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Macbook air M2 compared to MBP 2020 intel

M

mslab99

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 27, 2015
4
1
I've seen lots of threads comparing the Macbook air M2 to the 14inch MBP, but I was hoping people would have some good information comparing it to older MBP.

I have a 2020 MBP Intel 2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 with 16GB of memory. I'm looking to upgrade to the base model MBA M2.

How does the screen and speaker quality compare between the two laptops?

Will I notice the laptop being slower going from 16GB of memory to 8GB?

My MBP microphone stopped working and I was quoted $400 plus to fix it (apparently they have to change out the entire mobo) and the charger sometimes doesn't work making me think one day it's just going to stop on me. Advice on comparisons between the 2020 MBP especially around screen/speaker/memory comparisons would be really appreciated. The only other downside i'm debating is not being able to go dual monitor with the MBA M2.
 
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MBA M2 would be much better than the Intel MBP. The only limitation is that is only supports one external display.

The amount of memory you require depends on what you will be doing on it.
 
mslab99 said:
I've seen lots of threads comparing the Macbook air M2 to the 14inch MBP, but I was hoping people would have some good information comparing it to older MBP.

I have a 2020 MBP Intel 2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 with 16mb of memory. I'm looking to upgrade to the base model MBA M2.

How does the screen and speaker quality compare between the two laptops?

Will I notice the laptop being slower going from 16mb of memory to 8mb?

My MBP microphone stopped working and I was quoted $400 plus to fix it (apparently they have to change out the entire mobo) and the charger sometimes doesn't work making me think one day it's just going to stop on me. Advice on comparisons between the 2020 MBP especially around screen/speaker/memory comparisons would be really appreciated. The only other downside i'm debating is not being able to go dual monitor with the MBA M2.
Click to expand...

I don't own an M2 Air, I have looked at one, very nice and own a 13" M1 MBP. The base M2 will be a night and day experience in comparison to the 2020 MBP. The performance of Apple Silicon even at the lowest level is shocking fast, gets the job done fast with tremendous runtime on battery.

If I was to replace the 13" M1 I'd be looking at the M2 Air or a 14" MBP. M2 Air has a couple of limitations, equally not of issue for the vast majority. TBH I'd be surprised if you weren't impressed by the base M2 coming from the 2020.

Q-6
 
I had a 2020 13" Intel MBP. It had 32GB of memory. I bought a base M1 MBA when it came out as a secondary system. Everything that wasn't super memory dependent (which at that time was Linux VMs) just ran sooo much better on the M1 MBA. I no longer needed to run VMs so and I was so impressed by it I ended up selling off the MBP. Now I did recently also get a 14" MBP but that was more to replace my large iMac.
 
If you're not using your current one for any kind of heavy multi tasking that would greatly benefit the extra ram, then the m2 will be a very nice upgrade over it
 
I don't have a 2020 MBP but I had a 2017 MBP 15" and I would say it comes down to speakers and screen size. The speakers bass is better on what you have and coming from the larger screen might be an issue. The speakers on the air are good though.

I think the only way for you to tell would be to buy it and try it. As far as performance you will notice two things. It will be much faster and it will last on battery much longer. Plus if you get an air you will never hear fans.

Also it really depends on what you do and what your budget is. The base Model air is on sale a lot for $1099 which is a pretty good price. As a bunch of people will recommend is the M1 MBP 14" for $1599 on sale. If you do heavy gpu intensive multi core threaded applications for long durations of time then the MBP 14" might be a better option and it would have a screen/speakers closer to what you are used to. But $500 is a lot of money and if you don't need it why spend it?

The M1 MBP 14" also supports dual monitors. It would be much faster than your i5 and have a better battery life and unless you really push it you still won't hear the fans.

I like the M2 air a lot but for your use case a M1 MBP 14" sounds like a better fit. There might be a new M2 MBP 14" and 16" released soon or it may come next year so that might be another option but it won't be on sale and would cost even more.

Likely since you were using an i5 quad core from Intel any M series chip M1 or M2 would be much faster. The M2 air is a very capable device and I think would fit most of your needs. I am just concerned about screen size and dual monitor support. Speakers as well but I don't know how important that is to you.
 
mystery hill said:
The MacBook Air M2 has a larger screen (13.6 inches + extra space from the area to the side of the notch) compared to the MBP (13.3 inches)
Click to expand...
I thought he had a MBP with 15" screen. My bad. Then the only limiting factor would be dual screen support. Everything else compared to the 13.3" MBP would be better on M2 MBA. Screen, CPU/GPU, speakers, battery life would all be better. Forget my recommendation of the 14" altogether then.

As for the 16gb ram. It really depends again on what you do. The reviews are bit jaded on the base model air. I think if the storage is enough for you then most likely 8gb ram would be fine. Also if you can afford upgrading the ram and ssd to say 512gb ssd and 16gb ram then do it and don't listen to everyone telling you to just get a MBP 14". If you have Pro needs then clearly the 14" is better but if you don't the M2 air upgraded is something worth considering.
 
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