Apple MacBook Air M2 Entry Review – A very good, but too expensive daily MacBook

[Redaktion]

After almost two years, the MacBook Air M1 finally gets a successor that is specifically designed for Apple's own silicon. The new Air with the M2 CPU also comes with a much steeper price, because the entry-level unit with 8 GB RAM and a meager 256 GB SSD starts for $1299. Is the price justified?


https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Air-M2-Entry-Review-A-very-good-but-too-expensive-daily-MacBook.636637.0.html

[Adam11111]

Can you review LG Gram 17 2022?

[Joseph7700]

If I could only choose to upgrade either 16GB RAM or 512GB SSD? is 16GB a better option than SSD Upgrade? Will it sustain the performance better than the recommended 512GB SSD Upgrade?
I don't store a lot of things on local harddrive as I already have icloud storage family plan.

[Brooding bob]

If I could only choose to upgrade either 16GB RAM or 512GB SSD? is 16GB a better option than SSD Upgrade? Will it sustain the performance better than the recommended 512GB SSD Upgrade?
I don't store a lot of things on local harddrive as I already have icloud storage family plan.

Upgrading to 512gb would be a better choice since you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone, making it faster and double the storage; while upgrading to 16gb ram only make it faster

[Dorby]

It's the lack of multiple display support that completely kills the 2022 MBA for me, more than anything else.

[Name]

PCIe 3.0 SSD? ^{As PCIe 4.0 SSDs deliver 6000-7000 and PCIe 5.0 14000-16000 read & write speeds.}

Please use Disqus!

[Name]

If I could only choose to upgrade either 16GB RAM or 512GB SSD? is 16GB a better option than SSD Upgrade? Will it sustain the performance better than the recommended 512GB SSD Upgrade?
I don't store a lot of things on local harddrive as I already have icloud storage family plan.

Upgrading to 512gb would be a better choice since you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone, making it faster and double the storage; while upgrading to 16gb ram only make it faster

LMAO- Memory Swap tears down the SSD aka diminishing its self-life.

[Pinsu]

MBA M2 is a joke. +50% more expensive (here) compared to M1 MBA, it throttles itself to M1 levels or in worst cases below and there is absolutely no reason for the notch to exist; it's distracting and ugly.

MBA M1 offers so much more value. Too bad they are still not offering touch screen and pen as an option. It's really valuable for me to do graphics design and mobile game developing — having a direct touch interface right within the editor is so much more convenient.

I'm using Surface Pro 8 and to be honest, despite its flaws, it just seems so much more futuristic. It's thinner, lighter and offers touch + pen. Macbooks feel kinda outdated despite the great chipsets... I wish Apple would jump to modern hardware and finally make MacPad with a great ARM chipset. It would be instant buy for me, but as of now, meh.

[Baron]

First MacBook to be PWM Free since 2015 MBP. Huge dealbreaker on those 14/16 MBP. Going to get a maxed out version (24gb/1tb) and use that until they release another PWM free laptop in 10 years. Lacking Multiple display sucks though- time to get one really big one lol!

[Alels]

First MacBook to be PWM Free since 2015 MBP. Huge dealbreaker on those 14/16 MBP. Going to get a maxed out version (24gb/1tb) and use that until they release another PWM free laptop in 10 years. Lacking Multiple display sucks though- time to get one really big one lol!

Just get a DisplayLink based docking station. I'm currently running a 1x4k off usb-c and 2x1080p off usb-c on a Dell D6000. I could add 4th monitor to the D6000, and use the interal as a 5th one. I believe the D6000 can support 3x 4k, though the hdmi might be limited to 30hz, while display ports remain at 60hz. Limitations: content protected video won't run on display link and neither will night shift.

[Erlend]

Reviewers appear to have forgot that the first MacBook Air in 2008 started at £1799, or about £2400 today adjusted for inflation. I get that it's not an insignificant sum of money, but a £200 increase on an improved version of a £999 laptop is not unreasonable, especially considering how much it has come *down* in price over the past 14 years.

[RobertJasiek]

Apple used to offer only too expensive products, then also offered reasonably priced products. The M1 MBA was reasonably priced. I do not consider the M2 MBA (base model) to be reasonably priced.

CPUs become faster but this does not justify price increases. A different CPU class might but M2 is the same class as M1, just the next generation.

What improvements?

- Notch: worse than without.
- SSD (base model): worse.
- Battery life: similar (depending on tests longer or shorter).
- New dark colour: prone to scatches and losses.
- Silent: same.
- Display: somewhat brighter and no PWM so improved.

Conclusion: more deterioration than improvement. Hence the M2 MSRP should be lower than the current M1 street price.

[Kotaru]

There is a mistake in the article, the M1 MacBook Air also has display P3 gamut coverage. Your own tables even show it.
Makes the M2 MBA look like even worse value

[NikoB]

TB3.0 natively supports 2 x DP1.2, so 2 x 4K@60Hz monitors are guaranteed. And here they are 2 x usb-c, and both are free, unlike the ones in the x86 camp, where they came up with the nonsense to connect the power supply via one usb-c, instead of a separate corner jack (engineers or marketers definitely don't have a mind, like Apple engineers). So 2 x 4k monitors are at least guaranteed, but in reality, if there are full-fledged TB3.0, there must be support for 4 external 4k monitors for 2 x full TB3.0, provided that the M2 chip itself is capable of this...

As you can see from the review, the main cant of the laptop is a mediocre screen. It's just a shame when glossy IPS has a contrast ratio of less than 2000:1 today, and matte less than 1500:1. However, I can hardly imagine that someone would use this 13" toy for a long time, the screen is still too small and if at home you most likely want to immediately connect it to an external 4k monitor.

It doesn't shine with speed for a long time, but for surfing and typing in complete silence, it's quite a pleasant machine at the performance level of the 2018 4-core i5 H series. Although of course with Windows software, and even then not for everyone, there will be problems.

Well, the high price of soldered iron? So this is Apple ... although, of course, for this price, the greedy people from Cupertino could solder 16GB and 1TB SSDs. But then where does the high margin and profit come from? ;)

[Brooding bob]

If I could only choose to upgrade either 16GB RAM or 512GB SSD? is 16GB a better option than SSD Upgrade? Will it sustain the performance better than the recommended 512GB SSD Upgrade?
I don't store a lot of things on local harddrive as I already have icloud storage family plan.

Upgrading to 512gb would be a better choice since you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone, making it faster and double the storage; while upgrading to 16gb ram only make it faster

LMAO- Memory Swap tears down the SSD aka diminishing its self-life.

Even if you were to choose 16Gb ram, your Macbook's going to use Swap anyway, maybe not that much but it certainly will. I'm sure modern-day SSD will last you at least 4 to 5 years (even with swap) and by then, you'd have gotten yourself a brand new laptop.