Buying advice: Would M2 MacBook Air suit my needs?

[m97]

My work involves online research, and for that I often have a lot of tabs open in Chrome and Safari (~20 in Safari and 50+ in Chrome). My question is would the M2 Air with 24GB RAM be able to handle all those tabs? And could I save a few bucks by getting the 8-core GPU chip--in addition to web browsers, I mainly use Books, Pages, Scrivener, and VLC.
My current computer is a Mid-2015 Pro that has 16GB RAM; the fan runs a lot when I'm opening new tabs.

Some backstory: I tried the M1 14" Pro, but found "tap to click" didn't work with modifier keys (Ctrl/Cmd). I use tap to click a lot, and apparently it's a common issue on 14" Pros, so I returned that computer. Before the M1 Pro I had the M1 Air with 8GB RAM and it froze all the time with my workload. Fortunately a family member was able to lend me my current computer. It has a damaged screen so I'd like to replace it, but I can keep waiting if the M2 Air will struggle with what I'm doing.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Sounds like you have a very chaotic workflow and nobody will be able to answer this question honestly. You’ll either need to change your habits to get a laptop you can comfortably afford or get something beefier. I don’t even know how you have enough screen on a laptop to have 70+ browser tabs open…

A M2 MBA 24GB is going to start at $1600 and without an actively cooling it’s probably throwing money down the drain. Maybe look at the new M2 MBP (has cooling) or try a new gen MBP. Think about a refurbished one from Apple to save cash as well.

 

[m97]

Sounds like you have a very chaotic workflow and nobody will be able to answer this question honestly. You’ll either need to change your habits to get a laptop you can comfortably afford or get something beefier. I don’t even know how you have enough screen on a laptop to have 70+ browser tabs open…

A M2 MBA 24GB is going to start at $1600 and without an actively cooling it’s probably throwing money down the drain. Maybe look at the new M2 MBP (has cooling) or try a new gen MBP. Think about a refurbished one from Apple to save cash as well.

Thank you, I appreciate the advice.

 

[Misheemee]

My work involves online research, and for that I often have a lot of tabs open in Chrome and Safari (~20 in Safari and 50+ in Chrome). My question is would the M2 Air with 24GB RAM be able to handle all those tabs? And could I save a few bucks by getting the 8-core GPU chip--in addition to web browsers, I mainly use Books, Pages, Scrivener, and VLC.
My current computer is a Mid-2015 Pro that has 16GB RAM; the fan runs a lot when I'm opening new tabs.

Some backstory: I tried the M1 14" Pro, but found "tap to click" didn't work with modifier keys (Ctrl/Cmd). I use tap to click a lot, and apparently it's a common issue on 14" Pros, so I returned that computer. Before the M1 Pro I had the M1 Air with 8GB RAM and it froze all the time with my workload. Fortunately a family member was able to lend me my current computer. It has a damaged screen so I'd like to replace it, but I can keep waiting if the M2 Air will struggle with what I'm doing.

I have a MBP 14 and don’t have any issues at all with tap to click and this is the first time I’ve heard of it being a “common issue”

 

[m97]

I have a MBP 14 and don’t have any issues at all with tap to click and this is the first time I’ve heard of it being a “common issue”

My problem was tap to click not working when I was trying to use modifying keys like Cmd and Ctrl. In those cases it would take up to three times for a click to register. I found online discussions of the issue, and when I called Apple to discuss the problem, the person who answered my call said I was the third person they'd talked to that day with the same issue.

Does tap to click with Cmd and Ctrl work for you? I'd love to know because the MBP 14" was otherwise an amazing computer.

 

[James_C]

I would save the money and go for an M1 Air with 16GB Ram. I don't think you will see any benefit from your use case between the M1 and M2 chips. Unless you are hard core video editing, the lack of a fan is not an issue. I had a M1 Air with 16GB of Ram for a year, used it with Parallels and Windows for Arm ( I needed to use SAGE from time to time which was Windows Only). Never got warm. Presumably the 8GB model you tried was fine with Tap to Click and modifier keys ?

At least try the M1 16GB Air first, if for some reason it does not deliver the performance you want, you can always exchange it for something else.

 

[Misheemee]

My problem was tap to click not working when I was trying to use modifying keys like Cmd and Ctrl. In those cases it would take up to three times for a click to register. I found online discussions of the issue, and when I called Apple to discuss the problem, the person who answered my call said I was the third person they'd talked to that day with the same issue.

Does tap to click with Cmd and Ctrl work for you? I'd love to know because the MBP 14" was otherwise an amazing computer.

Yes it works for me, no issues at all

 

[Fishrrman]

With all those tabs?

MacBook Pro 14", m1pro CPU, 32gb RAM, 512 or 1tb SSD.

 

[davidg4781]

What kind of tabs are you opening? Maybe someone here can try them out.

FWIW, RAM makes a pretty big difference sometimes. On my old mini, I upgraded to 16 GB and it felt smooth as butter. I even remember doing a test YEARS ago with my 2006 CD MacBook and having lots of YouTube videos running and had no issues. But I was maxed out on RAM. And they weren't HD back then lol.

 

[for_i_1]

See this:

 

[Toutou]

My question is would the M2 Air with 24GB RAM be able to handle all those tabs?

Yes, absolutely. Even the 16GB config would work just fine, but it's OK if you want to upgrade.

It's true that web browsers have gotten incredibly RAM-heavy in the last decade, and yes, it's true that an open, active tab can sometimes consume half a gigabyte of RAM, but browsers can also use quite a lot of tricks to decrease the memory usage for tabs that aren't currently open (or haven't been for a while).

My current computer is a Mid-2015 Pro that has 16GB RAM; the fan runs a lot when I'm opening new tabs.

This one is partially caused by both the amount of JavaScript on most pages and by the fact that rendering web content can also get quite intensive (especially on a high-resolution screen) due to historical-technological reasons.

Please note that the M2 is literally twice as powerful as your current machine and much more efficient. It will stay cold to the touch no matter how many tabs you open. CPU-wise it's vastly, comfortably overpowered for anything you've described.

Unless your memory pressure indicator in Activity Monitor on your current machine turns yellow or worse a lot, your current machine isn't memory starved (and neither will be the M2 with the same amount of RAM). If it does or if you don't mind the $200, feel free to get the 24GB version.