Went to a store last Saturday and got to see the Air M2 in the flesh for the first time. I took the time to briefly test it out and then compared it with a 14 M1 Pro. I had already more or less decided on the Air but wanted to make sure first.
I played around with both for about 10 minutes and for me personally, the difference in display quality isn't that obvious. The ProMotion on the MB Pro doesn't really stand out, and it's the same when I compare the iPhone 14 Pro with the regular 14. But that's just my personal opinion.
Both Air and Pro feel equally snappy and I know I don't need the extra 'sustained' performance of the Pro : I'm a translator so I mostly use Microsoft Word and other text and language related apps, and I do some light graphic design with Indesign and Illustrator, and some light photo editing with Photoshop. I edit some video from time to time in iMovie, but that's purely amateuristic, mostly footage in 1080p, 4K from time to time, so nothing fancy.
I'm sure the Air M2 can handle those tasks with ease. My current 2015 MB Pro still handles all of this stuff pretty well and my 2017 iMac doesn't break a sweat either. I need a new laptop because I need to configure my current Intel MB Pro with Mojave and Win10 Bootcamp because of some special software requirements ; I also need it to last another 2 years to be able to run that legacy software so I'm going to handle it with velvet gloves ; the Air will be for all my other work
I admit, I have been going back and forth between the 14 M1 Pro and the M2 Air but I also always let my 'hunch' decide when I buy a new computer, have done so since 1999 when I bought my first Blueberry iMac G3 and never regretted it since.
The M2 Air just feels right, form factor, weight, keyboard, display, and the Starlight colour is just irresistible. Not too keen on the Midnight, strangely : the fingerprint issue is not as bad as I had feared but still, I'm not that impressed with it. My current MB Pro is Silver so that's out as I want something different, and Space Grey is a bit boring, really.
I will max out the M2 Air, though, so 10 core GPU, 24 Gb of RAM and 1 TB SSD (the 2Tb is a bit too pricey for my taste). That will bring it up to around 2500 euro, not cheap, and more expensive than the base 14 MB Pro, but when I upgrade the RAM and SSD on the 14, bringing it up to 32gb of RAM and 1Tb SSD (to make it a fair comparison), then it's 3000 euro, still a very noticeable difference of 500 euros, which I'd rather spend towards a new iPhone.
I'll have to wait about a month for a BTO M2 Air, so will be ordering one and the regular iPhone 14, both Starlight, very soon. Coming from a 2015 MB Pro and an iPhone 8 Plus, it'll be night and day, I'm sure