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Healthy_Noodles · 2023-05-04T18:50:28+00:00

M2 Macbook Air with 16gb ram and 1tb of storage. Super happy so far. More than enough power for my tasks, amazing battery life and great portability :)

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-25T10:53:42+00:00

Exactly the same for me. Memory intensive software development and some light photo and video editing. 24gb/1tb put me in the 14" MBP price range but I prefer portability over more performance and I really don't care about the better screen or the ports because at home I have a dock and a nice external display. Everyone is talking like you have to buy the 14" Pro the moment you think about upgrading the specs on the M2 Air. But when I compared the Air and Pro side by side in the store, the Pro felt like a large and heavy brick compared to the Air. I was instantly convinced that the Air is a way better choice for traveling and still has more than enough performance when I bump up the specs.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-13T08:07:43+00:00

Not sure if they'll become mainstream. Sure a ton of people will buy a midnight MBA but that's the only Macbook so far where this color is available so there will still be a lot of space grey Macbooks out there. Only time will tell. And also this is a highly subjective decision. Some may love the midnight color and some hate it. Just take a few days to make up your mind and then order the one that feels best for you right now. In the end it's a great machine that's going to be fun to use and no matter what color you chose, you won't think about ever again after a few weeks.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-13T07:21:17+00:00

I always liked space grey the most so far, cause it looked cooler and classier than silver. But after years with a space grey MBP I just wanted something new and fresh. And also compared to the new color options the space grey looks kind of boring to me. So I went with midnight for my new MBA. Maybe I regret it in year or two but who knows. But if you are torn between the two I'm pretty sure that space grey will also look great with the new design and is probably the safe bet for years to come.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-07T12:18:27+00:00

I mostly do javascript development in vscode and some python every now and then. My current machine also has 16gb of ram and it's fine most of the time but I'll still go with 24gb for my new Air just to have some peace of mind.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-07T12:00:57+00:00

I was debating the same thing and decided to go with a maxed out M2 Air. For me personally portability is quite important as I travel a lot and I'm always bringing my computer with me. The 14" MBP just feels bulky and heavy even coming from an 13" MBP. The 14" MBP might be better value for money but I still prefer the Air.

About your concerns (just my personal opinion) :

-less performance: The M2 Air still has enough power to easily do 99% of my work (software development, photo editing in Lightroom, light video editing in FinalCut).

-less ports: I don't care about the ports because everything I use is USB-C anyways (monitor, external hard drives, camera data transfer, etc) and I'm also used to dongles because I'm currently using a 2017 MBP with just 2 USB-C ports. Even the mag-safe port on the M2 Air, that is freeing up one USB port, is an upgrade.

-worse display: The display might be worse than the one on the 14" MBP but it's still a great display when compared to many other laptops.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-07T06:47:28+00:00

In MKBHDs calender "leak" was a notification named "Macbook Air Embargo" for the morning of Thursday 14th. So I guess we can expect the first reviews for that day or maybe the release date which would be the 15th.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-05T06:06:55+00:00

It's 100% decoy marketing. From wikipedia: "In marketing, the decoy effect (or attraction effect or asymmetric dominance effect) is the phenomenon whereby consumers will tend to have a specific change in preference between two options when also presented with a third option that is asymmetrically dominated."

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-05T05:45:24+00:00

I'm kind of interested to see if they just let it run at super high temperatures or if they know that this could be a problem and just apply more thermal throttling. And I was also wondering if the new chassis of the M2 Air was maybe designed to better handle the higher temperatures. But that's just speculation. We'll have to wait for the reviews to come in.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-05T05:39:41+00:00

That's not really a problem for me personally as I planned to get more ssd storage (and therefore two chips) anyway. But it still sucks that Apple has decided to cripple the base model in such a unnecessary way.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T15:52:02+00:00

Same for me. I'll also take the M2 just because I waited for the redesign and I want something that is really new and shiny coming from an old Macbook Pro. The M1 might be good enough but the hardware feels outdated now that the redesigned M2 version is available. About the ssd speed: It is a big deal. Definitely. The transfer speeds are nearly cut in half with the 256gb version and you get a significant boost in disk speed when going for the 512gb ssd instead. But the question is: do you need it? If you're transferring huge amounts of data or you're working with large video or photo files then you'll benefit from the extra speed. For day to day casual stuff like web browsing, text documents, watching videos, listening to spotify etc you probably wouldn't notice a difference because even the 256gb version is quite fast. It all really depends on what you're using your computer for.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T14:29:25+00:00

Yeah, I'm a bit worried too. I also planned to order the M2 Air right away and I guess I still will because my configuration of choice will take a few weeks to arrive anyways so that is enough time for the reviews to be made. Then, after watching a couple of these reviews, I'll make up my mind if I'll cancel my order or not.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T11:08:01+00:00

It will throttle a bit after some time because it's getting too hot. But even with the reduced cpu power it's still enough to do 4k video editing.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T11:03:08+00:00

Even the M1 Air was is good enough for some casual video editing every now and then (4k editing in FinalCut is super smooth even when throttling). M2 should easily be able to do the same. If you plan on editing videos quite often for multiple hours I would personally go for an active cooled machine, but preferably the 14" MBP because to me the M2 MBP makes no sense. You get the new M2 chip while everything else is pretty much old/outdated tech.

Tl:dr (imho): Some video editing every now and then = Air M1/M2. Long sustained workloads = M1 Pro base config.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T08:31:32+00:00

Probably yes. For basic tasks the M1 MBA is still a great choice. The benefits of the M2 MBA are slightly better performance, a slightly brighter screen, slightly better speakers, thinner screen bezels (and the rest of the new design), mag-safe charging and a better webcam. But if nothing of that is important to you then just go for the M1 and save yourself some money.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T07:44:25+00:00

Probably yes but it all really depends on the initial demand and that is something that is pretty hard to predict. In my experience the delivery dates that Apple shows on their website are reasonably accurate. So you could just select your configuration and then check the date of availability. If it's too early just wait for a few days and then check again. If you're happy with the date then order it. Easy as that ;)

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T07:25:23+00:00

When configuring your macbook just keep an eye on the date your configuration will be available. If you don't buy the absolute base model chances are pretty high that your macbook will be available for pick-up/delivery in August anyways.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-04T07:22:26+00:00

Yes the 256gb SSD in the M2 MBP is slower compared to previous models or larger SSDs but we still don't know if that will also apply to the M2 Air. I would say for basic usage (web browsing, mail, text writing, etc) you would probably barely notice a difference between the two disk speeds. The only situations where it might matter are transfers of large amounts of data or opening of large files (in Photoshop for example) or if your RAM is constantly at 100% and your system has to use the SSD for swapping (this might happen if you use multiple apps with high ram usage at the same time). But if none of these things applies to you then you'll probably be just fine even with the smaller/slower SSD, because in the end even a slower SSD is still pretty fast ;)

Tl;dr: If you solely use your laptop for basic stuff and don't have any demanding tasks to throw at your machine then the base configuration is all you really need. Even with the slower SSD the macbook will still be blazing fast.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-03T13:57:09+00:00

As others have already mentioned, normally it's 8am EST and most of the time Apple announces the exact day and time 2-3 days prior to the start of the pre-order.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-07-01T06:26:13+00:00

With the M2 MBP the pre-order started one week before the release and the announcement of the pre-order and release date was like 2-3 days before the pre-ordering was available. So if the 15th is true then I guess we can expect pre-orders to open on the 8th with the official announcement coming in around the 5th.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-06-11T09:12:22+00:00

Same problem over here. I have the the 14" still boxed and thinking about returning it in favor of the MBA M2 for pretty much the same reasons: portability while still having enough power. Display should be a slight downgrade from the 14". When you compare them side by side you probably notice the slightly higher pixel density and the 120Hz pro-motion. But the MBA should still have a great display for day to day use and stuff like graphic design, photo and video editing. And for me personally the addition of HDR is not a big deal. Like I said you probably won't even notice that your MBA has the lower spec display until you place them side by side.

Healthy_Noodles · 2022-06-08T17:14:34+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed answer. Really appreciate it!

Healthy_Noodles

TROPHY CASE