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Will I be frustrated with the MBA M2?

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GooseInTheCaboose

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 2, 2022
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I import a fair amount of 5k and 4k video from my gopro and drone. It is all for fun, not for work, but I often have to cut out the garbage segments of the videos to save the keeper sections.

Will the new M2 MBA be able to do this snappily?

And, will it be able to do it with lots (sometimes hundreds) of Safari and chrome tabs open in the background? Plus some big PDF books open in Preview and Acrobat? And with my big Apple Photos library open? With MS Office too? Occasionally stacking some macro photos or starry night exposures (20MP RAW files)? Attached to a 5k monitor? All at the same time?

I value portability, but also value multitasking. Do I need the 14” m1pro or will the MBA be able to do this without slowdowns, beachballs, etc?
 
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GooseInTheCaboose said:
I import a fair amount of 5k and 4k video from my gopro and drone. It is all for fun, not for work, but I often have to cut out the garbage segments of the videos to save the keeper sections.

Will the new M2 MBA be able to do this snappily?

And, will it be able to do it with lots (sometimes hundreds) of Safari and chrome tabs open in the background? Plus some big PDF books open in Preview and Acrobat? And with my big Apple Photos library open? With MS Office too? Occasionally stacking some macro photos or starry night exposures (20MP RAW files)? Attached to a 5k monitor? All at the same time?

I value portability, but also value multitasking. Do I need the 14” m1pro or will the MBA be able to do this without slowdowns, beachballs, etc?
Click to expand...
what are you using today to get these tasks you describe done?
 
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GooseInTheCaboose said:
I import a fair amount of 5k and 4k video from my gopro and drone. It is all for fun, not for work, but I often have to cut out the garbage segments of the videos to save the keeper sections.

Will the new M2 MBA be able to do this snappily?

And, will it be able to do it with lots (sometimes hundreds) of Safari and chrome tabs open in the background? Plus some big PDF books open in Preview and Acrobat? And with my big Apple Photos library open? With MS Office too? Occasionally stacking some macro photos or starry night exposures (20MP RAW files)? Attached to a 5k monitor? All at the same time?

I value portability, but also value multitasking. Do I need the 14” m1pro or will the MBA be able to do this without slowdowns, beachballs, etc?
Click to expand...
If I were you I wouldn’t even consider the base MBA. My decision would be M2 MBA with 16GB (or even 24) RAM and 512GB storage (for the faster speeds) versus a base 14” MBP. I actually think you’d be okay with the MBA, but you’d probably be at its upper limits, and the MBP would likely be a fit faster. And the very first thing I’d do is compare the two in person, primarily to see if the added bulk of the MBP is an issue, given your stated preferences. You can always return the MBA it it’s too slow, but again, I think a well-spec’d Air would be fine. At that point it’s a question of price, as the MBA will be in new and lightly used MBP territory. Good luck!
 
jz0309 said:
what are you using today to get these tasks you describe done?
Click to expand...
right now i use starry night stacker, Photos, iMovie. I'm exploring other programs so I want to be able to grow, but I am not a sophisticated video editor. The most I do is really just cutting out the garbage and joining together the good moments, sometimes adding music or whatever in iMovie.

I sometimes stack 20MP RAWs but again I dont do any of this professionally or every single day; I just dont want my computer to jam up if I have a bunch of real work open in the background and on impulse I import the photos, stack them, etc, and get a beach ball!

Since I use this computer for everything I want to make sure it can handle it all at once, since lots of tasks/pages are left open in the background for me to finish later. I'd really benefit from the portability as every MBP I have had has been a serious PITA whenever I travel with it, as I almost always carry it plus an iPad, etc
 
GooseInTheCaboose said:
right now i use starry night stacker, Photos, iMovie. I'm exploring other programs so I want to be able to grow, but I am not a sophisticated video editor. The most I do is really just cutting out the garbage and joining together the good moments, sometimes adding music or whatever in iMovie.

I sometimes stack 20MP RAWs but again I dont do any of this professionally or every single day; I just dont want my computer to jam up if I have a bunch of real work open in the background and on impulse I import the photos, stack them, etc, and get a beach ball!

Since I use this computer for everything I want to make sure it can handle it all at once, since lots of tasks/pages are left open in the background for me to finish later. I'd really benefit from the portability as every MBP I have had has been a serious PITA whenever I travel with it, as I almost always carry it plus an iPad, etc
Click to expand...
thanks, and I should have been clearer, what HW are you using to do these tasks today? what I'm getting at, is this what you actually do today or is this a potential scenario you are describing in your original post?
 
EastHillWill said:
If I were you I wouldn’t even consider the base MBA. My decision would be M2 MBA with 16GB (or even 24) RAM and 512GB storage (for the faster speeds) versus a base 14” MBP. I actually think you’d be okay with the MBA, but you’d probably be at its upper limits, and the MBP would likely be a fit faster.
Click to expand...
An M2 MBA with 16GB (or even 24) RAM and 512GB storage will cost more than the street price of the base 14” MBP. While more RAM is always nice, the 14” MBP is a much better laptop.
 
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jz0309 said:
thanks, and I should have been clearer, what HW are you using to do these tasks today? what I'm getting at, is this what you actually do today or is this a potential scenario you are describing in your original post?
Click to expand...
Right now, gopro hero10, my old canon t2i, and borrowing footage from a friend's mavic air 2... I plan to upgrade my Mirrorless camera and get my own drone, so some of this is for the future. However, the current footage I've worked with is 4 and 5k, and I can reasonably expect that from my future devices, and I don't plan on buying a camera that shoots 60MP RAWs, but my current shoots 18 and any future one will shoot about 20MP. I don't have terrible issues with my current hardware.

I use my old 15" rMBP right now, but I have grown to HATE it for its size whenever I travel. It is OK at the desk connected to a monitor, though stuff couuld be a LOT snappier, but...what's the point of it being a laptop if it is not light?

The 14" seems like a modest improvement from my 15" in terms of weight and portability..but the Air seems like it is just *meant* to be carried around. The only question is, will it serve as a "powerhouse" for my usage?
 
GooseInTheCaboose said:
Right now, gopro hero10, my old canon t2i, and borrowing footage from a friend's mavic air 2... I plan to upgrade my Mirrorless camera and get my own drone, so some of this is for the future. However, the current footage I've worked with is 4 and 5k, and I can reasonably expect that from my future devices, and I don't plan on buying a camera that shoots 60MP RAWs, but my current shoots 18 and any future one will shoot about 20MP. I don't have terrible issues with my current hardware.

I use my old 15" rMBP right now, but I have grown to HATE it for its size whenever I travel. It is OK at the desk connected to a monitor, though stuff couuld be a LOT snappier, but...what's the point of it being a laptop if it is not light?

The 14" seems like a modest improvement from my 15" in terms of weight and portability..but the Air seems like it is just *meant* to be carried around. The only question is, will it serve as a "powerhouse" for my usage?
Click to expand...
The 14" is close to the old pre butterfly keyboard 13" rMBPs in weight so not as light as the M2 MBA. Its also thicker than the M2 MBA but pretty much the same size in other dimensions. The MBAs are not meant to serve as powerhouses and if you are doing a lot of video editing I would worry about the thermals.
 
New M2 Air Thermal Throttling Testing has just become available. It slows down, but it is not that bad. The M2 Air when it thermal throttles is roughly at the same performance as the M1 Air with no throttling.

I am using an M1 Air and it is very snappy and I load it heavily with my workload. I use mine in tripple monitor mode: built in LCD + external 4K + iPad Pro in sidecar. I also have a laptop cooling bad on my desktop and I turn it on when I know I will need sustained performance, it definitely helps. I'd take the portability the Air offers over sustained performance that a Mac Pro would offer, the Air can be helped out a lot by a laptop cooling pad when needed but you get to enjoy the portability when you don't need performance at full tilt.
 
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ADGrant said:
An M2 MBA with 16GB (or even 24) RAM and 512GB storage will cost more than the street price of the base 14” MBP. While more RAM is always nice, the 14” MBP is a much better laptop.
Click to expand...
But we also need to consider that OP stated he values portability. He may determine that even if he otherwise gets ‘less’ with an MBA, the form factor is worth it for him.
 
Cryates said:
As a person who frequents CMD+Q, it's hard for me to understand how one gets 100+ tabs (or even 20+ for the matter) actively open at once, no matter the workflow.
Click to expand...
I can sympathize with the OP in this regard. I am a chronic Googler and I open new Safari tab after new tab after searching for something. After I've opened a dozen or so, I start to review the new tabs. Then each of those tabs often spawns a few new tabs of their own. Occasionally, my mind switches gears and then I open a new tab to Google something else altogether and the process repeats. The next thing I know, I have 100-200 tabs open after a couple of days (along with Outlook and several other apps) and my 8GB MBP/MBA is pretty much unusable. CMD+Q - rinse and repeat the process over again.

This is a pattern I've had for as long as I can remember. I always tell myself "I'm not going to let it get out of control this time" - then 2-3 days later I'm quitting Safari again! Part of me wants to upgrade to a 16GB machine, but I think it would just be the same problem but with 200-300 open Safari tabs vs. 100-200.

Yes, I have a problem. :D
 
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Shirasaki said:
Sounds like you will not like the thermal of MBA in general, not just M2 MBA. If you like to keep a lot of programs open for easy access, chances are your M2 MBA will throttle.

I would go 14" MBP for your use case.
Click to expand...
This is not really the case.

Simply having a lot of apps open doesn’t cause the MBA to throttle. It can use a lot of RAM, which is why the advice to get 16gb or even 24gb is solid.

What does cause throttle is doing tasks that stress the CPU and GPU for prolonged periods of time, such as rendering video.

I think on the M1 MBA it was 6min. On the M2 it might be sooner.

But either way, regular usage of many apps won’t cause the MacBook to throttle.
 
Cryates said:
As a person who frequents CMD+Q, it's hard for me to understand how one gets 100+ tabs (or even 20+ for the matter) actively open at once, no matter the workflow.
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Install the App called RedQuits and the red window button will actually close the app when there is only 1 open window of an app. No more CMD+Q, All done from the touchpad.
 
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CMD+Q isn't really all that much slower though in my experience.
it actually might be faster, but i didn't do scientific stress tests to confirm my gut feeling .
but of course it would be better if the red button did this too on all and not just some apps, i wouldn't install an app just for this though.
wouldn't be surprised if there was a single liner in the Terminal that does just this though
 
Kimcha said:
This is not really the case.

Simply having a lot of apps open doesn’t cause the MBA to throttle. It can use a lot of RAM, which is why the advice to get 16gb or even 24gb is solid.

What does cause throttle is doing tasks that stress the CPU and GPU for prolonged periods of time, such as rendering video.

I think on the M1 MBA it was 6min. On the M2 it might be sooner.

But either way, regular usage of many apps won’t cause the MacBook to throttle.
Click to expand...
I say that, cause I keep a ton of applications running both with visible windows and in the background. And my MBP fan spins up every so often and cpu usage spikes and fan spins.

Without a fan, MBA will go warm or even hot. So yeah. Throttle.
 
jkozlow3 said:
I can sympathize with the OP in this regard. I am a chronic Googler and I open new Safari tab after new tab after searching for something. After I've opened a dozen or so, I start to review the new tabs. Then each of those tabs often spawns a few new tabs of their own. Occasionally, my mind switches gears and then I open a new tab to Google something else altogether and the process repeats. The next thing I know, I have 100-200 tabs open after a couple of days (along with Outlook and several other apps) and my 8GB MBP/MBA is pretty much unusable. CMD+Q - rinse and repeat the process over again.

This is a pattern I've had for as long as I can remember. I always tell myself "I'm not going to let it get out of control this time" - then 2-3 days later I'm quitting Safari again! Part of me wants to upgrade to a 16GB machine, but I think it would just be the same problem but with 200-300 open Safari tabs vs. 100-200.

Yes, I have a problem. :D
Click to expand...
Sounds like tab groups would be perfect for this sort of activity, by letting you group your browser tabs by activity.
 
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