Okay, so I think by now,
there are probably hundreds
of M2 MacBook Air reviews out there,
and they all mostly say the same stuff.
It's good, but too expensive.
MagSafe is nice.
The midnight color gets fingerprints,
the whole SSD controversy,
and surprise, surprise,
a $1,200 laptop is good
at basic tasks like web browsing and emails.
I've covered all of those things already,
and I will link those videos in the description
if you are interested.
In this video though,
I'm going to try and focus on some things
I haven't really heard people talk about
and skip all of the benchmarks and technical stuff.
Because I've been using this device every day
for quite a while now,
and because of this,
I've come across a couple of things I think you should know.
All right, so firstly,
a comparison you've seen countless times
is the M2 MacBook Air versus the 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook.
Honestly, I can see where most people are coming from here
and I've done the same thing in my own videos.
If you upgrade the Air to a 512-gigabyte SSD
and 16 gigabytes of RAM,
the price is getting very close to the 14-inch MacBook,
which is better in almost every way.
But that's not the point,
because the 14-inch MacBook has one massive flaw.
It's a Big ol' Chungus when compared to the Air.
And I feel like most of the videos I've seen on this topic,
try to make this seem like a smaller deal than what it is.
I mean, it might not look like it on paper,
but when you actually have these two things in your hands,
the 14-inch MacBook feels like a brick
in comparison to the Air.
It's also thicker and larger,
and all of this combined actually works out
to be quite significant,
even though both machines are designed to be super portable.
Now, this doesn't really impact me personally.
I mean, I'm a pretty big guy.
I can carry a heavy backpack with no issues.
I also don't have any back or shoulder problems,
but that's not the case for everyone.
My girlfriend, for example, is 5'2",
and she notices any extra weight.
Her bag is also typically much smaller,
or, for example, those that travel on airplanes frequently
with carry-on baggage only.
The slim design and portability of the M2 Air
is essentially that of a slightly chunkier M1 iPad Pro.
And it really does feel like a notebook
when sliding it into your bag.
And the point I'm trying to make here is that,
even if you upgrade the Air to the point where it costs
a similar amount to the 14-inch Pro,
that doesn't automatically mean the 14-inch is a better buy.
I've seen tons of people in my comments saying
that they bought a 16-gigabyte RAM,
and one terabyte SSD, M2 Air,
simply because they don't need
the performance of the 14-inch,
and want to prioritize form factor and weight.
And at the end of the day,
the performance gap between the M2 Air and 14-inch M1 Pro
isn't as as large as you think in a lot of areas.
And that leads me to my next point.
I really don't like the argument some people make
that the M2 MacBook Air
is only for those doing basic tasks like web browsing
and emails.
I mean, sure, look, it does all of those things well,
but it is a $1,200 U.S. dollar laptop
at the end of the day.
And I think if the M2 Air was sentient and had emotion,
it would be insulted,
because it's capable of so much more.
As an example, and I know I'm being a typical YouTuber here,
and talking about video editing,
but trust me, it is the best example.
This is a Multicam project with four streams
of professional level footage.
Seriously, I used a proper cinema camera
to shoot some of this footage.
And this M2 Air is blazing through it in 4K
in real-time with no fan.
To give you an idea of just how impressive this is,
this is the project I used to test
the maxed out 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro
versus an Intel 12th Generation,
and RTX 3080 Ti Windows pc.
These laptops are about three times more expensive
than the M2 MacBook Air.
And the M2 MacBook Air's holding up really well here,
which is amazing.
By the way, if you do want to see that M1 Max
versus Intel 12th Gen comparison,
I will link that down below.
And although I definitely don't recommend the M2 MacBook Air
for this particular workflow,
if you'd asked me a few years ago,
if anything like this was possible on a device like this,
I would've just straight up laughed in your face.
And if we step outside the world of Apple
and look at some competitors,
they're just not anywhere near as powerful
and as slim and as portable and as efficient,
at least, until they make significant changes
to their own silicon.
There is one caveat in all of this though.
Back in the M1 Air days,
there was a huge debate about eight
versus 16 gigabytes of RAM.
Now, this was prevalent with the M2 Air as well,
but not quite as widespread in my opinion.
And while the eight-gigabyte M2 Air works well,
only eight gigabytes of RAM is a significant bottleneck
in many areas once you go outside
of the basic web browsing and multitasking workflows.
Now, I promised no graphs or benchmarks in this video.
So if you do want to check out a detailed comparison
between eight, 16 and 24-gigabyte RAM M2 MacBook is,
make sure you check out this video.
Basically, what I found is that,
16 gigabytes essentially unlocks the M2 chip.
So much so, that you'll see
a massive 50% performance gain in some areas,
which, although an extra $200 for 16 gigabytes
of RAM ain't cheap,
is actually an incredibly good value for money
if you consider the price to performance gain.
Unfortunately, with the current pricing
of the M2 MacBook Air,
that makes it a $1,400 device,
which is a tough pill to swallow,
even for those who are willing to spend
that much money on a laptop.
Also, on the topic of RAM,
when I first watched the M2 MacBook Air announcement
and saw it had the option for 24 gigabytes of RAM,
I pretty much just wrote that off straight away.
I didn't think it made sense,
because if you need that amount of RAM,
you're almost certainly better off going
with a more professional laptop.
And in some situations, that is still true.
However, I admit that I definitely jumped the gun
on that one, because there are quite a few workflows
where a 24-gigabyte RAM, M2 MacBook Air,
actually makes perfect sense.
Developing, for example,
doesn't need a lot of CPU or GPU power
unless you're frequently compiling.
But if you have multiple IDEs open
or a large Docker container, for example,
that extra RAM is pretty much essential.
Other workflows like running VMs,
for example, Parallels,
or even the Chrome themes out there
that have 100 tabs open at once.
All of these things run perfectly fine
on the M2 MacBook Air,
and the RAM is the biggest bottleneck,
not the CPU or GPU.
Now, one thing I haven't heard many people talk about
is the future of the MacBook Air lineup.
If we go back to the M1 MacBook Air,
I think everyone can agree
that it was a revolutionary product
when compared to the previous Intel generations.
I mean, the M1 MacBook was so popular.
It's the reason why this very channel exploded
in November 2020,
going from basically zero subscribers to what it is now.
A big thanks to all of our subscribers,
by the way.
Appreciate the support.
Fast forward to the present.
The Air has received a new chassis,
and although not as revolutionary
of a change when compared to the M1,
it was still a significant change nonetheless.
But what about future generations?
Honestly, I think we've pretty much reached peak MacBook Air
at least for the next five years or so.
Apple typically only upgrades the chassis
on their product lines every four to five years.
And when the Air gets the new three nanometer M3 chip
or whatever Apple calls it,
with improved performance and efficiency,
I really don't think it will be a significant upgrade
to what we've got now.
And this is a natural cycle.
In the years after a revolutionary change,
each subsequent update or evolution
of that product becomes less and less impressive.
And I think there was a lot of hype
and unrealistic expectations
that came from the initial M1 release.
And people are only just starting to realize
that we're not going to be completely blown away
with every Apple silicon release going forward.
Even if we do fast forward to five years in the future,
I truly don't think there will be much
of a significant difference between the M2 Air
and whatever is newly released.
So what does this mean for you and me?
Honestly, if you're in the market for a new laptop,
I think an M2 MacBook Air,
upgraded with 16 gigabytes of RAM,
and the 512 gigabyte SSD,
is one of the most future-proof laptops
you can buy right now.
And when I say future-proofing,
I don't believe that web browsing
or everyday apps will magically need double the storage
or RAM in five years.
I mostly mean, if your needs change.
For example, you might only need to do simple web browsing
and edit a few basic images in Lightroom for now,
but maybe down the track you want to switch careers
and start learning how to code,
and you need more RAM,
or maybe you buy a better camera
that shoots much higher quality images,
and you need the extra performance in Lightroom.
The 512-gigabyte SSD will give you that speed boost over
the controversial 256-gigabyte base model,
while also giving you more storage space and longevity.
And the extra RAM will give you a bit of breathing room
in case your needs change after a few years.
But apart from that, over the last couple of weeks
and months using this device,
I've been pretty impressed.
There has been a lot of controversy,
you know, all the overheating stuff,
the slow SSD,
you know, the midnight color scratching.
But at the end of the day,
once you sift through all of the negative reviews
and controversial stuff out there,
it is a solid laptop,
albeit with some flaws.
But I truly think that it's probably one
of the best MacBooks Apple has ever made.
But apart from that,
hopefully you guys enjoyed this video,
and I'll catch you in the next one.