M2 MacBook Air may actually be the BEST value for air users, and people who want the latest chip in a cheaper package

[Technerd108]

You might be right. I am so curious what Apple will do when the M3 chip comes out, they might finally have a chip to make the 12 MacBook a reality.

That would be really cool if they could. Now that I am older I think the 13.6" screen is as small as I could go but the 12" might be a better option than an iPad for me. I hope it happens!!!

 

[smoking monkey]

I don't know if people who say the M2 is just an overclocked M1 or that you should wait for M3 because it is going to be such a huge difference have actually used a device with M2? Compared to M1 the M2(not talking Pro M series) is a pretty big difference in single and multi core. It is a difference you can actually see and feel in use.

Of course compared to M1 the M3 will be a big difference as it will have another 10-20% perf. bump over M2.

I think the M2 Air is an awesome piece of kit with 512HD and 16Gram. Of course it has a few shortcomings, but considering the entire package it is a great machine. 9+ out of 10 for me and one of Apple's best computers of the past 10 years.

Choosing between M1 14 and M2 Air is purely up to each person as everybody has a different use case.

In saying all that, I personally believe the M3 will be a significant jump over the M2 because it will be a 3nm chip. I think we'll see significant thermal control with the usual speed bumps. The chassis of the macs won't change for M3, but my gut tells me that Apple will focus on thermals and power consumption for the M3.

M2 is a very good chip, but I think M3 will be a bigger upgrade than M2 over M1.

 

[0906742]

In saying all that, I personally believe the M3 will be a significant jump over the M2 because it will be a 3nm chip. I think we'll see significant thermal control with the usual speed bumps. The chassis of the macs won't change for M3, but my gut tells me that Apple will focus on thermals and power consumption for the M3.

I think so too. IMHO current MBA M2 internal design with very light passive heat sink (if it could be called even heat sink) is very obviously made M3 CPU in mind where it likely produce much less heat.

 

[Technerd108]

I think the M2 Air is an awesome piece of kit with 512HD and 16Gram. Of course it has a few shortcomings, but considering the entire package it is a great machine. 9+ out of 10 for me and one of Apple's best computers of the past 10 years.

Choosing between M1 14 and M2 Air is purely up to each person as everybody has a different use case.

In saying all that, I personally believe the M3 will be a significant jump over the M2 because it will be a 3nm chip. I think we'll see significant thermal control with the usual speed bumps. The chassis of the macs won't change for M3, but my gut tells me that Apple will focus on thermals and power consumption for the M3.

M2 is a very good chip, but I think M3 will be a bigger upgrade than M2 over M1.

I agree with you. I don’t expect huge leaps and bounds from this point forward because we aren’t going from Intel x86 and 14nm to 5nm arm anymore. Optimizations and small improvements in IPC will make something like 15-30% improvements pretty much the norm going forward. Of course with 3nm heat and battery life will improve over 5nm but these names of 5nm -3nm and so on are becoming more blurred than ever.

 

[Technerd108]

I think so too. IMHO current MBA M2 internal design with very light passive heat sink (if it could be called even heat sink) is very obviously made M3 CPU in mind where it likely produce much less heat.

I agree.

Apple has never been very aggressive in cooling on their laptops. They obviously feel very confident in the thermal constraints of the regular m chips otherwise they wouldn’t put them in an iPad with even less thermal headroom.

Going forward they will only get better. Apple finally has a chip in the m series that can do what I am sure they wanted to do with Intel for many years.

 

[0906742]

Apple has never been very aggressive in cooling on their laptops. They obviously feel very confident in the thermal constraints of the regular m chips otherwise they wouldn’t put them in an iPad with even less thermal headroom.

It looks so and thermal throttling has been implemented in CPUs for a long time so it is functional. Obviously M-series chips are so efficient they can keep running with reasonable low thermal throttling unlike some Intel counterparts that get very hot and slow, even throttling in them also is well functional. Proof of that is definitely that they put it even in iPads as you said.

Going forward they will only get better. Apple finally has a chip in the m series that can do what I am sure they wanted to do with Intel for many years.

Yeah, all M-series chips are completely different beasts than what Intel CPU’s were. I had MBP 13” Pro and it was running hot and hogging battery. Then Air 2018 I had briefly was extremely, even some simple tasks like TimeMachine backup took many times longer than in MBP 13” 2019.

 

[maka344]

I think the M2 Air is an awesome piece of kit with 512HD and 16Gram. Of course it has a few shortcomings, but considering the entire package it is a great machine. 9+ out of 10 for me and one of Apple's best computers of the past 10 years.

Choosing between M1 14 and M2 Air is purely up to each person as everybody has a different use case.

In saying all that, I personally believe the M3 will be a significant jump over the M2 because it will be a 3nm chip. I think we'll see significant thermal control with the usual speed bumps. The chassis of the macs won't change for M3, but my gut tells me that Apple will focus on thermals and power consumption for the M3.

M2 is a very good chip, but I think M3 will be a bigger upgrade than M2 over M1.

Do you ever see Apple putting in a mini-LED in the MBA? That would be the icing on the cake for this machine but then I can imagine they’d like to keep features like that as a differentiator between the Air/Pro.

A mini-LED Air would be the dream machine for me given my use case. Though the current screen isn’t bad, it just isn’t if the quality of the mini-LED especially those beautiful deep blacks.

 

[maflynn]

I know you can get a MBP 14" base model for $1599.....Okay I got it.

I bought the 14" MBP - mid level model before the M2 was announced. Not right before but some time in early 2022.

I paid 2,500 dollars and for my needs I'm not using all of the processing power. I think for many people the MBA offers a fantastic deal. I understand that Apple bumped up the price and its appeal decreased because its a bit pricier but for what I can see, you're getting a fantastically fast laptop that rivals the MBP in many respects.

the 14" MBP has a lot going for it, but it really depends on your use case, for mine I think I could have been very happy with it. I believe the MBA is still one of Apple's more popular options. Just going through a configuration, I could have had one for 1,800 bucks instead of the 14" MBP for 2,500. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have that 700 dollars in my pocket then apple's

 

[0906742]

I bought the 14" MBP - mid level model before the M2 was announced. Not right before but some time in early 2022.

I paid 2,500 dollars and for my needs I'm not using all of the processing power. I think for many people the MBA offers a fantastic deal. I understand that Apple bumped up the price and its appeal decreased because its a bit pricier but for what I can see, you're getting a fantastically fast laptop that rivals the MBP in many respects.

the 14" MBP has a lot going for it, but it really depends on your use case, for mine I think I could have been very happy with it. I believe the MBA is still one of Apple's more popular options. Just going through a configuration, I could have had one for 1,800 bucks instead of the 14" MBP for 2,500. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have that 700 dollars in my pocket then apple's

700 bucks certainly sounds like a steep difference in price between the two. Were they really equal configurations in RAM and SSD size, options selected on top of the base model (that's the most comparable machine against MBA M2)? I might have mistaken but from the prices you mentioned, sounds like MBA M2 at 1800 has 3 options (200 each) but I don't know what that MBP 14" 2500 include as base model MSRP is 2000 and it should need only 1 option to equal to MBA M2 RAM and SSD (if those two options were these), so 400 difference instead of 700 sounds about right to me in USD and some might want to pay that much more for the screen, speakers and active cooling for sustained performance.

But I guess situation today where MBP 14" are often sold at hefty discounts you may be able to get it for the same price as MBA M2 with equal RAM and SSD, then it is really different scenario considering what MBP 14" brings on the table compared to MBA M2, if the weight is not an issue.

Offtopic: Hey, and thanks Joan...something for the giggles appread the same time I pressed post message here. I'm sure you read my message and felt it was laughable and funny. Feel free to come on the stage with some sensible posts anytime. I can't wait to hear from you so we can giggle together.