I'm kinda bummed about the ssd but I have a gaming pc that still runs on a sata ssd and that still seems fast enough. So I don't think I'll even notice when using the m2 air for school.
Anyone doing ProRes video editing is not really going to get an Air but rather a 14" or 16" MBP. More testing with every day tasks that use Unified Memory would have been nice. That's when you'll really see the slow SSD memory swap negatively affecting performance compared to the much faster M1 MBA SSD. At any rate, it's pretty awful that Apple would cheap out and take a pretty major step backwards with SSD performance. It really should have been be the same or better than M1 and yet here we are with them intentionally crippling performance just to boost profits.
A discounted entry-level base model M1 MBA remains by far the best bang-for-the-buck value laptop for nearly all normal regular every day laptop users. So there is that.
@@fdsaffff Well idk about tha the screen is decent, There are still alot of laptops out there that only have 300 nits of brightness, 400 is still higher than alot of laptops out there
Yea, it feels like to me we have to compare $850 MBA M1 vs $1400 MBA M2 w/ 512GB. The $1400 version is definitely better in all aspects, but is it worth an extra $550 better?
@@fdsaffff Are you kidding? The speakers are still better than _any_ Windows laptop - and not really that much different than M2 MBA. And the display is a fine Retina, wide color P3 IPS, one of the best by far for any laptop under a grand. You have to spend way more for something better with a 4k, OLED or miniLED display.
@@ahsoka6807 thats not how to look at it, when dimmer the 500nit will have clearer and better image. and the speakers are 30-40 percent quieter than my 2017 12' macbook.
Thanks for the coverage, and I appreciate the beautiful shots. One thing I hope to see different is the charts, please add the benchmark scores on the right of the bar charts, it would make comparisons clearer. Please include a percentage difference as well if possible! Thanks!
exactly, that’s why I placed the order for 14inch pro. However, I really love the lightness of m2 air, and its design. But I hate its speaker and screen
@@zhorapata9733 the 14” is not bulky at all lol. Comparing the m2, it’s literally less than a inch difference in different dimensions. Unless if you’re getting the 16”, ofc it’s going to be more bulky
A video I would love to see is the M2 macbook air with the single 256gb ssd chip vs M2 macbook air with 512gb dual ssd chips. I’m debating whether I should upgrade the ssd so I have 2 chips, or if I should spend the extra money and buy a 14” pro (from Holland, so price difference is bigger than in US)
I'm glad I got 1tb version of the m2 I didn't know that the read write would be better I just needed the space for samples and music related stuff. This is still interesting to see the comparison performing video exports and that they end up being very close. Thanks for the great information and your time and efforts testing the machines
I have been saying that on every video, why are they recommending a bigger SSD rather than 16GB of RAM? As techies they should know the slowdown is due to swap and that is due to having too little RAM.
If we have a option of upgrading only one thing 16gb ram or 512gb sad What should I choose ? Coz it's base model has slow ssd issues otherwise no doubt i would have go for 16gb ram
UPGRADE 16GB DDR5 RAM, Not the SSD, This way You never face swap Memory issue in the fast place, and your machine is always snappy and smooth, remember 1 thing in future You can get fast external SSD but You can't upgrade Unified RAM, so just Upgrade RAM, not the SSD 👍
Most influencers are totally wrong in how they are framing this issue. It is 100% to do with users buying 8GB of RAM when they need 16GB of RAM and then complaining about a slowdown! Get 16GB of RAM and you will be fine. Ignore the YT conglomerate saying 8GB/512GB is better than 16GB/256GB as they are wrong.
I will never understand why Apple created an Air M2 with a 256GB SSD much slower than the 256 version of the Air M1. Sometimes they are really crazy, there is no reason to do this foolishness.
I’m a basic user, what should I go for 16GB RAM or 512 with faster SSD speeds. I will be doing word, Netflix, spreadsheets and light photo/video editing.
For those who would upgrade from a 2013 MBA base model (like me) it might still be better to jump to this machine than its 2 years older version. It’s hard to resist MagSafe charger, better web cam and audio, new design, and last but not least: longevity. We don’t know when the M1 MBA would not be supported by Apple (maybe in the next 6 years?). It’s most likely 2 years earlier than the M2 version. But if you really have concern over disk speed, have the need for heavier editing tasks, are budget concern, or classic design lover, certainly M2 MBA isn’t for you. Having said, I can only deliver my final judgment after I have M2 MBA in (hopefully) the beginning of August.
A common scenario for the Air is to have it on your knees and work on it; possibly with shorts. How does it feel then, while surfing or playing, e.g. Forge of Empire? (my wife likes to play FoE and her MPB 2014 runs pretty warm on it). Or developing a couple of RAWs in Holiday
If you're doing light to moderate tasks like web browsing, coding, photo editing, you shouldn't see a difference. If you were a professional photographer exporting hundreds of photos/videos and needing plenty of storage, you'd probably go for the 512+ GB variant anyway. However, people who buy the 256 gig variant can use a thunderbolt 4 external SSD enclosure with NVME SSDs to get more, cheaper and faster storage.
I think this was a very balanced take on the situation. Like I think a lot of people i suspected this ahead of time and went with 512 GB model. Although - in all likely hood I would’ve gone with that version anyway for the GPU cores to make sure it was a complete upgrade on my M1 Air
Hello, I am based in India and planning to replace my 5 year old intel MBA with either MBA M1 or MBA M2 base model. But unable to decide which one to opt? My usage will be for browsing, you tube, zoom meeting, word/excel, file transferring etc and not for any heavy task. Which one do you suggest? I ve read that MBA M2 has heating issue with slow SSD etc. Will appreciate input from anyone. Thanks…
I'd go 16/256 over 8/512 M2A any day. Disk speed is a much smaller concern than running out of ram. I only use about 80gb of my current drive space though, would maybe go MBP if space was a concern.
Thank you so much for doing this. I will not be buying the M2 MBA. I'll keep my M1 MBA. I'm disappointed in Apple. This is clearly intentional to get people to upgrade SSD to 512 at $200. Crazy... Greedy. The potential was so high for this to be another breakthrough release with record sales, instead its a flop and controversial headlines.
Once I saw the heating problems on the 13" M2 MBP. I got a base 2021 14" M1pro MBP for $1799. A M2 MBA with 16GB and 512GB was too close in price with less ports and lesser display.
The M2 was always a filler due to the delay in the 3nm architecture. It is def not aimed for M1 owners to upgrade to, it is aimed at users upgrading form older Intel machines and for them the NAND speed will be moot. That is the weird thing, no one should be upgrading from the M1 so why all the rage? The M3 is for M1 upgrades and if that is at a slower speed then I will sing in chorus with you that Apple has made a mistake, but not the M2.
That is a pro workflow so you should get 1TB storage or 512GB if funds are tight. You config to what you need and transferring from external to internal on a daily basis you need the bigger NAND, not only for the faster speeds but for longevity, the 1TB will last 4X as long as a 256GB NAND, and although the 256GB is unlikely to die, cells will become redundant and speed will reduce with time.
Which of these two is better for a university use (take notes, watching videos, using excel and other stuff)?: -MBA with 512 of SSD and 8gb of RAM - MBA with 256 gb of SSD (with the storage issue) and 16 go of RAM Considering that I would like to keep this MacBook for at least 5-6 years
@@GregsGadgets Hey! I have the same decision problem and I'll be glad to hear your thoughts :) Now I'm using a MacBook Air 2018 with an i5 intel CPU, 8 RAM, and 128 SSD. I usually work with big excel files and have a lot of open tabs. For example, now I have opened 14 tabs and during work, it can be +10 tabs of google tables or excel files. For the last year, it lags a lot when I scroll through google sheets or big excel files. Sometimes swap goes up to 4-5 Gb of memory. Also, I have only 12 Gb of free SSD space left. New models go with 256 SSD now, so it can be much better. But still, do you think a better option is 16 Gb of RAM rather than 512 SSD? Thanks for the answer and good luck!
The ssd issue is inexcusable. On Apple's end, the 256gb chip costs $2, and they charge $200 to upgrade from 256gb to 512gb. At $1,199 the base model should be 512gb. That's $349 more when you consider that a new M1 MBA can be had for $850.
512gb to 1tb SSD upgrade on the 14 inch macbook pro costs 200 dollars, 256gb to 512gb SSD upgrade on the M2 macbook air costs 200 dollars. Isn't that a bit strange.
This y it’s prob smarter to get a m1 with 16 go ram. Just better all round budget Apple laptop if u need that but don’t wanna spend extra fr the m2 bells and whistles especially if u gonna be thermal throttled
geez everyone is using final cut, do a test on other editing and modelling software too man, like davinci resolve, premier pro, photoshop, capture one, blender, fusion 360 etc
Davinci is much faster than FCP at the moment and seems to be better optimised for the M2. Not sure about the others, but making conclusions now seems unfair especially with macOS Ventura and Meta 3 arriving in September, the M2 Air should get even better.
@@andyH_England thats good to know! and i agree on it being unfair for the time being! another thing i find unfair is because apple is a international brand so doing these test in controlled environment or cool climate countries is kinda misleading as well, like a lambo might run fine in colder countries but in tropical countries it sets itself on fire
16gb ram 512 gb model costs 1699 and m1 pro entry level has same spec but better cpu, display, more ports and fan is costing 1799. is mac air now even worthy except that this is thinner.
Greg ,I honestly think that with the now proven throttling issues in the Macbook Airs, I think that Apple will Have to add a fan or some sort of Active Cooling system (& now I am hoping that they do) to the upcomming 15" machines. The cat is out of the bag (sorry not sorry Apple) that no matter how energy efficient the chip(s) are they still generate too much heat when you are pushing the machine to it's limits. And yes I understand that you shouldn't push any computer to it's limits all of the time, but what is the point of having tons of computing power if you can't use it when you need it? I am assuming that the 14" & 16" MBP's fans aren't constantly running the entire time you have the machine on/are actively using it. I am guessing that the fans only kick in when you are doing extended intensive work in order to prevent throttling. I won't speak for others, but I would be okay with a thicker 15" Macbook that has a Fan & doesn't throttle & so I have full chip power when I need it & when I am doing non-power stuff the fan can turn off. It's ridiculous of Apple to push the power & abilities of their chips if consumers can't use it because their machine throttles. Do you have any thoughts on this?
I totally agree with the conclusion you draw. A downgrade to the SSD should not have happened, and it is sad to see that Apple made the unfortunate decision not to upgrade the base model to a dual NAND solution, i.e. 512 GB. There is no excuse, not even that there might not have been dual 128 GB NAND chips on the market due to them being in short supply globally. What cost are we talking about for Apple? $20?. And what tradeoff did they intentionally allow? If you have multiple standard applications open and the 8 GB system has to rely on SWAP, there will be a significant performance hit due to the SSD speed.
What a mess... Your graphs do not start at 0, even though you display them that way, making your graphs absolutely useless and miss representing the information. M2 throttles from 8200 to 7380: over 800 points M1 from 6400 to 6200: 200 points, which is only a quarter of M2. Your verdict: "M1 also throttles"....
I bought the MB Pro 13 M2 as I knew it was the best choice to have a fan than not have one and that is even though I do not currently do much of an intensive workflow, but you never know down the road. I got a good deal and bought the base and the NAND speed has zero effect on my user-case. For those that are currently using swap on their machines and are gonna upgrade then check how much swap and if it is >4GB then you really should upgrade from whatever RAM you are currently stuck with. I would def buy more RAM than higher storage as 16GB is unlikely ever to need much swap even on pro-apps. From what I have seen the M2 is much better than the M1 in nearly everything. Get more RAM and you have a better device than the M1 Air if choosing between them for ability. Most however will be looking at the M1 and taking the performance hit because it can be had for a lot less with a good deal. For me, the design change was nothing that I would miss, hence I stayed with the much maligned but steady as she goes MB Pro 13 M2. From what I have seen, it is now very obvious why Apple kept it despite influencers slamming it, and why Apple says that the Air M2 throttles and if you need sustained performance then get the MB Pro 13.
Nice comparison~ it will be interesting to see the Thermal Throttling for a longer time period, eg 50mins or 1 hour. For M2 MBA the benchmark declines 6.76% after 20mins and 4.17% in 30 mins later, about 10.65 % in total. On the other hand the benchmark of M1 MBA decreases 3.22% and surprisedly increases 0.03%, which make it only decline about 3% (defeating the more than 10% reduction on M2 MBA )
I believe that most customers who will chose the base M2 MacBook Air, like me, won’t push its limits. But downgraded disc speed is not appealing nonetheless, even though I won’t probably ever even notice.
Disappointed to see a downgrade, even thought it’s barely noticeable, but people will be paying extra US$ 200. I mean, there’s a new iPhone every year with good performance boosts but always costing the same US$ 700 or US$ 1,000. Imagine the good small gains in performance M2 MacBook Air would have if it kept the same SSD as the previous gen…
If I get one of these, it'll be 16 or 24GBs, with 512GB of storage. I'd use it for light duty, speccing it up so that it will last a few years, so I'm unlikely to be affected by throttling.
I’d go with 16gb ram. If you really consider getting 24gb ram, then you might as well get the 14” MacBook Pro for way better specs such as more ports, 120hz, faster bandwidth, more GPU cores, performance, etc. You’re also just about a few hundred bucks away getting that with the 32gb ram
I find it to be insult that apple used slower SSSd on the M2 MBA, given that the new model is more expensive no nothing should be downgraded. They do this bs because they know people will buy it anyways. I was holding up my purchase because I wanted to see how good the upcoming M2 laptop was gonna be, but I think the M1 would be the best choice. I can even get the M1MBA upgraded with 16 GB ram paying the 200 extra bucks and it would end up costing the same as the base version of M2 MBA… TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT.
Not only this, they even increased the price of m1 air, i had ipad pro m1 and thought it would be nice to shift to apple ecosystem, but iphone 14 not having new chip, m2 air downgrade, nah, android and windows/linux dual boot ftw!
I jumped on here just to give this video a thumbs down because no sh*t it throttles. It has no freakin' fan and this device is obviously not made to be pushed to the max for sustained periods.
