If you're doing software development definitely go for 16GB Ram or more. Not because Xcode needs it, but all your Stack Overflow browser tabs will need it. Even when using Safari.
I'm studying computer science and wanted to get an m2 with 16gb RAM and 256 ssd. I also get a €150 voucher and would use it for the 2 TB ssd disk. do you think this is good enough ?
I went for 24GB Macbook Air, Silver (for development), didn't want it to look all scratched and filthy like with the Midnight color, so classic all the way.
It would nice to have Docker running like 20 images on 8GB AND 16GB RAM on M2 AIR and comparison around it (Docker + IDE + 10 chrome tabs ) -- a real developer scenario.
No matter what anyone says, if you earn your living doing work on your laptop, false economy is a bad look. Buy the max RAM and good storage and get that money coming in. Anyone who works in Docker should not really be trying to save money with the 8GB choice!
I currently am using the M1 8GB, I use Docker in some Java projects in my free time, it is almost impossible to run it locally. I already had the Out of Memory window show up a few times with just Intellij + Chrome with one or two tabs + 1 or 2 JVMs running... So yeah, don't try and cheap out on RAM. I am going to upgrade to a 24GB model just to be sure that I won't see that window again. Fortunately my girlfriend is needing a notebook and the M1 will fit her very well, but for now I am using a server to test out my projects, which means some money spent or at least more time between tests.
Just today I was doing some work outside and left my iPad Pro (space gray) on a table in the sun. It wasn’t doing anything. When I got back to it about 15 minutes later the body of the iPad was so hot it almost burned. It shut down due to heat giving me a heat warning. I’m almost certain your issue was being in direct sunlight. When a space gray iPad can overheat while just sitting there doing nothing, an even darker laptop isn’t going to handle sun any better, especially when handling an actual workload.
Loved this one Alex! :) I also bought myself an M2 MacBook Air (8 core CPU, 10 Core GPU) with 16 Gigs of RAM and 512 Gigs of SSD and I am loving it, no regrets. I wanted something small and lightweight and it fits the bill perfectly. I work as a software architect and am not a content creator (as of now) so it just works for me!
@@mohamedzakaria5963 @mohamedzakaria5963 For sure. 8 GB is a bit less for development, considering how heavy IDEs are these days. Mac OS itself is a bit heavy and then the browsers take away 2 to 3 GB so 6-7 GBs is gone in that. You will see some heavy swapping happening. It doesn't affect that much all the time but sometimes the programs can take a bit of time to respond. 8 GB is good for very casual use like browsing email etc. In fact, I feel if budget allows, go for 24 GB. I know it brings the Air closer to pro pricing but if you still want a sleek, lean and performant machine, 24 GB can help a lot getting that experience with Air. 16 GB is minimum for any serious use like development, running VMs, containers etc. With 16 GB, i am able to run 8-10 tabs in browser (Vivaldi mostly with a mix of Safari), Visual Studio code, Spotify and a couple of other things like messaging, calculator etc with 0 bytes if swapping. If I run a Windows VM with 4 GB allocated to it alongside this load, I see some swapping happening.
@@a.s.l711 Not that much. I have seen it heat up only when I use UTM to run a Windows VM and that too if there is something heavy going on inside the VM like updates getting installed etc. Otherwise usually it runs very cool and I don't even have air conditioning in my house.
Amazing machine! I got the 24gb ram, 1tb ssd for my wife and it’s sweet! Thanks for being truthful. A lot of other RUclipsrs straight up do clickbait videos with bs content just to get people to click on their lame videos.
i like the 24gb model a lot so far. as for youtubers, we often have to walk a fine line and add drama to thumbnails and titles. but they must always be supported by the content itself - that’s what i believe.
The more I see the M-Chips doing their job the more I feel scammed by Apple for paying over 3K Euro in 2019 for my Intel Pro. Especially when they offer me about 700 Euro as Trade In option for a new one...
TLDR; If you have a light workload any of the M1/M2 machines will do the job, but if have to do a lot of multitasking and/or virtualization, go for a 24GB or 32GB machine. I'll share my experience with 8/16GB machines for software developmenit's I have the base M1 MBA and its an Amazing machine, but 8GB is really bad if you're using Visual Studio, Eclipse, or JetBrains's IDEs. Sure it will work but prepare for some lags and a lot of swap usage. This weekend I bought the base Macbook Pro 14" M1 Pro and I do agree with Alex that 16GB IS NOT ENOUGH for Virtalization. Again, it will work, but prepare for high memory pressure and a lot of swap usage.. Unfortunatley in my region the 32GB is insanely expensive. The trick with 8gb/16gb machines is to limit Docker memory to as low as you can and debug only what you really need. If you have run 4 microservices, you probably only need to make chances on one or two, so don't open 4 IDE's/Code instances, open only the ones you need to change and run the others from a cli. About mobile development, iOS simulators are kinda light so it's ok to run it, but Android Emulators and Android Studio are really resource hungry, so I would recommend using a physical Android device for debugging if you can...
The said IDEs are such resource hogs that they lag crazily on any other not-super-high-end machines as well. If you find yourself using multiple of them simultaneously on a machine like this, you might as well reconsider you workflow and use a lightweight text editor or get a more powerful machine.
I have been having problem with 16GB on my Windows 11 PC. Right now: - Chrome 30 tabs open, including this video, 2.5GB - WSL with Docker limited to 4GB: 3.2GB - VSCode, 2 instances: 1.6GB - Others: upto 2GB RAM usage 95%. If I open anything else it will probably crash. On idle, ~25% Don't know if it a Windows issue or because I'm on Dev branch but it's really annoying.
I did my redhat Linux cert on a 16gig intel MacBook Pro. 24gig means you can run a virtual server as your backend give that machine running redhat 8gig. And two clients 4gig each. You can even choose to give one client a bit more. Personally I switched to a tuxedo pulse Linux computer with 64gig of mem times two that is I bought two laptops for the price of one MacBook Pro. I think the MacBook Air is a perfect machine for portability but only with 24gig of mem and 512gig storage no less.. humble 46yr Linux admin going back to school to learn dev.. love your channel keep up the great work greetings from the Netherlands
@@HwL01 as always: it depends; the 14“ is better in many ways, but it is also larger and heavier, and battery is a bit worse. For me, performance etc. of the Air is plenty for me and I value the mobility, for others the 14” might be better.
@@HwL01 It is a nice piece of tech / toy. I enjoy the (light) weight and the form factor. I have no issues with FinalCut, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop while running the VMs via Parallel and Docker. The performance is actually very good.
7:30 As I live in a generally hot weather, I preferred the M1 Pro because of that. We normally get 36 to 39 degrees during Jul and Aug, and exceeds 40 in many days. This will not help the Air when outdoors, and sometimes indoors.
Thinking along similar lines myself mate , in warmer months down under it can also get quite warm , not uncommon to see 30 c in the house during warm spells and way hotter outside , I’m a bit dubious that the little air model would perform satisfactory without heat issues during extended periods of use in warm weather. Cheers.
Safe to say here in Australia it gets to 50 Degrees Celcius here and my Macbook Air M2 didnt overheat, i was even outside and didnt skip a beat, so i gotta give it to apple!
Looking forward to your review for the 24g model. I have a work-issued maxed out 2019 16” for work but purchased a maxed out m2 air for my own personal projects (10 core, 2tb, 24g). I’ve only had it for a couple days but haven’t run into any issues for data analyst and web dev personal projects.
I got a 16GB, 512 M2 air midnight, I'm Just starting to learn Data science. I was on tight budget and hence didn't go for the M1Pro, will my M2 air variant he able to handle data science projects for like next 4 to 5 years as I'm planning to keep it longer or would you suggest me return? I would appreciate your thoughts as you are into data analytics
@@ashwinsuresh3462 Your computer will be more than enough for a data scientist... Especially if you are just starting. What can be ressource intensive is ML training, for small models it will be perfectly fine and for big ones you should use the cloud anyway. Don't fall for the trap that you need an amazing computer for data science, that's generally not true and anyway the M1/M2 is very capable.
I have the M1 Max 14 inch model, 32gb, 2tb.. its perfect for my mobile development, and virtualization. the ssd chips is amazing as there are so many ssd chips.
Neighbor! I’m just over 395 in Virginia! Great video. I’m glad you gave the the right impression that the M2 is an upgrade. Whether that was the intention or not, some RUclipsrs had their viewers walking away with the impression that the M1 Air was a better device than the M2. The only question is a personal one and the same whether you are buying a car, tv or laptop; are the upgrades worth spending the money?
Thank you so much for this video! I was literally wondering if the dark colour would be a problem when working outside on a sunny day. Here in Australia it gets very toasty!
Hello Alex, thanks for the videos. I think you are the only one who do reviews properly for software developers. I have a small question, when you say 'my macbook pro' at 2:07 time, you are talking about macbook pro with M1 Max, right?
I have been looking at updating my 12.9 inch iPad Pro to the new Mini LED display but I would rather have a Macbook Air and be able to use desktop apps. Sure I lose the Mini LED but I have a M1 Max Macbook Pro and a Innocn 32 inch Mini LED 1000 nit monitor so its no big deal!
Hey Alex, I really really love LG's line of Gram laptops. The latest versions come with 16" 2.5k matte displays and the machines are solidly built as well as super light. Battery life is insane too. And the keyboards are SUPERB. Could you recommend an SKU for full stack web dev please???
I ended up getting the base M2 since it was on sale for $1049 at best buy. Using this is a travel machine/second laptop for writing and some light coding. I have a beefier gaming laptop I use for larger builds, docket etc. Can't wait to see how the M2 fares. This will be my first real experience with MacOS so pretty excited.
Nice, can't wait for mine to arrive. I ordered silver in 8c/8gb/512gb version :) I think it's the best price to performance for my needs :) Also got applecare just in case I damage it by accident :P
Good videos, thought a quick fact check. In the heat section if you have any computer in direct sunlight (and even more if it is fanless) it will heat up substantially. The color plays a role, but minor. Most of the issue is the difficulty of the computer to dump heat in its surroundings through the chassis, both due to a hot chassis and an increased air temperature. Having a silver macbook air will not result in that issue dissapearing, just clarifying that.
I have the 24GB with plenty of internal SSD. Works great for the power-hungry Adobe CC apps and for Camtasia video editing and @Xojo cross-platform software development. I wanted the lightweight Air for coffee shops, too.
@@sammyjammy6647 Depends on your use case. The Max Tech crowd has a very different use case than a software development crowd. I require a lot of RAM, and don’t really use any of the specific tools they use in their reviews.
If you are tight on budget , I'd stick with M1 base model over the M2 base model. There is very little difference in terms of performance for day to day use and in some scenarios it's even better. Sure, you lose the magsafe port, but u don't get an ugly notch either, so you win some you lose some
I don't get the criticisms about the notch. I mean, I think it genuinely improves the look and would rather have it than no notch, but even if it were unattractive, the notch doesn't take up any screen space that the M1 had. Afaik it's all new pixels up there.
Why are you not using BetterDisplay to bypass Apple screen resolution limitations to get consistently big fonts across entire system? Yes it has a major downside of reducing real pixel resolution displayed, so a 960x600 HIDPI is only 1920x1200 real pixels, but at least it's readable. Zoom feature seems to be really unproductive by holding 2 buttons to zoom or toggle it all the. WE MUST MAKE APPLE MAKE SCALING POSSIBLE WITHOUT CHANGING RESOLUTION, just like on Windows! But Windows also has a lot of scaling troubles, however resolution renders consistently.
Nice, your review really take consider the real life usage situation.
2 года назад+2
Choppy == 60hz hahaha!! I have been using a lenovo slim 7 with 90hz and even those 30hz more are really really noticeable. Also having a 144hz Motorola Edge 30 makes 60hz even harder to accept. Amazing real honest review!!!
Thank you / You are the only reviewer who talks about programming. I am a Java developer. I worked with below settings. 5-6 instances of Idea IntelliJ editor with 5-6 running micro-services , local DB , 5-6 instances of Apache Kafka running , Rabbit MQ , some docker , some times minikubes. This setting worked well in leveno 16 gb Wndows machine , but when run docker some time bit slow. should I go for 8 GB M2 Air with 512 ssd or 16 gb 14 inch base model ?
you had me actually laughing at 4am good sir ! :) no small feat let me tell ya haha ( commit one handed is indeed dangerous :p ) thanks for all the vids, currently considering something powerful enough to get out my dingy office more often, mostly unity3d user, definitely going unreal route as well, M2s are almost here ( Morocco ) and still struggling budget wise if I go for air m2 or shoot straight up to m1 pro.. if you have plans for such comparison vids in the future I gladly take it. cheers
hi.i'm going to buy a macbook for software development,school,daily work.I also want to start unity course in summer and develop a game.Is macbook air (16gb ram 512gb ssd) enough for all this work? or should i get macbook pro 14 base model (10cpu 16gpu 16gb ram 512gb ssd).The computer I will buy should last me for at least 5 years.(maybe 4). I don't know anything about macbooks.(ı'm software engineering student)
Thank you for this great review! I usually run RUclips and Twitch at the same time (sometimes a couple of each) along with some other basic web browser pages (news, sports etc). I also play Football Manager and watch Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky Go. I assume this laptop will be fine for that without overheating? I currently have a £1,000 HP laptop but am considering returning it as the battery is so poor (3-4 hours with very basic use) and it has a touch screen I don't use. Although it's very nice it's not as sleek or sexy as this M2 Macbook Air (I also love this Midnight Blue colour and it will match my iPhone 13 mini nicely).
Hi Alex You might have said it in one of the videos already, so sorry if so. Now that you tested both the Pro M2 and Air M2 device. Which one makes more sense to buy as a software developer? Looking for 16gb and 512gb specs. Thanks!
VMware Fusion Tech Preview 22H2 for Apple M1 is released with Windows 11 Arm Support Include TPM - Make a Video on how it performs both windows 11 and any linux distro !!!!
I am so confused. I have a windows machine and that is like nothing. But now i want to switch to mac and i am confused, should i go with m1 air with 16 gb ram and 256gb memory or m2 with 8 gb ram with 256 gb memory, because that is in my budget.
I think with M3 apple will deliver the true jump in performance and efficiency with 3nm chip. I read the 14 and 16 macbook pro will recieve M2 pro chip based on 3nm
I cannot see that happening as the M3 will not be ready until mid-2023 and the new MB Pro 14/16 are due in 2022Q4. Also, it seems highly unlikely that they will stack 3nm chips when they have yet to test the single 3nm (expect that as M3). That is another Max Tech leak that seems doubtful for obvious reasons. Even the new SD8G2 coming in late 2022 will have 5nm++ (AKA TSMC 4nm) so 3nm is not even ready until 2024 for Qualcomm, so it makes the noise from Max Tech, as usual, just more unreliable info.
It’s likely 3nm will be ready by 2H2023 But no chance 2H2022 max tech has a history of making clock bait videos M2 doesn’t provide the performance necessary to justify the yearly model revamp
RDM for mac helps with scaling, don't need a second monitor anymore for the m1 macbook pro! I have just enough space to dev mobile react native and native android projects without a second monitor. So defo checkout RDM :)
Thanks for the comparison video! Question: My kid's high-school programming is Visual Studio, and he needs to use a Windows environment because they use forms that are not available on Visual Studio for Mac. I wanted to buy a new M2 MacBook Air for him, 16GB RAM/512SSD, and to run the Visual Studio on Windows on Parallels. On my MacBook Pro M1 16GB it runs ok, will it run ok on the Air M2? Again, considering high-school programming (not heavy-development projects) - Thanks in advance, Amir
Is the base model good for me? I'm no pro user, I'm just trying to do chrome web browse and use Microsoft office and probably use photoshop 😅 and do some school works!, I have a tight budget, the m1 looks great but i really want the m2, And I love the Mac safe and the freshly new design!!!
yep it is, im in same boat as you and the M2 Macbook air is enough. Just make sure you get cleanmymac because in the long-term it'll save your storage space. I think for people like me and you we could even game on the Mac. Check out hades. But to answer your question, it is. I'd say stop looking at the cup half empty but that the cup is half filled. This machine does way more than it's not supposed to ( not on the pro level) but that makes this laptop more than enough for like us .
@@Mani-rz2bd your absolutely right!! I was planning to buy external ssd drive to store some files, I usually use cloud based storage most of the time!!
Absolutely. I bought the base model and it's been great! Even a noticeable upgrade from the base M1. I use it for browsing, writing, software development and some gaming.
Most local shops in Europe bought M1 machines in 2020 and 2021 when price was not so high due to inflation and USD to local currency ratio. So M1 is so much cheaper than M2 from Apple Store. M1 is better price to quality ratio right now. When you compare base M1 model to M2 with 512GB and 16GB of ram it cost double of M1 price.
I build and run Docker containers aggressively on a Macbook Air from 2015, with only 8gB RAM. On MacOS, Docker is not only containers but also virtualization. I had no problems running and after performance tuning I am able to perform faster builds that people with much faster hardware (but unoptimized builds). I run between 10-15 containers, and my "IDE" is Sublime with the occasional emacs and the rare vi. No chrome, it is a known memory hog even if it isolates failures better than Safari. A well maintained Mac is a beast, even 7 years later. Only issue with the machine is battery life.
Hello, nice point of view about programming. Would it be a good choice moving into macbook air for online teaching?. I mean, people uses zoom or ms teams for lessons, which lasts about 1 hour each class and you may attend around 5 or 6 classes a day... would it be in heat also?. Thanks!.
Also, what’s difference between laptops with 32 GB 6400MHz of Ryzen lpddr5x with amd Radeon GPUs 680m and with these MacBooks in terms software development? Pls respond quickly as I’m about to. Have to decide and purchase in coming two days…., thanks for valuable videos…
Hi' Thanks for video.I have M2AIR 16GB RAM. With all apps closed in the background, the TG pro is also 43 degrees (C). Is this normal? When you open a tab from Safari, it rises to 45-50 degrees and then drops again to 42-43 degrees. When I hold the case, I can feel this temperature, is this normal? How many (Celcius) degrees appear in Tg pro or other applications for you m2 users? Please advise me. When I open the application, it rises to 70 degrees.
do you know of any tips to speed up rosetta I have a node 4 project I maintain as my daily job and waiting for nodemon to restart within rosetta on the terminal is painfully slow. On my PC it's instant on my macbook pro it's about 5-7 seconds. That doesn't seem much but it really adds up
Hey! I have a question about the purchase decision for a new mac. I am a student and I will be starting my degree in MSc. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning this September and want to buy a new Mac (because of bad experience with Windows over the years). So which Mac should I buy? It is very important for me because I will be daily driving this laptop and don't have any other machine.
The big question that I have is should I choose the Air M2 or the Pro M2 ? My daily use will be web and application develope. I have a windows old laptop and I want to upgrade and switch to apple products. What do you recommend.
I would recommend the base 14” MacBook Pro. It is currently available from BestBuy for $1700 which is the same price as the M2 MBA or M2 13” MBP with 16gb of RAM and 512gb of SSD.
Respond quick pls, I’m about to get A Mac Development Device today or tomorrow or probably before Sunday ,,, pls tell which among these is best for only Software Development and Zoom Calls and FCP some times and adobe sometimes. Windows i7 12th Gen Asus z3402 OLED + Mac Mini 16 GB, M1 MacBook Air 16 256, M2 MacBook Air or Pro 16 512…. thanks in advance . I hv gone through many of your videos and yet when it comes to taking crucial decisions in pivotal moments, it is good to take suggestions even though having clarity and decided giving room to reconsideration for better chances…..😊
do you think my everyday workflow of 15 internet tabs and like 2 excel and words office.......can the base model handle it easy or they will be like at the fulll capacity already?? i dont want to spend if not necessary but dont want to be at the full caapcity since i want to stay with the computer for like 3-5 years atleast
Need advice !! from that price maybe I can have laptop with i7 12th gen and rtx3050 and should I buy mba m2 ??? Probably usage for vm programming a bit of machine learning and I dont really care with gaming maybe
Just ordered one today. It all looks perfect, my only concern is those USB C ports will get scratched 100% in a year or two. Yours are already showing some silver after a week. How to deal with that?
I want to get the M2 MCBK Air with 8C CPU, 10C GPU, 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM. would this configuration be enough for some virtualization? (to get a just 1 or 2 programs running through windows)
If you're doing software development definitely go for 16GB Ram or more.
Not because Xcode needs it, but all your Stack Overflow browser tabs will need it. Even when using Safari.
😂
I'm studying computer science and wanted to get an m2 with 16gb RAM and 256 ssd. I also get a €150 voucher and would use it for the 2 TB ssd disk. do you think this is good enough ?
@@dzekkreal8152 just get the 14 inch Pro
I got 16GB on mine so my Docker containers can fit in RAM.
@@dzekkreal8152 That's more than enough for school. School assignments are never that big.
I use the 8GB version and coding with Docker works fine.. hadn't had any issues so far
Fr. People are tripping that you need 16GB minimum for programming. I've been programming on an old ass Lenovo with no issues.
I have the 24GB M2 Air for programming. Like the light design and I wanted a device without a fan (no noise). For my projects it fits perfectly 👌🏻
Which technologies are you using?
@@kennethmedina5983 Native app development with Xcode / Swift and Android Studio / Kotlin. No big projects, short build times
I would choose more thermally capable even if it is noisy. Macbook pro 14 inch is more suitable.
Do you think you would've been fine with 16GB?
@@pjmanning If you are using Android Studio with some Emulators open at the same time, go for 24GB :-)
I went for 24GB Macbook Air, Silver (for development), didn't want it to look all scratched and filthy like with the Midnight color, so classic all the way.
How come this guy only have 92k follower? he deserves over a million based on all the videos he made so far
software devs don't get 1M+ subs
I'm a software developer and I really enjoy what you are sharing in software development perspective. Thank you!
I'm actually using the M1 Macbook Air with 16gb of RAM and have no issues running minikube locally to develop my containers.
It would nice to have Docker running like 20 images on 8GB AND 16GB RAM on M2 AIR and comparison around it (Docker + IDE + 10 chrome tabs ) -- a real developer scenario.
No matter what anyone says, if you earn your living doing work on your laptop, false economy is a bad look. Buy the max RAM and good storage and get that money coming in. Anyone who works in Docker should not really be trying to save money with the 8GB choice!
I currently am using the M1 8GB, I use Docker in some Java projects in my free time, it is almost impossible to run it locally. I already had the Out of Memory window show up a few times with just Intellij + Chrome with one or two tabs + 1 or 2 JVMs running... So yeah, don't try and cheap out on RAM. I am going to upgrade to a 24GB model just to be sure that I won't see that window again. Fortunately my girlfriend is needing a notebook and the M1 will fit her very well, but for now I am using a server to test out my projects, which means some money spent or at least more time between tests.
Thanks Alex. You highlight why I think the $200 bump for the M2 MBA over the M1 MBA. And also highlighting the use case for the MBA in general.
Just today I was doing some work outside and left my iPad Pro (space gray) on a table in the sun. It wasn’t doing anything. When I got back to it about 15 minutes later the body of the iPad was so hot it almost burned. It shut down due to heat giving me a heat warning. I’m almost certain your issue was being in direct sunlight. When a space gray iPad can overheat while just sitting there doing nothing, an even darker laptop isn’t going to handle sun any better, especially when handling an actual workload.
Loved this one Alex! :) I also bought myself an M2 MacBook Air (8 core CPU, 10 Core GPU) with 16 Gigs of RAM and 512 Gigs of SSD and I am loving it, no regrets. I wanted something small and lightweight and it fits the bill perfectly. I work as a software architect and am not a content creator (as of now) so it just works for me!
i heard it has no fan, does that cause any heat problems?
I got the base model MBA M2 for programming the 8 gb will be annoying! 😔
@@mohamedzakaria5963 @mohamedzakaria5963 For sure. 8 GB is a bit less for development, considering how heavy IDEs are these days. Mac OS itself is a bit heavy and then the browsers take away 2 to 3 GB so 6-7 GBs is gone in that. You will see some heavy swapping happening. It doesn't affect that much all the time but sometimes the programs can take a bit of time to respond. 8 GB is good for very casual use like browsing email etc.
In fact, I feel if budget allows, go for 24 GB. I know it brings the Air closer to pro pricing but if you still want a sleek, lean and performant machine, 24 GB can help a lot getting that experience with Air. 16 GB is minimum for any serious use like development, running VMs, containers etc.
With 16 GB, i am able to run 8-10 tabs in browser (Vivaldi mostly with a mix of Safari), Visual Studio code, Spotify and a couple of other things like messaging, calculator etc with 0 bytes if swapping. If I run a Windows VM with 4 GB allocated to it alongside this load, I see some swapping happening.
@@a.s.l711 Not that much. I have seen it heat up only when I use UTM to run a Windows VM and that too if there is something heavy going on inside the VM like updates getting installed etc. Otherwise usually it runs very cool and I don't even have air conditioning in my house.
I'm a week into my M2 Air 16/512 and it's the best notebook I've ever owned.
Have you noticed it getting hot in any workflow?
@@sunitjoshi3573 some say no some say yes. Avoid the higher core air as it will throttle more often.
I really do not understand people who take their Macs to the river... but it's great that is possible with that screen brightness.
not IN the river, just AROUND the river :) why not ?
Amazing machine! I got the 24gb ram, 1tb ssd for my wife and it’s sweet! Thanks for being truthful. A lot of other RUclipsrs straight up do clickbait videos with bs content just to get people to click on their lame videos.
i like the 24gb model a lot so far.
as for youtubers, we often have to walk a fine line and add drama to thumbnails and titles. but they must always be supported by the content itself - that’s what i believe.
The more I see the M-Chips doing their job the more I feel scammed by Apple for paying over 3K Euro in 2019 for my Intel Pro. Especially when they offer me about 700 Euro as Trade In option for a new one...
😂😂😂yeah they scammed us and now they scammed with intel 😂
TLDR; If you have a light workload any of the M1/M2 machines will do the job, but if have to do a lot of multitasking and/or virtualization, go for a 24GB or 32GB machine.
I'll share my experience with 8/16GB machines for software developmenit's
I have the base M1 MBA and its an Amazing machine, but 8GB is really bad if you're using Visual Studio, Eclipse, or JetBrains's IDEs. Sure it will work but prepare for some lags and a lot of swap usage. This weekend I bought the base Macbook Pro 14" M1 Pro and I do agree with Alex that 16GB IS NOT ENOUGH for Virtalization. Again, it will work, but prepare for high memory pressure and a lot of swap usage.. Unfortunatley in my region the 32GB is insanely expensive.
The trick with 8gb/16gb machines is to limit Docker memory to as low as you can and debug only what you really need. If you have run 4 microservices, you probably only need to make chances on one or two, so don't open 4 IDE's/Code instances, open only the ones you need to change and run the others from a cli. About mobile development, iOS simulators are kinda light so it's ok to run it, but Android Emulators and Android Studio are really resource hungry, so I would recommend using a physical Android device for debugging if you can...
The said IDEs are such resource hogs that they lag crazily on any other not-super-high-end machines as well.
If you find yourself using multiple of them simultaneously on a machine like this, you might as well reconsider you workflow and use a lightweight text editor or get a more powerful machine.
I have been having problem with 16GB on my Windows 11 PC.
Right now:
- Chrome 30 tabs open, including this video, 2.5GB
- WSL with Docker limited to 4GB: 3.2GB
- VSCode, 2 instances: 1.6GB
- Others: upto 2GB
RAM usage 95%. If I open anything else it will probably crash. On idle, ~25%
Don't know if it a Windows issue or because I'm on Dev branch but it's really annoying.
@@datacoderX Please add "Book" after "Mac" and thank you very much. Confused the crap out of me until I saw the lid thing.
I did my redhat Linux cert on a 16gig intel MacBook Pro. 24gig means you can run a virtual server as your backend give that machine running redhat 8gig. And two clients 4gig each. You can even choose to give one client a bit more. Personally I switched to a tuxedo pulse Linux computer with 64gig of mem times two that is I bought two laptops for the price of one MacBook Pro. I think the MacBook Air is a perfect machine for portability but only with 24gig of mem and 512gig storage no less.. humble 46yr Linux admin going back to school to learn dev.. love your channel keep up the great work greetings from the Netherlands
I have the 24GB, 1TB SSD and it has no issues running windows and Linux via Parallel. Docker is super fast as well.
That's the configuration I ordered, should arrive in two days. Can't wait 😊
The price here wouldn't a M1 Pro 14 inch be better?
@@HwL01 as always: it depends; the 14“ is better in many ways, but it is also larger and heavier, and battery is a bit worse. For me, performance etc. of the Air is plenty for me and I value the mobility, for others the 14” might be better.
@@HwL01 It is a nice piece of tech / toy. I enjoy the (light) weight and the form factor. I have no issues with FinalCut, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop while running the VMs via Parallel and Docker. The performance is actually very good.
What are the average temps?
I love your channel because you talk with knowledge. I dislike the content from other youtubers, they are not suitable for software engineers
thx!
woww! thank you! I was already to consider trade in my M1 with M2, after saw this video, I decided to keep my current M1.
Looking forward for the 24 GB ram review
Excellent review. Agree 100% with your comments about who should buy and why.
7:30
As I live in a generally hot weather, I preferred the M1 Pro because of that. We normally get 36 to 39 degrees during Jul and Aug, and exceeds 40 in many days. This will not help the Air when outdoors, and sometimes indoors.
@Алексей Костянтинович I got mine in Feb before M2 announcements.
Thinking along similar lines myself mate , in warmer months down under it can also get quite warm , not uncommon to see 30 c in the house during warm spells and way hotter outside , I’m a bit dubious that the little air model would perform satisfactory without heat issues during extended periods of use in warm weather.
Cheers.
Safe to say here in Australia it gets to 50 Degrees Celcius here and my Macbook Air M2 didnt overheat, i was even outside and didnt skip a beat, so i gotta give it to apple!
interesting to see you didn't put any sponsor like others, and kept it to the point without scaring me 🤣
i haven’t had many sponsors on the channel (yet). Working on getting some
Looking forward to your review for the 24g model. I have a work-issued maxed out 2019 16” for work but purchased a maxed out m2 air for my own personal projects (10 core, 2tb, 24g). I’ve only had it for a couple days but haven’t run into any issues for data analyst and web dev personal projects.
I got a 16GB, 512 M2 air midnight, I'm Just starting to learn Data science. I was on tight budget and hence didn't go for the M1Pro, will my M2 air variant he able to handle data science projects for like next 4 to 5 years as I'm planning to keep it longer or would you suggest me return? I would appreciate your thoughts as you are into data analytics
@@ashwinsuresh3462 Your computer will be more than enough for a data scientist... Especially if you are just starting.
What can be ressource intensive is ML training, for small models it will be perfectly fine and for big ones you should use the cloud anyway.
Don't fall for the trap that you need an amazing computer for data science, that's generally not true and anyway the M1/M2 is very capable.
@@paul_w thanks for very detailed information mate, Appreciate your thoughts. I feel assured of my purchase decision.
I have the M1 Max 14 inch model, 32gb, 2tb.. its perfect for my mobile development, and virtualization. the ssd chips is amazing as there are so many ssd chips.
"So what's the bottom line here? Well, Don't do benchmarks in the hot sun on a
MacBook Air." - I absolutely love your humor!
3:18 Alex under the tree hacking a coffee shop nearby - YOU HACKER!!!!!
Neighbor! I’m just over 395 in Virginia! Great video. I’m glad you gave the the right impression that the M2 is an upgrade. Whether that was the intention or not, some RUclipsrs had their viewers walking away with the impression that the M1 Air was a better device than the M2. The only question is a personal one and the same whether you are buying a car, tv or laptop; are the upgrades worth spending the money?
oh hey neighbor!
@@AZisk 👋
Thank you so much for this video! I was literally wondering if the dark colour would be a problem when working outside on a sunny day. Here in Australia it gets very toasty!
At last , a positive review, thank you.
ok just worked the search
That thumbnail photoshoot is brave, placing that midnight finish against the grit of the brick…
💪
Hello Alex, thanks for the videos. I think you are the only one who do reviews properly for software developers. I have a small question, when you say 'my macbook pro' at 2:07 time, you are talking about macbook pro with M1 Max, right?
I have been looking at updating my 12.9 inch iPad Pro to the new Mini LED display but I would rather have a Macbook Air and be able to use desktop apps. Sure I lose the Mini LED but I have a M1 Max Macbook Pro and a Innocn 32 inch Mini LED 1000 nit monitor so its no big deal!
Hey Alex, I really really love LG's line of Gram laptops. The latest versions come with 16" 2.5k matte displays and the machines are solidly built as well as super light. Battery life is insane too. And the keyboards are SUPERB. Could you recommend an SKU for full stack web dev please???
Do you have the Gram?
I ended up getting the base M2 since it was on sale for $1049 at best buy. Using this is a travel machine/second laptop for writing and some light coding. I have a beefier gaming laptop I use for larger builds, docket etc. Can't wait to see how the M2 fares. This will be my first real experience with MacOS so pretty excited.
congrats
@@AZisk thank you!
My guy editing near a lake. Lol
Alex, when it gets up to 52C, just dip it in that creek to cool it down!!
😂
Nice, can't wait for mine to arrive. I ordered silver in 8c/8gb/512gb version :) I think it's the best price to performance for my needs :) Also got applecare just in case I damage it by accident :P
Good videos, thought a quick fact check. In the heat section if you have any computer in direct sunlight (and even more if it is fanless) it will heat up substantially. The color plays a role, but minor. Most of the issue is the difficulty of the computer to dump heat in its surroundings through the chassis, both due to a hot chassis and an increased air temperature. Having a silver macbook air will not result in that issue dissapearing, just clarifying that.
I have the 24GB with plenty of internal SSD. Works great for the power-hungry Adobe CC apps and for Camtasia video editing and @Xojo cross-platform software development. I wanted the lightweight Air for coffee shops, too.
Max tech did a comparison between a 16 GB and a 24 GB and the end result is that the 24 GB is a waste of money. 16 GB is a sweet spot
@@sammyjammy6647 Depends on your use case. The Max Tech crowd has a very different use case than a software development crowd. I require a lot of RAM, and don’t really use any of the specific tools they use in their reviews.
If you are tight on budget , I'd stick with M1 base model over the M2 base model. There is very little difference in terms of performance for day to day use and in some scenarios it's even better. Sure, you lose the magsafe port, but u don't get an ugly notch either, so you win some you lose some
I don't get the criticisms about the notch. I mean, I think it genuinely improves the look and would rather have it than no notch, but even if it were unattractive, the notch doesn't take up any screen space that the M1 had. Afaik it's all new pixels up there.
Why are you not using BetterDisplay to bypass Apple screen resolution limitations to get consistently big fonts across entire system? Yes it has a major downside of reducing real pixel resolution displayed, so a 960x600 HIDPI is only 1920x1200 real pixels, but at least it's readable. Zoom feature seems to be really unproductive by holding 2 buttons to zoom or toggle it all the. WE MUST MAKE APPLE MAKE SCALING POSSIBLE WITHOUT CHANGING RESOLUTION, just like on Windows! But Windows also has a lot of scaling troubles, however resolution renders consistently.
What helps with the small screen is to hide the dock & put to to the left of the screen. That way you don’t accidentally un-hide it
Scale that thing to the smallest size is a much more reliable fix.
@@stevenhe3462 but then it’s more strain on your eyes in the long term? Will give it a go but I’m used to the hidden-left-dock life 😂
@@scriptedpixelsltd Docks are useless for me anyways. I use Alfred to open stuff and yabai to switch windows so I don't look at the dock.
Yes, I hide it at the bottom.
Nice, your review really take consider the real life usage situation.
Choppy == 60hz hahaha!! I have been using a lenovo slim 7 with 90hz and even those 30hz more are really really noticeable. Also having a 144hz Motorola Edge 30 makes 60hz even harder to accept. Amazing real honest review!!!
true! I've been on a 4K/160Hz screen for a while now and I find it strange to use my new macbook air screen!!
a bit curious about what video editor you use Alex ..... anyway nice video :)
Put some sun blocker to your device though it's a dark one, xD
Thank you / You are the only reviewer who talks about programming. I am a Java developer. I worked with below settings. 5-6 instances of Idea IntelliJ editor with 5-6 running micro-services , local DB , 5-6 instances of Apache Kafka running , Rabbit MQ , some docker , some times minikubes. This setting worked well in leveno 16 gb Wndows machine , but when run docker some time bit slow. should I go for 8 GB M2 Air with 512 ssd or 16 gb 14 inch base model ?
If you’ve money to spare get MBP 14. Otherwise upgrade to 16/512 on M2.
you had me actually laughing at 4am good sir ! :) no small feat let me tell ya haha ( commit one handed is indeed dangerous :p ) thanks for all the vids, currently considering something powerful enough to get out my dingy office more often, mostly unity3d user, definitely going unreal route as well, M2s are almost here ( Morocco ) and still struggling budget wise if I go for air m2 or shoot straight up to m1 pro.. if you have plans for such comparison vids in the future I gladly take it. cheers
The new Midnight color is stunning. I have a Space Gray M1 Pro MBP, but the Midnight color looks much better
But a smudge mirror 😊
hi.i'm going to buy a macbook for software development,school,daily work.I also want to start unity course in summer and develop a game.Is macbook air (16gb ram 512gb ssd) enough for all this work? or should i get macbook pro 14 base model (10cpu 16gpu 16gb ram 512gb ssd).The computer I will buy should last me for at least 5 years.(maybe 4).
I don't know anything about macbooks.(ı'm software engineering student)
Would the regular overheating/throttling lead to a lower lifespan for the M2 device?
Thanks for detailed video, I’ll go with at least 16GB now!
Your videos are original. Love them!
Just want to ask for normal developer, MacBook Pro 14 inch base model or MacBook Air 24g+512g? Thx
Props to alex for hiring a squirrel to take the over the head tree shot🤩
Cost me three whole walnuts, but it was worth it.
@@AZisk Good thing you didnt come across the greedy ones, they ask for peanut butter
so many edits. I'll stay subscribed
2:37 LOL. You got me on that one.
I have been watching lectures and when the lecturer gets loud, something in the M2 Air rattles and buzzes.
Thank you for this great review!
I usually run RUclips and Twitch at the same time (sometimes a couple of each) along with some other basic web browser pages (news, sports etc). I also play Football Manager and watch Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky Go. I assume this laptop will be fine for that without overheating?
I currently have a £1,000 HP laptop but am considering returning it as the battery is so poor (3-4 hours with very basic use) and it has a touch screen I don't use. Although it's very nice it's not as sleek or sexy as this M2 Macbook Air (I also love this Midnight Blue colour and it will match my iPhone 13 mini nicely).
Hi Alex
You might have said it in one of the videos already, so sorry if so.
Now that you tested both the Pro M2 and Air M2 device. Which one makes more sense to buy as a software developer? Looking for 16gb and 512gb specs.
Thanks!
Maybe Pro since it’s got the fan. Will help with sustained perf.
I have M2 MacBook Air base model + MateView 28.2 and i like it
VMware Fusion Tech Preview 22H2 for Apple M1 is released with Windows 11 Arm Support Include TPM - Make a Video on how it performs both windows 11 and any linux distro !!!!
Hey, Alex, thanks for a great review. BTW what is the song playing at the end of your videos? It really it.
Hey! What Mac would you suggest for more of a DevOps role ?
Can you share the real experience of 9 hours coding on the Macbook Air? I see it run fast but it's run 10 minutes of working
I am so confused. I have a windows machine and that is like nothing. But now i want to switch to mac and i am confused, should i go with m1 air with 16 gb ram and 256gb memory or m2 with 8 gb ram with 256 gb memory, because that is in my budget.
I'm concerned about how it performs in the sun and heat. Did you notice any slowdown or did the computer freeze up?
yes, it slows down. i made a vid about it
Love your videos. I am thinking of getting one, 16gb ram and 512gb to start programming. Do you think that is a good purchase for that?
Yes, it would be amazing
@@koolkevinc is 16 Gb RAM and 256 ssd with a extern 2 Tb ssd disk also enough for programming ?
All the grease and fingerprints on your screens are making me very uncomfortable, I think I have problems 😵💫
Can anyone share their experience for mobile dev using kotlin and flutter with the emulator please? I'm a mobile dev using those two platform
I think with M3 apple will deliver the true jump in performance and efficiency with 3nm chip. I read the 14 and 16 macbook pro will recieve M2 pro chip based on 3nm
I cannot see that happening as the M3 will not be ready until mid-2023 and the new MB Pro 14/16 are due in 2022Q4. Also, it seems highly unlikely that they will stack 3nm chips when they have yet to test the single 3nm (expect that as M3). That is another Max Tech leak that seems doubtful for obvious reasons. Even the new SD8G2 coming in late 2022 will have 5nm++ (AKA TSMC 4nm) so 3nm is not even ready until 2024 for Qualcomm, so it makes the noise from Max Tech, as usual, just more unreliable info.
It’s likely 3nm will be ready by 2H2023
But no chance 2H2022 max tech has a history of making clock bait videos
M2 doesn’t provide the performance necessary to justify the yearly model revamp
RDM for mac helps with scaling, don't need a second monitor anymore for the m1 macbook pro! I have just enough space to dev mobile react native and native android projects without a second monitor. So defo checkout RDM :)
Thanks for the comparison video!
Question: My kid's high-school programming is Visual Studio, and he needs to use a Windows environment because they use forms that are not available on Visual Studio for Mac.
I wanted to buy a new M2 MacBook Air for him, 16GB RAM/512SSD, and to run the Visual Studio on Windows on Parallels. On my MacBook Pro M1 16GB it runs ok, will it run ok on the Air M2? Again, considering high-school programming (not heavy-development projects) - Thanks in advance, Amir
It would be enough.
Hi Alex, which external monitor are you using?
Is the base model good for me? I'm no pro user, I'm just trying to do chrome web browse and use Microsoft office and probably use photoshop 😅 and do some school works!, I have a tight budget, the m1 looks great but i really want the m2, And I love the Mac safe and the freshly new design!!!
yep it is, im in same boat as you and the M2 Macbook air is enough. Just make sure you get cleanmymac because in the long-term it'll save your storage space. I think for people like me and you we could even game on the Mac. Check out hades. But to answer your question, it is. I'd say stop looking at the cup half empty but that the cup is half filled. This machine does way more than it's not supposed to ( not on the pro level) but that makes this laptop more than enough for like us .
@@Mani-rz2bd your absolutely right!! I was planning to buy external ssd drive to store some files, I usually use cloud based storage most of the time!!
Absolutely. I bought the base model and it's been great! Even a noticeable upgrade from the base M1. I use it for browsing, writing, software development and some gaming.
@@thor.mukbang does Google Chrome lag? How many tabs can you open?
Most local shops in Europe bought M1 machines in 2020 and 2021 when price was not so high due to inflation and USD to local currency ratio. So M1 is so much cheaper than M2 from Apple Store. M1 is better price to quality ratio right now. When you compare base M1 model to M2 with 512GB and 16GB of ram it cost double of M1 price.
Can you show a Mac using visual studio making an app in visual basic? I can't seem to get my MacBook to run visual basic.
Coder went outside? Good thing you filmed it lol
I build and run Docker containers aggressively on a Macbook Air from 2015, with only 8gB RAM. On MacOS, Docker is not only containers but also virtualization. I had no problems running and after performance tuning I am able to perform faster builds that people with much faster hardware (but unoptimized builds). I run between 10-15 containers, and my "IDE" is Sublime with the occasional emacs and the rare vi. No chrome, it is a known memory hog even if it isolates failures better than Safari. A well maintained Mac is a beast, even 7 years later. Only issue with the machine is battery life.
Hello, nice point of view about programming.
Would it be a good choice moving into macbook air for online teaching?.
I mean, people uses zoom or ms teams for lessons, which lasts about 1 hour each class and you may attend around 5 or 6 classes a day... would it be in heat also?.
Thanks!.
Also, what’s difference between laptops with 32 GB 6400MHz of Ryzen lpddr5x with amd Radeon GPUs 680m and with these MacBooks in terms software development? Pls respond quickly as I’m about to. Have to decide and purchase in coming two days…., thanks for valuable videos…
Hi' Thanks for video.I have M2AIR 16GB RAM. With all apps closed in the background, the TG pro is also 43 degrees (C). Is this normal?
When you open a tab from Safari, it rises to 45-50 degrees and then drops again to 42-43 degrees. When I hold the case, I can feel this temperature, is this normal?
How many (Celcius) degrees appear in Tg pro or other applications for you m2 users? Please advise me. When I open the application, it rises to 70 degrees.
do you know of any tips to speed up rosetta I have a node 4 project I maintain as my daily job and waiting for nodemon to restart within rosetta on the terminal is painfully slow. On my PC it's instant on my macbook pro it's about 5-7 seconds. That doesn't seem much but it really adds up
Which is better m2 macbook air base model vs m2 macbook pro 13” base model?
Which version of this Air do you have-8 GPU Cores or 10? Had heard that the 10 tends to thermal throttle faster.
Hey! I have a question about the purchase decision for a new mac.
I am a student and I will be starting my degree in MSc. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning this September and want to buy a new Mac (because of bad experience with Windows over the years). So which Mac should I buy? It is very important for me because I will be daily driving this laptop and don't have any other machine.
The big question that I have is should I choose the Air M2 or the Pro M2 ? My daily use will be web and application develope. I have a windows old laptop and I want to upgrade and switch to apple products.
What do you recommend.
I would recommend the base 14” MacBook Pro. It is currently available from BestBuy for $1700 which is the same price as the M2 MBA or M2 13” MBP with 16gb of RAM and 512gb of SSD.
Respond quick pls, I’m about to get A Mac Development Device today or tomorrow or probably before Sunday ,,, pls tell which among these is best for only Software Development and Zoom Calls and FCP some times and adobe sometimes. Windows i7 12th Gen Asus z3402 OLED + Mac Mini 16 GB, M1 MacBook Air 16 256, M2 MacBook Air or Pro 16 512…. thanks in advance . I hv gone through many of your videos and yet when it comes to taking crucial decisions in pivotal moments, it is good to take suggestions even though having clarity and decided giving room to reconsideration for better chances…..😊
Thanks for this very down-to-earth video !
M2 MBAir is a great machine, but not for evry Pro out there.
If you will do benchmarks on Virtualisation. Can you add x86 emulation using QEMU or UTM to see how bad or good the VMs will be?
ngl you give me that Kimi Raikkonen vibe
the MacBook Air M2 is superb.
I really like the new starlight color but I wish they made some colors for the pro machines as well but this is just a wish haha
do you think my everyday workflow of 15 internet tabs and like 2 excel and words office.......can the base model handle it easy or they will be like at the fulll capacity already?? i dont want to spend if not necessary but dont want to be at the full caapcity since i want to stay with the computer for like 3-5 years atleast
m2 macbook air or m2 macbook pro for programmers?
Need advice !! from that price maybe I can have laptop with i7 12th gen and rtx3050 and should I buy mba m2 ??? Probably usage for vm programming a bit of machine learning and I dont really care with gaming maybe
Just ordered one today. It all looks perfect, my only concern is those USB C ports will get scratched 100% in a year or two. Yours are already showing some silver after a week. How to deal with that?
congrats. i’ll check mine in a year and report back :)
I want to get the M2 MCBK Air with 8C CPU, 10C GPU, 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM. would this configuration be enough for some virtualization? (to get a just 1 or 2 programs running through windows)
What If i use this M2 Macbook Air 8/512 for run android or ios emulator for flutter dev?