Huh? I have seen the Max Tech videos on the M2 Air. The bottleneck is the internal SSD NOT the M2 SoC. Editing video is to storage like driving 120mph all the time is to your car engine. As you can't easily replace the Mac's SSD it's much better to put that wear and tear on the much cheaper external-which OBTW you can also use to easily take the project to another system.
I never really thought it was 'enough' when the base Pro became so close in price when you add in the larger SSD and 16GB Ram. I don't see the point of 8GB today and the 256GB SSD is just a joke. Apple need to set the base level at the right level, I think they are doing themselves a disservice ...
I have the very same as you do and I really am enjoying the M2 MacBook Air. I am a casual user and never attempt any video editing, so maybe that is why it works perfectly for me. There has been several instances where the activity monitor shows some orange but isn't that typical when multiple windows/apps are open?
I have not regretted buying the base model. For one thing, I only do the things with this laptop that it is intended for, and for another, even my work would not overtax the laptop. I work in marketing but video editing is not one of my tasks. As you have already correctly recognized. Apple did not make this laptop for such tasks.
I believe the reason why you experienced a slow down with the M2 during video editing is because of the storage (SSD) speed. Because the base M2 uses a single NAND chip the SSD runs half as fast as the M1 which uses two NAND chips. 8GB of memory is just enough for day to day usage, once you do anything moderate (ie video editing, 20+ tabs) 8GB of ram isn’t enough and your mac is forced to use swap memory, which is essentially using your storage as memory. Because the M2 SSD is half as fast, when it is using swap memory it is no surprise the machine will stutter compared to the M1 which is twice as fast. Contrary to your advice given at the end of the video, from a performance standpoint if you wanted to upgrade your M2 Mac, I’d op for the 16GB RAM upgrade over a 512GB ssd upgrade. Having swap memory only covers up a problem which is a lack of memory, you can eliminate the problem to begin with with more memory in the first place. It is also practise for future proofing if you decide to hold on to your mac longer than say 5 years. As memory requirements increase over time.
Yes, but have you noticed that every (!) RUclips reviewer has posted at least one video saying "I was wrong". First they were wrong about how bad they thought it would be. Then how good. Then how bad. It always (!) starts with "I bought the base configuration", even after years of EVERYONE saying that one should NEVER get the base configuration. I swear they do this just to have something to vlog about.
We all make mistakes in full confidence and that we don't realize we are making at the time. What some people cannot do is humbly admit that they were wrong. This is one of my absolute favourite channels on youtube and the fact that you can be this honest about your mistake makes me want to keep being informed by your videos! Keep up the great work !
I bought a M2 Air based model, i use for programing its super smooth, works very well, this laptop isn't for hard work like editing videos, for daily use and programing its very good.
Back when the M2 MBA launched, I watched a lot of your video and decided to go for the M1 MBA 16/512. Best decision I’ve ever made, especially when I care a lot more about reliability than pretty design.
Really like your honest reassessment of your earlier analysis based on newer data. I am a researcher and a lot of times we have to backtrack in the face of new data. Swallowing one’s pride and following what the data tells you, makes you a stellar researcher, not an apologist.
i'm so glad i went with the base 14"... i didn't had to put it through hard task yet but just the screen and speakers already make for it imo. and i know that when i'll need to push it, it will respond.
Good honest review. I got a 16/256 M1 Mac mini from Apple refurb. It drives a 5k studio display and a Dell P2715Q superbly. Same for my work provided 16/512 M1 MBP13. Getting more ram is a better investment than more HD then use a TB linked external SSD….
Great video my brotha! I actually own the base model M2 MacBook Air and I’m loving it! I actually bought it because my spouse also has the M1 Air and I loved the look, performance and all. The M2 Air is my very first Mac and I’ve had absolutely no regrets or problems with it at all. I’m actually running my own RUclips channel from it and edit and render up to 4k 60fps with no observed issues at all… no slow downs, no hiccups, or anything alarming at all 🤷🏾♂️… all while living in tropical Jamaica 🇯🇲. So I guess mileage varies or something 🤷🏾♂️. But I’m loving it so far! Definitely worlds better than my old Haswell i7 gaming laptop I’ve had before it in every single way hands down!
I went with the M1 base unit as a test to see if I liked the Air, I fell in love with it !! At times it bogs down at work when I have 6-8 tabs in Safari, Outlook, Apple News, and several other small programs, Safari takes up 4GB on its own. I was contemplating upgrading to a 2022 M2 Air with 16GB Ram and 512Gb SSD. Does anyone have feedback on how much faster the M2 will be (or not ?) over my M1. Thanks for any input...
It all comes down to what you need. I run the basemodel as my main protools rig, working on big mix sessions. I am amazed how well this little fellow hold up. All in all its a good laptop.
I already decided I will buy the second basic MacBook Air 520 Gb because of the reason you described. But now what about the discussion 8 vs 16 Gb RAM? I will use the MacBook for the basic stuff, but I usually have a lot of apps running in parallel. On my iMac with 24 Gb RAM I can see it usually uses about 12Gb RAM. The only real RAM consumer is Lightroom. I may use Lr sometimes while traveling like you do. Than buy the 16Gb you may say. However, the base models one can buy with 10-16% discount. The 16Gb version at Apple only: the difference is about €400, just because I want more RAM. What should I do, and not regret afterwards?
I still don’t understand the “controversy”. Is it that controversial to expect a newer product to be better than an older product in every single aspect? In any case, the M2 is not a terrible laptop, it’s just caught between a way cheaper/ more well rounded option (M1 Air) and a slightly more pricey but way more powerful option (14” M1 Pro). I personally think both are better options than the M2 Air at its current price.
Well... that's the difference between a technical review and a power flower review. Max/Vadim seem technical enough so... maybe (less technical inclined) people should pay more attention to what the techies have to say when it's about technology; just saying... I saw Vadim's testing back then, understood his point and kind of... disagreed with yours, even tho I haven't voiced my opinion on your channel about it. Anyway... I still like more how you present the stuff on your channel. Maybe it has to do with your charm, I don't know... And I also appreciate the honesty. Your channel is still one of my favourites. Cheers, mate 😊
Thanks for the honest follow-up. Unfortunate that the Air didn't seem usable at all. I've always assumed that I could do this sort of video editing if I really needed to. I am somewhat mad that this machine performs worse than its predecessor, but only in principle. After all, I didn't buy this computer to edit videos of this quality--I'm not a RUclipsr, and that's what a MacBook Pro is for anyway.
This goes to show that new or more expensive, is not always more expensive. I bought my aunt the m1 air while I was rocking a MBP 2012, and after a lot of thought I decided to get a new one, after testing the M2 air and seeing how slow it was in comparison to the m1 air, I just went straight ahead for the M1PRO 14 base model. I imagine that the m2pro may have issues to.
The M2Pro shouldn't have any issues. You're looking at a laptop with better storage, more memory, and active cooling. When the M2Pro MacBooks arrive, they will easily defeat the M1 models. I just don't expect them to crush them very hard as the M2 chip is a relatively small upgrade over the M1.
It's possible that the variation you noticed was due to thermals. Theoretically, if it was an issue with the SSD configuration then it should remain consistent. You shouldn't be doing it fine one day and slow the next. Macbook Air has notoriously poor thermal control, and when the processor heats up, the computer will throttle down the processing speed. The M1 Air has slightly better cooling than the M2 due to a larger/thicker metal plate to dissapate heat. I would be very interested to see if people notice this issue on the M2 Mac Mini, which has a fan-cooled system.
Respect to you for admitting that you may have been to quick to judge the m2 MacBook Air. It’s a weird one. People just looking for a basic laptop is better of choosing the m1 MacBook Air since it even performs better in some situations then the m2. And as soon you start to upgrade the m2 MacBook Air it’s just better to go for the 14 inch MacBook Pro. I just picked up the MacBook Pro for about the same price as a m2 mbair when upgraded with just 16 gb ram or 512 gb ssd.
Love your reviews and in this case admitting you got something wrong. No fuss, no fanfare just a very useful step back and revisit. The honesty and direct dealing with everything is why we all come here. One slight tip if I may. You were bobbing a bit close to the camera at times which is slightly "disturbing" . Especially when I can see right up your nose 😱
I have the MBA/M2/8GB/512Gb and its been fine, but on a few occasions it was sluggish when moving a 10GB-ish of data to an external drive. It was like the chip was saying _"Hey I'm busy right now, call me when I'm finished!"_ Almost as though it had committed all its attention to a single task. I'm still on Monterey and will be for sometime as it offers nothing of interest but only the possibility that I'll have to pay for upgrades for some of my current apps.
I use M2/512/16G, normal office work and some xcode coding. It works just fine. I choose m2 (not m1), regardless of price and performance, I just want a bigger screen and light body.
I dont understand why Apple is selling a) a 256GB SSD b) a 256GB SSD that is slower than the other SSDs. It’s harder and harder to choose the “right” device. MacBook Air, Macbook Pro 13”, 14”, 16”, Mac mini, Mac Studio, iMac 24”, Mac Pro, M1, M2, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 10 Core, 16 Core, 24 Core, 32 Core, 48 Core, 64 Core and so on… So how to be sure what’s the “right fit”? Reminds me of the problem in the 90s when the product palette get cluttered and nobody knew “what’s the right fit”?
The issue with the Air M2 isn't really relevant to me. I'm a photographer and work with some very big files. So I need at least 16 Gb of RAM. I wonder whether there is a sufficient difference between the M1 with 16Gb and the M2 with the same RAM, both with 512 Tb to justify the very desirable blue model? I'm currently on Intel with an iMac and Air and I think an upgrade may well be in order. To give an idea of the challenges RAW files from my main camera run to 120 Gb. When edited in PS and enhanced they can grow to 200 or 300 Gb.
Let’s say that the M1 MacBook Air has two very fast cars with trunk capacity of 128GB each, whereas the M2 has one car with the same speed but a trunk capacity of 256 GB. For the majority of the tasks (i.e., everyday tasks or even video exporting), chances are you would only need one car to “deliver” the performance you need. However, when you’re too busy and need to run several tasks at the same time or as soon as possible, the M1 can assign each 128GB driver with separate tasks at the same time, while the M2 would have to wait for the 256GB to come back to assign a new task. This is why under heavy memory load issues (such as 4K video editing), the base model M2 will experience more issues than the previous M1
The base M1 should have been 512 GB. 256 is unacceptably low for this price range. While it used to be perfectly fine, files have gotten so large today. Especially when they leave performance on the table as a result, 512 should have been the default.
Mark, I have to say it takes courage and honesty to admit your mistake, and you have shown both of them very clearly! Not only do people stick to their own personal views and discard reality, but to admit so openly to the fact that you didn’t pay attention to the glitches and feedback, and that you were wrong clearly, brings value to your content. Keep up the fantastic work and great reviews (and re-reviews!😅)! Happy Christmas 🎄to you and keep rocking in the new year! 🎉👏🏻🎊
You got a new subscriber today 😊. I was searching in YT for honest reviews on MBA M2 as i am going to purchase it and your video was the best 👍 Never saw anyone in youtube accepting honestly what you told wrong before . Huge respect for you 🙏. World needs more people like you ❤️ I am going to purchase now M2 MBA 512 GB 😊. Thanks for your help 🙏
Im still wondering, why bother with: 8/256 base models super expensive 16/512 upgrades a „bad“ LCD screen no HDMI, SD card or ANYTHING regarding to ports When you can have a 14“ M1 Pro base model for nearly the same price as a new M2 Air?!
Good for you for admitting it. But it is odd that you still don’t think it’s important to understand the technical side of things, as a tech reviewer. If I remembered it correctly because M2 was using single module for 256gb, the bandwidth to persist storage was halved compared to the M1 version which has dual 128gb SSD modules that add up to 256gb. It isn’t hard to understand. Half the modules, half the bandwidth.
Thanks! And as for not wanting to understand the technical aspects - I just have zero interest in that stuff, mate, and it hasn’t harmed the growth of my business. I just need to know ‘enough’ for my audience.
I got the MBA M2 with 16GB/512GB and I noticed something weird, I was resetting a Numbers spreadsheet and making a repeatable entry in many fields, entering $0.00 and the M2 couldn’t keep up, I would finish entering the $0.00 for 4 fields and I had to wait for the M2. I had M2 connected to the Samsung M8 and 2 spreadsheets opened. I wasn’t impressed…
Interesting results! Still looking at the base model for a student who is not going to stress the system or fill a hard drive. She’s moving from Intel Mac and is mostly interested in the no fan of the Mx chips. Hopefully they start with a larger base hard drive in the next generation when I’ll be ready to replace my own machine.
Hi Mark.. Unfortunately i am also a Canon shooter who needs to deal with HEVC 442 10 bit codec 4k. I was just about to buy the base 256gb model.. But you know 256 gb would never be enough anyway so I was planning to keep my footage/project files on a fast external drive. Do you think using a faster external drive would be fine? In the end only premiere core files will be read from the local ssd. My main workflow is 4k 10bit hevc video editing. Maybe I should go with a M1 mini instead?
I did the one up on my Mac Air 512 ~ But my complaint is that because of the larger screen you can't open the lid without smearing the camera screen with your fingerprints ~ You can't even touch the sides without leaving your fingerprints on the screen ~ Otherwise, my other problems are transferring a video to my Facebook page from a RUclips page ~ I use to be able to drag and drop but now it's a PIA ~ I don't have any overheating problems as they said I would ~
3 months ago I purchased a M1 Mac book air from a neighbour at a very good price (Eu600) because he had got the M2 version - 3 months on he is indeed no so happy with his choice - indeed for one who has used Macs on and off their memory policy is at best difficult and opaque.
Does anyone have any issues with this one? I just bought this one just for fun. I have my main desktop with a 3090 ti for gaming. But i want the air m2 for schools work and e-commerce. I’m still on time to return it. What y’all think?
Haven't had this problem. I don't edit videos (and never will XD, I'd pay someone to do it for me). It works circles around my old intel Macbook Air. Never gets warm or slows down using day-to-day things. This is a great Macbook for people that just want a great Macbook to do basic day-to-day things (non-pro things).
I agree with the new opinions. I think the m2 base model is only good for basic editing and non-memory-eating apps. I recently tested Jetbrain Fleet on m2 base model and I found the memory is not enough. However this may be because Fleet is still in a beta version.. In general I only use it for bbedit and scrivener. I even do not often use it for Matlab.. anyway from m2 I feel apple is going back to its typical apple style: basic functions for ridiculous price and they want to charge more in this country as well..
*Tasks it's intended to be done* what tasks are intended on a 1200$ computer 200$ ram upgrade (must do for long run) 220$(apple care) optional 200$(storage) idk why He are deciding one computer's intended purpose based on its name I don't think it's just a web browsing computer a 300$ iPad can also do this I think it is a photo editing, 4k video editing computer checkout competitors of m2 MacBook Air like XPS 13 plus I purchased an M2 MacBook Air 16gb ram model with AppleCare+ and 35watt charger for 2100$(or 1,63,000INR) in India. And he is saying it's intended purpose is email I meant what if he wants to decide intended purpose based on their names like pro is designed for pro workloads and air is designed for no workloads then we don't even need these reviews we will simply buy a product upon its name
Need to add get the highest amount of ram too. It will save your ssd. Once the ssd is gone you will need to buy a new MacBook Air as the cost to get it fixed will be comparable to a new one.
dude , i really love your voice and accent apple doesnt respect its consumers anymore and it's a shame . not increase the base storage can be ok . increasing the price by 300 bucks...not acceptable but ok . but doing all that whilst also giving a twice as slow SSD ? this is sneaky and shameful . apple is all about their sacred margins and the consumer can just fuck off . that's the message it sends . and they aren't afraid to show their true colors anymore, due to the lack of competition, be it for phones,laptops,tablets .
So, to sum up Marc, what is your conclusion ? I understood you say : 4k editing (occasional in my case) is done very well on the Air M1 (256g ssd), but the performance is exactly the same on the Air M2 provided it is equipped with a 512g ssd. Tell me if I misunderstood. At the same time, you seem to say (towards the end of your presentation) that in your personal use you don't use macbook Air for your 4k edits. There is another French-speaking presenter (but you can translate the subtitles automatically into English in the youtube window) who did a test on the basic Air M2 (8g of RAM and 256g of ssd) by checking the export time of 14 minutes of one 4k video by final cut pro. He compared this export time with that of the 14 inch Macbook Pro of M1 chips (with the same 14 minute video in final cut pro). Result: the 14-inch Pro M1 exported faster than the basic Air M2, but only by 47 seconds ahead! So the Air M2 is very impressive. In addition, this same presenter also confirmed (like you) that the 256g ssd of the Air M2 is slower than that of the 256g ssd of the Air M1, he himself made an in-depth analysis of these 2 ssds and he was able to observe with certainty that the 256g of the Air M2 is twice as slow in writing as the ssd 256g of the Air M1 ! Despite this disadvantage, as I said above, exporting a 14-minute video in the Air M2 (with 8g/256g) was only 47 seconds slower than on the 14-inch Pro M1. So, impressive that this Air M2. The moment of the presentation where he compares the export speeds between the basic Air M2 with the Pro 14 inch M1 : ruclips.net/video/_JwIrAhBT20/видео.html the moment when it compares of ssd speed in Air M2 and Air M1 : ruclips.net/video/_JwIrAhBT20/видео.html
You can get totally lost in this stuff, mate. If you’re going to be consistently editing 4K video and you don’t want a MacBook Pro, spend as much as you can on a MacBook Air - simple 👍
Hi I am a HR and I need to buy a laptop , my most work will eb documents , Word files , Pdf etc and i will be browsing at a time like in 15-20 multiple windows with heavy ATS software running what would you suggest M1 mabook air or M2 air
I have a base model m2 MBA and it's great but I'm gonna guess ventura was the issue, I think it's much worse than previous versions and changes have been made that shouldn’t of been, for example system settings the old layout was much clearer.
Do you occasionally 4k video editing of family type on your basic Air M2 ? If so, how are these editing activities going ? Le Air M2 is it slow during dinal export of video ? Does the computer get a little warmer ?
*Tasks it's intended to be done* what tasks are intended on a 1200$ computer 200$ ram upgrade (must do for long run) 220$(apple care) optional 200$(storage) idk why He are deciding one computer's intended purpose based on its name I don't think it's just a web browsing computer a 300$ iPad can also do this I think it is a photo editing, 4k video editing computer checkout competitors of m2 MacBook Air like XPS 13 plus I purchased an M2 MacBook Air 16gb ram model with AppleCare+ and 35watt charger for 2100$(or 1,63,000INR) in India. And he is saying it's intended purpose is email I meant what if he wants to decide intended purpose based on their names like pro is designed for pro workloads and air is designed for no workloads then we don't even need these reviews we will simply buy a product upon its name
To be fair that seems to be an issue they some people hardly notice but some like me can’t stand. Love the form factor of the mini. Got one for my daughter and have been trying it to as if I can ignore the jelly scroll but sadly no. I think it’s pretty bad. Even slowly scrolling I notice it and it’s at a point where I almost get headaches while using it. Would buy one right away if the issue is fixed. But will hold of until then.
Well done for fronting up and for explaining the issue so well. I explain the issue Max Tech rightly flagged up (that Apple cut costs by using just 1x258 nand in the M2 base model instead of 2x128 nands in the M1 base model) like boiling a pint of water in two kettles is always quicker than in one kettle. If you want to render video getting two smaller processors working in parallel is quicker than i processor doing the same task in series… M2 base model is indeed fantastic and faster than M1 model unless you need to do big tasks for which you should have got a MacBook….
I find it a bit weird you say “don’t worry l, I’m not going to do a load of testing” etc. The best reviewers spend a large portion of their time doing research. A lot of that research (tests) will not reveal anything particularly. But as is often said, “you don’t know what you don’t know”. I would say
Do we really need another deep dive benchmark channel? There are far smarter people than me out there doing it already. Plus, I’d rather connect my teeth to the mains.
Maybe because of the Max Tech tests I bought mine in the 16/512 config, primarily to make it more future proof. On the other hand I don't do heavy load of work on my m2 mba, just everyday stuff and it flies through it. I still think their tests were exaggerated, because this laptop is not for sustained heavy professional use such as continuous video editing or running meaningless benchmarks for hours. To be fair though, I thinks for a premium laptop (especially from Apple) it should've had the 16/512 config as base or at the very least clear info about the ssd stuff - why is it slower and why in one nand chip. in my opinion it would mitigate the bad press this laptop received, at least in some form.
Hey! I am just starting out my content creation journey and going to go all into Video Editing! I have a budget of Macbook air M1 with 16 GB of RAM. Should I go for it in 2024, is it still worth it? Or should I increase my budget and purchase an M2 Macbook air. Also, Actually I have already ordered M1 MacBook Air 7 days ago, and as they have launched M3 Macbook Air today, M1 has gotten cheaper, and probably I will be getting the refund of the price difference (of around 121 dollars). Please help, if I should cancel my order of Macbook Air M1, and order M2 with 256 GB and 16 GB RAM? The price difference is 121 dollars! I have just graduated and want to spend wisely! My main reason for buying a macbook is performance and video editing, I want to know if its really slower than the Macbook Air M1 as many people claim, and will 16 GB RAM upgrade solve the problem which you talked about in the video?!
Put aside that this *might* be as simple as a base m2 disk-swap issue, I'd like to share my findings as well. What I have found is that if you're running it so hard (gaming, rendering) that the M2 SoC needs to throttle down to sub-5W power draw, performance suffers greatly. It's really interesting as the typical ~8W throttle is barely noticeable, but if you hit the hard throttle you will suffer greatly. Situations where you might hit the worse throttle include: higher than average ambient temperatures, which is a given, and using the laptop docked in clamshell mode(!). I really didn't expect the latter one on a passively cooled laptop. It turns out a lot of heat escapes through the keyboard, so if there is a lid blocking it you can actually lose out on enough thermal headroom to the point where it can cause major usability issues.
That’s what I like about this channel complete honesty even to the point of revisiting mistakes. I think the best buying advice for the M2 is get the base model for basic needs, if your tied between upgrading the ssd or the ram for more than basic needs upgrade the ssd, because just upgrading the RAM still gives you a slow SSD.
Yeah, but the main issue with the SSD isn't that it's slow, in fact, pretty much nobody that doesn't transfer large files would ever notice as the random read/writes of the M2's SSDs are in fact better than the M1's, even in the base model, the issue is that if the machine is swapping memory into the SSD, that can lead to "data jams", which means that the system cannot do two things at once and just put whatever is prioritized lower on hold while it's finishing the other task. That's where the slowness comes from while the system is under heavy load. It's swapping memory into the SSD and therefore cannot execute read/writes from it for other purposes, or if it does, very slowly and scattered in between of the swap memory phases. Therefore, what happens if you upgrade the SSD is the following: The system will be faster transferring large files and it still will use swap memory. Swap memory being used isn't a problem in terms of using the SSD for something else at the same time anymore then, but the SSD will always be slower than the memory bandwidth. Therefore, if you upgrade the SSD, you will gain benefits in terms of transferring large files and you will still get frequent app refreshes as the system is loading things from storage to memory. If you upgrade the RAM, swap memory will not be used in the large majority of cases and therefore won't impact the storage's read/write speeds. Transferring large files will still be slower but for many people, that doesn't really mean anything as the random read/writes are faster than previously, which is the reason why programs should still launch faster than on M1. Furthermore, you will not experience (the same degree of) app refreshes and other things being pulled out of storage into memory anymore. Therefore, I would suggest upgrading the RAM, not the SSD, unless you need the extra storage space of course. Buying more RAM also comes a long way in future-proofing your device and making sure you never have to worry about having too many word documents open at the same time.
@@onion2787 great explanation, but in general those who know they need 16GB of RAM generally would need a larger than 256GB SSD, plus I feel that most of the demographic this device is targeted at won’t be using a lot of swap and if and when they do they generally won’t notice any difference whatsoever with how well apple silicon deals with swap memory, that’s likely the reason why the ‘ready to ship’ models from apple are both 8GB of RAM and 16GB is only available BTO. I just feel the target demographic the MacBook Air M2 is aimed towards would benefit more from the larger storage option rather than the RAM, as for future proofing people have been advising to go with 16GB RAM in order to future proof their device for the past 4-5 years, yet here we are seeing 8GB RAM working perfectly fine for the vast majority of the user base, if apple were still using intel today 100% I would say upgrade the RAM but now with Apple silicon I wouldn’t say it’s as much of a necessary upgrade IMHO. Overall though it’s each to their own, but for the user base who will utilise swap memory on occasion I think spending $200 on a RAM upgrade seems a bit of waste vs spending $200 on more memory plus a much faster SSD.
@@james_godfrey Well, you see, I personally use my computer for full note-taking, document editing, PowerPoint, web browsing with quite often more than 20 tabs and similar stuff. I am currently sitting on 177 of 256 gigs being used (albeit on a windows device), so I think for people that edit documents and do productivity stuff, this will never be an issue. However, RAM might be. It might not be a big issue but I feel like it's certainly a better idea to invest in more headroom there, especially since you can always purchase an online cloud subscription or an external SSD if you run out. Furthermore, the only things that require a lot of SSD space (as far as I am concerned) are gaming and video editing, both of which I wouldn't necessarily chose the M2 MacBook Air for, given that it's powerful but still designed as a thin-and-light productivity machine. So yes, I think you are right about the target demographic not necessarily needing either of those, but I still think that you should opt for the additional RAM unless you know you are going to use a lot of space and not using any heavy programs that are taking up a lot of RAM and on modern systems, it's quite easy to use more RAM than you predicted, especially if you are clumsy with window-closing or if you are new to macOS and don't always properly quit apps. But yes, it of course comes down to individual use case.
Hang on a minute. If the nand is slower, how is that leading to this result? For example - I edit all my media off an external SSD (loads of people do) and it's limited to 1gbps transfer speed, which is massively slower than the internal and, but still PLENTY for 4k editing. What gives? This seems more like a lack of RAM issue
@@MarkEllisReviews given your exceptional lack of rigour displayed thus far, and the fact that I don't own either of the laptops, I don't think I can validate that statement. Why would I place faith in your analysis, given the contents of the above video?
No Apple apologist, but 8GB for prosumer work is not sensible, and creators suggesting to their audience that it is enough on any laptop are wrong. As for issues, onTwitter, FCP, and the latest macOS have had problems, and even I run into slowdowns just browsing on the latest macOS 8GB on my M1 MB Pro 13. The bugs are browsers reloading, typing with a delay, BT lag, and generally very buggy with severe memory leaks. I suggest not upgrading to the latest macOS if you are a pro. My MB Pro 15 is still on the last version to avoid these road bumps. I have to close Safari regularly and maintain running management to stop freezing (twice in the last month) on my M1 MB Pro 8GB. I imagine running FCP on it would be a nightmare.
I implore you to learn about technology if you're going to review it. The issue with the nand chip is that computers as far back as 2017 have been able to read and write from multiple nand chips at once. The reason the 512gb doesn't have this problem is it has two chips, both 256gb . So theoretically twice the throughput. Most modern computers can actually do more than two at once for even faster speeds. A good analogy would be imagine you're trying to fill a pool up and you have one hose and then you're trying to fill another pool up and you have two hoses. The one with two hoses will fill up much faster.
Well, the problem you ran into with video editing on the M2 MBA could be related to SSD being a single chip in this machine, but the macOS version can play a role too here. It is probably a combination of factors, the main being the SSD. The same story is repeated now with the base configuration of the new 14-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro. Max Tech already demonstrated that it has half the SSD speed of the corresponding M1 model. Really cheap from Apple's part because this is a premium machine. Ridiculous.
It is essential to buy a bigger SSD for an extra $200 in any Mac that you buy. This is because Mac SSDs are now none upgradable which means that you have to decide on maximum lifetime storage when you first buy any M1/M2 Mac. If you ever intend to game on a Mac, bear in mind that most new AAA games on PCs and Consoles are now around 100 Gb in size. The 256 Gb base model of an M2 MacBook Air is a particularly bad buy. This is because is only features a single 256 Gb flash module. By comparison all other M1/M2 macs have two flash modules. This means that the 256 Gb base M2 MacBook Air has slower I/O to its SSD than any other M1/M2 Mac. I bought an as new customer return iPhone SE 2020 this year for £229. This is a great buy. However, I was forced to buy the 64 Gb model because it was the only one that this company had sold. By contrast almost all Android phones, even those costing as little as £120, come with 128 Gb as standard. This is because an extra 64 Gb of flash memory costs so little that Android manufacturers simply choose to supply it by default. Apple really is committed to supplying too little flash memory in their base models to force people in the know to pay an extra £50 to £200 for every device that they sell. The RAM is the second most important thing that you should upgrade, but only if you are playing games.
I don't think it has to do with the ssd per se. Various things contribute to this. Sure the smaller ssd is slower BUT in real life applications you won't max out even these slow transfer speeds. In reality tons of small files that are transfered or swapped slow down the system because the file systems are still all slow as hell. You'll only get realy hight transfer speeds with large files that fit in the cache (ram) of the ssd. Practically all consumer ssds gain their high speeds by caching incoming data in a separate ram chip which is a part of the ssd (and write it from there "slower" to the ssd nand chips). If you take away the caching a nvme ssd is nearly as fast (well, slow) as an "old" sata ssd. Teardowns of the Mac Studio showed clearly that the mac ssds are not full fledged ssds but dumb storage cells. Since in M1/2 Macs the storage controller is part of the chip then the mac probably uses its regular ram as cache for the ssd. With 8 gb Ram it is pretty obvious that this won't work very good. This is not enough for apps and caching and the simple storage chips Apple puts into its devices can't write fast enough to "clear" the ram. Another thing seems to be temperature. M2 chips seem to get hot - especially in the Macbook Air - and become then unstable. My guess is that Apple has some kind of problem with the M2 chips. Otherwise we would have seen other M2 Macs for christmas shopping. Could be a supply chain problem but I don't think this is the only reason.
Firstly, You can't compare the performance of the M2 chip from an Air with a Pro, because the Pro has active cooling that the Air lacks. This will affect performance under load. Secondly, the single module memory (NAND) issue (1 x 256 GB instead of 2 x 128 GB resulting in lower read/write bandwidth and thus slower transfer speeds) has been widely covered, several months ago. I am surprised that you seem unaware of this issue until you experienced it yourself. As you are a content creator, I can see why you might prefer to avoid other people's reviews so that you come at the subject with an open mind, uninfluenced by other people's opinions, but honestly I think it would be useful for you to keep abreast of wider industry news. Had you done so, you might have made a different buying decision. Also, if you are not informed, you can't tell your viewers in a timely fashion. If you need a simple explanation, think of it like this. When driving through a tunnel with two lanes, more vehicles can cross in a given time than if there were only a single lane. The traffic will still get through with only one lane open, but it will take longer and there may be jams and tailbacks. That's the physical difference between having a single NAND module and two NAND modules working in parallel. It's all about the throughput. Given that Apple are a premium brand, with premium pricing, this sort of penny-pinching is unacceptable, and shouldn't be happening.
I have the 32 GB ram and 512 GB SSD of M2 MacBook Air. It sucks. My IDEs such as IntelliJ or PyCharm feel laggy at times. Also, it heats up sometimes. To the apple fanboys who are gonna shout that M2 Macbook Air is not for heavy use, you should know that writing basic code on IntelliJ and PyCharm is not heavy use. So save yourselves the effort.
The base M2 AIR is not great on many levels, apart of the problems with the split SSD, if you upgrade, you're better of getting the base M1 Pro, which is much better in every aspect! You let your viewers down with your initial review!
Well I watched your vid and went out and purchased MBA M2 Base Model. Disappointed now that it is not as good as MBA M1 which I also could of purchased instead. Maybe make sure what you are disclaiming before creating the video. I cannot change this now. As in most of us normal people can’t afford more than one laptop at a time. Not really good enough to come back and say ah wait I’ve changed my mind. These products are seriously expensive.
Sorry to hear that, Regina. But I'm afraid I'm human, and would rather admit my mistakes than gloss over them. These kinds of videos are a rarity on RUclips.
@@MarkEllisReviews I know, sorry was just pissed off yesterday! Of course everyone makes mistakes, we are human. Does say alot about a person when you can admit it. Look it’s a Beautiful Machine and for someone like me it’s perfect. I think a lot tech videos are for hardcore users and ye are deep into it. I probably won’t even notice the difference. I don’t game or upload content etc. Also I bought it for €900 second-hand, only 6 months old so bran new!! I felt that was a good deal. Hoping it will last me 5 years at least. It’s my first Mac laptop and it’s a Beauty! I’m going to stop watching all these vids wrecking my head and actually enjoy my new MBA M2! 😁🫶
Hey Mark, I was wondering what your thoughts were on light gaming on the M2 Air as obviously when you're gaming you aren't going to be using any other apps or have that many running in the background so wouldn't run into the same issues?
It sounds to me that the single I/O path to the 256G storage in the M2 MacBook Air isn't as performant as the multiple I/O paths to the multi-chip 256G storage in the M1 MacBook Air. I still plan to buy an M1 MacBook Air as the pinnacle of MacBook Air design. This will be plenty of computer portability for me. That M2 MacBook Air doesn't even look like MacBook Air! I understand it even gets hot, which is an anathema to M1 design. Why pay more for less?
It isn't a matter of 20/20 hindsight but there are few Apple products that are worth the money Apple is asking and the M2 MacBook Air *definitely* isn't one of them. But I have been buying from Apple for decades and have been caught often enough to have learnt my lesson, years ago.
Buy the base version, it’s just hot air. No one buys the base model and does any video or photo editing. No one. Max tech does the click bait and very unrealistic projects. It’s for views, they care about dollars per video, just that simple. Talk to normal folks and every person will give glowing reviews on this MacBook Air. One reason not to watch huge channels cause no matter what they says there is a bias agenda.
I unfollowed Max Tech's channel because they became so over the top with their video product reviews, titles, ect, and their channel started feeling like click bait. I function very comfortably with the M1 iPad Pro with keyboard/trackpad and the iPad Mini 6. I don't have a MacBook but have thought about getting the M2 Air come tax refund time. However I'm wondering if the iMac or a Mac Mini would be better for my use as I'm looking for a machine to be an at home desktop unit, since the iPad is all the laptop that I need.
Has this video put you off buying the base model M2 MacBook Air?
Huh? I have seen the Max Tech videos on the M2 Air. The bottleneck is the internal SSD NOT the M2 SoC.
Editing video is to storage like driving 120mph all the time is to your car engine. As you can't easily replace the Mac's SSD it's much better to put that wear and tear on the much cheaper external-which OBTW you can also use to easily take the project to another system.
No. But my wallet has. $$$!!!
I never really thought it was 'enough' when the base Pro became so close in price when you add in the larger SSD and 16GB Ram. I don't see the point of 8GB today and the 256GB SSD is just a joke. Apple need to set the base level at the right level, I think they are doing themselves a disservice ...
I have the very same as you do and I really am enjoying the M2 MacBook Air. I am a casual user and never attempt any video editing, so maybe that is why it works perfectly for me.
There has been several instances where the activity monitor shows some orange but isn't that typical when multiple windows/apps are open?
I have not regretted buying the base model. For one thing, I only do the things with this laptop that it is intended for, and for another, even my work would not overtax the laptop. I work in marketing but video editing is not one of my tasks. As you have already correctly recognized. Apple did not make this laptop for such tasks.
I believe the reason why you experienced a slow down with the M2 during video editing is because of the storage (SSD) speed.
Because the base M2 uses a single NAND chip the SSD runs half as fast as the M1 which uses two NAND chips.
8GB of memory is just enough for day to day usage, once you do anything moderate (ie video editing, 20+ tabs) 8GB of ram isn’t enough and your mac is forced to use swap memory, which is essentially using your storage as memory.
Because the M2 SSD is half as fast, when it is using swap memory it is no surprise the machine will stutter compared to the M1 which is twice as fast.
Contrary to your advice given at the end of the video, from a performance standpoint if you wanted to upgrade your M2 Mac, I’d op for the 16GB RAM upgrade over a 512GB ssd upgrade. Having swap memory only covers up a problem which is a lack of memory, you can eliminate the problem to begin with with more memory in the first place.
It is also practise for future proofing if you decide to hold on to your mac longer than say 5 years. As memory requirements increase over time.
Good to see a youtuber admitting when they get it wrong, too many just either deny it or just paint over it.
Well done for your honesty 👏
Yes, but have you noticed that every (!) RUclips reviewer has posted at least one video saying "I was wrong". First they were wrong about how bad they thought it would be. Then how good. Then how bad. It always (!) starts with "I bought the base configuration", even after years of EVERYONE saying that one should NEVER get the base configuration. I swear they do this just to have something to vlog about.
Picked up the 512 GB version today. At least it sounds like the problem is limited to the base version. Good timing on the video!
We all make mistakes in full confidence and that we don't realize we are making at the time. What some people cannot do is humbly admit that they were wrong. This is one of my absolute favourite channels on youtube and the fact that you can be this honest about your mistake makes me want to keep being informed by your videos! Keep up the great work !
Thank you!
Lol😂
The M2 MacBook Air is great and I love how fast it is and how much it can handle unlike what some RUclipsrs throw at it
I bought a M2 Air based model, i use for programing its super smooth, works very well, this laptop isn't for hard work like editing videos, for daily use and programing its very good.
Back when the M2 MBA launched, I watched a lot of your video and decided to go for the M1 MBA 16/512. Best decision I’ve ever made, especially when I care a lot more about reliability than pretty design.
Really like your honest reassessment of your earlier analysis based on newer data. I am a researcher and a lot of times we have to backtrack in the face of new data. Swallowing one’s pride and following what the data tells you, makes you a stellar researcher, not an apologist.
How refreshing - thank you!
i'm so glad i went with the base 14"... i didn't had to put it through hard task yet but just the screen and speakers already make for it imo. and i know that when i'll need to push it, it will respond.
Don't beat yourself up too much. I still value your opinion on this stuff. I will be getting the Air M2 512 here shortly and I'm sure I'll love it.
Good honest review. I got a 16/256 M1 Mac mini from Apple refurb. It drives a 5k studio display and a Dell P2715Q superbly. Same for my work provided 16/512 M1 MBP13. Getting more ram is a better investment than more HD then use a TB linked external SSD….
Great video my brotha! I actually own the base model M2 MacBook Air and I’m loving it! I actually bought it because my spouse also has the M1 Air and I loved the look, performance and all. The M2 Air is my very first Mac and I’ve had absolutely no regrets or problems with it at all. I’m actually running my own RUclips channel from it and edit and render up to 4k 60fps with no observed issues at all… no slow downs, no hiccups, or anything alarming at all 🤷🏾♂️… all while living in tropical Jamaica 🇯🇲. So I guess mileage varies or something 🤷🏾♂️. But I’m loving it so far! Definitely worlds better than my old Haswell i7 gaming laptop I’ve had before it in every single way hands down!
Thank you! And I’m glad you’re happy with it!
I went with the M1 base unit as a test to see if I liked the Air, I fell in love with it !! At times it bogs down at work when I have 6-8 tabs in Safari, Outlook, Apple News, and several other small programs, Safari takes up 4GB on its own. I was contemplating upgrading to a 2022 M2 Air with 16GB Ram and 512Gb SSD. Does anyone have feedback on how much faster the M2 will be (or not ?) over my M1. Thanks for any input...
It all comes down to what you need.
I run the basemodel as my main protools rig, working on big mix sessions. I am amazed how well this little fellow hold up.
All in all its a good laptop.
will it work smoothly on adobe audition with lots of audio podcast files?
@@HOPGamingZone it will :)
I already decided I will buy the second basic MacBook Air 520 Gb because of the reason you described. But now what about the discussion 8 vs 16 Gb RAM? I will use the MacBook for the basic stuff, but I usually have a lot of apps running in parallel. On my iMac with 24 Gb RAM I can see it usually uses about 12Gb RAM. The only real RAM consumer is Lightroom. I may use Lr sometimes while traveling like you do. Than buy the 16Gb you may say. However, the base models one can buy with 10-16% discount. The 16Gb version at Apple only: the difference is about €400, just because I want more RAM. What should I do, and not regret afterwards?
I still don’t understand the “controversy”. Is it that controversial to expect a newer product to be better than an older product in every single aspect? In any case, the M2 is not a terrible laptop, it’s just caught between a way cheaper/ more well rounded option (M1 Air) and a slightly more pricey but way more powerful option (14” M1 Pro). I personally think both are better options than the M2 Air at its current price.
Well... that's the difference between a technical review and a power flower review.
Max/Vadim seem technical enough so... maybe (less technical inclined) people should pay more attention to what the techies have to say when it's about technology; just saying...
I saw Vadim's testing back then, understood his point and kind of... disagreed with yours, even tho I haven't voiced my opinion on your channel about it.
Anyway... I still like more how you present the stuff on your channel. Maybe it has to do with your charm, I don't know...
And I also appreciate the honesty.
Your channel is still one of my favourites.
Cheers, mate 😊
‘Power flower’ is one of my favourite new phrases. Thanks for the kind words 👍
Thanks for the honest follow-up. Unfortunate that the Air didn't seem usable at all. I've always assumed that I could do this sort of video editing if I really needed to. I am somewhat mad that this machine performs worse than its predecessor, but only in principle. After all, I didn't buy this computer to edit videos of this quality--I'm not a RUclipsr, and that's what a MacBook Pro is for anyway.
This goes to show that new or more expensive, is not always more expensive. I bought my aunt the m1 air while I was rocking a MBP 2012, and after a lot of thought I decided to get a new one, after testing the M2 air and seeing how slow it was in comparison to the m1 air, I just went straight ahead for the M1PRO 14 base model. I imagine that the m2pro may have issues to.
The M2Pro shouldn't have any issues. You're looking at a laptop with better storage, more memory, and active cooling. When the M2Pro MacBooks arrive, they will easily defeat the M1 models. I just don't expect them to crush them very hard as the M2 chip is a relatively small upgrade over the M1.
It's possible that the variation you noticed was due to thermals. Theoretically, if it was an issue with the SSD configuration then it should remain consistent. You shouldn't be doing it fine one day and slow the next. Macbook Air has notoriously poor thermal control, and when the processor heats up, the computer will throttle down the processing speed. The M1 Air has slightly better cooling than the M2 due to a larger/thicker metal plate to dissapate heat. I would be very interested to see if people notice this issue on the M2 Mac Mini, which has a fan-cooled system.
Well, 256gb storage isn't really enough for video editing anyway :P
Respect to you for admitting that you may have been to quick to judge the m2 MacBook Air. It’s a weird one. People just looking for a basic laptop is better of choosing the m1 MacBook Air since it even performs better in some situations then the m2. And as soon you start to upgrade the m2 MacBook Air it’s just better to go for the 14 inch MacBook Pro. I just picked up the MacBook Pro for about the same price as a m2 mbair when upgraded with just 16 gb ram or 512 gb ssd.
moral of the story....avoid the base model if you are a power user
This is why I’ve been real tempted to buy the older one at $800. Just want to be able to do 4K editing
Love your reviews and in this case admitting you got something wrong. No fuss, no fanfare just a very useful step back and revisit. The honesty and direct dealing with everything is why we all come here.
One slight tip if I may. You were bobbing a bit close to the camera at times which is slightly "disturbing" . Especially when I can see right up your nose 😱
Cheers, mate! And point taken on the framing 😉
I have the MBA/M2/8GB/512Gb and its been fine, but on a few occasions it was sluggish when moving a 10GB-ish of data to an external drive. It was like the chip was saying _"Hey I'm busy right now, call me when I'm finished!"_ Almost as though it had committed all its attention to a single task. I'm still on Monterey and will be for sometime as it offers nothing of interest but only the possibility that I'll have to pay for upgrades for some of my current apps.
I use M2/512/16G, normal office work and some xcode coding. It works just fine. I choose m2 (not m1), regardless of price and performance, I just want a bigger screen and light body.
I dont understand why Apple is selling
a) a 256GB SSD
b) a 256GB SSD that is slower than the other SSDs.
It’s harder and harder to choose the “right” device. MacBook Air, Macbook Pro 13”, 14”, 16”, Mac mini, Mac Studio, iMac 24”, Mac Pro, M1, M2, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 10 Core, 16 Core, 24 Core, 32 Core, 48 Core, 64 Core and so on…
So how to be sure what’s the “right fit”?
Reminds me of the problem in the 90s when the product palette get cluttered and nobody knew “what’s the right fit”?
The issue with the Air M2 isn't really relevant to me. I'm a photographer and work with some very big files. So I need at least 16 Gb of RAM.
I wonder whether there is a sufficient difference between the M1 with 16Gb and the M2 with the same RAM, both with 512 Tb to justify the very desirable blue model?
I'm currently on Intel with an iMac and Air and I think an upgrade may well be in order.
To give an idea of the challenges RAW files from my main camera run to 120 Gb. When edited in PS and enhanced they can grow to 200 or 300 Gb.
This sort of honesty and professionalism is exactly why I enjoy this channel so much.
Thank you!
Let’s say that the M1 MacBook Air has two very fast cars with trunk capacity of 128GB each, whereas the M2 has one car with the same speed but a trunk capacity of 256 GB. For the majority of the tasks (i.e., everyday tasks or even video exporting), chances are you would only need one car to “deliver” the performance you need. However, when you’re too busy and need to run several tasks at the same time or as soon as possible, the M1 can assign each 128GB driver with separate tasks at the same time, while the M2 would have to wait for the 256GB to come back to assign a new task. This is why under heavy memory load issues (such as 4K video editing), the base model M2 will experience more issues than the previous M1
How many cars does the M2 MBA 16 ram 512 GB have?
The base M1 should have been 512 GB. 256 is unacceptably low for this price range. While it used to be perfectly fine, files have gotten so large today. Especially when they leave performance on the table as a result, 512 should have been the default.
Mark, I have to say it takes courage and honesty to admit your mistake, and you have shown both of them very clearly! Not only do people stick to their own personal views and discard reality, but to admit so openly to the fact that you didn’t pay attention to the glitches and feedback, and that you were wrong clearly, brings value to your content. Keep up the fantastic work and great reviews (and re-reviews!😅)! Happy Christmas 🎄to you and keep rocking in the new year! 🎉👏🏻🎊
That means an awful lot - thank you!
Bravo, Mark. Glad I can still go out and buy an M2 without remorse and I think that's all thanks to your excellent stories!
You got a new subscriber today 😊. I was searching in YT for honest reviews on MBA M2 as i am going to purchase it and your video was the best 👍
Never saw anyone in youtube accepting honestly what you told wrong before . Huge respect for you 🙏. World needs more people like you ❤️
I am going to purchase now M2 MBA 512 GB 😊. Thanks for your help 🙏
This means a lot - thank you! And thanks for the lovely words!
Im still wondering, why bother with:
8/256 base models
super expensive 16/512 upgrades
a „bad“ LCD screen
no HDMI, SD card or ANYTHING regarding to ports
When you can have a 14“ M1 Pro base model for nearly the same price as a new M2 Air?!
My trousers need a fire extinguisher.
Good for you for admitting it. But it is odd that you still don’t think it’s important to understand the technical side of things, as a tech reviewer. If I remembered it correctly because M2 was using single module for 256gb, the bandwidth to persist storage was halved compared to the M1 version which has dual 128gb SSD modules that add up to 256gb. It isn’t hard to understand. Half the modules, half the bandwidth.
Thanks! And as for not wanting to understand the technical aspects - I just have zero interest in that stuff, mate, and it hasn’t harmed the growth of my business. I just need to know ‘enough’ for my audience.
A lot of your audience, myself included, explicitly don’t want the technical overload. It’s precisely why I like this channel
I got the MBA M2 with 16GB/512GB and I noticed something weird, I was resetting a Numbers spreadsheet and making a repeatable entry in many fields, entering $0.00 and the M2 couldn’t keep up, I would finish entering the $0.00 for 4 fields and I had to wait for the M2. I had M2 connected to the Samsung M8 and 2 spreadsheets opened. I wasn’t impressed…
Time to turn the channel into BenchMark Ellis Reviews
Round of applause, please 👏👏
Interesting results! Still looking at the base model for a student who is not going to stress the system or fill a hard drive. She’s moving from Intel Mac and is mostly interested in the no fan of the Mx chips. Hopefully they start with a larger base hard drive in the next generation when I’ll be ready to replace my own machine.
Hi Mark.. Unfortunately i am also a Canon shooter who needs to deal with HEVC 442 10 bit codec 4k. I was just about to buy the base 256gb model.. But you know 256 gb would never be enough anyway so I was planning to keep my footage/project files on a fast external drive. Do you think using a faster external drive would be fine? In the end only premiere core files will be read from the local ssd. My main workflow is 4k 10bit hevc video editing. Maybe I should go with a M1 mini instead?
I did the one up on my Mac Air 512 ~ But my complaint is that because of the larger screen you can't open the lid without smearing the camera screen with your fingerprints ~ You can't even touch the sides without leaving your fingerprints on the screen ~ Otherwise, my other problems are transferring a video to my Facebook page from a RUclips page ~ I use to be able to drag and drop but now it's a PIA ~ I don't have any overheating problems as they said I would ~
3 months ago I purchased a M1 Mac book air from a neighbour at a very good price (Eu600) because he had got the M2 version - 3 months on he is indeed no so happy with his choice - indeed for one who has used Macs on and off their memory policy is at best difficult and opaque.
Does anyone have any issues with this one? I just bought this one just for fun. I have my main desktop with a 3090 ti for gaming. But i want the air m2 for schools work and e-commerce.
I’m still on time to return it. What y’all think?
Appreciate your honesty
Haven't had this problem. I don't edit videos (and never will XD, I'd pay someone to do it for me). It works circles around my old intel Macbook Air. Never gets warm or slows down using day-to-day things. This is a great Macbook for people that just want a great Macbook to do basic day-to-day things (non-pro things).
I agree with the new opinions. I think the m2 base model is only good for basic editing and non-memory-eating apps. I recently tested Jetbrain Fleet on m2 base model and I found the memory is not enough. However this may be because Fleet is still in a beta version.. In general I only use it for bbedit and scrivener. I even do not often use it for Matlab.. anyway from m2 I feel apple is going back to its typical apple style: basic functions for ridiculous price and they want to charge more in this country as well..
*Tasks it's intended to be done*
what tasks are intended on a
1200$ computer
200$ ram upgrade (must do for long run)
220$(apple care) optional
200$(storage) idk why
He are deciding one computer's intended purpose based on its name I don't think it's just a web browsing computer a 300$ iPad can also do this I think it is a photo editing, 4k video editing computer checkout competitors of m2 MacBook Air like XPS 13 plus
I purchased an M2 MacBook Air 16gb ram model with AppleCare+ and 35watt charger for 2100$(or 1,63,000INR) in India.
And he is saying it's intended purpose is email I meant what if he wants to decide intended purpose based on their names like pro is designed for pro workloads and air is designed for no workloads then we don't even need these reviews we will simply buy a product upon its name
The MacBook Air is a very nice, premium email sender and web surfer.
As a main laptop this base model may not be good enough, however as a second device for simple or lighter tasks - sufficient.
I got the 2TB version of the M2 Air, not had any issues here.
Need to add get the highest amount of ram too. It will save your ssd. Once the ssd is gone you will need to buy a new MacBook Air as the cost to get it fixed will be comparable to a new one.
dude , i really love your voice and accent
apple doesnt respect its consumers anymore and it's a shame . not increase the base storage can be ok . increasing the price by 300 bucks...not acceptable but ok . but doing all that whilst also giving a twice as slow SSD ? this is sneaky and shameful .
apple is all about their sacred margins and the consumer can just fuck off . that's the message it sends . and they aren't afraid to show their true colors anymore, due to the lack of competition, be it for phones,laptops,tablets .
So, to sum up Marc, what is your conclusion ? I understood you say : 4k editing (occasional in my case) is done very well on the Air M1 (256g ssd), but the performance is exactly the same on the Air M2 provided it is equipped with a 512g ssd. Tell me if I misunderstood.
At the same time, you seem to say (towards the end of your presentation) that in your personal use you don't use macbook Air for your 4k edits.
There is another French-speaking presenter (but you can translate the subtitles automatically into English in the youtube window) who did a test on the basic Air M2 (8g of RAM and 256g of ssd) by checking the export time of 14 minutes of one 4k video by final cut pro. He compared this export time with that of the 14 inch Macbook Pro of M1 chips (with the same 14 minute video in final cut pro). Result: the 14-inch Pro M1 exported faster than the basic Air M2, but only by 47 seconds ahead! So the Air M2 is very impressive.
In addition, this same presenter also confirmed (like you) that the 256g ssd of the Air M2 is slower than that of the 256g ssd of the Air M1, he himself made an in-depth analysis of these 2 ssds and he was able to observe with certainty that the 256g of the Air M2 is twice as slow in writing as the ssd 256g of the Air M1 ! Despite this disadvantage, as I said above, exporting a 14-minute video in the Air M2 (with 8g/256g) was only 47 seconds slower than on the 14-inch Pro M1. So, impressive that this Air M2.
The moment of the presentation where he compares the export speeds between the basic Air M2 with the Pro 14 inch M1 : ruclips.net/video/_JwIrAhBT20/видео.html
the moment when it compares of ssd speed in Air M2 and Air M1 :
ruclips.net/video/_JwIrAhBT20/видео.html
You can get totally lost in this stuff, mate. If you’re going to be consistently editing 4K video and you don’t want a MacBook Pro, spend as much as you can on a MacBook Air - simple 👍
Hi I am a HR and I need to buy a laptop , my most work will eb documents , Word files , Pdf etc and i will be browsing at a time like in 15-20 multiple windows with heavy ATS software running
what would you suggest M1 mabook air or M2 air
Try it with a 16 gig / 256 gig. Please. Looking to get this machine soon.
I have a base model m2 MBA and it's great but I'm gonna guess ventura was the issue, I think it's much worse than previous versions and changes have been made that shouldn’t of been, for example system settings the old layout was much clearer.
Do you occasionally 4k video editing of family type on your basic Air M2 ? If so, how are these editing activities going ? Le Air M2 is it slow during dinal export of video ? Does the computer get a little warmer ?
@@paulwoaert I don’t do 4k but full hd quite often on Final Cut Pro and it handles it with no issues.
I’ve not tried 4k.
Great video again as you have churned out lately! Which camera did your footage come from? I don't believe it was mentioned, if it was my apologies!
Thanks! It’s a Sony FX3.
I got the air 16 memory 1tb. M2. I love it.
I just got an M2 Air, definitely NOT the base model, for all my productivity, and I have 0 complaints. I like it.
You lost me at that point in subscription when you said that jelly scrolling isn't a big issue on iPad mini 6 🙅🏻♂
Yet you still watch my videos... AND comment 🧐
@@MarkEllisReviews 😂😂😂 I guess Sunday roast is on Saturdays now. 🔥
@@MarkEllisReviews Well, I don't see those things as mutually exclusive. 😅
*Tasks it's intended to be done*
what tasks are intended on a
1200$ computer
200$ ram upgrade (must do for long run)
220$(apple care) optional
200$(storage) idk why
He are deciding one computer's intended purpose based on its name I don't think it's just a web browsing computer a 300$ iPad can also do this I think it is a photo editing, 4k video editing computer checkout competitors of m2 MacBook Air like XPS 13 plus
I purchased an M2 MacBook Air 16gb ram model with AppleCare+ and 35watt charger for 2100$(or 1,63,000INR) in India.
And he is saying it's intended purpose is email I meant what if he wants to decide intended purpose based on their names like pro is designed for pro workloads and air is designed for no workloads then we don't even need these reviews we will simply buy a product upon its name
To be fair that seems to be an issue they some people hardly notice but some like me can’t stand. Love the form factor of the mini. Got one for my daughter and have been trying it to as if I can ignore the jelly scroll but sadly no. I think it’s pretty bad. Even slowly scrolling I notice it and it’s at a point where I almost get headaches while using it. Would buy one right away if the issue is fixed. But will hold of until then.
Well done for fronting up and for explaining the issue so well. I explain the issue Max Tech rightly flagged up (that Apple cut costs by using just 1x258 nand in the M2 base model instead of 2x128 nands in the M1 base model) like boiling a pint of water in two kettles is always quicker than in one kettle. If you want to render video getting two smaller processors working in parallel is quicker than i processor doing the same task in series… M2 base model is indeed fantastic and faster than M1 model unless you need to do big tasks for which you should have got a MacBook….
I find it a bit weird you say “don’t worry l, I’m not going to do a load of testing” etc.
The best reviewers spend a large portion of their time doing research. A lot of that research (tests) will not reveal anything particularly. But as is often said, “you don’t know what you don’t know”.
I would say
Do we really need another deep dive benchmark channel? There are far smarter people than me out there doing it already. Plus, I’d rather connect my teeth to the mains.
Maybe because of the Max Tech tests I bought mine in the 16/512 config, primarily to make it more future proof. On the other hand I don't do heavy load of work on my m2 mba, just everyday stuff and it flies through it. I still think their tests were exaggerated, because this laptop is not for sustained heavy professional use such as continuous video editing or running meaningless benchmarks for hours. To be fair though, I thinks for a premium laptop (especially from Apple) it should've had the 16/512 config as base or at the very least clear info about the ssd stuff - why is it slower and why in one nand chip. in my opinion it would mitigate the bad press this laptop received, at least in some form.
I feel Better about my M1 256 Ventura now. You've made my Day. 🍎Thanks.
People don't know all the insider manufacturers of their devices and Apple can easily say they never cared for the inside
Hey! I am just starting out my content creation journey and going to go all into Video Editing! I have a budget of Macbook air M1 with 16 GB of RAM. Should I go for it in 2024, is it still worth it? Or should I increase my budget and purchase an M2 Macbook air. Also, Actually I have already ordered M1 MacBook Air 7 days ago, and as they have launched M3 Macbook Air today, M1 has gotten cheaper, and probably I will be getting the refund of the price difference (of around 121 dollars). Please help, if I should cancel my order of Macbook Air M1, and order M2 with 256 GB and 16 GB RAM? The price difference is 121 dollars! I have just graduated and want to spend wisely!
My main reason for buying a macbook is performance and video editing, I want to know if its really slower than the Macbook Air M1 as many people claim, and will 16 GB RAM upgrade solve the problem which you talked about in the video?!
So what !? We watch you because you are honest
Put aside that this *might* be as simple as a base m2 disk-swap issue, I'd like to share my findings as well.
What I have found is that if you're running it so hard (gaming, rendering) that the M2 SoC needs to throttle down to sub-5W power draw, performance suffers greatly. It's really interesting as the typical ~8W throttle is barely noticeable, but if you hit the hard throttle you will suffer greatly.
Situations where you might hit the worse throttle include: higher than average ambient temperatures, which is a given, and using the laptop docked in clamshell mode(!). I really didn't expect the latter one on a passively cooled laptop. It turns out a lot of heat escapes through the keyboard, so if there is a lid blocking it you can actually lose out on enough thermal headroom to the point where it can cause major usability issues.
That’s what I like about this channel complete honesty even to the point of revisiting mistakes. I think the best buying advice for the M2 is get the base model for basic needs, if your tied between upgrading the ssd or the ram for more than basic needs upgrade the ssd, because just upgrading the RAM still gives you a slow SSD.
Thanks, James! And my buying guidance for this laptop hasn’t really changed - yours is great, too!
Yeah, but the main issue with the SSD isn't that it's slow, in fact, pretty much nobody that doesn't transfer large files would ever notice as the random read/writes of the M2's SSDs are in fact better than the M1's, even in the base model, the issue is that if the machine is swapping memory into the SSD, that can lead to "data jams", which means that the system cannot do two things at once and just put whatever is prioritized lower on hold while it's finishing the other task. That's where the slowness comes from while the system is under heavy load. It's swapping memory into the SSD and therefore cannot execute read/writes from it for other purposes, or if it does, very slowly and scattered in between of the swap memory phases.
Therefore, what happens if you upgrade the SSD is the following: The system will be faster transferring large files and it still will use swap memory. Swap memory being used isn't a problem in terms of using the SSD for something else at the same time anymore then, but the SSD will always be slower than the memory bandwidth. Therefore, if you upgrade the SSD, you will gain benefits in terms of transferring large files and you will still get frequent app refreshes as the system is loading things from storage to memory.
If you upgrade the RAM, swap memory will not be used in the large majority of cases and therefore won't impact the storage's read/write speeds. Transferring large files will still be slower but for many people, that doesn't really mean anything as the random read/writes are faster than previously, which is the reason why programs should still launch faster than on M1. Furthermore, you will not experience (the same degree of) app refreshes and other things being pulled out of storage into memory anymore.
Therefore, I would suggest upgrading the RAM, not the SSD, unless you need the extra storage space of course. Buying more RAM also comes a long way in future-proofing your device and making sure you never have to worry about having too many word documents open at the same time.
@@onion2787 great explanation, but in general those who know they need 16GB of RAM generally would need a larger than 256GB SSD, plus I feel that most of the demographic this device is targeted at won’t be using a lot of swap and if and when they do they generally won’t notice any difference whatsoever with how well apple silicon deals with swap memory, that’s likely the reason why the ‘ready to ship’ models from apple are both 8GB of RAM and 16GB is only available BTO.
I just feel the target demographic the MacBook Air M2 is aimed towards would benefit more from the larger storage option rather than the RAM, as for future proofing people have been advising to go with 16GB RAM in order to future proof their device for the past 4-5 years, yet here we are seeing 8GB RAM working perfectly fine for the vast majority of the user base, if apple were still using intel today 100% I would say upgrade the RAM but now with Apple silicon I wouldn’t say it’s as much of a necessary upgrade IMHO.
Overall though it’s each to their own, but for the user base who will utilise swap memory on occasion I think spending $200 on a RAM upgrade seems a bit of waste vs spending $200 on more memory plus a much faster SSD.
@@james_godfrey Well, you see, I personally use my computer for full note-taking, document editing, PowerPoint, web browsing with quite often more than 20 tabs and similar stuff. I am currently sitting on 177 of 256 gigs being used (albeit on a windows device), so I think for people that edit documents and do productivity stuff, this will never be an issue. However, RAM might be. It might not be a big issue but I feel like it's certainly a better idea to invest in more headroom there, especially since you can always purchase an online cloud subscription or an external SSD if you run out.
Furthermore, the only things that require a lot of SSD space (as far as I am concerned) are gaming and video editing, both of which I wouldn't necessarily chose the M2 MacBook Air for, given that it's powerful but still designed as a thin-and-light productivity machine. So yes, I think you are right about the target demographic not necessarily needing either of those, but I still think that you should opt for the additional RAM unless you know you are going to use a lot of space and not using any heavy programs that are taking up a lot of RAM and on modern systems, it's quite easy to use more RAM than you predicted, especially if you are clumsy with window-closing or if you are new to macOS and don't always properly quit apps.
But yes, it of course comes down to individual use case.
Hang on a minute. If the nand is slower, how is that leading to this result? For example - I edit all my media off an external SSD (loads of people do) and it's limited to 1gbps transfer speed, which is massively slower than the internal and, but still PLENTY for 4k editing. What gives?
This seems more like a lack of RAM issue
Then why did it work on the 8GB M1 MacBook Air?
@@MarkEllisReviews given your exceptional lack of rigour displayed thus far, and the fact that I don't own either of the laptops, I don't think I can validate that statement. Why would I place faith in your analysis, given the contents of the above video?
@@utopian666 I don’t know, Chris. It sounds like we’re done. And we didn’t even make the second date.
@@MarkEllisReviews ok Mark. Good response to what was a valid question on my part. Guess that 'owning up' only runs so far, eh? Peace out.
@@utopian666 sounds like a sense of humour is blissfully absent at your end too, Chris. Merry Christmas, regardless.
No Apple apologist, but 8GB for prosumer work is not sensible, and creators suggesting to their audience that it is enough on any laptop are wrong.
As for issues, onTwitter, FCP, and the latest macOS have had problems, and even I run into slowdowns just browsing on the latest macOS 8GB on my M1 MB Pro 13. The bugs are browsers reloading, typing with a delay, BT lag, and generally very buggy with severe memory leaks. I suggest not upgrading to the latest macOS if you are a pro. My MB Pro 15 is still on the last version to avoid these road bumps. I have to close Safari regularly and maintain running management to stop freezing (twice in the last month) on my M1 MB Pro 8GB. I imagine running FCP on it would be a nightmare.
I implore you to learn about technology if you're going to review it. The issue with the nand chip is that computers as far back as 2017 have been able to read and write from multiple nand chips at once. The reason the 512gb doesn't have this problem is it has two chips, both 256gb . So theoretically twice the throughput. Most modern computers can actually do more than two at once for even faster speeds. A good analogy would be imagine you're trying to fill a pool up and you have one hose and then you're trying to fill another pool up and you have two hoses. The one with two hoses will fill up much faster.
I bet you're a right laugh down the pub.
Immediately after your first video I went out and picked up the….. M1 Air.
I am happy using the base model for iOS development. I am planning to produce productivity apps, so m2 should work for me.
Here in my country the Macbook air M2 costs 13,999 and our average national wage is 2,737
can you believe it?
Well, the problem you ran into with video editing on the M2 MBA could be related to SSD being a single chip in this machine, but the macOS version can play a role too here. It is probably a combination of factors, the main being the SSD.
The same story is repeated now with the base configuration of the new 14-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro. Max Tech already demonstrated that it has half the SSD speed of the corresponding M1 model. Really cheap from Apple's part because this is a premium machine. Ridiculous.
Now I do not know (again) which to buy. :)
Max "The Sky Is Falling" Tech? Ok then.
It is essential to buy a bigger SSD for an extra $200 in any Mac that you buy. This is because Mac SSDs are now none upgradable which means that you have to decide on maximum lifetime storage when you first buy any M1/M2 Mac. If you ever intend to game on a Mac, bear in mind that most new AAA games on PCs and Consoles are now around 100 Gb in size. The 256 Gb base model of an M2 MacBook Air is a particularly bad buy. This is because is only features a single 256 Gb flash module. By comparison all other M1/M2 macs have two flash modules. This means that the 256 Gb base M2 MacBook Air has slower I/O to its SSD than any other M1/M2 Mac.
I bought an as new customer return iPhone SE 2020 this year for £229. This is a great buy. However, I was forced to buy the 64 Gb model because it was the only one that this company had sold. By contrast almost all Android phones, even those costing as little as £120, come with 128 Gb as standard. This is because an extra 64 Gb of flash memory costs so little that Android manufacturers simply choose to supply it by default. Apple really is committed to supplying too little flash memory in their base models to force people in the know to pay an extra £50 to £200 for every device that they sell.
The RAM is the second most important thing that you should upgrade, but only if you are playing games.
I don't think it has to do with the ssd per se. Various things contribute to this. Sure the smaller ssd is slower BUT in real life applications you won't max out even these slow transfer speeds. In reality tons of small files that are transfered or swapped slow down the system because the file systems are still all slow as hell. You'll only get realy hight transfer speeds with large files that fit in the cache (ram) of the ssd. Practically all consumer ssds gain their high speeds by caching incoming data in a separate ram chip which is a part of the ssd (and write it from there "slower" to the ssd nand chips). If you take away the caching a nvme ssd is nearly as fast (well, slow) as an "old" sata ssd. Teardowns of the Mac Studio showed clearly that the mac ssds are not full fledged ssds but dumb storage cells. Since in M1/2 Macs the storage controller is part of the chip then the mac probably uses its regular ram as cache for the ssd. With 8 gb Ram it is pretty obvious that this won't work very good. This is not enough for apps and caching and the simple storage chips Apple puts into its devices can't write fast enough to "clear" the ram. Another thing seems to be temperature. M2 chips seem to get hot - especially in the Macbook Air - and become then unstable. My guess is that Apple has some kind of problem with the M2 chips. Otherwise we would have seen other M2 Macs for christmas shopping. Could be a supply chain problem but I don't think this is the only reason.
Firstly, You can't compare the performance of the M2 chip from an Air with a Pro, because the Pro has active cooling that the Air lacks. This will affect performance under load.
Secondly, the single module memory (NAND) issue (1 x 256 GB instead of 2 x 128 GB resulting in lower read/write bandwidth and thus slower transfer speeds) has been widely covered, several months ago. I am surprised that you seem unaware of this issue until you experienced it yourself. As you are a content creator, I can see why you might prefer to avoid other people's reviews so that you come at the subject with an open mind, uninfluenced by other people's opinions, but honestly I think it would be useful for you to keep abreast of wider industry news. Had you done so, you might have made a different buying decision. Also, if you are not informed, you can't tell your viewers in a timely fashion.
If you need a simple explanation, think of it like this. When driving through a tunnel with two lanes, more vehicles can cross in a given time than if there were only a single lane. The traffic will still get through with only one lane open, but it will take longer and there may be jams and tailbacks. That's the physical difference between having a single NAND module and two NAND modules working in parallel. It's all about the throughput. Given that Apple are a premium brand, with premium pricing, this sort of penny-pinching is unacceptable, and shouldn't be happening.
Hi there there. I live in Montreal. Where were you when you visited?
I have the 32 GB ram and 512 GB SSD of M2 MacBook Air. It sucks. My IDEs such as IntelliJ or PyCharm feel laggy at times. Also, it heats up sometimes. To the apple fanboys who are gonna shout that M2 Macbook Air is not for heavy use, you should know that writing basic code on IntelliJ and PyCharm is not heavy use. So save yourselves the effort.
I came from a M1 Macbook pro but I sold it to my sister. I have M2, we'll how it fares to me
Great video Mark!
The base M2 AIR is not great on many levels, apart of the problems with the split SSD, if you upgrade, you're better of getting the base M1 Pro, which is much better in every aspect! You let your viewers down with your initial review!
honesty love it thank you good video
Thank you!
To be fair though,the MacBook Air is not aimed at ‘Pro’ users.
My point at the end of the video (and previously) exactly 😉
Well I watched your vid and went out and purchased MBA M2 Base Model. Disappointed now that it is not as good as MBA M1 which I also could of purchased instead. Maybe make sure what you are disclaiming before creating the video. I cannot change this now. As in most of us normal people can’t afford more than one laptop at a time. Not really good enough to come back and say ah wait I’ve changed my mind. These products are seriously expensive.
Sorry to hear that, Regina. But I'm afraid I'm human, and would rather admit my mistakes than gloss over them. These kinds of videos are a rarity on RUclips.
@@MarkEllisReviews I know, sorry was just pissed off yesterday! Of course everyone makes mistakes, we are human. Does say alot about a person when you can admit it. Look it’s a Beautiful Machine and for someone like me it’s perfect. I think a lot tech videos are for hardcore users and ye are deep into it. I probably won’t even notice the difference. I don’t game or upload content etc. Also I bought it for €900 second-hand, only 6 months old so bran new!! I felt that was a good deal. Hoping it will last me 5 years at least. It’s my first Mac laptop and it’s a Beauty! I’m going to stop watching all these vids wrecking my head and actually enjoy my new MBA M2! 😁🫶
any laptop should come with 16 ram and 512gb base anyways..
Hey Mark, I was wondering what your thoughts were on light gaming on the M2 Air as obviously when you're gaming you aren't going to be using any other apps or have that many running in the background so wouldn't run into the same issues?
It sounds to me that the single I/O path to the 256G storage in the M2 MacBook Air isn't as performant as the multiple I/O paths to the multi-chip 256G storage in the M1 MacBook Air.
I still plan to buy an M1 MacBook Air as the pinnacle of MacBook Air design.
This will be plenty of computer portability for me.
That M2 MacBook Air doesn't even look like MacBook Air!
I understand it even gets hot, which is an anathema to M1 design.
Why pay more for less?
You sounds like voice in PENDULUM (that band/artist) :D
A good case of reviewers' paradox: reviewing laptops based on using them for reviewing laptops!
This laptop runs my business, mate.
It isn't a matter of 20/20 hindsight but there are few Apple products that are worth the money Apple is asking and the M2 MacBook Air *definitely* isn't one of them.
But I have been buying from Apple for decades and have been caught often enough to have learnt my lesson, years ago.
Buy the base version, it’s just hot air. No one buys the base model and does any video or photo editing. No one. Max tech does the click bait and very unrealistic projects. It’s for views, they care about dollars per video, just that simple. Talk to normal folks and every person will give glowing reviews on this MacBook Air. One reason not to watch huge channels cause no matter what they says there is a bias agenda.
I unfollowed Max Tech's channel because they became so over the top with their video product reviews, titles, ect, and their channel started feeling like click bait. I function very comfortably with the M1 iPad Pro with keyboard/trackpad and the iPad Mini 6. I don't have a MacBook but have thought about getting the M2 Air come tax refund time. However I'm wondering if the iMac or a Mac Mini would be better for my use as I'm looking for a machine to be an at home desktop unit, since the iPad is all the laptop that I need.
It's not easy to admit you were wrong. Respect for you !
Thanks!