This is the beautiful M2 MacBook Air in Starlight with 16GB of RAM.
It’s been 8 months since I bough the M2 MacBook Air and it’s been a delightful journey so far.
In this video I will show you how this little beast has fit into my busy life here in the
studio space…whether I am creating content, doing graphic design or attending meetings…
But also when I am out and about, travelling or commuting to work at my client’s offices. I will
also be sharing details about the setup itself, how I keep this space as efficient as possible.
Starting with the laptop itself, just a little bit of context for you…
Content creation is not my only business… I ran a separate tech
consultancy business….which keeps me really busy most of the day.
To give you an idea, right now it’s about 8PM and
that’s about the time usually when I get to work on the YouTube channel.
I do use my M1 Max MacBook Pro when I am editing these videos like the one you’re
watching right now, mainly because as I do need that extra power in CPU and GPU.
But that’s not saying that the M2 MacBook Air can’t edit videos. In fact,
when I was on holiday last year… I only brought the M2 Mac Book Air with me… and
I was able to edit an entire 4K video on it. Is it as fast my MacBook Pro? Of course not.
But it was more than decent enough and that mobility
aspect was something that I really valued.
Plus, I’ve been known to leave laptops on trains and aeroplanes before… so it
was less risky to take the M2 MacBook Air from that perspective as well.
The M2 MacBook Air has been an absolute joy to use. I know Apple have disappointed me
in some areas recently but when it comes to computers, they really are top notch.
Pun intended
When I am not travelling though, I have a couple
of different workstations here in the studio which I will show you briefly.
I will do a separate video about them specifically but this here is where I
have the M2 MacBook Air set up right now, I keep it very minimal but super efficient.
I have an M1 Mac mini here too, but more about that later in the video.
This other desk here is where I do most of my editing work. So to be honest it’s
always quite messy with whatever I am working on that given day.
This one over here that you can see behind me,
is my Beastly Gaming PC setup. It’s fairly new, and something I’ve started to work
on towards the end of last year and I am really excited to share more on that soon.
But today, we’re talking about my favourite space to work on, when I am on the M2 MacBook Air.
And before I go on, I am fully aware these sort of videos may come across as a bit like a sales
channel… but really, I love making these sort of videos and sharing with you what I like to use.
If a product made to this video is because I genuinely like it.
If you do end up buying any of these it definitely supports the
channel but it’s not why I am making this video.
The desk itself…. This is a fantastic standing desk by
a company called FlexiSpot and this is their E7 model.
Since 2020 when a lot of us started to work from home a lot more, I quickly
realised that I was getting all sorts of back pain and headaches… and as soon as I
invested in a more comfortable chair and a standing desk, things really improved.
Honestly, it’s really incredible - especially after a certain age - how much better it
feels when you’re just… going though those long sessions of back to back meetings and
staring at the screen, alll like tense… to just take a moment and stand up.
And you know.. stretch a little and take a few deep breaths….
Get the blood flow going, it really helps me have
a bit more clarity of thought and just makes me generally feel better you know?
I have this anti-fatigue mat too which initially I thought it was
a gimmick but definitely helps again, to keep moving during
those tedious long calls sometimes…Mine isn’t from FlexiSpot but I know they have one too.
The desk I went with has this really cool walnut finish, but they do have several different ones
for you to choose from. Or alternatively of course, you can install your own top as well.
The dual motors are really strong on the E7 and will support up to 161kg I believe!
And the best thing, they are really quiet as well,
under <50 decibels when the motors are going which is really very nice.
Something that I really care about…and if you have kids you will too… is the fact
that it has an anti-collision system so… even if you accidentally press it,
it’s not going to come down if it detects any pressure stopping it.
Talking about kids, the fact that it can memorise multiple positions,
it means you can have multiple people using it.
So when my son is here with me, and usually using the M1 Mac mini to game on this desk,
he has his own presets. Really cool.
When I have a freelancer come help me with my video editing
I will probably have him use this desk as well.
So yeah, this is like my quiet corner in the
studio here where I can sit and really do some focused work, minimum interruptions.
This desk also comes with an under the desk cable duct, to keep the cables as tidy as possible.
Mine needs a bit more work to tidy up, but… out of the box, it was pretty good already.
Setting it up was a breeze too. Ideally you want to do this with someone else,
but I was able to do it by myself, no problems.
FlexiSpot actually have an Easter sale right now with a membership option too,
so you can get this standing desk right now with 33% OFF, when you use the link in the description.
Like I said this is my corner in the studio where I like to use for focused
work and… as well as having a standing desk which is great for my health,
I am a firm believer that having plants around us also do wonders for our wellbeing.
I am originally from Brazil… so I really miss just being surrounded by plants you
know. The only problem here is the lack of light sometimes but…
I have this self-watering planter here by Botanium which has been a revelation really.
Sounds silly but I kept killing some of my plants,
either because I was not watering them enough or watering them too much,
you know… only a couple here in the studio really survived the test of time.
With Botanium a lot of that stress is taken away. They actually even have
a dedicated light that you can get to help you grow your plants… and I think
it’s just a very easy, lovely way to sometimes have something like this in your workspace.
The design is lovely too, I think it goes really well here.
It’s only a small little thing but the fact it’s a real plant
and you’re growing it yourself… I don’t know, it gives me a sense of achievement, you know?
Look I’ve grown it! I am not a gardener but it
feels great that even I can do this. I wish this would work on hair you know…
But yeah… to me, whether it’s a workspace or at home… they have to be real plants. Fake
plants do look nice and are easier… but I don’t know, this is much better to me.
As you can see here, it takes time, but even in the winter months here in the UK
I was able to very quickly grow plants without much effort at all. I’ve seen
people plant Basil and keep these in the kitchen so definitely a cool idea!
You can get this growing medium and nutrients for your plants and you will
be amazed at how easy it is. Literally put a bit of water in this container,
plug it into a USB power and watch the magic happen.
Botanium is a Swedish company I believe but they ship to all over Europe as well as US
and Canada too. I will leave a link to them in the description for you.
Most of the time.. not always, but most of the time when I am at my desk,
the MacBook Air is used in clamshell mode.
I use this great little stand here from Momax for that, which really serves two purposes,
one it holds the laptop of course, but as you can see here,
it doubles up as a stand for your smartphones too, which is quite handy.
Actually Momax has been a great find too… I mean I don’ use their chargers and other
stands in this setup but I have them at home and on my editing desk as well.
If you watched my previous videos you know that I really struggle with finding
decent stands for some of my devices, but Momax make some really cool ones,
like this really cool transparent… sort of jerry rigs everything look, which I really like.
It looks awesome and this MagSafe one in particular gives you 5,000 mAh of extra juice.
It’s a shame it won’t work too well with my 13 Mini here,
but definitely worked great with the bigger iPhones like the 14 Plus, Pro or Pro Max.
Now if you don’t like to use the MacBook Air in clamshell mode,
another lovely product I have here in the studio
is this Grovemade laptop stand. Probably one of the classiest laptop stands I’ve ever seen.
I love Grovemade products and the fact it goes so well with my desk,
just made this even more perfect. Simple design, but super clever. Not only does
it elevate your laptop a really nice hight, it give you this storage space underneath.
If you have an iPad they have this lovely stand as well. All
their products are incredible really. Definitely worth checking them out.
The MacBook Air itself is always plugged in to the USB-C cable coming into this neat
little docking station which itself gets power from from my monitor.
This is the Samsung M8 SMART monitor. I will go into a bit more detail shortly,
but just in terms of connectivity for power, it has a Power Delivery
port which is plenty to charge the MacBook Air or even my M1 Max MacBook Pro, superb display…
it’s a 4K monitor, and you may recognise this design by a certain fruit company…
It provides great connectivity by itself, but if you’re a graphic designer or someone
who needs more ports to connect things like USB drives, cameras,
etc. then I’d definitely recommend something like the Acasis hub.
They have this absolutely beauty that I always bang on about in my videos.
And they just launched a new product, with even more ports and connectivity.
This one give you everything you can possibly need… AND and an additional
enclosure for super fast M.2 storage.
And this new one will give you 15 connections! You can actually plug
in 3 monitors to this bad boy. Love Acasis stuff, they’ve been a favourite of mine,
I have a few enclosures here from them, and use them every single day!
Getting back to my monitor… after nearly a year now… there’s good news and bad news…
Actually as a side note, you might want to
check the channel around May…There might be something new coming up.
I am really happy with the monitor itself though, it’s been an incredible addition to this setup.
It looks fantastic and actually has a lot of tricks up its sleeve as well. It works great
with the Mac mini as you can see but it actually doubles up as smart telly.
And here is the kicker! It has gaming software built-in. I am amazed at how
good the quality is for playing even high end games like Forza Horizon.
All you need is an Xbox controller and
you’re off to the races. See what I did there?
The bad news is… If you’re buying it for the camera on top… Don’t bother.
Which brings to the webcam that I ACTUALLY use.
And this is the star of the show I think. Such
an important part of today’s working life right? To have a decent webcam.
This is the Insta360 Link. There’s so many features,
it actually deserves a dedicated video about it to be honest…
And in the same way that my chair, my desk and everything here is geared towards my wellbeing
and maintaining a good posture… and being efficient… this camera fits in like a glove.
This is a fantastic 4K camera, but what I love about it, is how they made it really smart.
It has built-in AI tracking so it can follow you around if you want to,
it can do top-down views if you’re sharing documents for example…
And you can even control it with gestures. Initially I thought this was going to be a
gimmick, but actually it’s turned out to be really useful. I use this for HOURS a day.
Honestly, pretty much every meeting I go to, people go
wow… is that professional camera you’ve got there?
It’s super flexible as well, I am not sure you’r meant to, but I actually took this
with me on travels as well. Because it’s quite small and light, you can use it anywhere really.
Very easy to just plop it on top of your screen and that’s it. I
know you can do a similar thing with the iPhone now and continuity camera, and I
have tried that with something like the Belkin attachment…. This is way better!
If you record your videos for social media, you can use it in Portrait mode too, without cropping,
which means… you know, it’s using the entire sensor and you’re not losing any image quality.
With some cameras they will just crop the landscape image to fit a vertical frame.
Not here, the camera will give you all the 4K pixels in vertical mode. Amazing quality.
Awesome quality right? And check this out… Using
gestures you can zoom in and out or enable the AI tracking.
It comes with an app too, so you can manage even more settings in there.
I use the app a lot of save some presets, depending on how I have the camera setup.
Sometimes I like to have it at eye level like this, so I will use it on a selfie
stick, in front of the monitor. Or if I am just using the laptop, it stands behind the laptop.
This is basically a personal preference… So when I am talking to people, I am looking
directly at the lenses for that better eye contact. Nothing replaces being
there and close to people, but this camera makes that experience… pretty close enough.
This is what I would call a premium quality webcam.
And there’s a little something for you too…You
do get some money off using my links so… you’re welcome.
Talking of premium quality, when I need to take my MacBook Air with me,
I am always keen to keep it protected you know?
Actually before I talk about this next product which is another one
of my favourites and I used it every day…
Just a reminder that this YouTube stuff is super hard work you know,
so if you enjoyed this video, a thumbs up really goes a long way. And I am not gonna
ask you to just subscribe for no reason, but after this video take a look at the channel,
I have over 250 videos now and if you like my stuff it would be awesome if you subscribed.
Right, how do I keep my M2 MacBook Air looking like it’s brand new?
For a while I was using just a skin from dbrand. Which was fun but…
Yeah… not the most professional way to turn up to some of my clients right?
And to be honest, I wasn’t really thinking when I bought that.
For a more IDEAL solution, I got this BEAUTIFUL sleeve from Harber London. That’s actually the
same company I use for my desk mat here and it screams luxury. Definitely a premium product.
If you have one of the big iPad Pros,
this sleeve can be used for that too… so you kinda get two for the price of one.
It fits the MacBook Air perfectly. It has this lovely felt finish inside
which is great for protection.
On the outside it has this lovely leather of course, and even the zipper is top quality.
I mean… there’s a lot to be said about working
in a space and using materials that make you feel good you know?
The quality here is just superb. Harber London is probably not a brand that you hear about a lot,
but when you look at what they have…and look at their Instagram for example…. I
mean if you’re like me, you will be visiting their website quite often!
Alright… See you soon.