M-2 MacBook Air- What Do You All Think Of It?

[PGB1]

Hello!
For many reasons, mostly on line safety and application functionality, I think it is time to semi-retire my always faithful 2007 MacBook Pro. It'll be saved for using the 32 bit applications I have until I can get new versions and for converting a whole bunch of CAD drawings for the new OS compatible version.

After studying computers, it seems like the M-2 MacBook Air 15" may be the best compromise between value and features for me. I will have an large external monitor connected at times.

I don't work full time anymore, so the computer will be used for photo editing, CAD drawing of non-complex items, minimal on-line browsing and e-mail. No videos are edited and very rarely is one watched. Music is listened to while working, but not edited. I also use Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. At most 4 applications are open at once.

Do you who have, or have tried, the 15" MacBook Air like it for similar purposes? Do you have any suggestions for which version to purchase? Conversely, is this a bad choice for my intended use?

Thanks For Sharing Your Experiences!
Paul

 

[MacInWin]

My wife has one and loves it. She has an external monitor, uses that mostly. Also uses an exernal keyboard and a wired mouse (she is old-school). Her uses are mostly for Word documents, online activities (browsing and email), with some photo work and website support.

She wasn't sure at first, as she was using an M1 Mini and an old 2015 MBP. I convinced her we could consolidate the two into the MBA and that the resulting system would be more productive for her. In addition to being old-school, she is change-resistant, not liking it much. And that was a big change for her!

The net of it is that she loves the new setup. By combining the two systems, she now does not have to move things from one to the other. We recently traveled, and she loved having EVERYTHING with her instead of just what was on the MBP. And she likes the speed. One of the features she really likes is the fingerprint recognition to unlock things. I think it's going to be hard to get her to let go of that, if Apple ever abandons it!

She had already move from 32 bit a ways back, so that wasn't part of the transition.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I'll second Jake. My wife just picked up the 15" M2 MBA yesterday to replace her early 2020 Intel MBA which was getting to be very slow. Her new machine is infinitely faster and most important lighter than her M1 Max 16" MBP.

She's familiar with the M chips from her MBP, so this is inline with her expectations.

Based on your use case, you'll be completely fine with the MBA. The only thing I would recommend you look into is based on your photo editing needs, if the 16GB upgrade is worth it.

 

[PGB1]

Thank You Jake & Ashwin for taking time to reply and for the good details about your wives' uses for the unit and about their transition. (Transition's the part I'm most not looking forward to, but I suppose it's good for the brain to learn new stuff.)

I'm much more comfortable buying a MacBook Air now that I read what you both wrote. Thanks, too, for the tip for 16GB, Ashwin- especially since they aren't upgrade capable later.

Thanks Again To You Both!
Paul

PS: The fingerprint thing & I won't be pals. I looked forward to using it when I bought my phone. It turns out that if one's Raynauds Syndrome is severe enough, readers don't work. It sure was funny how much time I spent trying to make it work until I learned about this glitch from a physician who couldn't get a fingertip oxygen meter to work. Live & Learn!

 

[MacInWin]

I can't speak to the Raynauds, but the fingerprint works really well. Maybe they have improved it since the phone. I didn't like it on the iPhone (and don't like it on my iPad), but it works well on my MBP.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

The transition is pretty seamless if you use something like Migration Assistant to bring over everything from your current Mac to the new one. This will get the configurations over, so you don't have to go through the new user experience.

And yes, since the RAM is unified, you have to do the upgrade at purchase. If the $200 or so upgrade isn't going to break your bank/budget, I would suggest doing the 16GB upgrade. The SSD upgrade isn't necessary since you can always augment with an external SSD which will be larger and cheaper than what Apple will charge you.

As far as Raynauds go, if the fingerprint set up process can configure your finger, it should work to unlock. I can totally see the SPO2 meter not working, but this should be reading your fingerprints and as long as that's readable, it should work.

 

[PGB1]

Thanks for the Migration Assistant mention, Ashwin. Preparing to use Migration Assistant will give me incentive to archive or delete the many, many files that are no longer needed. (Cleaning out the junk drawer)

Until you mentioned it, I hadn't given much thought to increasing RAM. Now that you have me thinking of RAM, I remember when 2 GB on this MacBook Pro was super fast. Now 4 GB struggles. I'll be sure to take your wise suggestion & upgrade.

Paul

PS: Ashwin mentioned SPO2 meters not working. I surely did mix apples and oranges with the fingerprint readers and the pulse oximeters.

When in a normal temperature room, my hands are blue and the capacitance of my fingertips tests at or nearly zero with no conductivity, either. (I have to use a capacitive type stylus on most touch screens.)
The shape & skin stiffness changes with temperature, too.

I think my phone's reader is using capacitance to sense lines and gaps & depth of gaps. Medical electrical sensors don't work on my fingers or toes either. Sometimes a sharp technician or physician will catch on before I politely offer a cautiously worded suggestion to heat my hands & arms.

The pulse oximeter is most likely upset because of no to low finger blood flow at room temperature. There's nothing moving in there to read.

I would imagine that Apple's fingerprint sensor is much higher quality, newer technology or simply different technology than that of my non-Apple phone. Perhaps we will become friends after all. It'll be fun to experiment setting it up using different temperature fingers.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

The SSD upgrade isn't necessary since you can always augment with an external SSD which will be larger and cheaper than what Apple will charge you.

That may not be the best advice, for two reasons:

1) Your internal SSD is nominally your boot (startup) drive. It has a faster interface than most external SSD's, so it is best situated to be your boot drive (rather than an external SSD), for best performance. Unfortunately, Apple tends to cripple the speed of the smallest available SSD in several of their models:

https://www.macworld.com/article/795880/m2-macbook-pro-256gb-ssd-read-write-speeds.html

https://www.macworld.com/article/1483183/ssd-speeds-m2-macbook-pro-mac-mini.html

So you may want to go with, at least, the next step up from the smallest SSD Apple offers for any model Mac that you purchase.

2) Apple Silicon Macs all use soldered-in SSD's. That means that they can't be changed out, so if your SSD becomes full, it can’t be changed out for a bigger internal one. SSD's tend to slow down when they get about 50% full, and they tend to slow down so much when they reach about 70% full, that they are done. So, since optimizing the lifespan of your SSD is critical to maximizing the lifespan of your Mac, getting a larger-than-necessary SSD from the very beginning is the way to go. See:

https://pureinfotech.com/why-solid-state-drive-ssd-performance-slows-down/

"In practice, an SSD’s performance begins to decline after it reaches about 50% full."

https://web.archive.org/web/2022041...hts/ssd-over-provisioning-benefits-master-ti/

 

[PGB1]

That is interesting what you explained about Apple slowing the speeds of the small drives in the computers, Randy. Apple is respected for making high quality products and this kind of dulls the shine of the star a bit.

Do I understand correctly that if one upgrades to the next size drive, they add NAND chip(s) so the problem is not present? (Example: MacBook Air base is a 256 GB drive. The next is 512 GB.)

 

[MacInWin]

That is interesting what you explained about Apple slowing the speeds of the small drives in the computers, Randy. Apple is respected for making high quality products and this kind of dulls the shine of the star a bit.

Do I understand correctly that if one upgrades to the next size drive, they add NAND chip(s) so the problem is not present? (Example: MacBook Air base is a 256 GB drive. The next is 512 GB.)

To clarify the situation, if you read the articles Randy linked, the issue is that Apple has decided to use a single 256GB chip in the fabric of the low end machines, then add a second 256GB chip to the 512GB machine, two 512GB chips in the 1TB machine, etc. The result of that decision is that the bandwidth to that single chip is less than would be there if there were two chips, running in parallel. The term "cripple" is, I think, a bit over-the-top in that Apple did not slow down any clocking, isn't deliberately slowing down the system clock. Nothing is disabled in the low-end machines. It's like having one lane of traffic on a road instead of two lanes. Fewer overall cars per minute can go by on a one-lane road than a two lane road even at the same speeds per car. Did the jurisdiction "cripple" the road by having one lane? Or is it just that one-lane roads are cheaper to build?

To specifically answer your question, yes, the 512 has two chips in the fabric.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

The term "cripple" is, I think, a bit over-the-top in that Apple did not slow down any clocking, isn't deliberately slowing down the system clock.

I don't think that it is. Apple could have put an SSD in it's entry level models that is as fast as one would expect even a cheap SSD to be. Instead they went the cheapest route, and only offer a single chip SSD that is disappointingly slow. Read the articles that I cited. These 256GB SSD's are as much as HALF the speed of the previous M1 low-end SSD's. Not an impressive showing by Apple, a company that one usually associates with only high-end computers.

On the other hand, at this point, a 256GB internal drive is unusually small. Even if Apple had provided a drive of that size with ordinary speed, it likely would slow down very early in it's lifespan as it filled up with VM, temp files, meta data, databases, etc. It's almost as if Apple threw up their hands and decided that folks scrimping on cost so much as to be purchasing such a small drive are second class customers who don't deserve a fast SSD.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Most users of the Macbook are not going to see any discernible difference here.

For $200, it's possible to get a 2TB SSD that will be totally fine for the majority of uses. If that isn't the case, then upgrading the internal drive is recommended. The OP doesn't fall into the latter category, so we've addressed the issue at hand and are now focusing on things beyond that.

So let's move on.

 

[Whoopie]

Hello!
For many reasons, mostly on line safety and application functionality, I think it is time to semi-retire my always faithful 2007 MacBook Pro. It'll be saved for using the 32 bit applications I have until I can get new versions and for converting a whole bunch of CAD drawings for the new OS compatible version.

After studying computers, it seems like the M-2 MacBook Air 15" may be the best compromise between value and features for me. I will have an large external monitor connected at times.

I don't work full time anymore, so the computer will be used for photo editing, CAD drawing of non-complex items, minimal on-line browsing and e-mail. No videos are edited and very rarely is one watched. Music is listened to while working, but not edited. I also use Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. At most 4 applications are open at once.

Do you who have, or have tried, the 15" MacBook Air like it for similar purposes? Do you have any suggestions for which version to purchase? Conversely, is this a bad choice for my intended use?

Thanks For Sharing Your Experiences!
Paul

We got a MacBook Air for travel..I love my iMac at home because of the screen size (24 inch M1). We used to travel with iPhones and iPads…but some tasks cannot readily be accomplished without a computer. To my delighted surprise it took all the info we each had at home onto the shared MacBookAir with the base configuration. My husband das the last zintel 27 inch iMac at home. Granted we store a great deal on Dropbox. It does what we need just fine. I will always prefer a desktop because I am old and so is my vision! I did enjoy MacBooks in the 80s and 90s when I was younger. We used the Air for Word and other applications at the same time, and giant Excel spreadsheet for an organization fundraiser where we volunteer. On a bigger screen you would not need to scroll as much to see the far right columns, but as long as we remembered they existed, it was fine. Ours is the smaller size to be easier/lighter to carry.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Agreed on your assessment @Whoopie. I generally find iPhones/iPads great for content consumption, but you need a computer for content creation. While you can absolutely create in a limited fashion, it's just easier on a computer.

 

[PGB1]

I appreciate that Randy brought this to our attention and linked the articles.

Certainly, I don't understand the science but the general idea is understood- I think. Perhaps it is like a car purchase. Pay more to upgrade one thing, other things automatically get upgraded.

I'd have never known the benefit of a larger hard drive had Randy not pointed it out. (I can study geekbench type tests all day and would miss it.)

 

[PGB1]

Thanks for writing about your experiences with the MacBook Air, Whoopie. I appreciate it.

I, too, will get a larger monitor due to eyesight. (I chuckled when I read what you wrote about remembering that the far right columns exist. My old-guy brain does the same thing.) Instead of iMac, I like being able to take the portable with me on occasion. So, the larger monitor may be an adequate compromise.

I'm 100% with Whoopie and Ashwin about phones' limitations. With my old MacBook Pro, the browsers don't work with many web sites, so I turn to the phone. Oh Boy! What a challenge that is!

Paul