New MacBook Air M2 with 1TB vs 2018 MacBook Pro 15" i7 2.2

[stylinexpat]

Looking to upgrade an older 2018 MBP 15" with i7 2.2 and 16GB of RAM with a new MacBook Air M2 1TB and 24GB of shared RAM. How do you guys see this new MacBook Air M2 versus the older MacBook Pro 15'?
Will it be just as fast and capable? Can an external storage device be used with it to place all storage files on external device instead of internal to save space ? Youtube videos play without getting hot? How does it handle stock trading requiring a lot of RAM on trading platforms?

 

[TheHareBear]

I’d be concerned about the longevity of Intel support. I eked out nearly a decade from a 2010 17” C2D MBP, then got a 2019 16” i7 MBP and am starting to think that was maybe a misstep and won’t get supported for the same duration.

 

[Cliff3]

I switched from a 2019 MBP16 i9 machine to a 24GB/2TB MBA a couple of months ago. For general use the M2 CPU is much snappier than the i9, and the M2 seems to have more than enough horsepower to handle the light photo and video editing that I do. The reduction in weight and bulk is amazing. I can't speak to stock trading applications.

I spec'd it with a big internal drive because a) I don't like being forced to mess with an external drive, and b) I want this machine to be sufficiently sized to keep me happy for a few years. Having said that, I have a NAS with 22TB of storage and a 2TB Sandisk Extreme SSD for longer term storage of photo and media libraries, backups, etc.

Windows support is slightly painful but I am running a Win11 ARM VM on VMWare 13 and it supports the use of data acquisition hardware and software from AiM, which is the only Windows only software that I use. I can readily lift and shift this software and its associated data to the release of a new Windows build by MS. If I were a heavy Windows user, I'd hang onto the Intel machine.

 

[stylinexpat]

I switched from a 2019 MBP16 i9 machine to a 24GB/2TB MBA a couple of months ago. For general use the M2 CPU is much snappier than the i9, and the M2 seems to have more than enough horsepower to handle the light photo and video editing that I do. The reduction in weight and bulk is amazing. I can't speak to stock trading applications.

I spec'd it with a big internal drive because a) I don't like being forced to mess with an external drive, and b) I want this machine to be sufficiently sized to keep me happy for a few years. Having said that, I have a NAS with 22TB of storage and a 2TB Sandisk Extreme SSD for longer term storage of photo and media libraries, backups, etc.

Windows support is slightly painful but I am running a Win11 ARM VM on VMWare 13 and it supports the use of data acquisition hardware and software from AiM, which is the only Windows only software that I use. I can readily lift and shift this software and its associated data to the release of a new Windows build by MS. If I were a heavy Windows user, I'd hang onto the Intel machine.

On the new M2 MacBook Air could you install Wechat app and have files and everything saved on external drive instead of internal drive? What about other space using files like if you were to sync a backup of iPhone and iPad using iTunes sync can you have the files for backup stored on external drive instead of internal drive or is this not possible on new M2 MacBook Air?

 

[Cliff3]

On the new M2 MacBook Air could you install Wechat app and have files and everything saved on external drive instead of internal drive? What about other space using files like if you were to sync a backup of iPhone and iPad using iTunes sync can you have the files for backup stored on external drive instead of internal drive or is this not possible on new M2 MacBook Air?

That functionality is going to be application specific and not dependent on the hardware. If you can configure that software to perform as you wish with your current machine, then I would expect that functionality to carry over to a new machine.

 

[stylinexpat]

That functionality is going to be application specific and not dependent on the hardware. If you can configure that software to perform as you wish with your current machine, then I would expect that functionality to carry over to a new machine.

Do you know if it can be done on new machine?

 

[Cliff3]

Do you know if it can be done on new machine?

Music lets you specify the location of the files. Mine is in the default location, but back in the old days when I used a Windows Home Server running iTunes as a media server, the files resided somewhere other than the default location, so it should work. I don't use wechat.

 

[1BadManVan]

Apple has a no questions asked 14 day return policy, best bet is to order it and give it a try, see if it works for the software you use. They are fantastic machines