I was wrong

[macguy360]

When the news of the m2 came out. I made a post stating the m2 is just the m1.5 because they had not decreased the nm size at all. I watched video reviews on YouTube stating the speed of the m2 would be worse than m1 due to the solid-state drive being slower. This reaffirmed my feelings and I considered going for the 14" m1 Pro. My wife has one and it is a really impressive laptop.

Then tax free shopping came and it made the incentive for <$1500 laptop even more enticing. I decided to trade in my m1 air and get the m2 air base model.

TLDR: The m2 air base model is a beast. It is VERY FAST, noticeably more so than the m1 air and even feels faster than my wife's 14" m1 pro (in regards to opening apps, speed of loading internet pages, back and forth between different things). Clearly the 14" m1 pro will be faster when it comes to editing video in Final Cut Pro, but honestly something about the m2 feels right. For instance, everyone knows that when Apple switched from x86 to Arm processors they had to package all the software using Rosetta 2. With the m1 on my air and even my wife's m1 pro, there is a slight delay when opening up different programs. That delay appears to be gone completely and everything just loads instantly.

I also am really impressed with the build quality of the Air m2. It feels like my wife's 14" m1 pro, but thinner, but somehow more solid/dense. It feels much higher quality than my previous air m1. It feels like a $2000-$3000 laptop.

So anyway, I was wrong in my original disdain for the m2. I originally felt Apple should have scaled down the build to 4nm or even 3nm, but after actually using it, I am very impressed by what Apple has accomplished.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Glad to see you gave the M2 a fair shot and set the record straight (so to speak). Good on you.

 

[ericwn]

Nice, thanks for sharing - you should also update your original thread with your honest opinion.

 

[macguy360]

Nice, thanks for sharing - you should also update your original thread with your honest opinion.

You're right. I'll go do that now.

 

[FattKingHugeman]

Yes this is what I’ve been telling people. The MBP 14 may seems like a “better” deal specs for specs comparison but in actual usage the MBA M2 proves its worth with the ease of use, excellent battery life and of coz the thin and light form factor.

People who wanted the M2 MBA but went for the MBP 14 are actually fine and will enjoy what the MBA M2 brings but they chose to pay more for the MBP 14 because of some stranger’s comment on the internet.

 

[Scott-n-Houston]

Yes this is what I’ve been telling people. The MBP 14 may seems like a “better” deal specs for specs comparison but in actual usage the MBA M2 proves its worth with the ease of use, excellent battery life and of coz the thin and light form factor.

People who wanted the M2 MBA but went for the MBP 14 are actually fine and will enjoy what the MBA M2 brings but they chose to pay more for the MBP 14 because of some stranger’s comment on the internet.

I'm sitting here with a new MBA (10/16/512) and a base 14" MBP.
I'm trying to decide which to keep. The MBP is $270 more than the MBA the way I have the MBA spec'd.
It comes down to solely the screen potential of the MBP and the better sound as I will likely never do intensive work that would make the MBP outperform the MBA.

I gotta say... it's a TOUGH call. I don't know what I'm going to do. The screen is definitely better on the MBP and so is the sound, but for $270? Worth it to me? I don't know yet! Ugh. lol. Modern-day-1st-world-problem I know...

The advanatages to the MBA besides the $270 it saves is that the portability of the MBA is noticeably better as well... plus I like Starlight. The MBA just begs to be taken out with me and somewhat cannibalizes my iPad. I could sell my iPad now and that makes this even cheaper!

I have a week or so more to decide.

 

[calstanford]

I personally can't get over how ugly the 14 and 16 pro are. The thickness looks like a 10 yr old Powerbook. I am sorry.

 

[FattKingHugeman]

I'm sitting here with a new MBA (10/16/512) and a base 14" MBP.
I'm trying to decide which to keep. The MBP is $270 more than the MBA the way I have the MBA spec'd.
It comes down to solely the screen potential of the MBP and the better sound as I will likely never do intensive work that would make the MBP outperform the MBA.

I gotta say... it's a TOUGH call. I don't know what I'm going to do. The screen is definitely better on the MBP and so is the sound, but for $270? Worth it to me? I don't know yet! Ugh. lol. Modern-day-1st-world-problem I know...

The advanatages to the MBA besides the $270 it saves is that the portability of the MBA is noticeably better as well... plus I like Starlight. The MBA just begs to be taken out with me and somewhat cannibalizes my iPad. I could sell my iPad now and that makes this even cheaper!

I have a week or so more to decide.

I was in the same position as you about a week ago. I returned the MBP 14 and kept the 16gb/512gb MBA. The price difference was $470USD.

The screen and sound of the MBP 14 is nice but I already got a bigger screen and nicer speakers at home.

I got macbook mainly because of portable use for regular stuffs and I’m not a media content creative professionals. And this is not my main machine. Hence I have to return it.

 

[KPOM]

I'm sitting here with a new MBA (10/16/512) and a base 14" MBP.
I'm trying to decide which to keep. The MBP is $270 more than the MBA the way I have the MBA spec'd.
It comes down to solely the screen potential of the MBP and the better sound as I will likely never do intensive work that would make the MBP outperform the MBA.

I gotta say... it's a TOUGH call. I don't know what I'm going to do. The screen is definitely better on the MBP and so is the sound, but for $270? Worth it to me? I don't know yet! Ugh. lol. Modern-day-1st-world-problem I know...

The advanatages to the MBA besides the $270 it saves is that the portability of the MBA is noticeably better as well... plus I like Starlight. The MBA just begs to be taken out with me and somewhat cannibalizes my iPad. I could sell my iPad now and that makes this even cheaper!

I have a week or so more to decide.

Just initiate the return on Apple’s website on the 14th day and that will buy you another 2 weeks to decide. As long as FedEx gets your package by the 14th day after you initiate your return you are good. I did that with my studio display when I decided I wanted the VESA mount instead of the height adjustable stand.

 

[KPOM]

I personally can't get over how ugly the 14 and 16 pro are. The thickness looks like a 10 yr old Powerbook. I am sorry.

Apple went function over form for the MBP. Oddly, though the form is similar on the MBA it looks so much nicer because a) it is much thinner and b) the color options are better.

 

[4743913]

I personally can't get over how ugly the 14 and 16 pro are. The thickness looks like a 10 yr old Powerbook. I am sorry.

Is that you Jony?

 

[jdb8167]

Just setting my 24 GB/1 TB from scratch right now. Should be ready for work by Friday morning.

Haven't been able to evaluate it yet but no issues so far. Staying nice and cool while downloading everything from iCloud and downloading apps from the App Store and from elsewhere.

 

[jdb8167]

I personally can't get over how ugly the 14 and 16 pro are. The thickness looks like a 10 yr old Powerbook. I am sorry.

The pictures of the M2 MacBook Air don't do it justice. When it is sitting on a table, it is crazy thin with the screen open.

I love it. It feels dense though. Even though it is lighter than the M1 MBA, it feels a bit heavier because of the weight distribution.

 

[wowee]

I'm sitting here with a new MBA (10/16/512) and a base 14" MBP.
I'm trying to decide which to keep. The MBP is $270 more than the MBA the way I have the MBA spec'd.
It comes down to solely the screen potential of the MBP and the better sound as I will likely never do intensive work that would make the MBP outperform the MBA.

I gotta say... it's a TOUGH call. I don't know what I'm going to do. The screen is definitely better on the MBP and so is the sound, but for $270? Worth it to me? I don't know yet! Ugh. lol. Modern-day-1st-world-problem I know...

The advanatages to the MBA besides the $270 it saves is that the portability of the MBA is noticeably better as well... plus I like Starlight. The MBA just begs to be taken out with me and somewhat cannibalizes my iPad. I could sell my iPad now and that makes this even cheaper!

I have a week or so more to decide.

I think you know what you want to do... but your mind, guilt, society is f**king with you. Keep the air and enjoy it.

 

[mtoddy]

Your tldr is longer than your main text, OP.

 

[LoveTo]

So that’s what “even faster” means.

 

[MayaUser]

Glad to see that people start to understand that the real review is the one done by yourself using and testing the new machine based on your own needs and not some BS bencha that stress everything ...is like ramping and keeping a car at the red zone only
Those test should be done only by the manufacturer when they build the SoC with the materials into that enclosure and see if anything falls apart...thats all
youtube reviewers would be good ONLY if devices didnt had a return policy

 

[An-apple-a-day]

I personally can't get over how ugly the 14 and 16 pro are. The thickness looks like a 10 yr old Powerbook. I am sorry.

Are you really Jony Ive?

 

[1BadManVan]

When the news of the m2 came out. I made a post stating the m2 is just the m1.5 because they had not decreased the nm size at all. I watched video reviews on YouTube stating the speed of the m2 would be worse than m1 due to the solid-state drive being slower. This reaffirmed my feelings and I considered going for the 14" m1 Pro. My wife has one and it is a really impressive laptop.

Then tax free shopping came and it made the incentive for <$1500 laptop even more enticing. I decided to trade in my m1 air and get the m2 air base model.

TLDR: The m2 air base model is a beast. It is VERY FAST, noticeably more so than the m1 air and even feels faster than my wife's 14" m1 pro (in regards to opening apps, speed of loading internet pages, back and forth between different things). Clearly the 14" m1 pro will be faster when it comes to editing video in Final Cut Pro, but honestly something about the m2 feels right. For instance, everyone knows that when Apple switched from x86 to Arm processors they had to package all the software using Rosetta 2. With the m1 on my air and even my wife's m1 pro, there is a slight delay when opening up different programs. That delay appears to be gone completely and everything just loads instantly.

I also am really impressed with the build quality of the Air m2. It feels like my wife's 14" m1 pro, but thinner, but somehow more solid/dense. It feels much higher quality than my previous air m1. It feels like a $2000-$3000 laptop.

So anyway, I was wrong in my original disdain for the m2. I originally felt Apple should have scaled down the build to 4nm or even 3nm, but after actually using it, I am very impressed by what Apple has accomplished.

It’s funny you mention that it feels faster than the 14 pro for regular day to day stuff and opening apps. That’s because the m2 is clocked higher and it also scores better on the Geekbench single core for that reason. The m1 pro is about as fast as a regular M1 for light usage when it’s just short single core bursts. The M1 pro isn’t meant to just be a web surfer and light usage, it excels on heavy duty work loads.

It’s something I’ve tried to get people to understand, these are very different laptops for different usages. Why pay more for a laptops that’s heavier, bigger and actually slower for the basic tasks?

Even the speedometer 2.0 browser test the m2 scores quite a bit higher than the m1 pros. So the mba is excelling in exactly what it was intended to do.

Glad you’re happy with your purchase. Mines still weeks away from delivery

 

[theotherphil]

Yes this is what I’ve been telling people. The MBP 14 may seems like a “better” deal specs for specs comparison but in actual usage the MBA M2 proves its worth with the ease of use, excellent battery life and of coz the thin and light form factor.

People who wanted the M2 MBA but went for the MBP 14 are actually fine and will enjoy what the MBA M2 brings but they chose to pay more for the MBP 14 because of some stranger’s comment on the internet.

People seem to miss the point that everybody who purchases the M2 MBA will see the benefit of the portable form factor every single day but the benefit of the 14"s extra performance only in very specific scenarios. The smaller form factor is a quality of life improvement that you'll reap the benefits from every single time you use it. That in itself is "value for money".

So, unless you have very specific needs or you're the type to only have your laptop plugged in (as size doesn't matter when it's only being used as a desktop replacement) - the MBA, even when upgraded, will be the best option for the vast majority of people.

 

[mr_jomo]

Think this is what'll happen to many non-youtuber-click-baiting purchasers once they get hold of the machine itself.

Got my M2 Air on Monday, and it's already in "best laptop ever" position

 

[Wokis]

Yeah I've been doing a couple of heavy renders as well as half an evening of playing WoW and wondering where the slowdowns and pasta-cooking from the youtube videos would start. Turns out the "throttling" is hard to notice outside of synthetics coupled with graphs.

This is a freakin' future machine. No volume and so much power.

 

[bevel]

I personally can't get over how ugly the 14 and 16 pro are. The thickness looks like a 10 yr old Powerbook. I am sorry.

You are right - the 14 and 16 are awkwardly chuncky after the Intel 16” before it. But I am super pleased they did it.

I would much rather have a thicker laptop that doesn’t thermal throttle and it’s great that Apples priorities align with that

But yeah I get that it’s a bit strange lookin’

 

[Shirasaki]

It’s amazing that meagre 20% CPU performance boost can give people such dramatic experience difference.

 

[Dealmans]

Seeing as the screen is what you look at all the time 14” is the winner