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Same price for M2 MBA & 13" MBP w/ 16GB/1TB

L

larryleveen

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 12, 2011
78
17
I want to replace my 2015 11" Intel MBA and was waiting for the M2 Air to be released. For longevity and because of my pack-rat nature, I'd like a 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD configuration. That costs $1899. The same configuration 13" MBP is the same price! I'm still tempted to choose the MBA because I tend to like lighter weight/portability, and I don't do very processor-intensive stuff.

On my aging Air video conferencing make the fan run pretty instantly. I often screen share while conferencing and keep lots of browser tabs and apps open as I multitask a lot for work. Also, now Mail is causing the fan to run and shows high CPU use, which didn't use to happen (Mail has gotten progressively screwier in the last year). All this has me a little worried that the M2 Air will just get throttled in lieu of having a fan and performance will suffer. It makes me wonder if the MBP is the better choice here even though I suspect there is a world of difference between my Intel Air and the M2 Air. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated. Thanks.

UPDATE: Thanks to those who replied with advice. I went ahead and ordered the Air spec'd as I mentioned, above.
 
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If you’ve gotten by with that intel air, the m2 air is going to blow you away. The m2 MacBook Pro is the old dated design. Big bezels, old 720p camera etc. The m2 air is the better buy unless you needed the sustained performance which you obviously don’t
 
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The 13" MBP is mostly intended for standing enterprise purchases.
It is worse than the M2 MacBook Air in almost every way.
It doesn't have MagSafe (and therefore you get one less port while charging), it has a 720p instead of a 1080p webcam, it has a 0.3" smaller screen and dated design, no physical function keys and is slightly heavier. It's only upsides are a fan, which is only useful for sustained heavy loads (e.g. rendering a large 3D scene in Blender) and very slightly longer battery life. Most people who really benefit from the fan in the 13" MBP would probably be better served by the base model M1 Pro 14".

The M2 MBA is much much faster than your current 2015 model, it is in fact faster than the most powerful Apple-made Intel laptop the 2019 i9 16" MBP in almost every task.
 
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The M2 Pro is fine in isolation but with the M2 Air as a comparison it just doesn't stack up except for people who (i) need a fan for some reason, (ii) love the touch bar, or (iii) hate the notch with a visceral passion.

There will be a few out there but I'm surprised it's so many Apple felt it needed to release the M2 Pro.
 
If you want the light weight and portability (as you state), and can afford it, the M2 Air with 16GB/1TB is a great choice.

If you want to save $100 get the 8-core GPU - you probably won't notice any difference, as you don't appear to use any GPU-intensive apps (video-conferencing is not GPU-intensive)
 
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darthbane2k said:
Obligatory hatred for the touch bar aside, I totally disagree. A notch on a laptop is unforgivable.
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I find massive bezels in 2022 far worse. Thats also why the m2 pro has barely gotten any press, its boring lol. Thats also why comparisons are between the m2 air and 14" pro, it should be between the m2 pro, but the m2 pro isn't even in the running at this point
 
1BadManVan said:
I find massive bezels in 2022 far worse. Thats also why the m2 pro has barely gotten any press, its boring lol. Thats also why comparisons are between the m2 air and 14" pro, it should be between the m2 pro, but the m2 pro isn't even in the running at this point
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That makes very little sense on so many levels.
 
Just following up that I did indeed purchase a new Air and zero-point-zero regret units. Really like this machine. Thanks all for your advice.
 
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