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Should I buy a MBA?

Should I buy a MBA?

  • Absolutely yes!

    Votes: 37 82.2%

  • Buy the new MBP

    Votes: 4 8.9%

  • Wait for the new MBA

    Votes: 4 8.9%
  • Total voters
    45
M

mm26

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 22, 2022
8
3
Hi everyone,
since this community helped me a lot with tips and advices, here I am with another question for you.

My wife is in desperate need for a new laptop, since the old one is ready for retirement since a long time ago. We were excited about the new MBPs but maybe they are a little too much for the use she's going to do with it, so maybe a MBA could be the right choice.

She's using her laptop for:
- Mainly for work. She's a singing teacher so she needs a fast laptop with a jack port to connect speakers, then she uses microphones, USB keyboards etc. Not heavy music editing, just voice and pre-recorded music.
- Playing some games. Nothing really heavy or with high graphic demand.
- Surfing the Internet. Watching videos or listening to music.
- Space for storage. Audio files (a lot). Videos (a lot). Pictures and other stuff, so she needs some decent storage space.
- Being not too heavy is a plus. Since she's working in different schools and she walks all day with her laptop and all the other stuff she has.

So. Is the last MBA good for her? We never had one so is it going to last for many years? I read there are rumors about a new MBA coming out this year with very cool new features. So should we wait for that one or we can buy the 2022 version anyway? As I said, her actual laptop is very old and waiting several months won't be the best option for us.

Thanks everyone and sorry for my bad English.
 
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when she gets a MacBook, she should use external storage
instead of beefing up the GB on the MacBook,  does overcharge of that space.

My MacBook Air 2020 M1 is fast, great ,looks nice and has 256GB drive
were I use external storage for non-weekly data.
 
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There are always going to be rumors about something newer and better. If you can wait then wait, just know that no one knows exactly when they will be released so in worst case you may have to wait until the end of the year. However, if you need a computer right now there’s no reason to think about rumored future products.
 
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MBA should work great for everything you have listed, except, possibly for gaming. It's not that it doesn't have the power to play simple games, it will be faster than most PC laptops, it's that a lot of games aren't released for Mac. It really depends on what specific games she plays.

Someone mentioned getting external storage due to the cost of Apple's internal storage upgrades... While cheaper to go external, I'd be concerned. With all the moving between schools, it just seems like something that could easily get left behind.
 
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I was a longtime MBP user and switched to the M1 Air in 2021. It outperforms my old MBP's and is a lot easier to carry around, which I imagine she would be doing as a teacher. The M2 Air adds the Magsafe power port instead of utilizing one of the USB-C ports for charging, and that would solve one of my only issues with the M1; not enough ports! It's a great device and I recommend you give it a try!
 
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New model won’t be out until end of year at the earliest. You sound you needed a notebook yesterday. The best deals were back to school or Black Friday, but that’s long past. With computers, you buy when you need them or at least time it in advance. Next time, don’t wait until you’re overdue! You don’t get the best deals and you end up paying more for a model that has been out for a while.
 
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When talking of Gaming M2’s Gpu performance pretty sucks compared to M2 Pro/Max
Previously I thought that M2 can handle Resident evil Village 8 (what Apple said at WWDC) but it came out to run at 30fps(at 42fps for just 20 seconds and then dropped to 30) with low image quality settings

Edit: Resident Evil Village is quite a demanding Game, M2 does well with Warthunder and CSGO
 
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Alex Cai said:
When talking of Gaming M2’s Gpu performance pretty sucks compared to M2 Pro/Max
Previously I thought that M2 can handle Resident evil Village 8 (what Apple said at WWDC) but it came out to run at 30fps(at 42fps for just 20 seconds and then dropped to 30) with low image quality settings

Edit: Resident Evil Village is quite a demanding Game, M2 does well with Warthunder and CSGO
Click to expand...
there's quite a few videos out there with the m1 and m2 air playing resident evil quite well. I even went to go double check that again and still lots of videos out there showing it running nicely. M1 air with 8gb of ram was sustaining high 40's low 50's on 1080p with high settings.

Not sure why you're having these issues
 
M2 air, the best laptop i've ever had, don't wait! M2 air had the biggest refresh in the macbook air line over the history. imo get big internal storage and buy her small speakers to make it easy to transport everything.
 
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I have a base M2 MacBook Air and a base 16" MacBook Pro M1. I find myself reaching for the Air more often than the Pro. It's small, lightweight, has a fantastic keyboard and a beautiful screen. The Pro is amazing, don't get me wrong, but the Air is just more manageable for everyday tasks...and writing, which is what I do for a living.
 
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M2 MBP 14" base model is what I recommend unless the lighter weight is really important. The M2 MBA is really light and portable and that extra weight can make a big difference. I think she should go into an Apple Store and feel the M2 MBA and whatever 14" MBP they have. That way she will get a real world experience of the two devices. It is the only way she can tell if the difference in weight and size will matter to her. I have heard so many people say the weight issue is nothing because it is around a pound but a pound is huge when you are lugging something around everywhere. SO I have a huge caveat to my advice. If the weight is not a big issue then the M2 MBP just because of the HDMI which can be really important for teachers and in classroom settings.

For her use if she travels a lot then the M2 MBA would be great. As far as new features I have not heard any rumors about new features on the M3 MBA. Apple typically doesn't change much until there is a new design and they don't redesign their chassis very often. Since M2 is a complete redesign from the previous air's I doubt much besides the processor will change.

The M2 MBA has a low impedance high fidelity headphone jack just like the Pro models. So it should work great for what she will be using it for. It also has really great battery life. It is super lightweight and doesn't have any fans/vents to worry about.

The big thing is as a teacher she will be in different classrooms I assume and moving a lot. This is where the air really shines. It is very portable and will be quick and easy to setup. However the M2 MBP is a heavier but probably a bit more sturdy device.

The Pro's advantages would be faster in multi-threaded applications like photo and video editing and rendering. Gaming would be better and anything that heavily, heavily taxes the CPU and GPU. A lot of people prefer the mini-led screen and speakers of the Pro. However the screen and speakers of the air are really nice. A lot of threads on here about crackling speakers and muffled sound on the Pro's. The MBA has a clearer sound but obviously doesn't have the bass. The Pro's generally don't have as good battery life but the new M2 MBP might be a lot better with more efficiency cores. We will have to see.

The M2 MBP that she would probably get would be the 14" since the 16" would be way too heavy. She would probably only need the base model with a 10 core CPU. It is $1999. She would get the teacher/edu discount.

The thing is for her there would be extra weight on the Pro but it might be a bit more sturdy. She would have a slightly faster machine with more GPU cores. The speakers and screen would be better and for a teacher if she ever needed to hook up to HDMI she would have that port.

I really like my M2 MBA but at $1999 and edu discount I think the 14" M2 MBP might be a better fit for her use case. I think the ability to plug into HDMI without a dongle for a teacher is a big deal. She would also have a high fidelity headphone jack. I think the only minus would be weight and battery life although this year battery life should be a lot better so I am leaning on suggesting the M2 MBP. I would not get the M1 MBP because battery life on the 14" M1 MBP is not very good. If she got the mid range air it is a few hundred less than the new M2 MBP but in this case it might be worth it.

I get a lot of flack on these forums because I generally don't just go along with the popular opinion but I really try to give an honest, unbiased opinion based on someones actual use case.
 
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I still vote mba m2 if you value portability and battery life. It still easily trounces the pros, and yes the new ones too.
 

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1BadManVan said:
I still vote mba m2 if you value portability and battery life. It still easily trounces the pros, and yes the new ones too.
Click to expand...
No doubt the M2 air battery life is amazing and I love it too. It would be interesting to see a comparison with the M2 Pro not Max though as the Max is a battery hog when it comes to m series chips. The Pro is a lot better.

But there are multiple reasons why the air is better in terms of battery not just the CPU/GPU.

I would be though that the base model 10 core M2 Pro might be a lot closer to the air in terms of battery life. Just a guess on my part. It only has two more performance cores and the same number of efficiency cores. The mini led screen consumes a lot more power too.
 
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Technerd108 said:
No doubt the M2 air battery life is amazing and I love it too. It would be interesting to see a comparison with the M2 Pro not Max though as the Max is a battery hog when it comes to m series chips. The Pro is a lot better.

But there are multiple reasons why the air is better in terms of battery not just the CPU/GPU.

I would be though that the base model 10 core M2 Pro might be a lot closer to the air in terms of battery life. Just a guess on my part. It only has two more performance cores and the same number of efficiency cores. The mini led screen consumes a lot more power too.
Click to expand...
To be fair, they did select the higher binned air with the extra gpu cores as well. So both maxed in that sense
 
My subjective impression testing the base 14" M2 MBP vs the base M2 Air is that battery longevity seems better or at least as good on the 14" base M2.

BTW, all the things you guys said about the M2 Air were right on the money.
 
Find an Apple refurbished M1 MBA — that should be at an awesome discount, depending on your luck.
 
marstan said:
My subjective impression testing the base 14" M2 MBP vs the base M2 Air is that battery longevity seems better or at least as good on the 14" base M2.

BTW, all the things you guys said about the M2 Air were right on the money.
Click to expand...
My base M2 14 Pro is better battery wise than my M2 MBA 16/1TB so far.
 
Sounds like pretty much any M1 or M2 laptop would be good for your needs! Consider going to the Apple Store / Best Buy etc and compare the webcam quality and speaker quality. If your wife does a lot of video calls, people have feelings about the relative quality of the webcams. (I don't personally care much so I can't remember which is supposed to be better.) Also it sounds like she has her own good speakers, but if she will ever use the built-in speakers, I believe the Macbook Pro is supposed to have better sounding speakers.

Also I have to respond to the person who said get the minimum amount of internal storage to save money. Ask yourself if you want to be tethered to an external drive your whole life, it sounds like it will be a very mobile machine. Upgrading the internal storage at least 1 or 2 levels from the base option (on any model) will make sure you get the fastest disk performance (makes the whole system faster) and also save you a lot of hassle vs managing external disks.

Speaking of external disks, the Sandisk Extreme V2 2TB and 4TB SSDs are a great bargain at B&H Photo right now, if you need more space.
 
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