15" M2 MBA worth getting at this time?

[geta]

Anyway, 8 gigs is perfectly fine for MOST people. I’m not sure what others are doing on their AIR, which doesn’t have a fan —- so it’ll throttle if you throw too much at it anyway.

My 15 Air has the default 8 gigs, and sure, I get memory pressure from time to time (yea, the stat bar goes brown), big deal; it‘s usually due to a poorly optimized web page hogging memory. Mac OS itself is very memory efficient, and I wager for the vast majority of 15 air users out there, 8 gigs is perfectly fine, even for the next 5 years.

Because in reality you don’t have 8GB only for work, the OS use 2GB+ and also the GPU sharing the same RAM.

So suddenly 8GB RAM is not enough for basic work with 30+ tabs in Safari and/or other browsers plus few more apps running next to it. And That’s before using demanding programs like photo/video editing.

 

[Bob.Bain]

Because in reality you don’t have 8GB only for work, the OS use 2GB+ and also the GPU sharing the same RAM.

So suddenly 8GB RAM is not enough for basic work with 30+ tabs in Safari and/or other browsers plus few more apps running next to it. And That’s before using demanding programs like photo/video editing.

No sane non-pro has 30+ tabs open unless they like a lot of porn.
8GB Ram is plenty for most people.

 

[Mainsail]

No sane non-pro has 30+ tabs open unless they like a lot of porn.
8GB Ram is plenty for most people.

You're wasting your breath. You will never convince these folks that 8GB is enough for typical college, office, and home use. It doesn't matter that millions of consumers get smooth reliable productive day to day performance from their base MBA. The mantra is "16GB is the minimum in 2024". That's it. And no amount of real world experience and customer satisfaction will change that point of view. They know better.

 

[lambertjohn]

15" MacBook Air has been discontinued. But deals can still be found. Costco still has the base 15" Air for $999.

 

[rampancy]

This right here man. In most other countries in the world Macs are EXPENSIVE and vastly marked up (due to taxes, duty, currency differences). Americans are truly spoilt. They live in a land of plenty, where the latest tech gets vast discounts on special holidays like Black Friday.

Indeed. Last I checked Apple's Canadian pricing adds an extra $100-150 to the price when taking into account the exchange rate.

The best consistent discounted prices I've ever seen for Macs in Canada are on the Apple refurb store. I think I've seen Best Buy Canada run sales of up to $150 off of base model Macs for Back-to-School/Black Friday and the like, but more often than not the "deals" will be something like a complementary year of Office 365 (which for me personally, I can take it or leave it).

It's only recently that I got back into shopping at Costco, but I haven't seen any of those sweet $999 15" Airs at Costco's Canada site either. Sigh.

Edit: Gold base model M1 Airs have hit the Apple CA refurb store at $949. Ooh.

 

[geta]

The new M3 MBA cost €100 less compared to the old M2 MBA price. And now the M2 MBA is €100 less compared to M3 MBA.

 

[dmk1974]

I'm still pretty happy with the $1000 M2 15" Costco deal I got last week. As of now, I think I'll hang onto it instead of getting the same M3 version unless a deal with the same price or like $50 more can be had. I'm not connecting 2 displays to it and aside from the chip, seems about the same.

 

[dmk1974]

Costco today has a $100 off sale on their already $50 discounted 15" M3 MBAs.

MacBook Air laptop (15-inch) - Apple M3 chip, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD storage

MacBook Air laptop (15-inch) - Apple M3 chip, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD storage

www.costco.com

Would be $150 more to upgrade to vs my M2 15" MBA. Maybe worth it? Or hold out for the summer back to school deal from Apple? I like that Costco includes a free 2nd year of standard warranty coverage. While not quite AC+, still nice to have without having to pay extra. Hmmmmm.....

 

[i486dx2-66]

Would be $150 more to upgrade to vs my M2 15" MBA. Maybe worth it?

I'd say it is. You get something like 15-20% better performance, the ability to run two displays with the lid closed, and an extra year of software support. The M3 is also architecturally different in ways that impact security issues (for example, the M3's DMP disable bit that can mitigate the GoFetch exploit).

 

[maerz001]

Costco today has a $100 off sale on their already $50 discounted 15" M3 MBAs.

MacBook Air laptop (15-inch) - Apple M3 chip, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD storage

MacBook Air laptop (15-inch) - Apple M3 chip, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD storage

www.costco.com

Would be $150 more to upgrade to vs my M2 15" MBA. Maybe worth it? Or hold out for the summer back to school deal from Apple? I like that Costco includes a free 2nd year of standard warranty coverage. While not quite AC+, still nice to have without having to pay extra. Hmmmmm.....

I would say no since you have very basic computer needs. If u are even fine with 8GB RAM why would u think a M3 helps

 

[Torty]

I would say no since you have very basic computer needs. If u are even fine with 8GB RAM why would u think a M3 helps

Would give one more big update of MacOS.

 

[maerz001]

Would give one more big update of MacOS.

Would, yes.
But since OP isn’t even sure to keep M2 for a year what makes you think he would stick to M3 till end of life?

 

[Torty]

Would, yes.
But since OP isn’t even sure to keep M2 for a year what makes you think he would stick to M3 till end of life?

IMO it doesn't makes sense at all coming from a M1. But hey people have their hobbies and for some it's new gadgets.

 

[Akira1]

I think the jump from 13" to 15" is pretty significant, and could be worth the price or upgrade, which is what OP is contemplating (M1, 13" to M2, 15"). The 15" is still light but the footprint is noticeably bigger than the 13." That said, the 15" is so much easier to work on (at least for me). I could not do more than 2 hours of work on the 13" by itself. If you are mostly working with an external display, the 13" would probably be fine.

 

[bluecoast]

Op has a work laptop with 32GB of RAM and ample storage. Sweeping generalizations don't account for different users and different uses. My base M2 MBA does everything I need. Zero problems. Buttery smooth. Millions and Millions of people use these base spec MacBooks everyday for college, office, and home. They are the most popular configurations and enjoy high customer satisfaction. You can also get outstanding deals on them because they are produced in such large quantities.

But, none of that matters I guess because "no M2 MacBook with only 8GB of RAM is ever worth it".

Considering a MBA to upgrade from my mbp late 2017 ntb 8/256.

Agonising - literally - over if the mba base configs are ‘enough’

Then I thought that all I use my mbp for is web surfing. Some email in mail. Some photo editing in photos. Notes, reminders, calendar etc. Spotify.

In fact the only taxing thing I use it for is running GeForce now, which makes it run hot (no fans).

On checking activity monitor, I barely ever have more than 6GB of memory used.

So I’m thinking, if a 2017 8/256 can handle my workload well (a little slowly now), then a m2 m3 model with the same memory is going to be quite a bit better than my current machine.

 

[Torty]

You're wasting your breath. You will never convince these folks that 8GB is enough for typical college, office, and home use. It doesn't matter that millions of consumers get smooth reliable productive day to day performance from their base MBA. The mantra is "16GB is the minimum in 2024". That's it. And no amount of real world experience and customer satisfaction will change that point of view. They know better.

„Minimum“ sounds not good. So everyone should go with 24GB for some web browsing email iMessage and pages?

 

[maerz001]

Considering a MBA to upgrade from my mbp late 2017 ntb 8/256.

Agonising - literally - over if the mba base configs are ‘enough’

Then I thought that all I use my mbp for is web surfing. Some email in mail. Some photo editing in photos. Notes, reminders, calendar etc. Spotify.

In fact the only taxing thing I use it for is running GeForce now, which makes it run hot (no fans).

On checking activity monitor, I barely ever have more than 6GB of memory used.

So I’m thinking, if a 2017 8/256 can handle my workload well (a little slowly now), then a m2 m3 model with the same memory is going to be quite a bit better than my current machine.

Well it will be much faster for sure.
Don’t know Geforce.

Depending RAM i would also recommend 16GB. I have to use multiple browser and even my 16GB sometimes go in yellow pressure

 

[thadoggfather]

I think the jump from 13" to 15" is pretty significant, and could be worth the price or upgrade, which is what OP is contemplating (M1, 13" to M2, 15"). The 15" is still light but the footprint is noticeably bigger than the 13." That said, the 15" is so much easier to work on (at least for me). I could not do more than 2 hours of work on the 13" by itself. If you are mostly working with an external display, the 13" would probably be fine.

Initially I found it overwhelming being on a 13" laptop track for like the past 15 years or something like that. I had a couple 15" MBP's pre and post unibody way back in the day, when unibody was a new thing.

But now that I've had it for a while, I can't go back! its been amazing for my uses and a huge upgrade from M1 13" MBA which I also loved and had no issue with performance wise whatsoever

 

[bluecoast]

Well it will be much faster for sure.
Don’t know Geforce.

Depending RAM i would also recommend 16GB. I have to use multiple browser and even my 16GB sometimes go in yellow pressure

Geforce now is simply streaming games. It's like having a Disney+ or Netflix apps managing a video stream but for games (so it's managing input too). So it doesn't use a huge amount of RAM.

OK, if you use multiple different browsers - FF, Safari, Chrome etc. all open at the same time, with multiple tabs open - yeah, you need more than 8GB of RAM.

My point is that most people will just have a few tabs open in Safari, which 8GB can easily handle. Even if you used Chrome.

Would it be better if Apple made Macs with a base level of 12GB? (something which I have a feeling that they'll do for the M4). Yeah it would.

But given that they charge a ridiculous $200 per 8GB of RAM, at those prices, I'm just saying that I - and many others - can and do get by fine with 8GB.