M2 macbook air owners with 8gb/256gb model - how much multitasking are you able to do?

[bojack981]

Considering buying the base m2 air but wanted to know how capable it is of multitasking. I'm not going to do be doing anything intensive as I already have a work laptop, so it will just be for browsing, emails, streaming and office apps. I don't usually have more than 15 tabs open too.

So how many tabs are you able to use and how many programs can you open before your m2 slows down or memory pressure becomes yellow?

 

[Mainsail]

I have the base M2 MBA, and it is a terrific computer. Never a stutter or slow-down. There is a lot of "stuff" on the web about SSDs and upload speeds for video files and the like. Most of it is click-bait. The base M2 MBA is a great computer for the large portion of business and student users that use these apps:

Safari/Web Browsing
Mail/Message
Video Chat
Calendar/Reminders/Contacts
Notes
MS Office
iWork
Photos
iMovie

I have not had a single issue running these applications.

 

[1BadManVan]

Considering buying the base m2 air but wanted to know how capable it is of multitasking. I'm not going to do be doing anything intensive as I already have a work laptop, so it will just be for browsing, emails, streaming and office apps. I don't usually have more than 15 tabs open too.

So how many tabs are you able to use and how many programs can you open before your m2 slows down or memory pressure becomes yellow?

Won't be any issue at all for what you're doing, thats barely considered multi-tasking on these chips now a days. Buy one and enjoy it!

 

[JustAnExpat]

I have an M1 MacBook Air (8GB/ 512 GB). Multitasking isn't a problem at all with what you're doing. Right now I have the following applications open:

Safari: 12 tabs open
Opera: 1 tab open
Mail
Photos
Contacts
WhatsApp
Textedit
Messages
iMovie
Final Cut Pro [no rendering or other operations happening]
Preview with four 500+ page PDF files open
Line
System Preferences (updating Final Cut Pro)
Terminal

No stutter, no slowdowns. It's fast and zippy.

It starts to stutter if I'm rendering something in Final Cut Pro, or I have a Virtual Machine running with 4GB of RAM.

I'm sure the M2 won't have any problems either. Have fun!

 

[tim1000]

I have an M1 MacBook Air (8GB/ 512 GB). Multitasking isn't a problem at all with what you're doing. Right now I have the following applications open:

Safari: 12 tabs open
Opera: 1 tab open
Mail
Photos
Contacts
WhatsApp
Textedit
Messages
iMovie
Final Cut Pro [no rendering or other operations happening]
Preview with four 500+ page PDF files open
Line
System Preferences (updating Final Cut Pro)
Terminal

No stutter, no slowdowns. It's fast and zippy.

It starts to stutter if I'm rendering something in Final Cut Pro, or I have a Virtual Machine running with 4GB of RAM.

I'm sure the M2 won't have any problems either. Have fun!

That’s not the point the reviewers claimed the low end m2 air hard drive is slow. M1 wasn’t and neither was 512 m2

 

[papbot]

Considering buying the base m2 air but wanted to know how capable it is of multitasking. I'm not going to do be doing anything intensive as I already have a work laptop, so it will just be for browsing, emails, streaming and office apps. I don't usually have more than 15 tabs open too.

So how many tabs are you able to use and how many programs can you open before your m2 slows down or memory pressure becomes yellow?

Theoretically the 512GB has a faster drive but that wouldn’t be noticed by most unless you try to force the issue by running specific tests. I do have that storage size with 8GB ram and have had no multitasking issue, this thing is blazing fast. I did get the 512 because I was getting up there and I keep these laptops 5-10 years so it’s conceivable I’d really come to need that much but honestly would have been just fine with the base model.

 

[Spock]

I have been using an M1 MacBook Air for a little over a year now and the 8 GB has never been an issue for me and I have bogged down my work Intel MacBook Pro with 16 GB doing the same amount of work.

 

[Donfor39]

I'm deciding over 256/512 storage, why as my fav' u.k retailer doesn't seem capable of sourcing 512 ssd in Starlight.
I suspect I'll manage with 256 ssd to use P.s/Possibly Final Cut and office 365 etc.
The few secs slower ssd I don't expect to notice.
Is 256gb going to be enough to learn Video editing at least initially.

 

[1BadManVan]

I'm deciding over 256/512 storage, why as my fav' u.k retailer doesn't seem capable of sourcing 512 ssd in Starlight.
I suspect I'll manage with 256 ssd to use P.s/Possibly Final Cut and office 365 etc.
The few secs slower ssd I don't expect to notice.
Is 256gb going to be enough to learn Video editing at least initially.

If you’re doing photo and video editing, I would be getting atleast the 512 myself.

 

[StoneJack]

Just order from Apple.co.uk. it is not like you are in Arctic if you order a custom configuration.
For video, I'd also prefer 1/2TB or 512 SSD, which a bit faster (in everyday use, no difference). Also 16 MB of RAM is somewhat future proof, but not compulsory.

For 256/8 put your media files on external SSD, I made one with M2, quite fast, actually and very money saving. It will work just fine.
M2 hardware decoders are great for all kinds of video editing. I have 8/256 configuration, with Apple iWork suite, Microsoft Office, Pixelmator Pro and Logic Pro and all its huge libraries and still have half of storage empty.

 

[Donfor39]

If you’re doing photo and video editing, I would be getting atleast the 512 myself.

As suggested in a few posts, maybe I'll allow a few more weeks or choose Space Grey as used mcb pro's in Silver.
Blue isn't my preferred colour, maybe 512gb Space Gray, which does seem slightly lighter at least online.

thanks

 

[Donfor39]

@StoneJack

External ssd's is there such a thing as TB 4 Externals yet, I found maybe 1 though most seem to be up-to TB 3.

 

[Wokis]

@StoneJack

External ssd's is there such a thing as TB 4 Externals yet, I found maybe 1 though most seem to be up-to TB 3.

Thunderbolt 3 and 4 offer the same bandwidth at the top-end, so there is little incentive to make TB4-drives.

 

[Donfor39]

Thunderbolt 3 and 4 offer the same bandwidth at the top-end, so there is little incentive to make TB4-drives.

I thought it was 40/60gb.

thanks

 

[StoneJack]

@StoneJack

External ssd's is there such a thing as TB 4 Externals yet, I found maybe 1 though most seem to be up-to TB 3.

I bought a usb c case which supported 10 gbps. It is plenty for my needs and even video editing

 

[Yebubbleman]

I have the base M2 MBA, and it is a terrific computer. Never a stutter or slow-down. There is a lot of "stuff" on the web about SSDs and upload speeds for video files and the like. Most of it is click-bait. The base M2 MBA is a great computer for the large portion of business and student users that use these apps:

Safari/Web Browsing
Mail/Message
Video Chat
Calendar/Reminders/Contacts
Notes
MS Office
iWork
Photos
iMovie

I have not had a single issue running these applications.

It's not click-bait. The SSD IS slower. Whether that's enough to bother someone buying one is a completely different debate.

Similarly, 8GB of RAM DOES result in increased usage of swap. Whether it's enough to be a serious issue is yet another different debate (though, I'm pretty sure that most of that isn't as much of an issue as it was during the earlier days of Apple Silicon versions of macOS and Rosetta 2).

For any (non-Pro/non-Max/non-Ultra variant of) M1 or M2 that I intend to use at all seriously, I will get a minimum of 16GB. For anyone buying such a Mac to use as their sole Mac, I always urge (If an M2, a minimum of) 16GB of RAM. For any Macs I do IT stuff or testing with, 8GB is totally fine. Will your computer explode if you don't get 16GB? No. Are 8GB RAM equipped M1 and M2 Macs inferior or unusable, no. But is it always preferable to get 16GB? I don't see how it wouldn't be.

 

[papbot]

I had been reading any number of articles over the last 2 years or since the M1 MBA was released. Many of them described my use case fairly close and stated that the 8 versions would be more than adequate and more efficient or faster than recent 16GB MacBook Pros. Since I had been using a 2013 MacBook Pro with no issues except it was relatively slow compared to my iPads that I use as much or more than the laptop, I knew I’d be fine with the base configuration.

It will vary with each user and what they have been using prior to getting a new MBA but my guess is most will do just fine and never notice a difference and probably will enjoy the superior functionality compared to their previous laptops. I did choose to spend some money on 512GB storage because I had read that they were faster than the base computer. Whether I really would have seen any difference is debatable but I was getting up there on my previous MacBook Pro and I expect to be using this for 5-10 years.

So far it is blindingly fast in my usage. So my advice would be if you’re going to spend some extra dollars put them into the storage option. Or just save the money and you should be fine. I would have been but I did have the money to spend on that upgrade which was a practical concern which additional memory would not have been.