Poll: * The official 2022 MacBook Air/13" MacBook Pro thread (it has the M2 chip, MagSafe and everything!) *

volt9291 · 12 Jun 2022 at 20:25

I'm in two minds about what to get... I had pretty much said to myself the M2 Air will be all I need and have been waiting for it to come out, but today I went to an Apple store and saw the 14" Macbook pro M1 in the flesh for the first time and thought it was great, happy with the size and weight, etc. When I spec the M2 Air id get (8 CPU, 10 GPU, 16Gb Ram & 512Gb SSD) it comes to £1,749, so now I'm thinking may as well just pay £1,899 for the M1 Pro (8 CPU, 14 GPU, 16Gb Ram & 512Gb SSD).

I am upgrading from a 10 year old Macbook Pro (Mid 2012, 2.9GHz Dual-core i7, 8Gb Ram, 512Gb SSD) so whatever I get will be a massive improvement over this, and to be honest, it's not like my current Macbook is terrible, my main use is Office, web browsing and a bit of gaming when working away, so I know both are overkill for my needs but as this MacBook can no longer get OS updates (its running Catalina) I will be 100% get one of them as an upgrade and just give this one to my GF.

Either will give a massive speed increase over my current model. I guess the only advantage the Pro would give me is better options for gaming, the HDMI port is also a bonus and would save having to use any adaptor when giving any presentations. Need to see the M2 in the flesh now! Will they be in the shops before the release date?

Feek · 12 Jun 2022 at 20:59

volt9291 said:
Will they be in the shops before the release date?

Nope

LiE · 12 Jun 2022 at 23:24

volt9291 said:
just pay £1,899 for the M1 Pro

Or pay less than the Air: https://www.johnlewis.com/2021-appl...-m1-pro-processor-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd/p5828074

Comes back in stock often and has 2 year warranty.

volt9291 · 13 Jun 2022 at 19:03

LiE said:
Or pay less than the Air: https://www.johnlewis.com/2021-appl...-m1-pro-processor-16gb-ram-512gb-ssd/p5828074

Comes back in stock often and has 2 year warranty.

Ah, nice! Thanks, I will keep that as an option if I decide on the Pro.

Will be really interesting to see how the M2 compares to the M1

LiE · 13 Jun 2022 at 19:54

volt9291 said:
Ah, nice! Thanks, I will keep that as an option if I decide on the Pro.

Will be really interesting to see how the M2 compares to the M1

Difference will be negligible I imagine. The screen on the 14” though, that is something else.

Raymond Lin · 13 Jun 2022 at 19:57

volt9291 said:
Ah, nice! Thanks, I will keep that as an option if I decide on the Pro.

Will be really interesting to see how the M2 compares to the M1

The 14" has the Pro chip too, more ports, better screen, better speakers.

For the money vs a specced up M2 MBA, unless you ABSOLUTELY have to have the thinner form factor and the midnight colour. I'd take the 14".

volt9291 · 13 Jun 2022 at 21:19

Raymond Lin said:
The 14" has the Pro chip too, more ports, better screen, better speakers.

For the money vs a specced up M2 MBA, unless you ABSOLUTELY have to have the thinner form factor and the midnight colour. I'd take the 14".

Yeah, I was really impressed with it when I saw it in the store. I'm going to hold off buying anything until I've seen the M2 Air.

ChrisD. · 13 Jun 2022 at 21:38

OMG SD card on the 14", I almost forgot about it until I got my Go Pro out. Very, very handy.

silvagti · 13 Jun 2022 at 21:44

I guess the other question is how long we have to wait until the 14” MacBook Pro is updated with an M2 chips?

At least with the m2 air you know it likely won’t be updated for another 18 months or so.

Apple really are the masters of upselling though as by the time you go 16Gb/512gb with the air it’s very close to MacBook Pro pricing

LiE · 13 Jun 2022 at 22:02

silvagti said:
I guess the other question is how long we have to wait until the 14” MacBook Pro is updated with an M2 chips?

At least with the m2 air you know it likely won’t be updated for another 18 months or so.

Apple really are the masters of upselling though as by the time you go 16Gb/512gb with the air it’s very close to MacBook Pro pricing

But then you’re looking at £1899 or maybe more and unless you’re actually making use of that 10s export time reduction (not actual example) or proRes capabilities it’s all just the same day to day.

silvagti · 13 Jun 2022 at 22:07

LiE said:
But then you’re looking at £1899 or maybe more and unless you’re actually making use of that 10s export time reduction (not actual example) or proRes capabilities it’s all just the same day to day.

Yeah, personally on balance I’d rather have the m2 MacBook Air for the better single core performance, lighter weight, better battery life and the cheaper RRP sticker price.

I can see why some would go with the 14” M1 Pro for the better screen, multi external monitor support, faster GPU and HDMI/SD card ports though.

volt9291 · 13 Jun 2022 at 23:03

silvagti said:
Yeah, personally on balance I’d rather have the m2 MacBook Air for the better single core performance, lighter weight, better battery life and the cheaper RRP sticker price.

I can see why some would go with the 14” M1 Pro for the better screen, multi external monitor support, faster GPU and HDMI/SD card ports though.

This is my issue. if I'm being honest the air is overkill for what I would need 80% of the time, so would be absolutely fine. But then the Pro has the better screen, more ports, and is the better option for gaming (I assume, I know neither are made for gaming but gives better options looking at what the pro can do).

LiE · 13 Jun 2022 at 23:09

Yea you’d need active cooling for gaming I’d have thought.

Raymond Lin · 13 Jun 2022 at 23:09

I'd get it for the better screen, it's the the one physical thing you absolutely interact with the most, 100% of the time. The rest...ports and speakers, if you dont need them then you don't need them.

ChrisD. · 13 Jun 2022 at 23:10

In all honesty you are very unlikely to notice any difference CPU performance wise. The base M1 is blazing quick, the M1 Pro even more so. You will however notice the screen as you look at it all of the time plus the ports. I would not be considering the new Air unless portability was at the top of my list. Being able to plug in the sd card from my Go Pro was bliss, without cocking around trying to find an adaptor.

GMac11 · 14 Jun 2022 at 10:22

Yep as above. Don’t discount the screen on the 14/16 models - it is sublime. I spent most of last summer trying to find a monitor that would be a good addition for my MacBook (but also for gaming on my PC) and settled on the Alienware 34. Since I got my 16 MacBook I may have used the monitor once - the screen is just THAT Good.

silvagti · 14 Jun 2022 at 10:42

Difficult to make a fair comparison right now as we still don’t know the exact performance of the m2 nor the battery life or how the display compares.

I take it there’s no date for the review embargo yet?

LiE · 14 Jun 2022 at 11:01

silvagti said:
Difficult to make a fair comparison right now as we still don’t know the exact performance of the m2 nor the battery life or how the display compares.

I take it there’s no date for the review embargo yet?

What is your intended use? Performance of the base M1 is already enough for 99% of people.

Mesai · 14 Jun 2022 at 11:10

silvagti said:
Difficult to make a fair comparison right now as we still don’t know the exact performance of the m2 nor the battery life or how the display compares.

I take it there’s no date for the review embargo yet?

I think if someone cared about the performance uplift on the M2, they'd be looking at the Pro M1 models instead.

Cromulent · 14 Jun 2022 at 15:43

The M1 Air is available for £920, which seems like the best option for me.

Poll: *** The official 2022 MacBook Air/13" MacBook Pro thread (it has the M2 chip, MagSafe and everything!) ***

What 2022 M2 notebook will you get?

MacBook Air

13" MacBook Pro

Poll: * The official 2022 MacBook Air/13" MacBook Pro thread (it has the M2 chip, MagSafe and everything!) *