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This Upgraded M2 MacBook Air is a Bad Deal!

5:22 video

After more than a month with the base M2 MacBook Air, I found it mostly fine for my everyday tasks, including my day job, personal stuff and even my YouTube channel, but I saw performance issues. My conclusion was that the M2 Air is a weird computer sitting between an almost-as-powerful, cheaper M1 MacBook Air and a much better overall 14-inch MacBook Pro.

In my last video I showed that pushing the base Air runs into big performance issues, which the limited RAM and maybe the slower SSD caused, and which I didn’t have with my base 14-inch Pro (16 GB and 512 GB). So I bought an upgraded M2 Air with 16 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage to see if it behaves more like the Pro, and whether the upgrade is worth the cost.

Does the upgrade help?

Yes. The performance issues I demonstrated on the base model didn’t occur:

  • Idle swap memory was far below that of the base model in regular use.
  • In the same usage and video export test as last time, swap was much lower, and Safari, which froze and became unresponsive on the base model, performed perfectly.

Yes, a computer with more memory uses less swap for the same tasks, and computers are designed to use swap. But the amount used on the base model shows to me that 8 GB just isn’t enough for a current desktop OS, not just today but for the next 4 to 6 years. And with that much swapping, the slower storage speed comes into play. For more proof, Max Tech’s videos go way more in depth than I’m willing to.

Is it worth the price?

When you upgrade the M2 Air to 512 GB and 16 GB, you’re at $1,599. In recent months you could get the 14-inch MacBook Pro around $1,750 to $1,799 new, or at the same price refurbished from Apple. For about $200 more you get a ton: a brighter screen with ProMotion and dimming zones, a better camera, way better speakers, a faster 10-core CPU and 14-core GPU, an extra Thunderbolt 4 port, HDMI and an SD card slot.

In the last few days, Best Buy sold the same M1 Pro MacBook Pro for $1,599, the same price as the upgraded Air, making it almost criminal to buy the upgraded Air. The Air’s only benefits are a slightly slimmer, lighter design and a couple of colors. Even the fan in the Pro is a benefit: it keeps the CPU cool without the throttling you can see in the Air, and I never hear it on my base model unless I’m running long benchmarks.

Verdict

The 14-inch MacBook Pro is a better laptop in just about every conceivable way. If the base Air doesn’t have the performance you need, the jump to the 14-inch Pro is the only option that makes sense, and it’s a big jump.

The M2 Air at any spec and price doesn’t seem worth the money. It’s not a bad computer and will meet most people’s needs, but there are better options for saving money or getting more. Unless you just want the new design, a specific color and a compact device, get the M1 Air or the M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Are there more reasons to consider the MacBook Air over the 14-inch Pro?

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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