Upgrading MacBook Air M2 to M4?

[bryo]

I’m a crazy person that also preemptively justifies upgrading. But to be frank no it’s not worth it at all. Upgrade when Apple adds a 90hz screen or modifies the design or something, maybe next year or the year after. It would stink to buy an m4 just for the m5 air to have a nice 90hz screen or something like that right? The. You’ll be right back to trying to justify an upgrade.

 

[ThailandToo]

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).

Okay. Well I bought an M4 Pro Mac mini for my son, and I setup and ran a few things for “testing” purposes before giving it to him, LOL. It’s about 30% faster. He wanted the TB5 that bad for “future proofing” I mean for more than double the price, doesn’t add up running DeepSeek b14 is solid. My M4 Max MacBook base Max 2TB SSD runs it almost twice as fast. I don’t know what’s at play but it might be the RAM? 64GB vs 24GB? SSD is a lot faster also? I bought the base mini just to keep everything off my main systems for work. Added the 4TB external TB drive for the data. I actually didn’t connect my iCloud to it. It’s just a test machine for me. And it’s fun to not care what happens. Worst case scenario I reformat and do it again. Running a lot of models from open source could lead to problems…

 

[dandyryan]

no need to upgrade. macbooks last over a decade.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

IMO: the most non-important upgrades are thunderbolt and wifi. Most consumer stuff are like 2-3 generation behind on both technologies. Upgrades to this has probably little to zero impact on anybody's lives.

 

[john123]

Keep in mind that you CAN use multiple monitors on your M2 with DisplayLink. It’s not optimal but it does work.

 

[August West]

I'm undecided on whether I should upgrade to the Air M4 - directly jump to the Pro M4 (although what kinda scares me of that one is its bulkiness/weight compared to the Air, considering that I carry it with me every day to work).

I've been thinking about upgrading my M1 MBA 8/256 and thought about going to the 14" MBP for the better display, speakers & battery life. So today I stopped by BB to check them out. After handling the base MBP it became immediately clear the MBA would be a much better machine for my uses around the house. On paper the increased thickness and weight don't seem like much but in real life the MBP is just too bulky for me.

But I already kind knew this since I had a 2009 MPB. When it died I replaced it with an Air and was so happy with reduced bulk. Even though the M4 MBP is way more svelte than my 15" MBP it gave me the same vibe handling it compared to the Air. So I'm willing to take the tradeoffs of the lesser machine in return for its lower weight and thickness. Performance wise, either would be equally up to my light duty tasks. YMMV.

 

[rulymammoth]

I've been thinking about upgrading my M1 MBA 8/256 and thought about going to the 14" MBP for the better display, speakers & battery life. So today I stopped by BB to check them out. After handling the base MBP it became immediately clear the MBA would be a much better machine for my uses around the house. On paper the increased thickness and weight don't seem like much but in real life the MBP is just too bulky for me.

But I already kind knew this since I had a 2009 MPB. When it died I replaced it with an Air and was so happy with reduced bulk. Even though the M4 MBP is way more svelte than my 15" MBP it gave me the same vibe handling it compared to the Air. So I'm willing to take the tradeoffs of the lesser machine in return for its lower weight and thickness. Performance wise, either would be equally up to my light duty tasks. YMMV.

I agree. The MBA is featherlight compared to the MBP, even though the difference on paper is only 0.8lb. The bigger footprint is a thing if you want to pack light.

 

[pp65782]

If you don't really need an upgrade, then there's no need to consider it.

 

[Fuzzball84]

It doesn't actually sound like you need to upgrade. I think you're looking for reasons to.

This is what looking at macrumors does for a lot of people. Combined with Apple marketing and FOMO, it reinforces the illogical urge to upgrade just because something better came along.

All the while the PC or laptop you bought 2 or 3 years ago has at least 3 to 5 years life left in it and makes financial sense.

 

[gnyce]

I think now would be the best time to upgrade an m2 to m4 for the reason that you'll get the most $ for your trade in toward an upgrade.

traded my m1 13'' air for an m2 15'' air got $500 trade in, paid $549+tax for the m2.
will be trading my m2 for $540, paying $559+ tax for the m4.

 

[throAU]

For the typical office work I do I wouldn't notice any difference. For the occasional Lightroom and iMovie, I would probably notice an increase in processing speed - not that it's slow now. The new webcam would be nice for Teams calls, and for the occasional AI I run locally (using LM Studio) I would likely also notice quite a difference.

I'd wait, but if you're somebody who's likely to bother to sell or trade your old machine, maybe its worth it.

I'd wait until m5 personally.

 

[throAU]

I'm undecided on whether I should upgrade to the Air M4 - directly jump to the Pro M4 (although what kinda scares me of that one is its bulkiness/weight compared to the Air, considering that I carry it with me every day to work).

I daily carry 14" Macbook Pro and have for 3 years (m1 pro, now m4 max).

It's fine. I also carry an 11" ipad air in the same backpack (occasionally use as a second screen on the go, but more often for note taking, sketching, etc.), along with a bunch of other nerd tools.

I have had 15" Classic macbook pro, 13" Retina Macbook Pro and 13" Macbook air prior... for me the 14" weight is zero issue.

Going from m2 air to m4 pro would be a huge performance upgrade, but it depends seriously whether you're doing anything that will make use of it. The screen and speakers are much nicer though.

 

[Adelphos33]

I am upgrading - mainly because I overbought my M2. I am switching back to the 15", and downgrading from 1 TB to 256GB of RAM. I basically don't keep data on my laptop - most of my data is on my iMac and iPad. Due to the price cut, I can "upgrade" for around $300 out of pocket, which works for me.

 

[thadoggfather]

I think now would be the best time to upgrade an m2 to m4 for the reason that you'll get the most $ for your trade in toward an upgrade.

traded my m1 13'' air for an m2 15'' air got $500 trade in, paid $549+tax for the m2.
will be trading my m2 for $540, paying $559+ tax for the m4.

Could argue m1 to m2 was a nice boost not necessarily from m1 to m2 but rather screen size increase and brightness boost / MagSafe cable charging to have two functional USB-C ports one not occupied by charging / design change but

m2 to m4 is a bit of a nothing burger, specs boasting aside (and 16gb base, which is nice but will always be the case moving forward now)

 

[john1970]

So I currently own a MacBook Air M2 (8C / 24 GB / 1 TB) from July 2022. It's still working really well and I have only 104 battery cycles with 100% health.

Now the Air M4 came out and I've been looking at it. I've put together the differences I would be seeing:

• new 12MP webcam (instead of just 1080p)
• supports 2 external screens while the lid is open (instead of just 1)
• Thunderbolt 4 (instead of 3)
• CPU/GPU around 50% faster, Neural Engine around 2.4x faster (if I calculated that right)
• I'd be able to get 32 GB of RAM

For the typical office work I do I wouldn't notice any difference. For the occasional Lightroom and iMovie, I would probably notice an increase in processing speed - not that it's slow now. The new webcam would be nice for Teams calls, and for the occasional AI I run locally (using LM Studio) I would likely also notice quite a difference.

I'm undecided on whether I should upgrade to the Air M4 - directly jump to the Pro M4 (although what kinda scares me of that one is its bulkiness/weight compared to the Air, considering that I carry it with me every day to work).

I know that in the end it's a decision only I can take - but I thought I'd open a threat to brainstorm this a bit. Anyone else in a similar upgrade dilemma?

For typical work if you won't notice a difference I think you answered your own question(s).

 

[Astuces iOS]

I think now would be the best time to upgrade an m2 to m4 for the reason that you'll get the most $ for your trade in toward an upgrade.

traded my m1 13'' air for an m2 15'' air got $500 trade in, paid $549+tax for the m2.
will be trading my m2 for $540, paying $559+ tax for the m4.

I honestly think 549$ is a lot for slightly better performances, a 12mp camera and the support of 2 external displays.

 

[STC1709]

Question is will the m4 have two nand chips vs the m2's one? That would seal the deal for me

 

[thadoggfather]

Question is will the m4 have two nand chips vs the m2's one? That would seal the deal for me

as far as I know, that was fixed in m3 air's so dont see why they would regress again so soon. should be fine.

 

[DeepSix]

I would wait for M6.

 

[Astuces iOS]

I would wait for M6.

I agree ! Since MacBook Pro will get a big upgrade… why not the air?

 

[AlanBeyond]

So I currently own a MacBook Air M2 (8C / 24 GB / 1 TB) from July 2022. It's still working really well and I have only 104 battery cycles with 100% health.

Now the Air M4 came out and I've been looking at it. I've put together the differences I would be seeing:

• new 12MP webcam (instead of just 1080p)
• supports 2 external screens while the lid is open (instead of just 1)
• Thunderbolt 4 (instead of 3)
• CPU/GPU around 50% faster, Neural Engine around 2.4x faster (if I calculated that right)
• I'd be able to get 32 GB of RAM

For the typical office work I do I wouldn't notice any difference. For the occasional Lightroom and iMovie, I would probably notice an increase in processing speed - not that it's slow now. The new webcam would be nice for Teams calls, and for the occasional AI I run locally (using LM Studio) I would likely also notice quite a difference.

I'm undecided on whether I should upgrade to the Air M4 - directly jump to the Pro M4 (although what kinda scares me of that one is its bulkiness/weight compared to the Air, considering that I carry it with me every day to work).

I know that in the end it's a decision only I can take - but I thought I'd open a threat to brainstorm this a bit. Anyone else in a similar upgrade dilemma?

I'm pretty sure that M2 models have USB 4 (thunderbolt 4)

 

[bill-p]

Anyone else in a similar upgrade dilemma?

Same boat. Similar config except I also have 2TB storage. Anyway...

...mulled over it for the weekend and tried out all of my workflow, which also involves 3D modeling and I like to run on a 4K screen, which... despite what anyone says, definitely isn't enough on a fanless M2.

But anyway, even with that, I have come to the conclusion that... I'll skip M4.

Why? Because aside from the chip, I don't see benefits anywhere else. The limitations of the M2 already pushed me to use a 42" OLED TV as a monitor for the past 2 years. I am accustomed to the massive amount of workspace now. You will have to fight me to get me off this monitor so having support for a 2nd monitor now would be welcome but entirely unnecessary for me.

Thunderbolt 4? What am I even connecting that needs that...

More RAM and GPU are literally the only things that give me pause but even then, I can make do with M2.

So... until Apple introduces an OLED MacBook Air, which I know already is at least 2 years out, I think I'll stick with M2.

The problem is that... while M2 is indeed slowing down a bit with my workflow, it's still just about enough for most everything. For casual use, there's basically no issues at all. I don't feel like buying tech just for the sake of buying makes sense.

Also I was looking at more spare parts for other projects, so that makes the money saving actually useful this time around.

 

[maerz001]

For me the possibility to charge and connect a display on the right side of the pro is priceless

 

[throAU]

I think now would be the best time to upgrade an m2 to m4 for the reason that you'll get the most $ for your trade in toward an upgrade.

traded my m1 13'' air for an m2 15'' air got $500 trade in, paid $549+tax for the m2.
will be trading my m2 for $540, paying $559+ tax for the m4.

The flip side of getting more for the trade now is trading more often.

Unless you want to step up to a pro I don’t think m2-m4 is quite enough of a step unless you’re doing things like trying to game on it or run LLMs or some other change in workload that an air class machine isn’t doing for you - in which case… look at a pro.

 

[chrfr]

I'm pretty sure that M2 models have USB 4 (thunderbolt 4)

The M1-M3 Airs have USB4/Thunderbolt 3. The difference is that to be called Thunderbolt 4, the ports need to support video the way the M4 does. There’s no difference in port speed otherwise, so it’s really not a very significant distinction.