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MBA M2 to M5 any benefits

Z

Zapdoc

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Have MBA M2 16Gb and 2Tb but considering MBA M5 with 24 Gb and 1 ir 2 Tb - usage mainly usual stuff web/e mail/Office - doing Medicolegal reports large docs with lots of references etc some photography in Photos form my iPhone 17 Pro

Please advise would I see much difference - felt like new MBA and considering it

Please advise
 
"You're not going to see a big upgrade by going to the M5 from the M2 for example"


That's just one mans opinion, but he does have all 5 in front of him to compare.

Sure there are big leaps in processor power and memory bandwidth and SSD speeds between the two but if you're never really pushing the machine, you may not notice a huge difference in day-to-day use.
 
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If you're not running benchmarks and making YouTube videos about them, then most people won't notice a difference in daily use. At least not until MacOS Golden Gate ships, at which point M3 and higher will get the 'enhanced Siri experience' (whatever that even means...) but the M2 and lower will not.

I'm still rocking a 2021 M1Pro 16GB/1TB as my work machine and an M4 32GB/2TB as my personal device. The M1 Pro turns 5-years old in October and it still cuts through daily tasks like butter. M4 seems to do the one-bounce app a bit more often than the M1Pro but really it feels mostly the same.
 
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Between myself, my wife and my kids we have M2/3/4/5 in the house. Overall, very little difference. If you're doing lots of work on big files or batch processing images, or rendering 4K video, you will notice significant improvements with the M5, but realistically those are tasks better approached with a MacBook Pro and an M3/4/5 Pro or Max processor, not an M5 base.

I was surprised when I looked at the base M5 how close it's getting to the M3 Max MBP I use at my desk, they have improved the horsepower more than I'd realized in day-to-day work. But overall an M2 MBA is fast enough at office tasks that you're getting very little additional bank for your buck, and most of that is going to be the extra RAM.

I'd wait a year or two for the gap to grow, and maybe make the jump with M6 or M7?
 
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now you can do two external monitors. but I use my personal m2 air for development work and I *sometimes but rarely* wait for the CPU as my bottleneck.
 
My MBA13 M3 24/1tb was fine. I did a trade in for an MBP14 primarily for the screen quality but I did go for 48/2tb and Pro chip.

But I did this exchange a week before the price hikes so I'm inclined to agree with the 'keep the MBA' idea.
 
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If its doing everything you want it to currently, then I wouldn't say there is a big reason unless you can get the m5 at the old pricing somewhere still, then I say maybe take a harder look at it as these inflated prices might be here for awhile still. The main obvious benefit to the M5 is going to be software support in the future. I went from an M2 16/1tb to the M5 24/1tb, mainly because I knew the prices were going to go up sooner than later and I want to keep this machine as long as I can. Day to day usage, there isn't a big difference for light work, it's definitely snappier feeling, better wifi. Pushing it a bit more doing editing work, it definitely becomes more obvious, especially for me having that extra ram on board.
 
FOMO is real. I have a MacBook Air M2, 16GB Ram, 1 TB and it does everything I need.... wasn't I "future proofing" with this configuration? Isn't this the "future" I was waiting for? I fear Apple support leaving my M2 behind (why? I make a couple videos a week, work like a dog daily driving it for work, etc. and it is fine, for now.) Then I find myself thinking, MacBook Pro 14" M5 (for the screen alone), get an Air M5? First world sickness...
 
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I just swapped my base M2 MBA (8/256) for a base M5 (16/512). The M2 was working just fine for me; Apple built-in apps + Productive Apps (iWork/MS Office). So, why did I buy the M5? Because it was on sale for $949 on Amazon, and Apple just increased the base price to $1299. I decided to pull the trigger now rather than wait for another year or two.

Anyway, the M5 is great. I am a big fan of the MBA, and it does not disappoint.
 
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Zapdoc said:
Have MBA M2 16Gb and 2Tb but considering MBA M5 with 24 Gb and 1 ir 2 Tb - usage mainly usual stuff web/e mail/Office - doing Medicolegal reports large docs with lots of references etc some photography in Photos form my iPhone 17 Pro

Please advise would I see much difference - felt like new MBA and considering it

Please advise
Click to expand...

i am cruising on a macbook pro 2015 . no complaints.
 
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