Oh yea I agree with you. But as a very casual user, the base model is certainly good enough. I mean if it wasn’t for the new form factor and all I’d probably go with the M1 just to save some more money.
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MBA M2 vs MBP 14, did I really make the right choice?
- Thread starter titovenok88
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If your laptop never leaves the house or even your desk, why wouldn’t you get an iMac instead of being cramped over a small laptop?
The Air is better in shape, design and weight. These 3 things are significant when it comes to getting a laptop.
Like most people with a laptop, I like to move around with it, even if it’s mostly in the house. The option to take it to a cafe now and again is great too.
If you’re not a ‘pro’ user, eg doing 3d modelling or intensive video editing, an Air is a brilliant option for a laptop with its size, design and weight.
If I was fixed to my desk I’d get an iMac every single day of the week, over a MBP.
The 14” MacBook Pro is bigger, heavier, and more expensive than the M2 MacBook Air so it makes logical sense to buy the upgraded M2 MacBook Air. If size, weight, and price matter to you the M2 MBA instantly becomes the much better option.
not really, like i said prior, if you add any upgrade, that price gap gets narrow really fast, remember, no matter what you add, you still won't get mini led 120hz 1000 nit screen, much better speakers, magsafe, more ports, higher impedance 3.5 jack, better keyboard.
have you tried using your mba outside in direct sunlight? the lcd on that is practically unreadable.
the only scenario that someone should get the mba is if they have zero appreciation for all the stuff i mentioned, and they got chicken arms that can't carry an extra .8lb 😂
Er, the M2 Air has MagSafe and the higher impedance headphone jack, not that I've plugged in a pair of headphones into anything in the last 3 years. And it doesn't have the hideous black keyboard deck of the 14".
As for price, with education pricing and the current education promotion that nets an additional $150 off in the form of a $150 gift card (wife is a teacher), I got an M2 Air with 16 GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $1,509. The cheapest retail price I have seen for the 14" Pro is $1,749 (Costco). So I'm $240 ahead of even that, and got an extra 512 GB of storage, which I can actually use (unlike the extra power of the Pro). To get 1 TB of storage in a Pro, I'd have to spend ~$370 more than I did on the Air, also via education pricing and factoring in the current gift card promotion.
The thinner profile and lighter weight of the M2 Air are, in and of themselves, premium features, and to some people, they add significant value. Count me among them.
my apology, forgot i was comparing it to the m1 mba.
at 1509, and a 240 bucks difference, i would've just splurge for the pro, the 120hz 1000 nit higher dpi screen along with better speakers and more ports is easily worth 240 bucks for me anyway.
with the m2 being more heat intensive, you wouldn't be fully able to use the extra power the m2 pack anyway, maybe a 1-2 minute before thermal throttling. but i do acknowledge that there are demographics out there that values a slightly lighter weight than anything else, not alot, but they do exist.
If I had sprung for the $1,749 14" Pro, I would have ended up with only half the storage - 512GB. The 1 TB of storage I got will be well appreciated with time, especially once my wife adds an account and downloads her own photo library.
Let’s see. I need at least 24 GB and 1 TB. So the price on the M2 MacBook Air is $2099. The 32 GB, 1 TB 14” MacBook Pro is $2599. So your theory is that paying $500 more for a bigger heavier MacBook with a bunch of features I don’t need and don’t care about is the better deal? I respectfully disagree.
for 500 more you get 8gb more ram, better bigger display thats actually usable under the sun, better speakers, more ports and bunch of features you don't know til you try it. yeah its a better deal.
Can I have $500? You don’t seem to have trouble spending my money so maybe I should get to spend some of yours.
I don’t generally work outdoors. I don’t need any more ports—I don’t even use MagSafe. I listen to music with headphones. I don’t generally watch much video or movies on my notebook so the better screen isn’t very important.
The things that I value are the lightweight and small form factor. I need more than 16 GB based on my experience with a 16 GB M1 MBA—I’m nervous that 24 GB won’t be enough too. I have more then 600 GB of files on my MBA so I need 1 TB. Those are the things that I care about. The M2 is so fast that I can’t imagine worrying about performance for my workloads.
No. Not running out of space. Once my wife adds her own photo library, the standard 512 GB on the 14" Pro would not be enough. I'm already using 200 GB.
Resale value is a red herring for me. I keep tech for a long time.
a better deal if you need that. since when is $500 not a lot to most people? even as someone doing primarily editing so using a 16" MBP Max, I really don't care about ports too much and certainly don't care about it working under direct sun outside.
this is like the ipad mini argument lol. the portability is nice for some people, screen intolerable for others. I don't care about jelly scrolling but I'm fine with my MBP being heavy. no sense in arguing about personal preference. not everyone needs to get a MBP or iPad pro, even if they are "a better deal"
lol sure, set up a 501(c) sub section 3 non profit organization and i'll be happy to send 500 bucks your way.Can I have $500? You don’t seem to have trouble spending my money so maybe I should get to spend some of yours.
I don’t generally work outdoors. I don’t need any more ports—I don’t even use MagSafe. I listen to music with headphones. I don’t generally watch much video or movies on my notebook so the better screen isn’t very important.
The things that I value are the lightweight and small form factor. I need more than 16 GB based on my experience with a 16 GB M1 MBA—I’m nervous that 24 GB won’t be enough too. I have more then 600 GB of files on my MBA so I need 1 TB. Those are the things that I care about. The M2 is so fast that I can’t imagine worrying about performance for my workloads.
just reading from your usage, 24gb won't be enough, so why you even bother with this hypothetical? 😂
never said 500 is not alot, but when you dropping over 2 grand for a laptop, paying 500 for more ram, better display and host of other features sure looks like a better value.
i'm merely relying my own experience, this is my m1 mba 16gb usage before i upgraded to a 14inch
and this is how much ram i use now when i have more ram headroom
My 16 GB M1 MBA wasn’t quite that bad. But I also limited what I ran locally. I’d like my development environment to be completely self contained.
Why? Because I don't want to be tethered to an external drive. I don't want to store my full-sized versions of my photos and media on a device that I might not have handy at all times. I want my Time Machine backups to run on schedule and capture everything every time. I'd much rather pay $200 for the upgraded internal storage than $100 for an external drive that I have to keep track of.
Problem with this is that its just a matter too time before you ran out of storage space (or is force to buy more and more expensive onboard storage space). For example, between my wife and I we have 1.5TB just on photos/videos alone (and it's increasing fast with photo and 4K videos). We would have to go with the 2TB upgrade just to cover our usage based on your method. A 2TB upgrade is currently listed as $600 on Apple website, it's quite of a bit of a upgrade.
Is that something you have thought about? Not trying to argue here, but I have long realized on-board storage isn't the long term solution. My current solution is to have a Mac Mini as my primary machine with external drive that is doing backup from Photo and third-party backup as well. Leaving to only having to get either the 256 or 512GB in terms of on-board memory.
Lots.
If my photo library is on the external drive, then the Mac isn't going to download the full version of a photo I've taken with my iPhone until I plug in the external drive. As a result, it is also not getting backed up as a full-sized photo to Time Machine until the external drive is attached.
No. 1 TB will suffice for the life of this laptop. My wife and I probably have 350-400 GB of photos between the two of us. It's taken us many, many years to get that many. Other than the occasional 45 second clip of one of our cats, we don't shoot video. The M2 Air will be ready for replacement long before we exhaust its 1 TB of storage. If it turns out I'm wrong, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But in the meantime, not fiddling with an external drive will be a pleasure.
Got it, yea of course whatever solution that works for your situation. We have already cross the bridge so unless we up to 2TB it's basically a no go, which leaves us with either a very expensive upgrade or simply going with a workstation (Mac mini and external drive).