The M2 Macbook Air reviews are here

[saltycaramel]

Summary

The M2 Macbook Air review embargo was just lifted and suddenly we are presented with a plethora of real world impressions of Apple's latest 13.6" ultrabook, the most popular laptop in the line-up and the reasonable default choice for most people. Within the first wave of tech influencers receiving review units, as usual some of the best early insights come from Dave2D and The Verge. 

 

 

 

My thoughts

 

This is the most important Mac of the Apple silicon era so far. The Macbook Air is the best selling Mac in Apple's line-up, and this represents its most dramatic redesign, the first actual redesign after moving away from Intel. This laptop was designed to be fanless and to be powered by an Apple low power SoC all the way back from the drawing board. So in a way, this is the moment the Apple silicon transition got real.

 

The lineage of this laptop begins in 2008 with the first Macbook Air, a very limited and niche machine that paved the way to ultrabooks as we know them, by way of the historic 2010 redesign (which spawned clones for a decade), the experimental fanless 2015 Macbook 12", the 2018 Retina MBA and the too-good-to-be-true 2020 M1 Macbook Air (so good that Apple had to somehow nerf it in the new generation by halving the SSD performances of the base model, that's what happens when there's no credible competition, and the best thing is that even after being nerfed it's still a compelling value proposition experience-wise).

 

And now this: the M2 Macbook Air, the first fanless laptop from Apple that can be considered somewhat competent at gaming and GPU-based workloads.

Fanless, desktop-grade CPU performances, competent GPU, long battery life, a far cry from that first 2008 Air. 

What more is there to ask? 

Well, actually

- the base 256GB model has undergone the same (now infamous) 1x256GB nand chip treatment as the M2 MBP, so it's gonna be slower than its predecessor on that specific front, which makes going for the 512GB tier a no-brainer upgrade for techy types and power users (while probably not making lose any sleep to most regular walk-in-and-buy retail buyers)

- the lack of a fan nerfs the M2 compared to the M2 Macbook Pro (see Dave2D's benchmarks for looped 30min workloads and gaming)

 

On the other hand the M2 MBP lacks Magsafe, the new 1080p webcam, function keys, and that dedicated additional strip of display for the Menu bar that comes with the notch. (I will never understand people hating on the notch, it's just more screen real estate for the Menu bar)

 

It's almost like we still have to see a laptop that makes the M2 truly shine at its fullest potential. You get no fan or a 6 year old design. I hope Apple will eventually release a cheaper 2-port variant of the 14" MBP, with M2, no ProMotion and no miniLED. (Mark Gurman has been rumoring this for a while, if I remember correctly)

 

That said, this M2 Air is a no brainer (but anyone techy enough to be reading this should splurge for 16GB/512GB), it's crazy fast, lasts all day and will make a decent Baldur's Gate 3 (once that game is finally out) machine. It's everything we could have ever asked for a fanless ultrabook. And it exists only because of Apple's transition to their own ARM SoCs. 

 

ps: I like that Apple this time around managed to sneak their usual base/better/best FOMO-upgraditis even in the charger section of the buying experience, with all those single port, dual port, compact, faster, etc. options, gg Tim, keep those margins flowing. 

[Paul Thexton]

24 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

the lack of a fan nerfs the M2 compared to the M2 Macbook Pro

This doesn't really surprise me if I'm honest, if anything it was the only moderate decrease in extended heavy usage performance on the M1 air which was the surprise.

[saltycaramel]

Another informative review

 

 

The fact that the M2 received the same fixed-function media engine as the big boys (M1 Pro/Max/Ultra) doesn't get enough attention, when comparing it to the M1, it could make a difference for people working with video. 

 

 

 

 

[Brooksie359]

44 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

Another informative review

 

 

The fact that the M2 received the same fixed-function media engine as the big boys (M1 Pro/Max/Ultra) doesn't get enough attention, when comparing it to the M1, it could make a difference for people working with video. 

 

 

 

 

You would think they would compare it to the previous M1 air for the video export to see the improvement but I guess maybe they didn't have one available. 

[saltycaramel]

6 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

You would think they would compare it to the previous M1 air for the video export to see the improvement but I guess maybe they didn't have one available. 

The M1 in the Mac Mini represents the M1 at its best (connected to mains power, cooled by a desktop fan, way too much room to breathe). Hence it could make sense in a “even an M1 in its best day scores worse than an M2 at its worst in these particular tests” sense. 

[Brooksie359]

8 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

The M1 in the Mac Mini represents the M1 at its best (connected to mains power, cooled by a desktop fan, way too much room to breathe). Hence it could make sense in a “even an M1 in its best day scores worse than an M2 at its worst in these particular tests” sense. 

Oh I didn't realize the macbook pro had a M1 Max rather than a regular M1. I was originally confused why the Mac mini was so much slower and thought maybe they mad something really small with bad cooling as I don't really know what the mini looks like. 

[saltycaramel]

18 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Oh I didn't realize the macbook pro had a M1 Max rather than a regular M1. 

Yeah, the real apples to apples comparison is supposed to be the MacMini M1 (M1 at its best) vs Macbook Air M2 (M2 at its worst). The other machines have SoCs of another class anyway. 

 

The MacMini M1 ends up taking more than three times the time because for that particular video format (ProRes 4K) it lacks the hw acceleration the other 4 machines have. It’s like the MacMini is digging by bare hands and the other machines have a shovel. 

 

That particular shovel used to cost 2000$ for MacPro users

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MW682AM/A/apple-afterburner-card

 

Now we get it “for free” included in the SoC of a fanless M2 Air.

[HenrySalayne]

6 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

That said, this M2 Air is a no brainer (but anyone techy enough to be reading this should splurge for 16GB/512GB)

6 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

which makes going for the 512GB tier a no-brainer upgrade for techy types and power users (while probably not making lose any sleep to most regular walk-in-and-buy retail buyers)

You are right. It is a no-brainer, because any person with a brain should simply get the 14" MBP. It's a whopping 170€ (8.1%)  extra for the base model 14" MBP compared to the 16GB/512GB M2 Air config. The 14" MBP is faster, has the better screen, more ports and it's only 360 g heavier.The new M2 really steps up to make the 14" MBP shine even more.

 

[igormp]

5 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

You are right. It is a no-brainer, because any person with a brain should simply get the 14" MBP. It's a whopping 170€ (8.1%)  extra for the base model 14" MBP compared to the 16GB/512GB M2 Air config. The 14" MBP is faster, has the better screen, more ports and only weighs 360 g more.The new M2 really steps up to make the 14" MBP shine even more.

 

It may be cheaper there, but here it's a 30% difference between the configs you mentioned, so the m2 16gb air makes a lot more sense.

[HenrySalayne]

15 minutes ago, igormp said:

It may be cheaper there, but here it's a 30% difference between the configs you mentioned, so the m2 16gb air makes a lot more sense.

With "here" you mean the USA? For Canada it's 16% what I would still call a no-brainer considering the M2 MBA has so many trade-offs.

 

And it is still more expensive than the previous model. Are the minor improvements worth the price increase compared to the M1 MBA? I feel like it's just a worse value overall. In Canada you would have to shell out an eye-watering $650 CAD to upgrade to the 16GB/512GB 10-Core-CPU model. But why would you go for a performance build on a machine that's thermally constraint?

[saltycaramel]

“Just get a 14” MBP, it’s only +30% heavier and +37% thicker”.

[Senzelian]

40 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

“Just get a 14” MBP, it’s only +30% heavier and +37% thicker”.

It's funny how this always happens when Apple launches a product. People discuss which one to get, but none of those people will actually buy one. Must be interesting lives they live.

 

Oh noes, I've been mean to people again.

[igormp]

2 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

With "here" you mean the USA? For Canada it's 16% what I would still call a no-brainer considering the M2 MBA has so many trade-offs.

 

And it is still more expensive than the previous model. Are the minor improvements worth the price increase compared to the M1 MBA? I feel like it's just a worse value overall. In Canada you would have to shell out an eye-watering $650 CAD to upgrade to the 16GB/512GB 10-Core-CPU model. But why would you go for a performance build on a machine that's thermally constraint?

Brazil, but even if you look at the UK it's a 15% price increase, and that may not be worth for many people. Not everyone will care about the extra stuff and just prefer a lighter model anyway.

 

But still, you're making assumptions that don't reflect reality, since the MBA is still the best selling macbook, and if upgrade options exist for it is likely because people do buy it, otherwise Apple wouldn't be selling it anymore (rip iphone mini).

[leadeater]

4 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

“Just get a 14” MBP, it’s only +30% heavier and +37% thicker”.

eh, hardly matters though. My arms aren't made of wet toilet paper.

 

This is worth complaining about the weight, last I checked it's not the 1980's anymore though 

[captain_to_fire]

25 minutes ago, leadeater said:

eh, hardly matters though. My arms aren't made of wet toilet paper.

 

This is worth complaining about the weight, last I checked it's not the 1980's anymore though 

You sir are bringing back my 2008 college back pain memories with a fat Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista

 

12 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

It's almost like we still have to see a laptop that makes the M2 truly shine at its fullest potential. You get no fan or a 6 year old design. I hope Apple will eventually release a cheaper 2-port variant of the 14" MBP, with M2, no ProMotion and no miniLED. (Mark Gurman has been rumoring this for a while, if I remember correctly)

 

That said, this M2 Air is a no brainer (but anyone techy enough to be reading this should splurge for 16GB/512GB), it's crazy fast, lasts all day and will make a decent Baldur's Gate 3 (once that game is finally out) machine. It's everything we could have ever asked for a fanless ultrabook. And it exists only because of Apple's transition to their own ARM SoCs. 

So does it mean that the M2 MacBook Pro thermal throttling from Max Tech was blown out of proportion? I watched that video and they kinda made it seem that M2 is almost as bad as the 2016 16" MacBook Pro with a Skylake chip that Apple engineers file bugs about.

 

If it wasn't for the price of the M2 MBA, the 1080p webcam and Magsafe charging port alone would've made it a bang for the buck laptop.

[wseaton]

Call me buzzkill, but I don't get the reason why this product exists. The M2 air bears as much logic as having desktops with power saving cores to save, uh, battery life. Just doesn't make sense.

 

I've lost count at the number of M1As I've sold to friends, and I'm a PC guy. Light, fast, superb battery. No one buys them to smash 8k editing. 

[saltycaramel]

3 hours ago, leadeater said:

eh, hardly matters though. My arms aren't made of wet toilet paper.

 

This is worth complaining about the weight, last I checked it's not the 1980's anymore though 

Last fall I bought the heaviest laptop Apple makes so I don’t practice what I preach, but apparently a lot of people like the Air form factor (and I would too if it could get me the same display as my 16” MBP) and the fact that a spec-upgraded Air approaches MBP price territory is nothing new, it has always been like that, if anything today the scale is tilted even more towards the Air because it finally has competent CPU and GPU power that could be good enough even for a number of former MBP users, and it finally has a retina display that it lacked for the longest time, and it gets you the top 1080p webcam. So the argument for a decked out Air, while still perplexing for some users like you and me, has never been stronger than it is today. Hence youtubers and forum users playing the “just spend a bit more and get the 30% heavier 14” MBP” card use an argument that fall flat in some regards.

[HenrySalayne]

37 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

it has always been like that, if anything today the scale is tilted even more towards the Air because it finally has competent CPU and GPU power that could be good enough even for a number of former MBP users, and it finally has a retina display that it lacked for the longest time, and it gets you the top 1080p webcam

Have you somehow missed the M1 MBA? From all the things on your list the webcam is the only significantly improved part.

37 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

So the argument for a decked out Air, while still perplexing for some users like you and me, has never been stronger than it is today.

I think you misunderstood. The perfect configuration for a 2022 MBA is at least 16 GB RAM and at least 512 GB of storage.

The elephant in the room is pricing. This particular configuration is far more expensive than the base model and really close in pricing to the next performance tier. It makes it a bad value compared to other models or configurations. The majority of costumers will get a better experience with these other models. If they want to shell out some more cash for better performance, the 14" MBP is in all disciplines the better machine.

And if you really need the lightest machine with some drawbacks to performance because it is passively cooled, you can still get the M1 MBA and save some bucks. So you need really particular reasons to buy the M2 MBA with this configuration.

9 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

+37% thicker

That story is more complicated. Apple has redefined how to measure the height of notebooks and the feet are no longer included. Which makes the new flat design look thinner (on paper) than they actually are. MBP 14" is "thinner" than the M1 MBA.

[saltycaramel]

1 hour ago, wseaton said:

Call me buzzkill, but I don't get the reason why this product exists. The M2 air bears as much logic as having desktops with power saving cores to save, uh, battery life. Just doesn't make sense.

 

I've lost count at the number of M1As I've sold to friends, and I'm a PC guy. Light, fast, superb battery. No one buys them to smash 8k editing. 

 

One day this new chassis won't have the "shiny new thing" price premium anymore.

One day global geopolitical tensions and supply chain bottlenecks will hopefully ease up. 

One day inflation won't be this rampant anymore. 

One day the pandemic will hopefully be over, at least in this form. 

One day the M1 and the 2018-style Air chassis will be discontinued.

(bonus for EU folks: one day the € won't be at its 20-year low against the $)

 

On that day, this new M2 Air will occupy kinda the same place in the line-up that the M1 Air occupies today, price-wise. 

 

Today is not that day.

But that path begins today. 

[saltycaramel]

4 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

Have you somehow missed the M1 MBA? 

4 minutes ago, HenrySalayne said:

The elephant in the room is pricing. 

See the post above. 

The M1 MBA is the past and comes from a different era. 

The M2 MBA is the future and it temporarily sits at a premium introductory price. 

Price is what people are willing to pay for it today, of course. 

[hishnash]

6 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

So does it mean that the M2 MacBook Pro thermal throttling from Max Tech was blown out of proportion? I watched that video and they kinda made it seem that M2 is almost as bad as the 2016 16" MacBook Pro with a Skylake chip that Apple engineers file bugs about.

Well yer, you cant get it to throttle unless you manage to put the entire system under load. That is to say the cpu needs a heavy load along side the GPU and 1 or more video encode/decode engines + a load of IO. 

And even then its ver possible it was not thermal throttling but rather power throttling. To my knowledge no CPU vendor out there provides realtime info on why the cpu is throttling (eg is it due to thermals or power).  The temp sensor they users was the max of all the sensors within the SOC, its completely find if a few of these hit really high temps within the silicon itself you could go well over 200C without any thermal issues the issues would be if the temps on the socket/package go to high or the temps on the VRM these are the components that can be damaged due to heat/change in heat, damangin the raw silicon itself with a very localised hot spot is will require a very high temp. 

[Paul Thexton]

Basically it's like me leaving my car in 2nd gear on the motorway, pinning my foot to the floor and shouting "oh my god my engine hits the rev limiter!"

[leadeater]

6 hours ago, saltycaramel said:

Last fall I bought the heaviest laptop Apple makes so I don’t practice what I preach, but apparently a lot of people like the Air form factor

Oh for sure it's great, but I'd rate the price difference more important than thickness by a long way and the weight really doesn't make that much difference to actual usage.

 

Sure I have held a laptop one hand up a ladder plugged in a switch serial port for extended periods of time, with much heavier laptops I might add, but I hardly think people are really doing this.

 

These types of differences are much more in the personal choice than anything else. I just don't like to pretend these thing matter more than they do past a certain point, there are limits but that applies on both end of the spectrum of thickness and weight.

 

And that's without discussing any other things like sacrificing ports for that thinness etc.

[rikitikitavi]

12 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

Have you somehow missed the M1 MBA? From all the things on your list the webcam is the only significantly improved part.

… And you missed slightly brighter and bigger screen, better speakers (afaik) and an audiojack to power hungrier headphones than before.

 

12 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

The perfect configuration for a 2022 MBA is at least 16 GB RAM and at least 512 GB of storage.

Unless you don’t really need these 8GB. 

Unless you don’t need that extra space, and don’t start with the slow SSD, it most probably won’t matter.

 

12 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

It makes it a bad value compared to other models or configurations. The majority of costumers will get a better experience with these other models. If they want to shell out some more cash for better performance, the 14" MBP is in all disciplines the better machine.

Not unless you want the maxed out experience in the lightest chassis and not pay more for the 14".

 

12 hours ago, HenrySalayne said:

And if you really need the lightest machine with some drawbacks to performance because it is passively cooled, you can still get the M1 MBA and save some bucks. So you need really particular reasons to buy the M2 MBA with this configuration.

M1MBA is the best value… to a point - the reasons that I wrote in the beginning and when they start to matter.

 

That is not taking into account the new look (that is really nice) is the single reason for some to get it.

 

The drawback performance might be encountered in sustained loads. A lot of workflows only need bursts of power.

 

For example, I spend most of my time in Safari and Terminal, other stuff might run in the background. This work maxes out my 16GB RAM - I get anywhere from a couple of GBs to 30+ GBs of swap.

My ‘17 MBPi7 is silent most of the time and very responsive in the current tasks, until I run a build or switch tasks, at which point it will get loud fans kicking in and/or it might also stutter for a moment.

I barely have 200GB of stuff on it (I tend to hoard, and don’t clean as regularly), and most of my data is in the cloud and external storage.

 

M2 MBA w/ 24GB RAM upgrade looks like a machine that is cheaper and more portable fit for audience like me than MBP 14”.

 

7 hours ago, leadeater said:

Sure I have held a laptop one hand up a ladder plugged in a switch serial port for extended periods of time, with much heavier laptops I might add, but I hardly think people are really doing this.

Small dimension/weight difference doesn’t matter much if you just carry/hold it sometimes and use your backpack most of the time.

It matters more when you often don’t use a backpack to carry it everywhere.

 

Lack of vents also helps when you aren’t working at a desk and are always concerned if it’s going to suffocate.

 

7 hours ago, leadeater said:

And that's without discussing any other things like sacrificing ports for that thinness etc.

It’s much easier for some than for others. I already have a dock and dongles because of my touchbar mac.

Given there is a crowd who can be fully covered by an iPad tier device - modern tech ‘up-to-date standard’ for most is using wireless solutions and usbC.

 

… I deliberately do not mention that people still share files with a usb stick and connect random printer/mouse with usbA or have a crappy wifi since plenty of wireless/usbC solutions are available.

[saltycaramel]

 

Beautiful on the outside and on the inside. 

Surprisingly compact and thin out of that box. 

The whole computer barely bigger than a ram DIMM, yet so powerful. 

Fanless: no dust to clean, ever. 

 

Can't wait to see the 15.2" version of this design in late 2023.