Apple M2 MacBook Air – 100 Hours Later: It's Ridiculous

Is this THE new budget MacBook to get? After 100 hours and…I have gripes with the base model MacBook Air M2, but there’s also plenty to love about this ultraportable laptop. So, is it ridiculously good or ridiculously bad? Here’s my experience with the 13” MacBook Air M2 after making this my main workhorse for the last couple weeks. Thanks CleanMyMacX for sponsoring this video.

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🥏 LET’S CONNECT

🥏 GOODIES

🥏 TECH GEAR

🥏 VIDEO CHAPTERS
0:00 – MacBook M2 Air (Base Model)
1:05 – Base Model Specs & Setup
2:40 – Slow SSD Read/Write Speeds
4:36 – Cleaning & Maintaining SSD
5:56 – Throttling Issues + Performance Tests
8:04 – Limited Ports
8:44 – New Design & Midnight Color
10:20 – Display, Portability & Battery Life
12:20 – Is It Worth It?

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#macbookair #m2 #weeklater
Apple M2 MacBook Air – 100 Hours Later: It's Ridiculous

[AndrewEthanZeng]

Apple just announced the new 15" variant at a really reasonable $1, 299 and the 13" in this video is now lowered to $1, 099.

[and]

I had it for 4 days and I can’t put it down. Even coming from an M1 AIR, this thing is a beauty. I went for starlight, 8 core gpu, 16gb ram, 512gb SSD

[xjf]

It’s simple: if what you do causes so much stress that the M2 Air starts to heat throttle, get a 14 inch Pro. For most people, it would be near impossible to make it heat throttle. I’ve been testing a base model for weeks and even with my most intense workload, it never gets hot. Never gets above 120 degrees F

[JoshAmes]

Just got mine yesterday (not the base model) and honestly so far it's the best computer I've ever owned. It's super sleek, slim, light and handles anything I throw at it with ease and has barely gotten warm so far. I'm very impressed.

[hd.connic]

The only thing you should consider regarding storage, is the size. Speed is not gonna be an issue 99%. Reason is simple, if you are gonna be transferring big files (not many small ones) then yes you will get 1.5GB per second instead of 2.5GB sec, which results in 15-20 second loss for a 50GB file (keep that in mind). Now if you are gonna be transferring many small files for a total of 40-50GB the difference will be much smaller, because of random read/write speeds, which are almost identical between the 2 options. This is the important thing anyone fails to mention. However, i would suggest a 512GB model just for the size of it alone. But if you can only update 1 thing then go for RAM which is much much more important. Storage you can hook up an ssd, for ram it's impossible. And as i already said, internal ssd speed, barely even matters between the different config options.

[Justin.Franks]

You really should have clarified that the SSD speed issue is _only_ for the 256 GB option. All of the larger SSD options use two NAND chips, but you insinuate that having only one NAND chip is present across all M2 Air models.

[MesozoicZac]

I snagged one at Costco recently. Base model for school work. I wanted the midnight, but when I saw the display models, and I saw all of the nasty fingerprints on the midnight, I went for starlight which looked immaculate in comparison. I can’t do visible fingerprints, they kill me. Starlight’s great though! Love how subtle of a cold color it is, almost looks silver in some lights. Love it so far though! Perfect for homework and the very light video editing/exporting I do. Can recommend to anyone looking for a smashing laptop that won’t break the bank too badly.

[DhruvPatelDearDhruv]

I am a developer for more than 10 years, I received MBA M2 (24GB, 512GB) last week. This fulfills all my needs while developing app and on the go.
I have not encountered the CPU throttling on my daily use cases so far. However, at the given price range someone might look for the pro models.
I am pretty satisfied so far! :)

[buckybarnes]

Just got one and dang this is a nice computer, very impressed. As a light user this is perfect for my level of work and daily computing tasks

[rudyvillafane]

NOTE at ~ 11:17: Yes, it's true the MacBook Air does not support 2 external monitors natively. However, it is noteworthy to mention that the MacBook Air *can* support multiple external displays via DisplayLink adapters or docking stations. I personally am able to run 2 external displays at 2K. To keep things fair, there are a few drawbacks to DisplayLink--but, these have not been deal-breakers in my experience thus far.

[CineDesi]

How often you have your computer near water gives me anxiety.
#macbookoxygen

[Archivist]

I do think it’s worth pointing out the SSD slowdown only impacts 256GB capacity. If you go for 512GB I believe this is two 256GB chips which gives the same result as before

[hummersd]

Just to clarify, reviewers aren’t “gifted” their units. They have several days to use the units to test and prepare review videos, but they have to send them back.

[EverythingGizmo]

After watching Jon Rettinger’s new video on Apple’s controlling PR team, it’s now easy to see which reviews are honest and transparent. And this one definitely is. Thank you for sharing a balanced review that sheds light on the flawsrather than simping

[SparkycgdHD]

It's EASY to get caught up in reviews. From real-life users though, I've only heard positive. From my research and experience, I've ordered m2 air 16gb ram 512 gb ssd

[mrduck]

bruh I forgot to use MacBook oxygen is my machine done for??!!

[fightnight]

I love the new form factor it's so nice to hold on it doesn't dig in your hands unlike the older design

[akizer]

For people on the fence and afraid about the SSD, DONT.

If you have a really specific heavy workload that tax the cpu hard, go for Macbook Pro 14". otherwise, The Air M2 is great mobile workhorse. Pair it with 16GB of RAM, minimizing the swap that tax the SSD. Dont feel obligated to upgrade the SSD if you dont upgrade the RAM first. If you have budget for both upgrade (I dont), and have to pick only 1, go for RAM.

A certain YT will points about the SSD speed, but that was done with 8GB RAM 256GB vs 16GB RAM 512GB. So it is actually 2 variables, not single variable.

[leoribeirop]

I think would be important for you to mention that the 256GB one is the only version of the MacBook Air M2 has one slot instead two. 512GB, 1TB and yo are still 2 slots like the M1 and has even faster speeds in reading and writings files/softwares!

[scottt]

Thank you for a great review. Since I'm upgrading from a 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 from mid 2012, I think M2 is still a major upgrade! Macbook oxygen.