The MacBook Air is so much better in so many ways (bigger screen, smaller bezels, lighter, thinner, MagSafe). if You don’t care about any of those things, and are going to do sustained gaming sessions, get the Pro.
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Sway me in favor of the 13" MacBook Pro instead of the 13" Macbook Air
- Thread starter prehmo
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You shouldn't go with the "Pro." The only upside to the 13 inch "Pro" is the fact it has a heatsink while the MBA is passively cooled. But M2 has a big problem at base spec 256gb storage: Only one SSD module. M1 at base spec used two 128gb SSD models for it's storage which meant fast read and write speeds, as well as doing both at the same time. With M2 Apple decided to cheap out and move to just 256gb modules, and for base spec only include one. Because of this, base spec M2 has half the read write speeds of every other Mac, including last gen M1.
I don't even know why the 13 inch Macbook "Pro" still even exists when M1 Pro 14 inch MBPs are easily findable for less than $1500 at retail now.
I think it's due to the "dynamic" nature of it. Most people touch type, so if part of the keyboard is dynamic, it messes with their rhythm. I know on the Touch Bar you can have it showing the function row but the tactile feedback isn't as good as an actual keyboard click. But, each to their own 👍
I agree that for prolonged workloads and processor intensive tasks, active cooling is better than passive cooling.
However, I've played processor intensive games (Football Manager, Factorio) on my M1 MBA and not noticed any slow downs, even at 1hr+ sessions. I've also edited - albeit amateur - videos from my iPhone 14 Pro and drone in 4k on iMovie and it got the job done.
I personally think if throttling is a concern to any perspective buyer than either of these machines aren't aimed at you and are more approaching the realms of 14" pro. That said is a huge jump in [insert local currency symbol]. YMMV of course.
Typical throttled vs unthrottled M2 is still within the same ball park of performance. This isn't like how Intel Macbooks used to hard-throttle and make your life miserable. The true step-up would be the 14" machines with the M2 Pro, M1 Max or M2 Max (and to some extent the M1 Pro, but the difference isn't dramatic).
And yes you can game and video-edit on a passively cooled M2. I see "casual" being used here but I color grade shows for a living and have ran many projects through this chip without issue. If you're just starting out with such a hobby I don't see why you think you need to get the fanciest of machines.
And yes you can game and video-edit on a passively cooled M2. I see "casual" being used here but I color grade shows for a living and have ran many projects through this chip without issue. If you're just starting out with such a hobby I don't see why you think you need to get the fanciest of machines.
I will be in line to upgrade from my 13” M1 MBP on day one and I’ll be a happy camper.
Baffled that anyone is considering an upgrade from an M1 to a standard M series chip.
M1 is so fast, I haven't felt it slow down at all since it launched.
Agreed. Seems rather quick. Unless the idea is that this may be the last Mac with this body style and that it's an upgrade done on that flavor of FOMO pretenses. Then again, if Apple ups the maximum RAM on the standard M3 to 32GB and keeps this same form factor, I'd probably make that jump too (but at least at that point there's an upgrade worth making an earlier-than-usual jump for). But, definitely not on day one. Apple's quality control is definitely not good enough these days to reasonably be a day one adopter anymore.
13 MBP is an orphaned mac, which should be discontinued. There is nothing pro about that notebook. It would take sustained heavy load for Air to throttle. If that’s your load, might as well go for MBP 14 or 16.
Not big difference between one module or two, unless you bought to the fudged tests max tech did. I have a base M2 Air with 8 GB and 256. It’s great laptop. If swapping is a problem get more RAM, before storage.
The Pro has a fan. I guess it depends what you plan to use it for, but the fan can make a huge difference. I bought the air, used it to produce a podcast, and it overheated and slowed down all the time. I got the base model 13" M1 Pro and used it as a professional video editor for over 2 years.
Both have the exact same chip, so you're not futureproofing anything by getting an M2 Mac with a fan over an M2 Mac without a fan (unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here).
I game on my M1 Pro MBP and fans never come on.
Video editing also won't matter unless you plan to start a career of it where you're editing videos for hours upon hours (unlikely). For smaller projects, you won't notice a difference.
I like a smaller screen (13-14), but even that aside, I'd take more storage over a 15" screen.
It's not. I game on my M1 Pro and I can't remember the last time fans ever turned on. Not going to be a problem for the more efficient M2.
because you are not pushing it, on my m1 max fans kicks up to a not bad but still noticeable decibel when i played pathfinder and borderland 3. sure i can play solitary or angry bird my fans won't ever turn on either 😂
m2 is only more efficient for everyday stuff, when graphically pushed its actually worse than m1 due to more cores in the same chassis. m2 is still 5nm therefore it gives off exact amount of heat if not more. the main difference is m2 has more efficiency cores which becomes a moot point under heavy rendering.
edit: forgot m2 not only more cores, but m2 is clocked higher. so double whammy.
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Since Apple Silicon uses lower wattages to begin with than their x86 competitors, there's less waste/overhead wattage that gets converted to heat. Consequently, AS-based Macs can run virtually silently under loads which would make an Intel-based Mac sound like a jet engine at takeoff. Even when running Cyberpunk 2077 via the Game Porting Toolkit the fans on my Mac barely become audible, and that's a scenario where x86 code is being translated into ARM64 code and DX12 translated into Metal simultaneously. If I run Cyberpunk on my gaming PC, the fans all kick into high gear, even with liquid cooling for the CPU and a total of eight fans for the system as a whole.
ofrcourse, i didn't say anything otherwise, ofcourse AS is much more efficient, thats why i got the m1 max. however the post i was replying to said "can't remember the last time fans ever turned on"
sounds like you need better coolers, i run cyberpunk 4k ultra TLSS and my pc is barely audible, i'm using a noctua D14 with TUF gpu, all intake/exhuast fans are noctua a12x25mm, peak performance avg below 30db with fans spinning around 1000rpm.