If you ask me, I think the M2 MacBooks are
some of the most controversial Apple products
we've seen in a while.
The headlines have been dominated
by issues, complaints, and negative press.
And a lot of people seem hell-bent
on trashing the M2 MacBook Air in particular,
for whatever reason.
So in this video, I want to answer two questions.
Firstly, what is the reality?
At the end of the day,
is the M2 MacBook Air a good laptop?
And even if it is,
why are so many people hating on it?
To start off,
I want to first talk about the M1 MacBook Air briefly,
because I think it's affected people's perception
of the M2 MacBook Air quite a bit.
Now, when it was first released in November 2020,
the M1 MacBook Air was nothing short of revolutionary.
I mean, amazing battery life, very impressive performance,
decent features, and at a pretty affordable price.
It was a far cry from the previous generations
of Intel MacBooks,
and even other laptops from competing brands
at the same price point.
So now that we have the M2 MacBook Air
which is improved in almost every way,
the difference between its and the MacBook it replaced
just isn't as big as it was with the M1 MacBook Air
and the version it replaced.
And if you combine this with the 20% price increase,
and a few overheating and SSD controversies thrown in,
that's more than enough to tarnish the reputation
of what otherwise could be an amazing product.
So let's talk about the M2 MacBook Air,
and why I actually think it's quite good
despite all of the negative press out there.
And then after that,
we'll get into why there's so much controversy
around this MacBook.
Starting with everyday use, let's throw out
all the benchmarks and performance comparisons for a second
and talk about how this MacBook performs
for the average user.
Now the best way I can describe it is M1 2.0, right?
Everything we liked about the M1 MacBook Air is here,
and most of it is improved.
I mean, the screen is bigger, brighter, and more colorful.
The keys are very, very comfortable to type on,
even for long periods of time.
The webcam is 1080p instead of 720p,
which although isn't a huge change,
it is a great upgrade for those
frequently working from home and doing virtual meetings.
And don't forget the return of MagSafe
is also a very welcome addition,
because it frees up one of those Thunderbolt ports.
Although I still wish there was one extra Thunderbolt port,
or at least one on the right side of the MacBook.
And annoyingly, you still cannot output
to more than one external monitor,
which is a deal breaker for a lot of people.
Anyway, all of these upgrades,
alongside a slightly more powerful and capable M2 chip,
result in a machine that will chew up
pretty much anything you throw at it.
Within reason, of course.
I mean more intensive tasks like compiling code,
editing, Lightroom photos,
and even video editing performed very well.
And I was outright shocked
at just how capable this machine was
in areas where I'd thought it would fall short.
There's a reason why programmers,
photographers, and other professionals,
love these entry-level Apple silicon laptops.
And if you want to see a detailed performance comparison
against the M1 MacBook Air,
I will link that video if you're interested.
That being said, most people won't be doing
anything super intensive on a MacBook Air.
And I think at the end of the day
it's mainly a productivity device, and unsurprisingly,
that this is something that it also does very well.
Multitasking between 10 Safari browser tabs,
all open at the same time
with a 100,000 row Excel spreadsheet,
a large PDF document, Slack, Spotify, and Mail,
all of these apps running at the same time
and switching between them
is responsive and smooth.
And the best part is there's never any fan noise,
which also means you can have this MacBook
sitting on any surface
without worrying about dust or blocking the fan intake.
And with the same impressive battery life
as the M1 MacBook Air,
you're going to go at least 10 to 12 hours
before needing to plug into the wall.
And even then the M2 has fast charging,
allowing you to charge to 50% in just 30 minutes.
Assuming of course you fork out
a bit extra for the 65 watt charger though.
So yes, the M2 MacBook Air does its job very well.
It's a great all-rounder laptop
with some impressive performance when you need it
and great battery life and build quality to match.
Okay, so let's get into the controversial stuff now.
I've covered all of this extensively in previous videos.
So I will link these where necessary,
if you want to look into them in more detail.
Firstly, the SSD issue.
Yes, the SSD speed on the base model
256 gigabyte M2 MacBook Air
is much slower than the M1 MacBook Air.
It's hard to say if this was Apple being greedy
and cutting costs or due to supply chain issues or both.
I do believe that most people won't notice or won't care,
but that's also not an excuse for Apple either.
Apple markets this device
as an improved more powerful version
of the laptop it replaced,
and for it to be majorly lacking in one area
paints a pretty confusing image for potential buyers.
And when you combine this with the over-inflated reports
of the M2 chip thermal throttling and running too hot,
which I have discussed in many videos.
Hint, yes, it does get hotter than the M1,
but it's not a major issue.
All of this makes people think,
in what other areas could the M2 MacBook Air be lacking?
Did Apple cut corners when designing this device?
Or could this even be way less of a value proposition
when compared to the tried and trusted M1 MacBook Air.
And when you hear all of this,
and then go onto the Apple website and see the price,
which is 20% more than what you were expecting,
sometimes a lot more
depending what country you're located in,
I think it's easy to see
how many people would just decide then and there
to not bother at all with the M2 Air.
Especially when you consider
that a lightly used M1 MacBook Air can be bought
for almost half the price of a brand new M2 MacBook Air
with none of the controversial issues,
and most of the performance.
That being said though,
I think the final nail in the M2 Air's coffin
is that Apple still ships this device
with such entry-level specs,
AKA the tiny 256 gigabyte SSD,
and only eight gigabytes of RAM.
Yes, I know, I know, most people won't be doing
anything intensive enough to notice.
And for the RAM at least, I tend to agree.
But shipping a $1,200 laptop in 2022,
with a 256 gigabyte SSD should just not be a thing.
And you might not know this,
but Apple likely only pays
about $10 for each 256 gigabyte SSD NAND chip.
So instead of just going,
hey, you know what it's 2022
apps and files are getting larger,
128 gigabyte NAND chips are hard to source.
Let's just make the base model SSD 512 gigabytes
and absorb that cost
into our already eye-watering profit margin.
Well, no.
Apple said, screw you guys,
and shipped the base models with inferior SSDs,
half the speed of the previous M1 MacBook Air.
Now going back to the RAM for a second.
Like I said before,
shipping the base model with a eight gigabyte RAM option
and not 16 gigabytes is forgivable,
but you do get some massive performance gains
by upgrading the RAM.
Making the M2 Air 50% faster in some situations.
And a lot of these situations
were exactly what the Air was designed for.
Now a lot of this performance difference
is due to the way unified memory works.
Obviously the CPU and GPU also needs to use your RAM
on an Apple silicon Mac, not just programs and apps.
And I found in a lot of situations
eight gigabytes is just not enough.
And you're essentially starving the M2 chip
and not giving it enough RAM.
But that is a topic for a separate video.
Should you get the eight gigabyte RAM
or these 16 gigabyte RAM version?
And I will also link that down below.
Now one thing I also want to mention here
is that I don't think we're seeing
Apple's ideal Apple silicon MacBook Air just yet.
With the M1 MacBook Air
even though it had this awesome new Apple silicon chip,
the chassis was very basic and outdated.
And with the M2, I don't think the chassis was designed
with the M2 chip in mind.
Currently, both the M1 and M2 chips
are using something known as a five nanometer process.
And if you look at the reports coming from analysts,
Apple has been trying to move
to a new and improved smaller three nanometer process.
Without getting too technical here,
three nanometer is preferable
because it allows for higher performance
while requiring potentially 25 to 30% less power,
which also means the chip will run much cooler.
And you can see how something like this
might be advantageous in a fanless laptop.
Now, obviously due to supply chain issues,
the pandemic and global chip shortages,
this has been delayed,
but I do believe this is the end goal for the MacBook Air.
And as what the current M2 chassis is designed for,
a much smaller, cooler and more efficient chip.
So, yeah, like I said,
the M2 MacBook Air is a really solid device
and I'm excited to see how the next version
of the MacBook Air performs.
Because like I said, it has a lot of potential.
Unfortunately for the M2,
it's just not a big enough improvement from the M1.
And combined with the price
and these arguably minor but really weird issues
at the end of the day,
it all just results in a product
that hits the mark for some people,
but for a lot of other people
doesn't quite come close enough.