M1 MBA is better than M2 MBA for most people?

[UBS28]

Was just checking the Apple website and these new M2 MBA are close to the price of the 14" M1 Pro if you upgrade to 16GB RAM.

So for everyday users who are not power users, it's probably better to just go with the M1 MBA from 2 years ago and save alot of money this way?

 

[alexonline]

There will be some people who will appreciate the 13.6-inch display in a size that is a lot lighter than a 14-inch MBP.
However if your needs are more modest, then sure. Get an M1 MBA, it'll still be a great machine for years.

 

[Falhófnir]

There will be some people who will appreciate the 13.6-inch display in a size that is a lot lighter than a 14-inch MBP.
However if your needs are more modest, then sure. Get an M1 MBA, it'll still be a great machine for years.

The display increase is going to be all but unnoticeable, I really wouldn't get an M2 over an M1 if that's your main interest. The big draws would be 10 core graphics and 24GB RAM, or the new design/ colour options.

 

[alexonline]

The display increase is going to be all but unnoticeable, I really wouldn't get an M2 over an M1 if that's your main interest. The big draws would be 10 core graphics and 24GB RAM, or the new design/ colour options.

It's closer to 16:10, isn't it? I think I would notice it.

Anyway for me, at least, weight is more important that .4 of an inch to go to the 14, but if you need to support more than one external monitor, the 14-inch is a no brainer.

 

[w5jck]

I will stick with my MacBook Air M1 2020 model with 8 core GPU + 8 core CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. I wouldn't gain enough with the extra 0.3 inches of screen diagonal nor the upgraded screen to justify upgrading. I do see they no longer offer the 8 core GPU + 8 core CPU for the 2020 M1, just the 7 core GPU + 8 core CPU, but you can get that with up to 16GB RAM.

For myself, I doubt I will upgrade for a few years yet, not until the upgrade is more significant and my 2020 model is older.

 

[alexonline]

I will stick with my MacBook Air M1 2020 model with 8 core GPU + 8 core CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. I wouldn't gain enough with the extra 0.3 inches of screen diagonal nor the upgraded screen to justify upgrading. I do see they no longer offer the 8 core GPU + 8 core CPU for the 2020 M1, just the 7 core GPU + 8 core CPU, but you can get that with up to 16GB RAM.

For myself, I doubt I will upgrade for a few years yet, not until the upgrade is more significant and my 2020 model is older.

Your confit is great! I wouldn’t upgrade yet either. For someone with a 2020 or older Intel MBA? Either the M1 or M2 would be a great upgrade!

 

[w5jck]

Your confit is great! I wouldn’t upgrade yet either. For someone with a 2020 or older Intel MBA? Either the M1 or M2 would be a great upgrade!

Definitely!

 

[Falhófnir]

It's closer to 16:10, isn't it? I think I would notice it.

Anyway for me, at least, weight is more important that .4 of an inch to go to the 14, but if you need to support more than one external monitor, the 14-inch is a no brainer.

The M1 MBA is 16:10, I assume the M2 MBA adopts the marginally squarer 1.547:1 aspect with the notch. I don't think .3" extra on the diagonal would really be meaningful either way though, you'd get a hair's extra breadth, and most of the extra vertical would be taken up by the thicker menu bar:

Visual TV Size Comparison : 13.3 inch 16x10 display vs 13.6 inch 1.547x1 display

Visual size comparison of a 13.3 inch 16x10 display vs 13.6 inch 1.547x1 display

www.displaywars.com

There's definitely reasons to go for the M2 MBA (weight certainly among them) but if wanting a bit more screen area is a key factor, I'd jump to the 14", wait for the rumoured 15.2" Air, or look at a Windows alternative in the 15" thin and light class.

 

[Internaut]

I don’t think any of the M1 MBA early adopters will be crying into their beer. M2 MBA is best seen as a nice evolution. New buyers? Go for M2 if you can afford more unified memory?

 

[mi7chy]

M2 minimal differences doesn't justify price increase. Maybe if it was 3nm node shrink where they potentially can stuff M1 Pro 10CPU 14GPU performance into MBA chassis.

 

[Gnattu]

M2 minimal differences doesn't justify price increase. Maybe if it was 3nm node shrink where they potentially can stuff M1 Pro 10CPU 14GPU performance into MBA chassis.

This is still too optimistic. 8P2E is not going to happen in 3nm while keeping the same power envelope. This is basically saying 3nm could reduce power consumption by 50%.

 

[JPack]

M2's 18% CPU performance increase doesn't sound like a lot and surprisingly, it doesn't have TB4. I'd say go for M1 MBA or look for a 14-inch MBP on sale.

 

[Internaut]

M2's 18% CPU performance increase doesn't sound like a lot and surprisingly, it doesn't have TB4. I'd say go for M1 MBA or look for a 14-inch MBP on sale.

Or a 14” from Apple refurb. Same guarantee.

 

[eicca]

I just got an M1 MBA a few weeks ago, and was initially a little peeved that I didn't wait, but I saved $350 over the M2 and honestly the M1 is way more power than I need anyway. So the upgrade would have been pointless. And I like the notchless wedge design. I think it is smart to continue selling the M1 model at a lower price.

 

[senttoschool]

Yes, I would get the M1 Air. It's sometimes on sale for as little as $850 on Amazon. The new M2 Air is not worth $350 more for most people.

I think Apple desperately need to ship a 15" Air to replace the ancient 13" MBP.

 

[alien3dx]

my old imac 2017 still alive working after last operation power supply kaput and increase ram. My m1 still except those xcode ! . for god sake , apple wwdc don't upgrade xcode !. What the point of wwdc ?

 

[deconstruct60]

Was just checking the Apple website and these new M2 MBA are close to the price of the 14" M1 Pro if you upgrade to 16GB RAM.

So for everyday users who are not power users, it's probably better to just go with the M1 MBA from 2 years ago and save alot of money this way?

At this point Apple won't let the M1 MBA get to the full 8 GPU cores anymore. That is part of the "savings" here.

M1 MBA 8 cpu - 7 gpu (no updated video codecs ) 16GB RAM 256GB SSD $1,199

M2 MBA 8 cpu - 8 gpu ( updated video codecs ) 8GB RAM 256GB SSD $1,199


Average everyday user needs more than 8GB of RAM? ( If can "get by" with a 256GB SSD then 8GB is likely a tight constraint either. ). There is no huge price gap there. email , browser , and Word should get along in 8GB. ( can open a ton of tabs in a browser on some "heavy" web pages, but is that joe random casual user workload? ).


If you start to crank up all of the BTO options to try to get to parity with the minimum entry levels of the MBP 14" ... yeah the M2 MBA climbs pretty high. But the major problem is being burnt on Apple BTO pricing.

The M2 MBA 8/8 16GB RAM 256GB SSD $1,399


That is closer to the 16GB M1 MBA than it is to the $1,999 MBP 14" ( $200 away versus a $600 gap ).


If you nudge the SSD up

The M2 MBA 8/8 16GB RAM 512GB SSD $1,599 ( $400 away from bumped M1 MBA and only $400 to MBP 14" )

then it starts to tip. But also have a twice as big SSD drive along with the extra memory. If keep cranking the drive capacity up then yeah get to "closer to" MBP 14" prices.


If you select the M2 8 cpu 10 gpu then things also spin up pricing. But that is an even bigger gap in GPU. The M1 is now 3 GPU cores in a deficit to the M2 system. Apple is making you pay for those GPU cores. If don't need them at all then the M1 is an option. But basically tossing away performance. But can also toss them on the M2 also. [ Apple doesn't appear to have changed course on external GPU, so stuck with those "just 7" cores for life of the machine. ]

1 extra GPU core and 50% faster memory is probably better for "everyday users" over a 3-5 year service lifetime. Those extra two cores probably are not worth the stretch if on a tighter budget. Probably not worth the extra heat in a fanless system also.

 

[Admiral]

M2 minimal differences doesn't justify price increase. Maybe if it was 3nm node shrink where they potentially can stuff M1 Pro 10CPU 14GPU performance into MBA chassis.

A fanless M2 or M3 Pro with eight performance cores in this MacBook Air chassis would be an exceptionally compelling product. But it would have to support more than one external 4K monitor.

 

[deconstruct60]

I will stick with my MacBook Air M1 2020 model with 8 core GPU + 8 core CPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. I wouldn't gain enough with the extra 0.3 inches of screen diagonal nor the upgraded screen to justify upgrading. I do see they no longer offer the 8 core GPU + 8 core CPU for the 2020 M1, just the 7 core GPU + 8 core CPU, but you can get that with up to 16GB RAM.

Upgrading versus buying the MBA new are somewhat separated now. That 8 GPU configuration isn't for sale anymore.

I extremely doubt Apple has any major expectations of a mass exodus off of M1 MBA onto M2 MBA. Most buyers will be those on 2+ year old systems or do not have a Mac system at all.

M2 isn't a "version 1.0" product. So that will help 2+ year old owners move up. It is faster than what they have (MBA , MBP 13" Intel CPU and iGPU , probably faster than some decently older 15" models if going back in time. ) .There are multiples more of those users than there are M1 MBA users.


Also the screen isn't just incrementally bigger , it is also better. Getting same baseline screen tech that Apple had kept for the MBP 13" M1. (500 nits vs 400 nits . Not night vs. day differences but if put the two screens side by side in a normally lighted room most folks can tell the difference if there is a normal colors scene on the screen. ) . IF do a decent amount of video web conferences the camera is substantially better.



Apple will be chasing the M1 MBA buyers more with the M3 (and M4) MBA variants. The M2 variant doesn't have to do that work at all.

 

[deconstruct60]

A fanless M2 or M3 Pro with eight performance cores in this MacBook Air chassis would be an exceptionally compelling product.

probably not if that substantively bigger SoC meant shrinking the battery size incrementally. ( the battery in the M2 MBA is slightly bigger than the M1 MBA but the "time on battery" times are the same). Going to a higher consumption SoC would shrink the "time on battery" times .

Nor would it fit thermally. ( the MBA height shrank and rose at they removed the "wedge", but it mostly was "thinned" just enough to still fit the incrementally larger battery. ). There is no large thermal "headroom" in the chassis. ( won't be surprising if sustained high loads on the max BTO configuration has minor issues just with the M2 )

Runs very hot and the battery life is diminished. They would likely loose as many customers as it would gain.

Folks will likely be looking for better battery time when the M3 MBA rolls around. ( or a greatly improved screen that is with the battery trade-off).

 

[thenewperson]

M2's 18% CPU performance increase doesn't sound like a lot and surprisingly, it doesn't have TB4

TB4 certification would require support for more than 1 4K display I believe.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

It's closer to 16:10, isn't it? I think I would notice it.

Anyway for me, at least, weight is more important that .4 of an inch to go to the 14, but if you need to support more than one external monitor, the 14-inch is a no brainer.

wym,MBA M1 already is 16:10

 

[Gregintosh]

The main reason to buy the M2 MacBook Air is the new design. Performance differences aren't going to be noticeable for most people so squabbling over small differences as if that was the reason to pick one over the other is a red herring.

Since it's just a $100 difference it really doesn't feel like a good value to get a 4 or 5 year old design in 2022 unless you truly hate the new design/notch. Most people are going to blow that amount on one dinner outside with their partner (at least in developed countries), so spending it on a device you'll keep for years makes sense to get the newest/latest look.

In a couple of years the new M2 Airs will hold resale value far better than the old design as well.

 

[Pugly]

The price difference of the 13" MBP and MBA was better spent on more RAM and/or SSD space. To a lesser extent the M2 Air has the same issue. 16GB is probably more usable than performance gains in M2. The M1 already is as fast as Macs that could be configured to 32GB... it's kind of wasted potential to limit it to 8GB.

The M1 Air will never become a garbage product, it just loses it's luster and becomes less of a value over time. You can't really go wrong either way, so it all depends on how much you money you want to spend.

 

[playtech1]

I convinced a family member to upgrade from a 2014 Air to a 2020 Air but after a few months she went back to her old machine, having smashed the screen on the new one and not being all that bothered about getting it repaired any time soon. She complained the new ones are too fragile (which is fair - the old Airs were tanks) and really couldn't give a damn about a retina display, CPU, SSD size or speed or anything that I thought she would like in the new laptop. And I would say she is 'most people'. So yes, I think M1 MBA is the right call for most.

Even a more discerning user would get essentially the same experience from the M1 MBA as they would from the M2 or indeed a model costing three times the price, unless they happen to do something out of the ordinary. Even niche activities like video editing and Mac gaming are doable on the base M1.

I think the M2's selling points over M1 for lots of people will be the new colour options and Magsafe. I think pretty much everything else could easily go unnoticed.