Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is the base model m2 air really that bad?

0089294 said:
Assuming we talk same base model and not equivalently priced m1 with 16gb?

Well, swap with faster SSD does make the difference it seems

M1 is cooler

Obviously cheaper

And I didn't say it's intrinsically better (i may think so but I did not say it lol)
Click to expand...
It makes a difference if you’re trying to push it and tax it on purpose. For everyday use it makes no difference since it’s rarely in swap. Almost every test that’s not a synthetic benchmark has shown it performs just as good.

The biggest difference in performance is actually bumping the ram to 16gb, Artisright has a great video series showing the ram upgrade provided much better performance boost than doing the ssd upgrade. The 16gb/256 did better in almost every test compared to the 8/512 model. That helps prove the ssd speed issue isn’t nearly as much of an issue as people make it out to be.

M1 is cooler because the chip is lower wattage and less powerful. Plus It’s thermal limit is also set lower than the m2. The M1 could easily get to 108c under full load if apple allowed it to, but it thermal throttles at 100c instead of 108c. That’s by design by their engineers. Apple gave the M2 more thermal head room to allow it to maintain a higher frequency, even when throttling.

And it should be cheaper, its a 2 year old chipset in a 4 year old design. I find the M1 overpriced in 2022 considering how old the design is now, they came out with a newer model but didn’t lower the price of the M1 at all.

Anyways, that’s my thoughts on it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FattKingHugeman and Love-hate 🍏 relationship
There are already two pages of comments telling you performance concern isn’t a concern.

What I’d like to say is, as long as you set your expectations right, you can find M2 MacBook Air very appealing. Granted it cannot run windows (without x86 emulation) but most of the daily light tasks can be done no problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mgscheue
I do have access to education discount, other problem I have is if I did splash the cash on the ssd and memory, the m1 pro base is only £79 extra .. just the extra weight :-(
 
welshboyuk said:
I do have access to education discount, other problem I have is if I did splash the cash on the ssd and memory, the m1 pro base is only £79 extra .. just the extra weight :-(
Click to expand...
Different types of laptops for different use cases. For me, I didn’t feel it was worth having a thicker and heavier laptop with less battery life for my basic usage. If you can’t take advantage of the extra power, you’re giving up portability for what?

I checked them out in person, for me it was a clear winner for the air for portability which is my bigger focus.

If you plan to keep yours docked mostly and not move around with it then sure go for the M1 pro
 
welshboyuk said:
I do have access to education discount, other problem I have is if I did splash the cash on the ssd and memory, the m1 pro base is only £79 extra .. just the extra weight :-(
Click to expand...

You could save a bit more by going for the 8 core GPU model and upping the SSD to 512GB and memory to 16Gb. I don’t think you will notice the difference between 8 and 10 core versions. With education discount this would be £1567.

The base entry level MBA is £1187 with EDU discount, On Amazon you can get a M1 MBA base, with 256GB SSD that is twice as fast as the M2 base for £993. The M1 is great value at £993, and would be a great option. I personally don’t think the M2 base is worth the extra £200.

You should think about how long you want to keep the laptop for. The M1 would be better to keep for a couple of years, you could sell it, and not lose too much money to invest in a new laptop, or spring for a better spec M2 that would last 5 years+.
 
James_C said:
Right now the problem with the Base M2 MBA is that not only is it a premium over the M1 MBA, which does not have the single SSD problem that the base M2 has and is typically discounted on Amazon. So unless you have access to Educational pricing I would recommend that you get the M1 MBA from Amazon at a discount rather than paying full price for the M2. If you are not budget constrained then get the M2 with 512GB SSD.
Click to expand...
That’s why ordered a16gb M1.. can’t wait but late to the party lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: James_C
or £898 with edu discount and then free £120 voucher, but have to wait 3 weeks.
 
welshboyuk said:
or £898 with edu discount and then free £120 voucher, but have to wait 3 weeks.
Click to expand...

Yes that would be better :) I thought the EDU discount was 5%, but I don't have access to it. The Amazon price I quoted above had changed recently, I think because Amazon in the UK is out of stock, It normally discounted to £899 (10% discount). However with the £120 voucher buying from Apple is a no brainer. Apple may be quoting 3 weeks, however they are normally conservative with the shipping time estimates. If you have a local store near you check the stock as early in the morning as you can as stock gets refreshed regularly. Store stock is normally refreshed at 6am.
 
JW5566 said:
It's not bad at all, it's a stunning machine. However with YouTube videos the reviewers are just comparing it mainly to higher spec configurations so obviously in comparison it's not as good.

I remember when I got my Intel MacBook Air (2020) in base specs and was blown away by it after coming from an older MacBook Pro. I've thrown everything at it including 4K video editing and it's worked well. Of course we can all do with more power but for the general user, the base specs are fine.

And if you're new to Macs I think you will be pleasantly surprised. There was no going back to Windows laptops for me, just the Mac's trackpad alone is a joy to work with.
Click to expand...
are you talking the $1199 base model with 256gb?
 
Not bad, just disappointing. People expect a new version (and for $200 more) to be better at everything than the previous model. With the slower speed of the SSD and the tendency to throttle earlier when pushed hard it underperforms vs the M1 base at times.

Still is a fantastic machine!
 
I've just got the base model M2 MBA to replace my base model M1 MBA, and it does feel faster, especially at opening apps. MS Office for example opens much quicker on my M2 than it did on the M1. Overall it's a great improvement over what was already a fantastic laptop.
 
bbfc said:
The display is a very good reason to upgrade, it's just a massive improvement over the M1 MBA.
Click to expand...
The bigger screen, new form factor, MagSafe, and larger SSD were reasons I upgraded my base M1 MBA. For now, I will be keeping my M1 MBA for lesser use (and for emergency use should the M2 go down). I won't be getting the base again. For the first year, the SSD on the base M1 was fine but, after that, I found myself having to offload a lot due to lack of space. The SSD was the driving impetus to get the M2. I placed a new order for the 2TB drive and have a 2 week wait, after returning my M2 1TB launch day machine a few days ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bbfc and James_C
welshboyuk said:
I’ve spent few hours now reading forums and watching YT reviews, but for my workload I’m thinking the base model will suit me, I don’t transfer large files most is on the cloud.

I’d be a new Mac person, currently work off a windows laptop, I mostly do website tabs, drum software, watch YouTube videos , the odd MS teams call / 365 etc , not what I’d call heavy workloads. I’m thinking I could get away with the base model then upgrade in year or two should my needs increase.

Is the base really that bad that it should be a straight no no?
Click to expand...
It would work just fine but unless you urgently need a machine right this minute I would recommend going up to 16GB of memory and at least 512GB (preferably higher).
 
bbfc said:
I've just got the base model M2 MBA to replace my base model M1 MBA, and it does feel faster, especially at opening apps. MS Office for example opens much quicker on my M2 than it did on the M1. Overall it's a great improvement over what was already a fantastic laptop.
Click to expand...
Curious- how long does it take??

Just as of course meant to be 10% .. could it be diff core use!?
 
  • Like
Reactions: bbfc
Dnzilla said:
Curious- how long does it take??

Just as of course meant to be 10% .. could it be diff core use!?
Click to expand...
MS Office applications take around 4 seconds to launch. This was much longer on my M1 MBA. Can't remember the exact time but they used to bounce for ages.
 
Apple_Robert said:
The bigger screen, new form factor, MagSafe, and larger SSD were reasons I upgraded my base M1 MBA. For now, I will be keeping my M1 MBA for lesser use (and for emergency use should the M2 go down). I won't be getting the base again. For the first year, the SSD on the base M1 was fine but, after that, I found myself having to offload a lot due to lack of space. The SSD was the driving impetus to get the M2. I placed a new order for the 2TB drive and have a 2 week wait, after returning my M2 1TB launch day machine a few days ago.
Click to expand...
And all that too :D
 
The only thing wrong with the base MBA M2 are YouTube channels comparing/testing it to other more powerful macs. Considering that it can do that...yes slower but it can handle it shows me what an amazing machine this is. It can do more than it was designed for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bbfc
sjperformance said:
The only thing wrong with the base MBA M2 are YouTube channels comparing/testing it to other more powerful macs. Considering that it can do that...yes slower but it can handle it shows me what an amazing machine this is. It can do more than it was designed for.
Click to expand...
I haven’t noticed a single difference in speed from my base model M1 MBA (in fact the M2 is faster at opening apps etc). And I was one of the ones who thought it was terrible for Apple to release a new MBA with slower SSD speeds. But in reality it makes very little difference.
 
my impressions after a day of use (10c/256ssd/16gb ram), consider that i've used windows all of my life and i've never owned a mac:
1) the OS took a day to get used to it; it's a lot more user friendly than windows
2) apple integrating devices such as airpods easily connecting and being able to txt/facetime from the laptop is amazingly convenient
3) the laptop feels dense and packed--it has a good balance to it and is heavier than it looks, despite it being lightweight
4) 8GB is not enough and shouldn't even be an option but I get they needed to keep the base cost down. I'm glad I went with 16.
5) I've been playing WoW in battery mode on graphic setting 4 (default) with constant 60fps
6) the battery is...amazing. this is a very efficient machine. even playing wow on battery, it's holding up well
7) midnight looks awesome, fingerprints are somewhat bothersome but the color is worth the tradeoff imo
8) i probably didn't need 10c gpu but I need to do more testing
9) the notch sucks, I get that at the desktop you can "hide" it by using a black toolbar but you can't do that in fullscreen apps and, just like the phone, it blocks the image. one day they can fit it in the bezel...
10) i've never owned a passively cooled laptop. I haven't done anything intensive on it yet but it doesn't even get warm when I'm playing WoW
11) the edges around the palm rest are sharp, especially the corners of the convex area in the middle. it's surprisingly sharp and seems counter to apple design
12) not many people mention this, but you can open the laptop with one hand since the base of the laptop doesnt come up when you lift the screen up. so many laptops don't get this right and it's awesome to see it pulled off especially in a small form factor laptop
13) the screen is awesome looking but man the air needs a 144hz panel!
14) the keyboard is nice to type on, it does feel a bit shallow though
15) overall, this is easily my favorite laptop i've ever owned though. very satisfied with the purchase!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: James_C and fisherking
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back