Just picked up an M2 Air as finally it’s a Mac with a non PWM screen. It’s a great machine and more than enough for my needs. I have found it thermal throttles a lot compared to the M1 we have. Apple should not have removed the thermal heatsink other than that it’s great….
Poll: *** The official 2022 MacBook Air/13" MacBook Pro thread (it has the M2 chip, MagSafe and everything!) ***
- Thread starter Feek
- Start date
Did you get the base model?
Yes no need for anymore for me.
Cool. Enjoy it
I’m so undecided! Classic analysis paralysis.
I was a bit concerned about the RAM speed issue with 256gb but tbh I have not noticed any difference between it and the M1 256gb. Even going out of my way and running lots of stuff at once it makes no difference or anything I can notice outside of running the black magic tool.
If you can deal with the PWM screen I would say get the M1 as they can be had for well under £900 now. For me the M1 gives me headaches and eye strain after not much use. So far the M2 has been fine.
Likewise, got mine last week and really impressed with it so far. coming from a 3 year old Intel MacBook Air it’s a quantum leap over that!
In fact I’d go so far as to say that, despite it being an ultraportable laptop, the performance so good that I don’t think I’ll ever bother buying another desktop pc again!
So yeah, can’t really find anything to fault. Performance is spectacular and faster than my current desktop pc, battery life is ludicrous (12+hours) and the device barely gets warm in day to day use (unlike my Intel MacBook) despite the lack of cooling fans.
I did upgrade the ram to 16Gb and the ssd to 512gb though as I didn’t feel comfortable going with the base spec. The pricing is really my only complaint in that i feel it should come with 16Gb and 512gb as standard.
My manager just gave me his M1 Air to look at something on the screen, and I could see the PWM flicker immediately
Caporegime
Would the mini LED MPB be an option?
They have really bad PWM unfortunately I had a 14” for a day it made me feel horrific way worse than even the M1 Air. My eyes went really bloodshot after about half hour….lol
Its a shame Apple don’t actually concentrate on the health side of the screens as much as others. PWM flicker even at high frequencies can cause permanent vision problems and worsen existing conditions. There are plenty of flicker free screens available but obviously they do lower battery life a small amount.
I shall stick to my Lenovo Legion and crappy Windows and hope Apple take note in the future but I’m not holding my breath…..
No issues with mine. Very happy with it so definitely a keeper. Was debating between the air vs pro but overall preferred the form factor, battery life and weight of the air. Plus I don’t really need the extra GPU power off the Pro for the apps I use daily.
Would definitely recommend it. I’d suggest getting it with 16Gb ram though.
Thank you, what spec did you go for?
The form factor is definitely a factor - it's just so light and compact.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Nov 2007
- Posts
- 4,103
What conditions? Never had a problem with my m1 air.
16Gb RAM / 512Gb SSD in Space Grey.
If you're considering buying see if you can use get a Unidays Login to use as you'll get educational discount of around 15% plus right now Apple are doing their return to uni offer which comes with a £120 Apple Store voucher.
Forum dedicated to it if you are interested. Apple do not use flicker free or low blue light screens. When they have been asked they refuse to comment or provide any information about screen technology used.
LEDStrain Forum
ledstrain.org
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Nov 2007
- Posts
- 4,103
Interesting, thanks for that.Forum dedicated to it if you are interested. Apple do not use flicker free or low blue light screens. When they have been asked they refuse to comment or provide any information about screen technology used.
LEDStrain Forum
Soldato
I was made aware of this issue before. In my (very unprofessional) opinion I don’t think it has much to do with the RAM.
I believe it comes down to the scaling used for said display within display settings.
I’ve seen elsewhere that when a 4k monitor is run at non-native resolution(s) i.e scaled, then this can present itself.
This concerned me because I like to use the second scaling option from the left - and macOS does say it may impact performance. In day to day use I’ve not noticed it, however, I have noticed it in Capture One.
The best way round it is to either decrease the size of the viewer or change the macOS scaling to a native res when using that software.
FWIW, it really only occurs when doing really pixel intensive stuff like adding clarity etc.