If you were a student looking for a MacBook in 2019, things were complicated.
First off, all MacBooks had the horrible butterfly keyboard.
As for models, you could get an inexpensive air that was slow and hot, or you could pay
up for an even hotter pro.
You know, I don't know a single person who bought a MacBook from the USB-C generation.
And I don't blame them.
That's why the M1 MacBook Air was such a revolution when it came out.
It turned what was a slow, hot, and horrible laptop into a great one.
It made buying a Mac easy. It isn't anymore, and this here is why.
The all-new M2 MacBook Air, a laptop so good I want to call it perfect.
But yet, underneath its surface lie weird flaws that you, a dutiful student, might never
find but hate knowing exists.
Even if you do find the flaws, which I will tell you about in a minute, you'll still
want this laptop. I want this laptop. Gone is the iconic MacBook Air wedge shape, and instead we have the MacBook Pro's aesthetic
thinned down to its most essential.
I really like it. It's so sturdy yet light.
Sometimes I wish I was sitting opposite somebody using this, so I could admire this squared
off black screen. Excuse me, do you mind just using this laptop for a little bit?
Sure. Thank you. The new Air.
It is. The new Air solves a lot of the minor day-to-day criticisms we still had left for the M1 model.
Instead of always having one Thunderbolt port tied up for charging, the addition of MagSafe
frees up both. Instead of big bezels, the screen is bigger and taller, thanks to the inclusion of the
notch. And the webcam is now 1080p instead of looking like poo.
The taller screen is great. I feel like I can fit so much more in, even in default display scaling.
The extra tallness is afforded by the notch, but some of it is robbed by it as well, as
the menu bar is now significantly taller too.
It also includes Apple's new M2 chip, notable for clocking a little bit faster, including
a couple more GPU cores and offering 8K and Pro's acceleration with the media engine.
It is by all means the perfect distillation of a laptop.
No gimmicky touch-sensitive function keys, no noisy fan, and no stupid screen size options.
So obviously the first question is, what color do I pick?
I must confess that I'm very disappointed that this isn't available in the iMac's
bold colors with white bezels. The options are really rather serious, space gray and silver, plus the new starlight or
this midnight. Because it has a tint of blue, I thought I'd like midnight.
This is sleek and reminds me of the old black MacBook.
The problem is I have grimy hands, and you can tell.
You'll want to keep a cloth with you. Also our resident Gen Zers thought this doesn't even look like a Mac, so I might have to go
with silver. Now that's a MacBook.
Unlike that black MacBook, I'm pleased to report that all the colors are available even
on the base model, which this is. The base model is notable because at $1200 it's a full $200 more than the M1 MacBook
Air that Apple still sells. But while it has many day-to-day improvements over its predecessor, there are still a few
crucial regressions.
Apple's base 250GB SSD is stingy.
It's the same amount of storage included in the MacBook 13 years ago.
Other SSDs these days are much faster, except this one.
In the last MacBook Air, the base SSD was actually two stitched together 128GB modules
working in parallel. Now there's just one bigger 256GB module.
This makes things slower. The slower transfer speeds are not something I've noticed too egregiously in day-to-day
use, but this could shorten the usable lifespan of the laptop long-term.
Next is the CPU. The M2 is more powerful than the M1, blasting through quick benchmarks and Lightroom exports.
A GarageBand project that would make an Intel MacBook Air's fan blast doesn't even make
the M2 sweat. However, when the going gets tough, long and hot, well, that's when things unwind.
I've been hearing that Premiere is having troubles generally these days, so if you're
using that app, maybe just wait a bit to buy.
Because editing some MXFs did push the system, something that wasn't as big of a problem
when editing in DaVinci. And speaking of DaVinci, to compare the Apple Silicon's SoCs, I have a very intense 4-minute
Resolve project containing 8K RAW footage with noise reduction lets in some green screen.
With an M2-powered MacBook Pro, it takes under an hour.
With an M1-powered MacBook Air, it takes under an hour and a half.
So on this M2 MacBook Air, it takes an hour and 40 minutes.
What? How? Well, the reason for this is simple.
While the M1 MacBook Air has a chunk of metal to absorb and dissipate heat, the M2 has virtually
nothing. A little pad and an air gap.
And so, that means that this thing is fast, right up until it's hot, and then it's slow.
Very slow. If you have any intensive workload that takes 10 plus minutes of computing, prepare for it
to be stretched. Though, to be fair, I did start this export on an Intel-powered, fan-cooled MacBook Air.
And when it estimated that it would take five plus hours, I said, nope.
Well, if you do want to do this workload quickly, a $2,000 MacBook Pro will do it in 18 minutes.
I'm not sure many poly-sized students will be pushing things that hard, so what about
them? The M1 MacBook Air arrival made things easy.
There were no trade-offs. It was so much better than any Intel MacBook that at $1,000 it was a great deal.
If you bought one back then, you made a great decision.
Now though, they're still the same price. This is Apple doing inflation, by the way.
Usually, the older technology gets less expensive as it matures, but this is $1,000, and this
is $1,200. So therefore, the best value for a student getting a MacBook is a refurbished M1 MacBook
Air. Sure, we had a bit of hassle buying ours, but at $850, it's great value for a Mac.
I even prefer this keyboard. Despite the compromises, I'm still willing to recommend even the base M2 MacBook Air,
but only to those who won't notice the shortcomings of one SSD module.
But it's not an excellent value, like the M1 laptop has been until now.
Because to get the equivalent SSD performance, you're bringing up the price to at least
$1,400. The 512 models get two 256GB modules, so it gets expensive fast.
If you are humming and hawing over what to upgrade, I'm going to lean towards the SSD
upgrade. Unless you're one of those people who cannot close browser tabs, then get the RAM.
And if you're thinking about upgrading both and might need more power, consider a refurbished
or on sale MacBook Pro. Those go for around $1,800.
Only $100 more than the most equivalently specced Air.
See? Ah, it's so complicated now. There's no easy answer like there was a year ago.
And that's really annoying. So what about me?
In the weeks leading up to the launch of this M2 MacBook Air, I used an older Intel model
and wow, is the difference stark.
If I was coming from an Intel MacBook, this Air, even with its compromises, would feel
great. It really did give me a sense of how revolutionary this Apple Silicon transition is for this
form factor. I actually do have a choice between any MacBook to use at work, and so I think the one I'd
go for is the M2 MacBook Air, in silver maybe.
But if it was my own money, I think I'd go with the M1 model, refurbished and gold.
Thanks for slowing down this Mac Address. If you're just as confused about the M2 MacBook Air as I am, well, give this video a like.
And if you want to see what color I actually do end up with, well, you might as well subscribe.
Now, I'm curious in the comments below, how many of you would actually have a workload
that would push the M2 into its really hot state?