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M2 MacBook Air or M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14” dilemma
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I wonder if this with the new Teams version that was just released and is Apple Silicon optimized.
No. As noted I have the 14", 16" and M2 Air all used extensively.
Teams will not turn the fans on in the 14" or 16" model.
I've only used the non-optimized version of Teams - have not downloaded the new optimized version yet. That should stress things even less.
The 16" and M2 Air's battery lasts much longer using Teams than the 14". That is an advantage. But not fan noise.
Maybe people are getting confused with the old Intel pros. My 16" MacBook Pro Intel version made the room sound like the inside of a plane with Zoom or Teams.
"The M2 MBA is 0.44" thick and the M1 Pro 14" is 0.66" thick. The difference is just 0.22", which is not enough for you to feel it."
Hahahahahah the difference is 50% THICKER.
They are both great computers, but come on people.
Hahahahahah the difference is 50% THICKER.
They are both great computers, but come on people.
"With the right bag the 14" Pro Weight and size difference won't be noticeable over the Air"
There are no antigravity bags.
Come on people.
There are no antigravity bags.
Come on people.
The main reasons why I got an M2 Air and not an M1 Pro are:
- portability (both size and weight)
- no fans (I hate moving parts in a laptop, little pet peeve of mine, I've had 2 MBP repairs because of broken fans and that's just annoying)
- I love the new design
I don't need the extra GPU cores as my workflows barely make use of GPU.
- portability (both size and weight)
- no fans (I hate moving parts in a laptop, little pet peeve of mine, I've had 2 MBP repairs because of broken fans and that's just annoying)
- I love the new design
I don't need the extra GPU cores as my workflows barely make use of GPU.
An update if anyone is interested -
While I was still deciding, Bestbuy had another price drop on the MBP to bring it down to $1699 (and I got my order price matched). It was a no-brainer at that point so I returned the MBA.
However...
Once I started using the MBP more heavily and not split between two machines, I noticed I would get minor eye strains after ~2 hours. I didn't think it would happen but apparently my eyes didn't like the PWM settings. This really sucks since I never had this problem with any other screens (including multiple iPhones and Android OLED screens). But all the hardware advantages mean nothing if I can't comfortably use the machine.
I need a computer for an upcoming trip very soon so I checked to see if there's anything in stock I could buy. Fortunately my local Apple store has the base midnight MBA in stock, so I bought that and will be returning the MBP.
Agreed. I use Teams all day everyday (unfortunately) and I have yet to hear the fans come on during Teams. Just doesn't happen.
Yesterday I had the chance to play a lot with the new MBA that my wife got. I could hold it with one hand with no problems at all. I have to say that if you are looking for a very mobile laptop, lightweight, this is it. The 14" MBP (which I own) is of course better, and it is still mobile, but the difference is definitely notable in weight. If the MBA only had a better screen. I am not saying that it's not a good screen, but it's definitely not the best. I still prefer my 14" MBP, but would love to have an MBA too, but it just doesn't make any sense for my usage.
tbh , my 14 pro i dont think the fans ever turn on according to istats. im photo editing astral photography photos , usually sits around 50-60c no fans. pretty good
although i am replacing it with the m2 air maxed
The only reason I’m choosing the Air is portability.
I carry mine around a lot in the office or to the client’s premises. Moving around etc.
I don’t travel much but even my 2017 MBP - which isn’t far off the Air size - feels too clunky for moving around.
I don’t do anything more than light website design work, lots of video calls, quite a few Safari tabs open and some light spreadsheets. An Air is perfect for me I think.
I carry mine around a lot in the office or to the client’s premises. Moving around etc.
I don’t travel much but even my 2017 MBP - which isn’t far off the Air size - feels too clunky for moving around.
I don’t do anything more than light website design work, lots of video calls, quite a few Safari tabs open and some light spreadsheets. An Air is perfect for me I think.
I want to choose the M2 Air, 16/512 at £1649, mainly because it doesn’t have a fan.
However, I can get the MacBook M1 Pro 16” (a beast) on offer for just £267 more, £1916.
The 16” at that price does seem the best value. (Apple Care is more though). I don’t need portability, it’s at home all the time, I have an iPad to travel with.
Decisions……
Edit: The 14” Pro is cheaper than the M2 Air at £1562 on the offer!
However, I can get the MacBook M1 Pro 16” (a beast) on offer for just £267 more, £1916.
The 16” at that price does seem the best value. (Apple Care is more though). I don’t need portability, it’s at home all the time, I have an iPad to travel with.
Decisions……
Edit: The 14” Pro is cheaper than the M2 Air at £1562 on the offer!
Sounds familiar to my journey recently. Copied from another thread:
"Yes sir, back to an Air for the couch driver. Kept the 14" MBP as well and using it to replace my '18 Mini setup that served me well for years and forwarding it to a close friend whom I gave my '14 Mini to years ago.
Long wordy version of the shenanigans:
Bought an M1 Air on launch day which replaced a '15 12" rMB. Great form factor with poor performance. Used the M1 Air for a year which for the first time ever with any device, gave me eye strain. I'm 61 so lots of past devices + it took me awhile to figure out what was going on. iPad OS had progressed so I thought I would give a 12.9 M1 iPad/MKB a shot. GREAT screen (no eye strain) but iPad OS and the ungainly form factor wasn't the answer either. In the meantime I had purchased a Raspberry Pie 400 and a monitor to play with at Microcenter but never even opened them and after 3 mo returned them for a MC store credit ($300). ON M2 launch day I had $300 burning a hole in my pocket and MC had 4 Base Midnight discounted $50 so I reserved one online and used my store credit to help pay for it.
I used the M2 for a week at home then took it on a week long camping trip where we like to watch movies and eat ice cream in bed at the end of the day. Yes, life is good! No eye strain, great form factor but for watching movies the audio was lacking. In the past we had used the iPad Pro with 2 AirPods paired but for some reason 2 AirPods could not be paired at the same time in Mac OS.
When we returned home and MC had Base MBP for $350 off that is when I exchanged the Base M2 Air a Base MBP. I used the MBP for a week and guess what... eye strain reading/surfing but movies do not bother me + it has great audio and a fantastic screen... for watching movies.
This weekend is our city's back to school Tax Free weekend plus with my veterans discount to save a few more $ I picked up a surprisingly in stock Starlight M2 Air in my preferred configuration 16/1TB. I like to have at least one device where I can have my digital life locally stored and not rely on the cloud.
I was going to return the MBP but my friend had recently told me about the issues he was having with the '14 Mini so I thought why not forward the '18 Mini to him and use the MBP to replace the Mini and use it in clamshell mode with my 4K LG Ultrafine and also use the MBP for our camping trips. Plus I bought it at a great price.
If you read this wall of text congrats and as always YMMV."
I'm also going back and forth trying to decide between the M2 air or the MBP 14. I'm convinced the M2 air would be fine for couch surfing and occasional photo editing but I wonder if the fanless design would have a negative impact on internal component longevity.
Regarding the screen, my understanding is for SDR content it would not make a difference as they both run at 500 nits. I get contrast would be better with minled but didn't notice the difference side by side at the Apple store as I cycled thru the stock photos in the photos app. Both looked really good to me.
I have a work issued M1 MBP 14 inch and couldn't get Netflix on a Safari browser to play HDR, Prime has an app that runs on the M1 but did not play HDR - and I did toggle the display settings between HDR and XDR - also verified Safari had HDR mode enabled. I didn't notice a difference with AppleTV either. The only difference - and it was HUGE was with Youtube HDR content. No question the M1 pro has a better screen but it doesn't seem Netflix, AppleTV+ or Prime uses the XDR capabilities.
For my use case I don't see a difference but wonder about any impact a fanless design has on component longevity so maybe that will push me to the 14 inch MBP - but with all the rumours of a M2 Pro coming in the fall I might be better to wait.
sigh
Regarding the screen, my understanding is for SDR content it would not make a difference as they both run at 500 nits. I get contrast would be better with minled but didn't notice the difference side by side at the Apple store as I cycled thru the stock photos in the photos app. Both looked really good to me.
I have a work issued M1 MBP 14 inch and couldn't get Netflix on a Safari browser to play HDR, Prime has an app that runs on the M1 but did not play HDR - and I did toggle the display settings between HDR and XDR - also verified Safari had HDR mode enabled. I didn't notice a difference with AppleTV either. The only difference - and it was HUGE was with Youtube HDR content. No question the M1 pro has a better screen but it doesn't seem Netflix, AppleTV+ or Prime uses the XDR capabilities.
For my use case I don't see a difference but wonder about any impact a fanless design has on component longevity so maybe that will push me to the 14 inch MBP - but with all the rumours of a M2 Pro coming in the fall I might be better to wait.
sigh
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I'm not sure how.
Computer with fan ... gets hot, fan comes on to cool down, if still hot then slows down to cool down.
Computer without fan ... gets hot, slows down to cool down.
Thinking about it, the one with the fan will blow hot air around all the other components warming them up
very.co.uk 12 months interest free credit £1735 then get 10% credit back. Costco.co.uk doing it for £1689.99
That is not how cooling works. The warmest parts of computer are last step in airflow, before it exits the classis in the back of the laptop.Thinking about it, the one with the fan will blow hot air around all the other components warming them up
Constant heating and cooling of electronic components is not good for them. Different metals expand differently with heat and this is heating and cooling is actually a "moving part", but on a microscopic level. It's probably fine for some time.
All in all I would like for "no active cooling" design to be combined with some kind of water/dust resistance, but in the case of Air it is not.
Again I'm missing the 12'' MB formfactor. It's the perfect device for traveling, couches, etc.
So I managed to get part of the M2 chip all the way up to 60C in my MacBook Air, running Geekbench as it happens (I wanted to benchmark it with them to compare to my 2013 MBP).
The heat dissipated pretty fast.
Rest of the time the thing is cruising at around 36C. At this temperature I had around 12 open Safari tabs, Books playing an audiobook, Teams sitting open but idle and an active VMWare Horizon session. Swap file stayed at 0 to boot.
The heat dissipated pretty fast.
Rest of the time the thing is cruising at around 36C. At this temperature I had around 12 open Safari tabs, Books playing an audiobook, Teams sitting open but idle and an active VMWare Horizon session. Swap file stayed at 0 to boot.
You are correct in stating that constant heating and cooling of components is not good for them, but I’m not sure why this relates to a laptop that has been designed with this taken in to account.
The components used in these machines have a very high thermal rating as they are used in a stressful environment heat-wise and the design is such that the system will downclock or shutdown to prevent the failure of any components. I’m not sure why you think these components will degrade excessively quickly due to heat stress but this is a fallacy.
Also, Intel MacBooks that have been around for many years prior to Apple Silicon had active cooling yet also got much hotter than the M2 Air. We haven’t seen any catastrophic heat related failures of these systems have we?* That’s because they have been engineered for this to not happen.
Also, also, the internal temperatures of for example the actively -cooled MacBook Pro 14 get just as high as the MacBook Air M2. Modern computers, particularly laptops, generate a lot of heat and thus get hot. And they are designed this way. I think you’re barking up the wrong tree here.
*Apart from nVidia notoriously using the wrong solder.
How fast people forget...
One would think that a keyboard would be designed with durability in mind. Yet we had to have 4 years of butterfly keyboards, before Apple finally reversed the design.
Sorry, but I do not think that everything is always taken into account. I'm not saying that I'm certain this will be an issue, but it is a possible point of failure. Especially if someone uses these devices for intesive tasks.
One would think that a keyboard would be designed with durability in mind. Yet we had to have 4 years of butterfly keyboards, before Apple finally reversed the design.
Sorry, but I do not think that everything is always taken into account. I'm not saying that I'm certain this will be an issue, but it is a possible point of failure. Especially if someone uses these devices for intesive tasks.
I do not think it is unreasonable to be sceptical and cautious about how things are designed and put together; I missed out on the whole keyboard issue but let me tell you - it was a factor in holding onto my 2013 MBP as long as I have and once committed to keeping that machine in 2016, I just kept and kept and kept. It is still going and will be retired when Big Sur receives its final update.
Before that, way back in '07, I remember a friend's Dell XPS compact something or other (I think 13") with discreet graphics basically fried itself; he had it replaced several times under warranty while I carried on doing what I do with a much lower spec but equivalently priced black plastic MacBook Core 2 Duo. Arguing about cost effectiveness, design choices and thermal issues would have been fun (for me anyway) at that point. Of course, a little later mine had to be sent in because a port had worn out.
In terms of "intensive tasks" I think the key thing is to be as informed as possible about
(a) the nature and technical requirements of what you do
(b) the technical capability and design limitations of the machine your are interested in
If they fully overlap then great; if the laptop far exceeds what you need this could be "future proofing" or "over buying" depending on your philosophy. If the machine cannot quite meet the anticipated usage, it could be that you have chosen the "wrong" machine. It is also possible that the "right" machine does not exist for you yet, in which case you make do with the best you can.
Even so, without "proper" and in-depth reviews, as an early adopter there is still a risk. And as it seems from other threads I am involved in, the motivations for emphasising certain things in reviews are not so straightforwards.