Do NOT buy an M2 laptop?

[ChrisA]

According to this article - pretty much everyone should hold on any purchases until the M3 arrives. 🤔

If you need a computer, what do you do while you wait for the M3? Maybe you rent something? Take a vacation?

If you don't need a computer, why would you waste your money on an M3?

The best advice is always to wait until you really do need a computer, then buy the best one that is actually available that you can afford. Buying one ahead of need is a waste.

 

[Burnincoco]

Not at all - build quality on the Air is as solid as my ol' MBPro. Chips and specs go out of date as quick as ever.

Buy how much you can afford, when you need it, and use it 'til you no longer can or want to.

I'm a tech - a hardcore tech - but my new M2 Air fits all of my requirements.

Part of the value-add of my last MacBook Pro was that I could have macOS, but also VMs for Windows and Linux - but Apple Silicon pretty much cut those out, due to ARM.

I spent a lot of time convincing myself to buy this new Mac - because the value-add of Mac is gone for me - for having all the various OS's on one laptop, Mac ram/ssd can no longer be user-upgraded, and Apple's ram/ssd upgrade costs are ridiculous.

I am able to get by with an Air: I moved my data to an external SSD, and chose not to give Apple so much of my money.

Tim is happy with as much as you can give, thank you. You are now a member of the super secret Cider Club

 

[SnowCrocodile]

For the average user, the M1 is still very capable. Of course M1 will 3 years old soon, but it shows how powerful Apple Silicon is. I bet you a majority of the users won't notice a major speed difference for the activities they do. Just buy the computer you need today, not the one you want in the future.

My wife is still proudly rocking her 2019 barebones-base Air that got her through the last years of her program. It's still completely adequate for everyday tasks, and I don't see a major difference in performance vs my M2 16Gb when browsing the web or typing up a document.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

I initially bought an M2 Air, but it kept overheating and the build quality wasn't that great so I exchanged it for the 14-inch MacBook Pro. The display is far superior and the performance is amazing. Although the unit I got still had some build quality issues, the computer itself is good. Just wished Apple would improve build quality a little bit.

What on earth did you do to overheat it ? I've been using mine for almost a year now and still haven't managed to do that.

 

[aerospacethrace]

Jeez, I'm still rocking my 2015 MBP and only just recently have I noticed it acting a LITTLE pokey with certain things. Namely gaming, or Apple Maps app. Otherwise, it's hard to justify something new yet.
So, because of that amazing historic operability, I wouldn't hesitate getting anything new, at any time. Because it'll be great for years, no matter what's new being around every year's corner.

Same here, my 2015 MBP is going strong. Sometimes it has its hiccups when I really make it work, but it has lots of life left. Might replace mine within the next 12 months, but it’s not a priority as of now. I’d not worry too much about trying to time and strategise purchases unless one has extremely specific needs, or places a really high value on having the absolute latest and greatest. The older computer won’t suddenly become worse just because a new one gets released.

 

[tomekwsrod]

Those who bought M2 just recently can tell you not to wait. But if you can, wait. It will be better.

 

[Sciuriware]

According to this article - pretty much everyone should hold on any purchases until the M3 arrives. 🤔

Apple Prepares Your Next MacBook

If you’re considering jumping into Apple's MacBook world, now may not be the best time.

www.forbes.com

Why not mend the typo in the title?
;JOOP!

 

[lcseds]

Easy to write articles with speculation. Anyone here can write that.

 

[kp98077]

Why not mend the typo in the title?
;JOOP!

fixed, hope you can sleep better! lol

 

[Sciuriware]

fixed, hope you can sleep better! lol

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,
;JOOP!

 

[Boeingfan]

According to this article - pretty much everyone should hold on any purchases until the M3 arrives. 🤔

Apple Prepares Your Next MacBook

If you’re considering jumping into Apple's MacBook world, now may not be the best time.

www.forbes.com

Forbes has never been a go to for my tech inspiration.

 

[mysticmanix]

Go ahead and buy now that A17 benchmarks are out. M3 won't be a generational leap like it was being mega hyped, will just be an increase in clock speed and a couple of additional GPU cores 🤣

 

[Ries]

Go ahead and buy now that A17 benchmarks are out. M3 won't be a generational leap like it was being mega hyped, will just be an increase in clock speed and a couple of additional GPU cores 🤣

The M3 has AV1 hardware decoder. Depending on how long you hold onto your Mac, it's going to suck being on the wrong side of that.

 

[HDFan]

The M3 has AV1 hardware decoder.

How do you know that, since it hasn't been announced?

 

[Chancha]

How do you know that, since it hasn't been announced?

The A17pro added this, while AV1 deemed not as important on iOS than on macOS I‘d say. If the M3 is based on the same foundation as A17pro then we can assume this to carry over. Same with ray tracing in the graphic cores.

Also, the M2 is based on A15, therefore we should look at A17pro vs A15 gains to conjecture on performance gains M3 vs M2, in which case they are like 20-25% on average. The performance core improvements can be massive as the core count increases, so this is more meaningful in the M3 Pro / Max / Ultra.

Then, since we are in the MBA subforum, the effiency gains for battery life is probably also important; this is one area where the A17pro doesn’t seem to improve much over A16/A15, according to Apple’s spec sheet. This is one are where I am slightly disappointed, or in context of this thread, you can just get an M2 and expect similar battery life.

 

[tomekwsrod]

Hold

 

[Donoban]

I bought my M2 MBA 10C GPU last Autumn and will never regret as it is freakily fast for my needs and the best Mac for Decades.

Yes i decided 16GB Ram and 1TB NVME so i am good for a long time if it stays functional.

It can also handle 3 VM´s with Ubuntu and 1 Win11 Arm while having up to 5 Browser ( many Tabs ) and many additional Apps open @ the same time + Multiple WebRTC / Conference with no Delay.

M3 might be faster... do i need it ? NO!

Did i wait for M2 last Year ? YES.
Would i wait for M3 if planing to purchase this Year ? Maybe.

Dude, I bought a MacBook Pro 16inch. Fully maxed out, 96gb of ram. And when I have a few of the adobe creative cloud apps running, it starts to run slow. I wonder if those 30+GPU cores can handle it.

Not sure if others have had similar experiences.

 

[Sciuriware]

Dude, I bought a MacBook Pro 16inch. Fully maxed out, 96gb of ram. And when I have a few of the adobe creative cloud apps running, it starts to run slow. I wonder if those 30+GPU cores can handle it.

Not sure if others have had similar experiences.

The extra amount of ram does not make a computer faster: it only increases your program space and
may speed up disk access by caching a lot files.
And: not every program gains from extra goodies.
;JOOP!

 

[genexx]

Dude, I bought a MacBook Pro 16inch. Fully maxed out, 96gb of ram. And when I have a few of the adobe creative cloud apps running, it starts to run slow. I wonder if those 30+GPU cores can handle it.

Not sure if others have had similar experiences.

There are several Reports of Adobe Programs running slow, out of Memory on AS and so on........

Lucky me not using any of this but Affinity Foto and also do not have masses of Raw Conversions or 4K Video Editing so......

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/14mcamb
There where also Reports on Memory Leaking with some Apps since Monterey, lucky me again have not had them.

Open Activity Monitor to analyze what is making Problems and Contact Adobe

Search:
Adobe Programs on AS sucks ran out of Memory even on 96GB Ram

 

[Sciuriware]

There are several Reports of Adobe Programs running slow, out of Memory on AS and so on........

Lucky me not using any of this but Affinity Foto and also do not have masses of Raw Conersions or 4K Video Editing so......

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/14mcamb
There where also Reports on Memory Leaking with some Apps since Monterey, lucky me again have not had them.

Open Activity Monitor to analyze what is making Problems and Contact Adobe

Search:
Adobe Programs on AS sucks ran out of Memory even on 96GB Ram

Excellent advise: Activity Monitor reveals a lot about many OS functions as well of applications.
;JOOP!

 

[daavee80]

How do you know that, since it hasn't been announced?

Logically it's guaranteed at this point.