This is now the third video in this series where I use the M2 MacBook Air in a relevant
use case.
I am sure you are probably fed up with all these videos showing the M2 MacBook Air in
some crazy benchmark tests and people trying to break it.
Some of those videos are quite useful in the right context.
But the majority of them are completely missing the point of this beautiful machine in my
opinion.
So today we are gonna do some graphic designing.
I am Alex and I do down to earth tech videos.
I am gonna spare you some of the details of my day.
You don’t want to see me putting my socks on and eating breakfast right?
The focus is on how a graphic designer can use the M2 MacBook Air.
Before I started my work day I checked my emails, and my calendar.
I did some journaling too because I am trying to be a better human being.
Come on who does that?
Of course I fucking didn’t!
But I did use my tablet for general stuff.. getting organised for the day.
Then I did hop on my M2 MacBook Air, responded to a few client emails and took the dog for
a spin and then did a bit of this.
And a bit of that.
It’s school holidays now so I came back and got my son ready as we have a big day
ahead of us.
And here is where I realised the main benefit of the M2 MacBook Air.
I come from a time where laptops were 17” and weighed a ton so anything is light today.
But come on…
This is on another level when it comes to mobility.
I charge the computer overnight so I really don’t need to take the charger
with me.
Once we got to
the studio, I did some admin work and at about 9:30 I did a little bit of browsing online
to get some inspiration for a client project.
I am working with the amazing people at Insta360 right now and I really want to make sure I
do a good job for them you know?
They sent me these incredible action cameras and I gotta do some graphic work to help promote
it.
If you haven’t realised by now I am not a full time graphic designer.
But running this YouTube channel and treating it like a business means I have to be many
things, including graphic designer.
So I spent some time getting some inspiration online using quite a few tabs in Chrome, nothing
crazy…
And despite what some people were saying about the M2 MacBook Air being slower than the M1
and almost killing the product before it was even launched.
And listen I get that…
That’s how YouTube works sometimes and to generate views, there’s a level of sensationalism
that you gotta do.
In this instance I chose to wait because when it comes to MacBooks Apple have always been
quite hard to beat.
I am really happy with the memory upgrade on this MacBook Air, the 16GB RAM has been
such a great choice.
Especially for multitasking.
And if you are a student, you can check out the day in the life of a student video I did
which again, showed that the 16GB was the right upgrade to choose.
I am sure I would be more than OK to work with 8GB but it’s nice to have that 16GB
of RAM when I get busy… which sometimes I really do.
I do a lot of work on Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom throughout the day but sometimes
I like using Canva.
This is not sponsored video by the way, I just really like them, especially when you
are not feeling like coming up with your own design, they have some great ideas and templates
to choose from and get inspired…
I know I am using Illustrator here for the video but I will be very transparent with
you.
I only know very basic concepts of Illustrator.
But I wanted to run it alongside Photoshop and Lightroom so you get a feel for the multitasking
capabilities here.
And as you can see, with about 15 tabs in Chrome and all of these Adobe apps open…
So I created a couple of story posts featuring the Insta360 camera and now.. well into my
morning it was time for some client meetings.
I use Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams mostly and to be honest with you, I typically use
my actual camera for this.
Which works fine, but in the spirit of keeping this video relevant, I used the built-in camera
of the MacBook Air.
It’s not the greatest to be honest, but as far as a laptop camera goes, this is not
the worst I’ve seen.
Temperature check and memory check after those calls showed no sign of overheating, the MacBook
Air is just chugging along nicely.
After my calls, it was time to check in with my messages, another bit of emails before
heading out to lunch.
After lunch there was a bit of time to chill so I played some light games using GeForce
Now which if you don’t know, it’s cloud service for gaming.
I watched a couple of YouTube videos.
Before getting back to work I checked Twitter and it was great to see all these lovely people
saying hi!
And a quick check on my Instagram posts…
For whatever that’s worth!
But I do post a lot over there and sometimes I create some fun reels that you might like
and I give away some stuff as well over there so might be worth a follow.
That was so smooth right?
Anyway…There wasn’t much time left in the day so I had to crack on with more work,
because I had to get that video uploaded and get some promo work done for it as well.
And before I go into the next session, a quick reminder to like this video if you’re enjoying
it so far.
As a small channel, it’s really tricky to get recommended on YouTube so your interactions
really matter.
And if you like my stuff, it would be awesome if you subscribed to the channel.
And the benefit to you is that I am here at least once a week with a new…
down to earth tech video for you.
Right...
Once the video was uploaded I spent some time responding to comments and got straight back
to taking some more shots for my promo with Insta360.
By this time the battery was still going strong with plenty left for my last couple of hours
of work.
I uploaded all the shots I liked to Instagram.
I use this website called Later which allows me to publish them… you guessed it.
Later.
I had one more client meeting Left for the day which again I did on Zoom
and for the final part of the day I started to put together a bit of an idea for one of
my next videos.
I use a service called Miro.
They have loads of templates there to choose from, I think its a great tool for getting
ideas quickly on paper and give those ideas some structure.
It makes the writing and the whole creative process a lot easier to do later on.
And if you are working with a team of people that are not in the same space as you, this
is great for collaboration as well.
Now it was time to be a dad so we drove to a cricket match.
I try to get involved in my son’s sports but I usually end up being a victim of his
abilities.
No dads were injured in the making of this video.
In the evening after catching up with my family, I typically go back online at around 9-10
and do some more browsing the socials, a bit more responding to comments and getting ready
for the next day.
Checked in on YouTube again before signing off for the day.
Should you get the M2 MacBook Air in this configuration?
The 16GB RAM spec has been a great choice for my creative workflow.
Will this replace my M1 Max MacBook Pro?
No.
But it has been able to cope with a lot more than I expected.
Sure… the battery didn’t fair that well in such a busy day with only about 15% left
when it got to the end of the day.
But I was at home anyway and connecting to the charger made a lot more sense than carrying
it all day long.
But if you are planning on using the M2 MacBook Air to do multitasking AND creative work,
then I’d say the 8GB might struggle a little bit.
If you are NOT multitasking, or maybe doing a little bit less than I was the 8GB will
be alright.
What about the storage?
Well, with storage there are workarounds.
Like the one I shared in this video over here where delve into a lot more detail of the
storage side of things.
And the great people on YouTube reckon that you might like this playlist over here.
I have nearly 200 videos on the channel so I hope there’s one in there that you like.
Hope to see you there!