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Sensamic

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 26, 2010
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I’m not a heavy user. I don’t edit photos or videos. Just browse the web, use Word or Pages, don’t game on a computer (I use gaming consoles), watch streaming content, etc.

Still, considering the 50% slower SSD speeds compared to M1, I wonder how will the base M2 hold up in 6 or 7 years? I don’t plan on upgrading to a newer laptop until as long as possible.

Base M2 is good now, but will those SSD speeds be enough in 7 years to handle the newer OS and such?

Obviously I don’t want a laptop that feels slow in 7 years when SSD speeds are meant to fix that over the years vs old hard drives.
 
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for such tasks, even my now 12 years old dual core Win 7 laptop is still awesome (albeit loud 😂)
so yes, your MBA will still be serving you very well
 
Base is fine. I'm a light user myself. Regardless I went 8/512. I hate dongles and external stuff. I hadn't gotten a new laptop in over 7-8 years. That was a dell BTW. I'm 100% sure this air m2 will be fine and smooth for years to come.
 
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I'll use my Intel base 2015 Broadwell MacBook Pro as an example. Up to late 2020 I was still using it and it still works, but has gotten groggy, still usable though. Thats a 6 year run with a 256 GB SSD and an old architecture after numerous macOS upgrades. Apple is gonna need a really compelling reason or planned obsolescence to get most users to upgrade from Apple Silicon Macs in the future. If you even look at the reasons why some are upgrading from an M1 to M2 Air, it's superficial, it's just for the new design. These computers are speedy for most users needs. Max Tech and YouTubers pointing out deficiencies live in a different world, one that a lot of users who participate on this website subscribe to. My sibling has a 2017 MacBook Pro and I never heard them complain about it, but its a striking contrast when you hear how bad the the 2016 to 2020 generation was from prominent YouTubers. Ironic, considering they used and upgraded to each rev anyway.
 
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I’m not a heavy user. I don’t edit photos or videos. Just browse the web, use Word or Pages, don’t game on a computer (I use gaming consoles), watch streaming content, etc.

Still, considering the 50% slower SSD speeds compared to M1, I wonder how will the base M2 hold up in 6 or 7 years? I don’t plan on upgrading to a newer laptop until as long as possible.

Base M2 is good now, but will those SSD speeds be enough in 7 years to handle the newer OS and such?

Obviously I don’t want a laptop that feels slow in 7 years when SSD speeds are meant to fix that over the years vs old hard drives.
6 or 7 years? It'll be fine.
 
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You don't have to worry about that. In 7 years the only value your old M2 will have is how much food you can trade it for, if it hasn't been already stolen for said purpose.
 
It will be good a long time….6-7 who knows?
I recommend going with more memory over disk space. You can always use an external disk for more storage. You can’t add more memory.

BUT if I were to upgrade and buy a new MBA today, I would bought the M2 with the larger SSD however b/c of the disk speed or even considered the smallest 13" MacBook Pro

For more reading, if you haven’t already…
 
Luckily for us all there is this new, in depth analysis just out now, which provides a in depth answer to the OP's question - it takes not only the technical components used in account but additionally factors Apple’s hard- and software support history as well the development of future markets giving specific importance to not only augmented or even virtual reality, but some - admittingly simple - k-means based machine learning based on Kohonen networks. Look no further than here.
 
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