Mid 2012 MBA to maxed out M2: first two days...

[Droid13]

Your photographs (thank you for posting them) really show how over the last decade Apple have managed to squeeze in more power and a marginally larger screen into a smaller package. I had not appreciated the changes to the screen thickness either.

Around 2012 I was lugging around a five-year-old black plastic MacBook and had my eyes on the Pro series; the Air didn't appeal then and I never really looked at them. These days the 2013 rMBP is being phased out while the M2 MBA comes on-stream.

I do not think your spec choice is controversial at all, but then I am subject to my own views and biases...

 

[ThomasJL]

My old workhorse mid-2012 MBA was in dire need of replacement and I went all in and got a maxed out 10 core 24GB 2TB M2 in Midnight.

On your new computer, do you notice a difference in speed while web browsing? If so, how much of a difference in speed is it?

 

[jchap]

Some pictures attached for interest - the ones I wish I could have seen before I decided, if only to confirm how slim/thin the machine is.

You can definitely see the difference in added vertical screen size in the middle photo you took. Even with the notch (and probably because of the notch), you've got more room to work with on the M2 model.

 

[Skippymon]

On your new computer, do you notice a difference in speed while web browsing? If so, how much of a difference in speed is it?

I hadn't thought about it until you asked so I just did a test with them side by side. Not surprisingly most websites load almost instantly on the M2. Some loaded almost as fast on the 2012 MBA but most took between 1 and 3s to finish loading content, especially where embedded videos are involved. The M2 feels much snappier, as you'd expect against 10 year old tech.

 

[Skippymon]

Your photographs (thank you for posting them) really show how over the last decade Apple have managed to squeeze in more power and a marginally larger screen into a smaller package. I had not appreciated the changes to the screen thickness either.

Around 2012 I was lugging around a five-year-old black plastic MacBook and had my eyes on the Pro series; the Air didn't appeal then and I never really looked at them. These days the 2013 rMBP is being phased out while the M2 MBA comes on-stream.

I do not think your spec choice is controversial at all, but then I am subject to my own views and biases...

I'm not sure the screen thickness has changed much, but the squared off M2 design looks thicker because the edges of the old screen were tapered to a thin edge. In my pic the screens are actually touching back to back so at the thickest point around the centre of the display I think they are about the same.

Similar with the base which from the side perspective looks a lot thinner than it actually is.

 

[geta]

That’s why I went with classic silver. You can never go wrong with that color. I ordered midnight at first and then canceled my order. Reason being that I felt like midnight looked somewhat cheap. It reminded me too much of black Lenovo laptops back in the day. Showing scratches more also turned me off.

My spec is 10 core, 1 TB, and 24 GB.

Why 24? - Believe it or not, I often have 30+ browser tabs open at the same time. I day-trade and have many charts open at once.

Sure, a MacBook Pro would be better suited for the task, but I travel a lot and need something lightweight and portable.

With your work flow, how much memory out of the 24GB you usually using?
Also, what limitation you find with the MBA that you think MBP would be better for your needs except for the screen size?

 

[Spock]

Great spec machine - I'm sure that will last another 10 years! Amazing to see how dated the 2010 MBA design looks these days.

I never noticed the very large bezels as much now that I have seen them by the 2010.

 

[RaphaZ]

My old workhorse mid-2012 MBA was in dire need of replacement and I went all in and got a maxed out 10 core 24GB 2TB M2 in Midnight. Controversial spec perhaps but I wanted something snappy and powerful that could handle having dozens of tabs open, lots of huge PDF docs, Photos, play & edit 4k iPhone movies, plus all the usual day to day computing ****. I travel a lot so lightness is important and I wanted to be able to keep my photos originals and documents on the machine rather than have to be connected to access some of them from iCloud.

I did a fresh install so everything came from the cloud and I only downloaded those apps I need, this avoided transferring 10 years of crap from the old machine.

I love the shape and size, the screen is so bright and crisp, I like the extra vertical real estate and thin bezels. I wanted fanless and don't need extra ports so the 14 MBP was never really contender - its too fat and heavy for my liking.

The one thing I'm on the fence about is the colour. Midnight just looks black most of the time. Now mine isn't scratched and doesn't seem to be picking up any significant finger prints, but its just kind of odd, especially in low light where the keyboard/trakpad area is a bit of a black hole. I'm not going to change the machine but I suspect if I'd waited and had a look in the store I might have chosen space grey.

For a laugh I ran Blackmagic speed test, it came up at about 3500, whereas my old machine was 78! So the M2 runs like lightning to me. Photos app opens instantly, 7000 page pdfs the same, and with a ton of stuff all open its using about 16GB of RAM so I feel there is plenty to spare.

Some pictures attached for interest - the ones I wish I could have seen before I decided, if only to confirm how slim/thin the machine is.

TDLR, went from a slow old dinosaur to a super fast M2 and love it!

Cool!

Two weeks ago I've bought a basic M1 MBA. I was working on an Intel 2013 MBA.
There are a few things I don't like in the new design. These newer Macs seems to be very narrow and compacted. When I touch the Function Keys I'm sometimes touching the screen. I prefer the palm rest (or the palm design, don't know how to characterize it) of my 2013 machine. For me, at least, there is no need of such straightening.

Other things revealed just awesome, like the amazing screen and speed.

I'm having some problems (or, better saying, disillusion) with RAM performance, which I wrote in other thread here on Macrumors. I traded the old machine because Word was beach balling, it ran hot, and I believed M1's would be a major upgrade. What I'm feeling right now is that it is a great upgrade, but I can't say I'm totally satisfied. And I'm missing the MagSafe, but that's other story, I already knew that difference.

These feelings might disappear, I'm still adapting.

 

[_Dave_]

Running a mid 2012 MBP at the moment. Looking at the M2 air as a replacement.

 

[BanditoB]

@ThomasJL - I believe that the M2 MBA with Safari was the first computer/browser combination to reach over 400 on the Speedometer web test, which is quite a milestone. You could run the Speedometer test on your current computer and compare that to the MBA's score of just over 400.

 

[davekro]

That’s why I went with classic silver. You can never go wrong with that color. I ordered midnight at first and then canceled my order. Reason being that I felt like midnight looked somewhat cheap. It reminded me too much of black Lenovo laptops back in the day. Showing scratches more also turned me off.

My spec is 10 core, 1 TB, and 24 GB.

Why 24? - Believe it or not, I often have 30+ browser tabs open at the same time. I day-trade and have many charts open at once.

Sure, a MacBook Pro would be better suited for the task, but I travel a lot and need something lightweight and portable.

My 8c/24/1TB Came today. Friday, hope to make time to set it up and start 1st steps on clean install process.

 

[Skippymon]

@ThomasJL - I believe that the M2 MBA with Safari was the first computer/browser combination to reach over 400 on the Speedometer web test, which is quite a milestone. You could run the Speedometer test on your current computer and compare that to the MBA's score of just over 400.

I didn't know about this test but just ran it on both machines.

The M2 scored 394 which is impressive.
My old 2012 MBA scored 66.8! A huge difference!

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

Nice

 

[sdwaltz]

I remember the white MacBooks. I had a MacBook Pro and I think they were a thing at that time but not sure. I guess it depends on how far back you want to go 😂

If Apple would give us a white MBA, I would p**s my pants. Take all my money.

 

[russell_314]

If Apple would give us a white MBA, I would p**s my pants. Take all my money.

I think that would mean plastic because I'm not sure how hard it would be to make aluminum white. Apple has gotten away from white as their signature color. It used to be the iPhone, iPod and some Macs but now other than AirPods, HomePod mini and their charging cables and adapters it's mostly some other color

 

[mlody]

I went from MBA M1 base (8/256) which was work provided system that I used for mostly personal tasks, but due to some changes, I had to turn in it. This was also around the same time I decided to sell my iMac 27" 2015. I ended up getting 8core with 16gb and 1 TB. the laptop is beyond what I need and it easily replaced two of the systems I had. I paired it with Dell U2722DE and I am impressed. I don't miss 5K that I had on my iMac at all and the performance is thru the roof compared to my old iMac.

 

[2009 mac user]

My old workhorse mid-2012 MBA was in dire need of replacement and I went all in and got a maxed out 10 core 24GB 2TB M2 in Midnight. Controversial spec perhaps but I wanted something snappy and powerful that could handle having dozens of tabs open, lots of huge PDF docs, Photos, play & edit 4k iPhone movies, plus all the usual day to day computing ****. I travel a lot so lightness is important and I wanted to be able to keep my photos originals and documents on the machine rather than have to be connected to access some of them from iCloud.

I did a fresh install so everything came from the cloud and I only downloaded those apps I need, this avoided transferring 10 years of crap from the old machine.

I love the shape and size, the screen is so bright and crisp, I like the extra vertical real estate and thin bezels. I wanted fanless and don't need extra ports so the 14 MBP was never really contender - its too fat and heavy for my liking.

The one thing I'm on the fence about is the colour. Midnight just looks black most of the time. Now mine isn't scratched and doesn't seem to be picking up any significant finger prints, but its just kind of odd, especially in low light where the keyboard/trakpad area is a bit of a black hole. I'm not going to change the machine but I suspect if I'd waited and had a look in the store I might have chosen space grey.

For a laugh I ran Blackmagic speed test, it came up at about 3500, whereas my old machine was 78! So the M2 runs like lightning to me. Photos app opens instantly, 7000 page pdfs the same, and with a ton of stuff all open its using about 16GB of RAM so I feel there is plenty to spare.

Some pictures attached for interest - the ones I wish I could have seen before I decided, if only to confirm how slim/thin the machine is.

TDLR, went from a slow old dinosaur to a super fast M2 and love it!

I just recently replaced the disk drive of my mid 2012 MBP (16gb RAM, 2.5 ghz Core i5) with a second 500gb SSD and absolutely love this thing. Even though it is old, I am astounded at how well it copes with modern times after some very easy upgrades. I bought it over a year ago with near base specifications and have slowly (as my finances allow) upgraded it into a (nearly) perfect computer for me. Before that, my only computer, save a 2005 Dell Inspiron 9300 (my first computer which I bought for $20 in 2015) and crappy old school chromebook, was a 2009 Macbook with 8gb of RAM and its original HDD, which worked ok when I first got it (shortly after virtual learning started) but was pretty much done after the heavy workload I put on it during the pandemic. I recently purchased a base spec m1 macbook air from a Costco sale for entering university in a few weeks (just to have something lighter and more up to date for taking to classes), but then found out two days later that my university would be awarding me with a substantial technology grant, making higher-end devices such as the m2 MBA or M1Pro MBP accesible. This is perfect as mom had been using that old 2009 Macbook for a few months since her crappy Lenovo died. She has always wanted a sleek and light MBA, so I gave it to her. I will have to wait till the second semester for the tech grant, but my mid 2012 MBP and beautiful m1 iMac (which I am incredibly grateful to have received as a gift) will much more than suffice for several years if necessary.

Congratulations on your upgrade! While you may not be able to repair or upgrade the new one, it should still serve you well for the rest of this decade if not longer.