Just upgraded from my mba 13 m3, if you want it and have the money, yolo.
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Upgrading MacBook Air M2 to M4?
- Thread starter ManuCH
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I would not even consider an upgrade if it was inexpensive by selling yours. You have a great Mac. I upgraded to an M4 Max MBP from an M2 Max and the only thing that was worth it was getting more storage space. Other than that runs the same for 99% of tasks. PS - don’t tell my wife!
I recently bought a mini just to run as a small AI server to run distilled LLMs. It’s amazing, but cannot touch my Mac Studios. Just wanted to see the power of it. For $599, it’s a beast. Connected a 4TB external thunderbolt drive and it can do a lot just not nearly as fast as a Mac Studio can. All ready investigating selling two Mac Studios to get the new Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM Ultra. Just wish it was an M4 Ultra but probably makes almost no difference. The RAM is where Apple is able to destroy Nvidia. Unified memory is amazing. I wish it wasn’t so expensive to add 16TB of storage. I mean everything else is so expensive, seems like Apple could spare us a few dollars to make that upgrade. My M2 Ultras are probably worth 1/4 the price today as I paid. Hits hard the more you spend the more you lose.
I am in similar place as you. M2 with 8c/512/16. I really want the second monitor. And don’t have to use the iPhone as continuity camera for calls. Also, with apple currently offering higher trade in for current Macs, I preordered M4.
Good 1080p camera is much better than bad 4k webcam
I understand that it’s still working fine but in your case I would say you’ve got a good 5 years out of it and you probably will notice performance gains with such a leap, so that’s not a stretch to justify in my opinion…
That isn't the issue here. The 12MP camera has enough resolution to cover every pixel of 1080 (2.1MP), as well as 4K (8.3 MP). Apple limits it to 1080 due to bandwidth constraints in FaceTime.
The iPhone 16 has a 12MP front-facing camera too and can record up to 4K@60fps, but is still limited to 1080 on FaceTime calls.
I’ve been down this road before. Essentially I am happy for maybe a week after purchase. Then I question if anything is truly different and if I should’ve saved my money.
Rinse… repeat….
Rinse… repeat….
The same way i feel about iphones. That is why stopped doing the same mistakes with macs - keeping my m1 air for the foreseeable future as it also does the things that new airs can’t do.
The RAM thing is huge if you do any AI locally; huge enough to drive you to an MBP with more RAM available. It gets to how occasional the AI usage is. I would look hard at my plans in the AI area, and how fast or slow LM Studio is now under 24 GB RAM; I am guessing that you are probably sticking to small projects to cope.
IMO RAM will be what drives your upgrade needs. Limiting RAM will slowly start to present as less smooth operation: sluggishness, hiccups, etc. If you see the SBBOD more than once every couple of weeks you probably are RAM limited. If those symptoms do not present, be happy and consider waiting until they do before upgrading.
Only you can decide weight versus laptop competence. If MBA display is good enough for you now and you like the light weight, maybe just stick with a 32 GB M4 MBA until you clearly need the MBP's additional available RAM. [Me, I need the MBP's better display no matter what.]
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That is actually a spin on the whole story that I did omit in the start: at some point I was considering getting an M4 Mini and keep my M2 Air. But then I always wonder: how annoying is it to actually work on 2 different Macs - and then having twice the stuff to upgrade when the time comes? 😂
This is the exact kind of experiment I like. I wonder how much of a difference it would make to get the M4 Pro Mac Mini (instead of the regular M4) to run distilled LLMs. I guess it's still nowhere near what the Studios can do (especially the newer ones, but it goes into a price range that is a bit too much to just have fun experimenting).
Whoever upgrades for the camera - keep in mind this is Center Stage camera. It has more megapixels, but it will have ultra wide lens to cover you moving around or Desk View (UWA lenses this small are usually pretty bad, with high f-stop)... so it will crop the image heavily and the end result can be worse than the old camera.. I hate Center Stage, find this tracking super distracting and a pure waste of camera capabilities...
From your use i don’t think there is much point in upgrading. I use to upgrade regularly but then kept my last machines for nearly 10 years and even when i upgraded them I wasn’t blown away with anything on the day to day side of computing. Biggest difference was i could edit 4k footage and the speakers were a massive upgrade.
I get wanting new and shiny but i think the dopamine hit won’t last that long
I get wanting new and shiny but i think the dopamine hit won’t last that long
I definitely did consider it for its price when it was released! But my work is very annoying with authentication being required every 2 weeks on all the Microsoft apps (separately!), plus I do travel a lot on planes. I’ve been screwed before when I forgot to pre-download the files I needed for offline use before my flight left. So it would have added some complication with making sure I was downloading files on the MBA from the work done on the mini. I thought it worth the wait to for the upgrade to the M4 MBA to minimize the number of devices, and authentications. Now that it’s out, I’m going to give it a trial run. I hate to admit that I had to return new devices to apple just because the practical use value did not justify the cost for my upgrade. To think I’m paying $1300 to gain the use of a second monitor sounds crazy sometimes, but the M4 makes me more comfortable with longevity and AI, that I’m willing to test it out.
As to how annoying unless you have some huge video files that you need to constantly transfer back-and-forth, I’d say it’s pretty seamless. By default documents are on iCloud so if you’re working on something on the Air you can start where you left off at on the mini. I would have that set up if I really needed the larger screen. I’ve always been so tempted to buy a mini and Apple studio display. The reason why I don’t is because I know I don’t like sitting at a desk at home because I’ve done this for work. I loved my iMac, but I didn’t like sitting at the desk.
As to upgrading you don’t have to upgrade everything at once. It’s like anything that you have multiples of whether it’s tires, lightbulbs, etc. You don’t have to replace everything once. Of course it could end up costing you more money if you’re absolutely impulsive about upgrading. No judgment here because I can be that way too!
This is a really good point. If we're being honest, this is "shiny new toy" syndrome, which is something that most of us on this forum probably experience and succumb to at times. But we quickly forget that it only makes us happy until the next shiny new toy, if even that long. It never really scratches the itch for long...
With 16GB of RAM and more GPU cores, the M4 is tuned for AI so you should see significant improvement in running your LLMs. The NPU + CPU + iGPU performance of the M4 is more than double than the M2 (38 TOPS to 15.8 TOPS). The neural engine of the M4 is tuned for AI.
The MacBook Pros will be faster but with a 50% weight gain over the Air, you definitely will notice the heft. The question is whether you value portability over performance.
From what I hear, the M4 has a measurable and detectable performance bump under load. For light stuff, you won’t notice a difference.
The only other reason to upgrade is for aesthetics. I’m glad I held off buying the M3 bc I ordered the new sky blue color.
The MacBook Pros will be faster but with a 50% weight gain over the Air, you definitely will notice the heft. The question is whether you value portability over performance.
From what I hear, the M4 has a measurable and detectable performance bump under load. For light stuff, you won’t notice a difference.
The only other reason to upgrade is for aesthetics. I’m glad I held off buying the M3 bc I ordered the new sky blue color.
Sorry but better display, speakers and ports are not "aesthetics." The MBP is simply a better box. The MBA's new sky blue color OTOH is indeed aesthetics, and those sky blue aesthetics will impact how image color is perceived.
It may be true that "the M4 is tuned for AI," but implying that 16 GB RAM is a good amount for running LLMs during the life cycle of a new purchase is just wrong. Seeing significant improvement over some older also low end low RAM box does not necessarily make it any kind of optimal choice for those usages.
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Personally, I'm happy with my M1Max 14" MBP. 64GB/2TB will be enough RAM and storage to make it last a good 8-10 years, which is how long I usually keep my Mac laptops. I love that you can get such a powerhouse in such a small case, and it is a great design. The MBA is really nice looking, and I get the appeal of a lighter machine (I take mine with me on the train to work every day), but for the heavy lifting (photographer and musician) I do the extra RAM is especially useful.
Not exactly the same situation, but...
I had a base model M2 Mac Mini that served my light usage purposes just fine. When the new M4 Mini's were released though, I liked the redesign enough that I knew I wanted one. Now I have a base M4 Mini with the only upgrade being 512GB of storage. I love seeing this little machine sitting on my desk and it genuinely puts a smile on my face at times just looking at my setup.
Either machine would serve my needs equally. My decision came down strictly to what would bring me joy. It sounds to me like either the M4 Air, the M4 Pro, or even not upgrading at all would serve your needs roughly the same.
The question I would ask is "which one will make you happier"?
I have a M2 air with 30 battery cycle count at 100%.
I think I will continue with this computer for another year or two.
I think I will continue with this computer for another year or two.
Good idea… The MacBook Air M4 is not a bad computer. Every apple product is good. But the problem we have with it is that there is not a lot of reasons to upgrade to this Mac if you have an M2.