Hey friends, Andrew here - hope you're well! So, I've used the M2 Air literally every single day
since launch as my primary laptop and after spending a few months with the M2 Air...this
laptop, I think, may be the everyday laptop for the vast majority of people! A few months on from
launch the M2 Air is still in hot demand and so much so that some configurations still command
a few weeks wait so whether you're waiting for your new M2 Air to arrive or you're considering
a brand new laptop here is my long term review and in this video i'll share my
new findings and hopefully answer the question of whether or not this truly is the everyday laptop
if you watch my reviews you'll know i like to start with the negatives so let's go over the
long term flaws i discovered over the months i've recently moved to a new dedicated office
space and so i've spent a lot of time building up my new desk setup and here's where i ran into
one of the surprising flaws with the m2 air which initially went over my head and i haven't really
seen covered in most reviews and that's a fact the two usbc ports here are on the same left
hand side it sounds trivial and for the most part it is until the dock you use prioritizes
the right hand side or the accessory you plug in blocks the only other empty usbc port for example
from a design perspective evenly splitting the usbc ports to sit on both sides would have been
far more practical for basically everybody but yeah i haven't really seen this called out much
so maybe it's just me that finds this a flaw this isn't a deal breaker though moving on to the more
controversial quote-unquote flaw the notorious midnight color you either love or you love to hate
to me i still find it absolutely beautiful it's a beautiful color an ethereal refracting deep
blue hue that changes by time of day and lighting conditions but yes it definitely still is a
massive fingerprint magnet nothing's changed there over the last three months actually it's gotten
worse so if i were to buy this again i wouldn't change my color choice actually i still love it
all i've done is pull back on the consistency of wiping it down where i wiped it down daily i now
wipe it down weekly i just sort of you know accepted the smudges and dare i say it it
feels like it gives it more character like a good leather patina people who can't stand a single
smudge and are kicking up a big fuss about it i don't know it kind of gives me patrick bateman
vibes hopefully you got that reference if you're worried about fingerprints and it's detracting you
from the midnight color don't be unless you're a criminal i feel like most of you will get over it
in a couple weeks and come to enjoy the midnight color for what it is sophisticated especially
with this wallpaper which brings together the midnight color pretty well if you ask me link
to it below as usual it's been awesome seeing you guys rock the wallpaper in your setup what i would
actually change in retrospect is upgrading the ssd and memory as savvy subscribers pointed out
in my previous review the slower read write ssd speeds are specific only to the 256 gigabyte drive
though even then performance throttling continues to happen due to heat dissipation issues it was
evident over the last few months the laptop would stutter and it would be hot to the touch
more frequently than ever and for the rare few who plan to throw a heavy workload at the m2
air as unconventional as that would be this is something i think you should be wary of if you're
an everyday consumer and you use this laptop as an everyday laptop as it's intended to be
you should take the throttling and heat issues with a grain of salt because it'll likely not
be an issue for you in the first place you're not going to hit the throttling threshold so you're in
the clear breathe easy and don't take the other dire review saying the base M2 Air is the worst
thing ever it's definitely not and i've been using it daily for months it's also worth pointing out
i updated the M2 Air to the mac os ventura beta and that made the throttling issues even worse
the initial beta was quite unstable to be fair you know the notes app wasn't working
things would freeze and stage manage still kind of sucks especially on a 13 inch screen
it seems to exaggerate the m2 air throttling and heat issues with this beta but as you can see here
i was randomly browsing websites and had to take out my phone to film this it was just stuttering
all over the place it was laggy when i checked the temperature of i cleaned my mac x it was well
over the operating temperature range it's speaking of clean my mac x they're today's
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in the link below and test it out to see if it works for you too now moving on to the positives
with the m2 air and g's have i loved using this laptop as a deadly driver over the last few months
here's why i didn't cover the m2 air keyboard in my first review in detail but the more i type on
it the more i love it it sounds great it feels great and it works great what more can you ask
for the magic keyboard is lifted from the 14 inch macbook pro it's identical on paper with
the traditional scissor switch mechanism but there's something more tactile and responsive
to the typing experience on the macbook air m2 it could be the m2 processor or it could be placebo
i can't put my finger on it but if you have the m2 air let me know down below if you feel the
same but either way the keyboard has been amazing and i found myself taken to the cafes all the time
which leads me to its portability weight and design a big big positive over the last few months
i've had others pick up the laptop and their initial reaction is almost always wow this is
so much lighter than my insert just about any laptop here i've missed owning an air for this
exact reason it's just so easy to roam around with or go traveling to go work remotely with
i'd go as far as to say if you're a student you don't need to look any further than this laptop
here the power packed portability is all you need to excel with your studies for me it's now really
hard to want to even pick up and take the macbook pro around it feels gigantic after using the m2
air every day in and out in fact i just have the pro docked at home at all times now for the more
power intensive work and i take my M2 Air over to the new office instead and so this begs the
question how far can you really push your m2 air well here's a couple real world examples
i edited a couple of small video files with ease even 4k content but when it comes to large 10
bit 4224k files and multiple hard drives like the setup makeover series i'm working on at the moment
it just wasn't able to keep up to the rendering and file processing with daily use it only slows
down when i actively use figma spotify notion slack and a number of pdfs and tabs up on safari
and chrome simultaneously that's when i start to see the n2 processor push and depending on
how many tabs i continue opening performance was throttled i want to stress that this isn't going
to be an issue for most people for everything else especially if you're editing documents
in the cloud it doesn't skip a beat as long as you have a reliable and fast internet connection
the laptop doesn't need to be more powerful than it already is given the intended market
segment it's appealing to the perfect everyday laptop for the everyday user with the m2 pro and
m2 max chips potentially just around the corner even well into the development and testing phase
is the m2 Air still worth buying i'll make it easy after using it for months yes it is for probably
80 of the general population or more if you're either not required to be using intensive apps or
as a hobby the m2 macbook air is where it's at this includes students small business owners
and the everyday mom and dad for example i think the m1 Air still represents the best
value if you're strapped on cash but if you're someone with deeper pockets and you're looking
for a new daily laptop i can almost guarantee you won't be disappointed with the m2 air and
even if you're a so-called pro user and yes guys i totally realize that pro is a very vague term
this could still be an amazing purchase for those pro users as a secondary laptop to assist
with your main workhorse for me the M2 Air is one of the best apple purchases i've made in a
while i've been using it more than my macbook pro which is now reserved only for content creation
work i mean heck i run my shopify business and get all my life admin work done on this macbook
air alone and let's not forget this is the base m2 Air if you're looking for the best of the best
possibly even an upcoming oled screen well i'll see you in the review of the m2 pro when it drops
everything else continues to stand from my initial review the screen is amazing even though it lacks
promotion the ssd read write speeds is backwards for the 256 gigabyte version yes but it's fine for
the intended biodemographic the upgraded webcam is welcome and the notch isn't nearly as bad as
you may think it is the everyday laptop to get if you made it to the end of the video drop the
codeword comment every day and i'll give it a like and while you're here i'll drop a video right here
where i go over the 14 must change settings when you get that macbook m2 Air or update to mac os
ventura in general there's a lot of settings that you want to change including privacy
and general speed optimization settings so go check out that video if you're interested
and as always thank you for watching and i'll see you in the next video