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M2 MacBook Air Reviews: 'Apple's Near-Perfect Mac'
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I would doubt it. I have my M1PRO hooked to a external 4k and the fan doesn't come on unless i push the machine pretty hard -- doesn't seem to be any significant disadvantage with external display. Fanless models should act the same way....
I believe this was a problem with the older intel models because they would put the dgpu into a higher power state.
I saw lots of benchmarks and don’t remember seeing any where the M1 MBA performed better than the M2 variant (sans disk read/write). It’s an honest question…which benchmarks show the M1 outperforming the M2 due to throttling?
Lastly, not directed at you, but as just a general thought on this whole tech review debate. Apple lets you try out the machine for yourself for 14 days…you can review your own workflows on it…If you’re not happy, send it back to Apple and move on to a different machine.
Reviews are helpful I understand that…but let’s be clear. Most people on this forum know what to expect from a MBA.
This is gonna be a huge selling computer. The VAST majority of people will only need single core performance (think high school/college students, mom’s and dads, grandparents/aunts & uncles) who all have iPhones & iPads and want a computer that does simple tasks well yet allows them to stay strongly within the Apple ecosystem. This computer is for them. Not for the majority of folks lurking these forums.
I for one like the direction Apple is heading with their computers and think the M2 MBA is a great machine for many people.
Same! Changed from Midnight to Silver, but otherwise have a dock (CalDigit Soho) and stand (Besign LSX3) on order and am considering a new monitor (LG 27UL500-W) to boot. From everything I've read (haven't watched any YT reviews), this will be a solid replacement for my 11" MBA
Reviewing a movie and reviewing a piece of tech gear is apples and oranges. Anyone worth their salt reviewing tech gear will not fill their review with opinions. Is there anyone that says "Well, I don't really care for the M2 as it's just not my type of CPU"? That would be more for a movie review.
Basically, any piece of tech gear has things going for it and things going against it that are universally agreed upon. Like I said, I don't watch her reviews so I was looking for feedback from those that do, if she was objective and points out the bad things along with the good or is everything good and she just fawns all over anything with an Apple logo on it?
Absurd price? The base model will cost me less than a laptop I bought in 1997 with an 11" VGA screen, 500Mb hard drive and 64Mb of RAM.
Literally what are you on about?
The M1 Air, the machine you were just talking about, the machine that apparently let’s pros use a consumer level machine without issue is… *checks notes* still being sold by Apple at the exact same price it was in 2020.
Hop on over to Bestbuy or Amazon and you can find it for even cheaper.
The M1 Mac Mini it’s even cheaper than that and still being sold by Apple.
The new Air isn’t a backtrack on anything.
You pay an extra $200 and you get a better computer with a better design, camera, display, processor, battery… The only thing that’s objectively worse is the SSD and even then most people won’t notice and the ones that will are going to get the bigger storage anyway so it won’t be relevant in the end at all.
FYI: When one is benchmarking iZotope RX 9 [not even advanced] you should include the dialogue file you are De-Reverb processing, along with the settings.
I cant think of any other product forum I belong to that is so consistently anti that product - Perhaps I am a human adrift in a sea of bots? 🤣
So basically this thread is like all others anymore…. People ******** on products they’ve never used, those bitching about people making a decision on which Mac to buy because it differs from their own (note - you don’t need to care than somebody likes the Air M2 or Pro M2 more than the Pro 14), and those that think they know more than anybody else here.
/sad
/sad
If your stone age laptop provides everything you need, then the best deal would be sticking with it. Don't be wasteful now! 😉
She’s the one I can’t watch anymore
Anymore because I remember watching her many years ago and she was very good and entertaining… but I was also a teenager 🤣
I expect the MBA to sell extremely well. Many of the “shortcomings” you listed simply aren’t issues for the mass majority of the user base this product is aimed at.
The naysayers here will be disappointed (once again).
A very good post. And that's the thing a lot of people here don't get. Needing a lot of "computer power" and what we think we need does not represent what 95% of computer users need. Even pro's in certain industries don't need more than this computer. I saw a successful screenwriter on Twitter asking MKBHD today if this computer was right for her as a writing computer. The answer is of course it is. The reality is, with the M1's, most youtube channels/photoshop people could use these and get by just fine. My job, for instance, is running a publishing company. Which means I'm in Affinity photo, web browsers, and word processors all day long. That is not computer processor heavy tasks (minus the photoshop like eliminate). That does also make me any less of a pro. I could easily run this business all from an air. But, I know I like the deck/feeling of the 14 inch pro. i know I love the extra ports, and I know I love that screen. So I will spend $300-500 more than I need to for a slightly better experience, (once the m2 14's come out).
For the first time in my life, I read “Wintel” rhymed with “lintel” instead of “Intel”. Not sure what it means, but there you go.
This is why I like her reviews. It's less about technical benchmarks and more about what you'd notice in real world usage, especialy for people who work with video.
No, you were talking about the reviews. And I asked you - how do you know these reviews are not truthful if you don't know how good the product is. Maybe this MacBook Air actually is just as good as they say? Wouldn't that make their reviews valid?
But no, you assumed the reviews aren't real reviews because they were positive about a product you haven't even seen.
The movie reviews were just an analogy--in reality, if anything, it should be much more plausible to have consistently good tech gear from the same company as it should be to get consistently good movies from an auteur.
That said, of course anyone worth their salt will fill a tech review with opinions. Otherwise why would you even bother looking at a tech review? I can just look up some benchmarks, read the tech specs, dimensions, and weight, and that should tell me everything I need to know objectively. If X computer has slightly higher specs than Y computer, weighs about the same, costs about the same, and has about the same dimensions, objectively and on "universally agreed upon" metrics, I have absolutely no reason to read a review and should get the one with better specs.
I guess a reviewer could point you at what specific spec was better or worse, but basically purely objective reviews could be written by an algorithm in the same way you can write a summary article about a sports game with an algorithm based on the objective facts of which team and person scored in what period.
In reality, just like the sports article gives you no feel for what it was like to actually watch the game, there are lots of other things, from nuances of what it feels like in actual use, to how well it's suited to specific use cases, that make tech reviews both subjective and potentially useful.
Even on purely objective metrics, a reviewer can offer a subjective opinion on which objective differences actually matter in their opinion. For example, I might say "The MacBook Pro 13" is unquestionably the better option than the MacBook Air because it can sustain much higher performance during long renders and gaming sessions. I didn't even notice that it was a little heavier, totally worth it for the longer battery life." Another reviewer might say "It's ridiculous to buy the MacBook Pro 13" because it's got a tired old design, while the Air looks better, is lighter, feels better in the hand, and I never noticed the slightest slowdown even though there's no fan." Both reviewers are correct, but came to different conclusions.
Careful there -- that type of user might use two external monitors, which isn't natively supported
(it's outrageous that's the case)
That's called MacBook Pro 14" and 16".
You want a computer at lower price points? What laptop has better screen and better speakers at that price point? And what laptop is faster at that size?
If you want a laptop at that price point that's lightweight but also superpowerful and has a Mini LED screen - you should look for it in Hogwarts.