this is hands down the best looking laptop in the world. From all angles, it's simply stunning.
  • Silver color looks spectacular is person. I'm so glad that I went this route. It looks like a very light silver (almost white at times), but that could be because I was so used to space gray.
  • Quality-wise, it's perfection. Zero issues or defects that I could spot. Keyboard is smooth as butter. Hinges on the screen feel incredibly sturdy. What an amazing product.
  • After all day use, I can't see any fingerprints. Nil. I don't understand why so many reviewers complained about this. Their hands must be extremely oily.

For the record, I don't do video editing and I never will. So there's that. But what I can tell you is that my old 16 GB MacBook 12 was complete trash when it came to performance. It would get scorching hot very quickly (yes, scorching hot to the point where it would burn skin if you touched the bottom) with 20 browser tabs open. It would also throttle like crazy after just 5-10 minutes of heavy use (and by heavy, I mean having many browser tabs open).

For me, this upgrade is like going from a Toyota Camry to a Ferrari. I don't know of any other way to describe it. Night and day. My goal was to buy the fastest, lightest, and most portable laptop with a native Apple ecosystem. Mission accomplished.
Click to expand...
I would love to see more photos from more angles. Congrats and enjoy!
 
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I have to admit, I moved on from a MS Surface Book 3 just recently, and the only thing I do miss a little of is the touch screen and windows 'hello' (their version of facetime unlock)...but with those two features aside, I will be up front and say that it is a night and day difference in performance between the two, and it's like "Why didn't I do this when the M1 came out???" I think honestly though it might've been the fear of venturing back into Mac territory after the distaste of my earlier iPad experiences that made me look over here and say ehhhh, maybe not, but I am sort of relieved when I decided to try it once again with a two week trial. I'm already sold on it after less than a week.
 
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Sleix said:
I have to admit, I moved on from a MS Surface Book 3 just recently, and the only thing I do miss a little of is the touch screen and windows 'hello' (their version of facetime unlock)...but with those two features aside, I will be up front and say that it is a night and day difference in performance between the two, and it's like "Why didn't I do this when the M1 came out???" I think honestly though it might've been the fear of venturing back into Mac territory after the distaste of my earlier iPad experiences that made me look over here and say ehhhh, maybe not, but I am sort of relieved when I decided to try it once again with a two week trial. I'm already sold on it after less than a week.
Click to expand...
Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. Enjoy.
 
rr23 said:
  • After all day use, I can't see any fingerprints. Nil. I don't understand why so many reviewers complained about this. Their hands must be extremely oily.
Click to expand...
It's the midnight blue one that shows fingerprints. It's obvious to me that it always would.

All the complaints it's had from users who were totally surprised by it...I've tried long and hard to figure out what experiences in life I've had which made it so obvious to me that it would be a finger-print magnet, that they mustn't have had. I can't think of any other than 'well it's just common sense', as sanctimonious as that sounds. Also none of them owned a black iPhone 5 for sure (exact same issue, for the exact same reason).

Anyhow I'm glad you love your MBA. It's always good to read others' first-hand experiences.
 
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Sleix said:
I have to admit, I moved on from a MS Surface Book 3 just recently, and the only thing I do miss a little of is the touch screen and windows 'hello' (their version of facetime unlock)...but with those two features aside, I will be up front and say that it is a night and day difference in performance between the two, and it's like "Why didn't I do this when the M1 came out???" I think honestly though it might've been the fear of venturing back into Mac territory after the distaste of my earlier iPad experiences that made me look over here and say ehhhh, maybe not, but I am sort of relieved when I decided to try it once again with a two week trial. I'm already sold on it after less than a week.
Click to expand...
A few years ago, I briefly tried a Microsoft Surface laptop, and I really loved "hello". Honestly the thing I missed the most wasn't MacOS, but rather BetterTouchTool. Anyway, I went back to Mac pretty quickly. I do wish they had face unlock. It was a joy to use.
 
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rr23 said:
My goal was to buy the fastest, lightest, and most portable laptop with a native Apple ecosystem. Mission accomplished.
Click to expand...
Have you benchmarked the SSD (or opened the case)? I am curious to know if the 1TB SKU has two flash chips or one.
 
I got my silver model a few days ago. My first thought continued to repeat in my head, as I used it, held it, and set it up on my desk...

This is a spectacular laptop.

Physically holding it for the first time, I found it to be a perfect balance of light and solid. This is no toy.

I agree with all of OP's points, so I won't bother gushing about it. There's an interesting thing I noticed while considering this new model overall: There are only two things I would change, in order to make it perfect for me.

The screen, and one USB port on the right. That's it. And even those are me just nit-picking for fun, and oddly makes me realise how incredible this laptop is.

The screen is very good as it is. It’s sharp, smooth, and has good contrast. The only reason I mention it is because it’s one of very few areas where I think there’s room for improvement. Truthfully, if I hadn’t had one of the 14” MBPs for two weeks, I doubt I’ve had even mentioned it.

Swap out this screen for a 4k 120hz microLED screen, and this would be beyond a joy to work on. Like I said, it’s already very good — this is merely an exercise in nit-picking fantasy.

The USB-C port on the right is absolutely the least of my wishes. I like things to be neat and tidy, and having a port on the right-hand side would simply allow for more options in how cables and doo-hickeys are arranged. Nothing else to be said, really — it would just be nice.

I am extremely happy with my purchase. I am also an extremely picky person, so to only have two areas I'd change is a testament to how magnificent this device is. Everyone who worked on this should be proud; hardware, silicon, design, and everything else that goes into making something like this masterpiece.

This is a spectacular laptop.
 
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This is a much more encouraging analysis and not the doom scrolling over at Youtube and in some of these threads. I'd like to hear a few updates as you continue to get to work on it. Congrats to the OP and those of you who've got the new one.
 
Sleix said:
My suspicions are that they only hobbled the 256GB in order to nudge people to the 512. I'm betting everybody else is dual chips.
Click to expand...
That's my understanding. Tests on the 256 GB drives were showing speeds of ~1400 MB/s, the higher capacity drives are at ~2800 MB/s when people test. Which also matches the test I did on my 1TB. It seems all capacities outside of the 256GB have two chips.
 
I have the same model (10/1TB/24GB), but Midnight. This has been my perfect go-to companion for classes, the library, coffee shops, and quick tasks. Very fast, runs cool, silent, looks great, and battery lasts all day. I got the small charger, so easy to put it all in a sleeve. I still have a M1 Max MBP for Parallels and heavier processing. But the Air is a wonderful extension thanks to iCloud.
 
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honestly, I think the silver looks quite nice. I don't have any buyer's remorse for getting the midnight model but I think the plain silver also really suits this design well too.
 
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MajorFubar said:
It's the midnight blue one that shows fingerprints. It's obvious to me that it always would.

All the complaints it's had from users who were totally surprised by it...I've tried long and hard to figure out what experiences in life I've had which made it so obvious to me that it would be a finger-print magnet, that they mustn't have had. I can't think of any other than 'well it's just common sense', as sanctimonious as that sounds. Also none of them owned a black iPhone 5 for sure (exact same issue, for the exact same reason).

Anyhow I'm glad you love your MBA. It's always good to read others' first-hand experiences.
Click to expand...

Yeah I got the midnight blue and it’s definitely a fingerprint magnet but it’s a life I chose. I just wipe it off with a cloth and keep it moving. I probably would get a space grey one if I had to do it over but it’s a beautiful color and the screen is fantastic.
 
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I got the midnight blue too and am enjoying it just cos it's different - have had silver MBAs before and a Space Gray MacBook 12" so I felt like I had done all that. But what I'd really like is an orange one! Hope they expand the color choices in future.
 
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rr23 said:
I saw the 14" Pro at an Apple Store and it seemed much thicker. Also, ergonomically, I prefer this M2 Air design so much more over the old Air/MacBook 12 because the tapered edge would always dig into my palms when I had it on my lap while laying down. The spacing between the keys is also so well thought out.
Click to expand...
The total thickness of the M2 Air is almost identical to the lower case of the 14" Pro. I have a Midnight 8/24/1TB arriving tomorrow (I decided to return the 10/16/1TB version I had before).
 
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KPOM said:
The total thickness of the M2 Air is almost identical to the lower case of the 14" Pro. I have a Midnight 8/24/1TB arriving tomorrow (I decided to return the 10/16/1TB version I had before).
Click to expand...
Was there a particular app/task where you found that 16Gb wasn't enough?
 
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