Hands-On With the M2 MacBook Air: All Your Questions Answered

dmylrea said:
According to Apple specs, the height difference is 0.17 inches.
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Which is plenty, on a laptop.

dmylrea said:
The person I replied to said the MBA M2 had "superior portability", and I'm just saying that both the 14" and MBA M2 are both HIGHLY portable.
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The two don't contradict each other. The Pro is already quite portable, but the Air is 39% thinner and 30% lighter. That's nothing to sneeze at.
 
Tagbert said:
Would that be a problem?

Why would having more color options be a bad thing? Does it make the iPhone a toy? Does it make a car a toy? We are past the age of Model-T’s where you could have any color you want as long as it was ”black”.
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Yes I don't understand why other manufacturers can have nice colors on their flagships. Sierra is the only one I have liked so far. Wish they would get the Cosmic Blue they keep showing. Even better more choices other than the dull ones
 
ikramerica said:
Reading is faster, more informative and can be done anywhere (almost). Waking up at 5:45 and my wife is still asleep? Can’t watch this video…
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Especially with the ridiculous max volume on 13PM. My wife always starts a video, and I jump out of my seat. Is there a way to limit max volume on the speakers and not just on headphones?
 
I find the answer to that first question a bit easy because it is based on the overall prejudice that more is always better (which is not always the case). A lot of people that own a computer never use its full potential so what's the point on paying 300 USD extra for it? To advise someone to always pick the heavier machine is simply sloppy (and lazy) advise.

Stata: "I have no idea what that is"
It takes a simple google search and the first link that pops up will tell you right there in the description that this is general purpose statistical software. And if you add M1 to that search phrase, you will land on a page on Stata's website that says "we have found that M1 Macs natively running Stata outperform Intel Macs by 30–35%". I was not expecting a full blown analyses on how Stata would be running on an Apple Silicon chip but you could have at least just showed an interest and googled it to find out what it is instead of blabbering "I have no idea".

As to the 8GB or 16GB memory question, what do we actually know so far based on the 2021 M1 iMac? Are general purpose users actually complaining about performance issues (related to 8GB of memory) OR is that configuration overall sufficient for day to day tasks? THAT would be useful and helpful information to know and that was the question that Adam asked.

Nothing personal.
 
chucker23n1 said:
Which is plenty, on a laptop.



The two don't contradict each other. The Pro is already quite portable, but the Air is 39% thinner and 30% lighter. That's nothing to sneeze at.
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And a US nickel weighs 100% more than a penny and is almost 20% thinner than a quarter. When was the last time you complained that nickels are too heavy or quarters were too thick? Percentages are meaningless when the weights and thicknesses are small.
 
Realityck said:
I thought about that, but then it doesn't take much technical skill to reapply thermal paste on SoC and reattach the thermal cover. Note the absence of any marks when exposing the top of the SoC.

In these forums there are lots of us that have worked on and repaired computers ourselves so tend to look at that as trivial. I will say you have better tool kits available for disassembly than ever these days. ;)
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The part that is no longer trivial even on PC Laptops now is actually accessing the parts to work on. Used to be nice access panels. Now you have to take the entire bottom off and possibly more parts just to swap RAM or SSD
 
I went for a look at them today, and love the Midnight one. It didn't seem as bad with fingerprints as its looked in some videos online - that was with me touching it purposely trying to get some fingerprints on it.

I'm selling my 16" MBP and replacing it with a new MBA. The MBP was a bit of a stop gap as my main machine last year, when my 27" iMac was starting to struggle, and I was holding out for a new 27" iMac. That didn't materialise, but went for a MacStudio. So now that I don't need there MBP as my main machine, weight and portability become more important, so the new MBA is perfect for me.
 
throAU said:
Haven't used one yet but definitely agree with the min buy being 512 GB of storage (and preferably 16 GB of RAM too) if you can afford to go there.

if you can't afford both i'd go for the 512 GB of storage over 256, given the use case of this machine:
  • ultraportable
  • light usage
There's nothing worse than having a sleek, lightweight ultra portable design you could use anywhere and then constantly being tethered to an external drive because you can't keep any of your work on it. Makes using it on your lap much more annoying.

MacOS applications are getting pretty big now, especially during this transition period where we're going to be seeing universal apps being more common again (essentially having native code in them for both intel and ARM).

If you do need bigger than 16 GB / 1TB i'd look at the pro line... spending much more than that on an Air unless the slightly lower weight is essential you're giving up much better speakers and display (not to mention better cooling) that you'd get from say, a 14" pro.
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given the price of internal RAM, a small cheap USB disk is way more cost effective for most people.
copy the file to the internal drive if you need to and unplug. delete after viewing.
media files wouldnt even stress playing from a USB drive these days and there's some tiny high capacity drives around now.
ProfessionalFan said:
Someone earlier today compared the MacBook Air weight to a BMW's weight when trying to show the weight difference wasn't significant. So we now have both ends of the spectrum. Weight compared to a coin and compared to a car.
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Seems odd we compare a laptop to either...

No one walks around with a pocketful of laptops not drives on either.

If you have to carry a laptop around, even a small difference in weight can make it easier.
It is a significant amount of weight? No. But it The charger is much smaller than my 2012 Air charger. Much smaller and lighter. That makes a difference too.
 
The solution to the tradeoff is a M2 Mini portable that connects wirelessly to the laptop. So the M2 can run full speed hot on a desk, wired to interfaces and displays, while the laptop controlling it all stays cool as a cucumber on your lap.
 
wbeasley said:
copy the file to the internal drive if you need to and unplug. delete after viewing.
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See that's just wasting your time shuffling data around at low speed... why buy a machine with lightning fast SSD, CPU and GPU to then be wasting your time fishing around in pockets or bags looking for a crappy slow USB (you said small/cheap) drive to copy data on and off?
 
Please excuse my noobie question. I’m new to the MacBook and have ordered a new M2 Air. I’m used to using iOS and iPadOS and have a few Shortcut Automations set up that run to give notifications when charging. Can I transfer these Automations to my new MacBook? or does the MacBook do it differently?
 
Aerofly said:
Please excuse my noobie question. I’m new to the MacBook and have ordered a new M2 Air. I’m used to using iOS and iPadOS and have a few Shortcut Automations set up that run to give notifications when charging. Can I transfer these Automations to my new MacBook? or does the MacBook do it differently?
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Most shortcuts i think should auto sync via icloud (assuming you're signed in to both) and just work (TM).

I'm not sure about your charging specific ones though. I do know i have shortcuts i've created like "directions to nearest pub" that do sync/work though :D
 
wbeasley said:
the more i use this Air the more it feels like a Mini Macbook Pro.
it gets quite warm underneath at the centre top section with heavy GPU loads.
the keys feel so much better than the old butterfly ones.
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Yea from the little bit I tried my Wife's MBA, I noticed GPU heat was the weakness. I could play incrementals games with heavy calculations that taxed the CPU some, and it would still be cool where my PC laptop would get warm, but playing CIV V definitely got hers warm if not slightly hot.
 
Isamilis said:
I agree to pick up 16gb ram first, if there’s no speed issue on SSD, which is not the case.
Even simple operation like file copy was affected. There are some youtube video testing this. The performance impact will be noticeable since you start using the machine (boot the machine, due to read speed is 50% slower compared to 512gb version). It’s not like 16gb ram where the benefits start showing when you open many apps.
You may use external disk, but it won’t be practical as you need to move boot disk from this slow internal SSD to the external SSD to gain the benefit - which is complicated process for average users.
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Thanks I was wondering if 16GB would help any. Wonder how much of a difference 8 vs 16 would be with 512
 
compwiz1202 said:
Yea from the little bit I tried my Wife's MBA, I noticed GPU heat was the weakness. I could play incrementals games with heavy calculations that taxed the CPU some, and it would still be cool where my PC laptop would get warm, but playing CIV V definitely got hers warm if not slightly hot.
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and yesterday i needed to compress the upscaled videos to more FAT32 friendly USB drive.
Handbrake used no GPU but slowed down the framerate conversion as it heated up. Started over 200fps but quickly dropped to 90.

all in all though, for the price and specs, this is an awesome machine and deserves to sell well.
 
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