Three months later, the M2 MacBook Air! Truthful Long-Term Review

I have used the M2 Macbook Air for the past three months daily. And what an exciting ride it was. I had mixed feelings about it for three months before coming to a final judgment. After using the M2 Macbook Air for three months, I’ll discuss it in this video. Has my viewpoint evolved? Do you want to buy it? It is for whom? Is it a money-waster? Keep reading to learn more! I will mix the good and bad information I’ve learned to make everything more interesting. Let’s begin by talking about the body, the build, the materials, etc. I’ll use just one word to sum up, everything: exceptional. The aluminum is cold and smooth, with hardly any seams.

Every component is in its proper place and fits there perfectly. Don’t even get me started on how thin it is. The body is so skinny that I hardly even notice it. But enough praising already. I do have a few questions regarding ergonomics. First, the previous wedge-shaped Air was better for typing because the edge didn’t inflict as much pain on the hands. The border is noticeably higher than the surface, making prolonged typing sessions uncomfortable. But I suppose this problem can be solved if your hands are slightly repositioned. The second problem, which is much more minor, is that the rubber feet aren’t as grippy as I had hoped. I hold the laptop firmly as I open it to prevent it from slipping. Dust is the third problem I’ve run into. The computer has significant dust between the hinge and the top case despite being passively cooled. Although it’s not a deal-breaker, nevertheless… In addition, I should mention scratches. The ports on my model, which is space grey, have not yet been scratched. However, some online users have expressed displeasure with Midnight and this color. Their ports have some severe dings. But I suppose it all depends on how cautious you are with your technology. Now let’s hide the screen. I have high display standards after owning a 14-inch Macbook Pro, but this screen is incredible.

Particularly in comparison to the previous Air. The cutout significantly modernizes the design and makes the bezels slimmer all around. Additionally, it is bigger and brighter. When working outside, those additional 100 nits are apparent.

It now supports the P3 Wide-color gamut, producing gorgeous colors. There is always a but, though… However, I would prefer for the blacks to be darker. Those dark grey borders are just too obvious when watching movies. However, Apple being Apple, I would also appreciate a slightly higher refresh rate; 90 hertz would suffice for non-pro laptops. That won’t appear in entry-level Macs for a while. Simple photo editing will be possible with this screen. Still, professional color grading will require a larger screen, such as the 14-inch Pro model, which has mini-led lighting, higher brightness, and a higher refresh rate. For your consideration, I also include the speakers. Since I use AirPods most of the time, this section is probably the most difficult to explain. However, I had no issues when the MacBook’s internal speakers were working.

Everything was beautiful; there was no bleeding from my ears. Those speakers might not be the loudest or best-sounding, but the laptop is barely 1 cm thick. What did you expect? The sound quality is excellent, considering the small enclosure. I prefer front-firing speakers on older Macs, so that is the only complaint I have. They are located in m2 Air, where vents were in earlier models. You experience less sound surround sound because of this placement, which makes the sound less directed. But once more, headphones do help to lessen these minor annoyances.

The keypad feels excellent to type on, and I think the grey aluminum underlay looks much nicer than the black underlay on Pro laptops. Keys are more pronounced visually. The essential travel and clickiness are both excellent. The backlight is accurate and functional. Once more, using this keyboard is almost always an absolute delight. I do find some aspects of it to be unsatisfying almost always. The backlight is the first one. It functions flawlessly, but in low light, it appears to be a dated machine due to excessive light leaking under the keys. That problem didn’t exist on Macs with problematic butterfly keyboards. The row of function keys is my second cautionary note.

Simply put, I don’t find it to be beneficial. Keys for Siri or dictation, dedicated mission control, or spotlight searches are all completely useless. I would prefer them to be switched with something similar to the keyboard backlight controls or the camera on/off button. I’m sure Apple’s experts are more knowledgeable about what people need than I am, but that’s my video. I believe that port selection should be covered before we discuss performance.

A broad perspective and the creator’s perspective are the angles from which to view it. For the average user, two USB-C ports will be sufficient. Picking up a nice dongle won’t be difficult because so many are available. These two ports, however, would be a bottleneck for anyone attempting to do more. Using a dongle to connect an external monitor is inconvenient for me. I think everyone will benefit from adding HDMI and an SD card reader, and it won’t cost much. Apple, take note! More ports are required! Disk space is one thing that was never enough. A 256 gig SSD is insufficient for convenient file management. I checked my disc every week to see if it was complete. I wouldn’t say I like deleting apps, moving files, or uploading documents to the cloud.

Additionally, performing all of that manually leaves some residual files, which isn’t ideal. The number of pointless files keeps growing, slowing the laptop. My suggested solution will be helpful if you purchase the same Macbook Air base model. My storage drive was monitored and cleaned using CleanMyMacX. I am Monitoring the temperature, avoiding malware, uninstalling applications, etc. Now that there is real-time monitoring, I don’t have to worry about overloading or overtaxing my SSD. It’s essential to monitor performance properly with such entry-level machines. The creators of CleanMyMacX generously sponsor this video, and you can save 10% on the app by using the promo code Winer10. You’re starving for drama. I get it. Then it is performance.

As you know, I have a base model with a 256-gig SSD, eight-core GPU, and eight gigs of unified memory. You may be wondering how these specifications are sufficient at this point. How is this outdated piece of helpful technology? Now that you’ve waited, it’s a good thing because I do have a comment to make about the performance. It is sufficient, occasionally even surprising, and neither more nor less. You can’t expect too much from a low-end, passively cooled Macbook. However, you would like some of that horsepower for $1200. And I’m not sure if it satisfies that performance.

I’ll explain. Small, quick tasks are easy to complete because everything is responsive. But occasionally, even simple operations can fail. For instance, website reloads are one of my most frequent issues. It appears that the SSD significantly slows down functions. I frequently use Google Docs, and even in Safari, those tabs are memory-hungry, real RAM-eaters. However, even with swap, they occasionally experience glitches, turn white for no apparent reason, stop responding, or reload the moment you turn your back on them. I mean, that isn’t very pleasant. It’s not a deal-breaker, and I’ve only encountered this problem with Google Docs, but given how demanding websites get every year, what can we expect in a few years? I’ll refrain from responding to that.

I’ve observed that native apps themselves experience lag times. For instance, almost every time I try to change the font in Pages, an Apple text editor, I get beach balls. Unusual, huh? Strange, even Given everything I’ve said so far, talking about video editing seems superfluous. But in this regard, this laptop did surprise me. In Final Cut, everything is responsive and fluid, just like on professional models. You will only notice a significantly longer export time as the only difference. Video rendering takes much longer, even with a hardware encoding engine.

However, I can’t hold Apple responsible since this laptop wasn’t made with the video editing in mind. So let’s take a brief break, alright? This laptop is not intended for frequent users. You shouldn’t even consider this laptop if you’re into professional editing. Better pick up a 14-inch Pro; you can find many deals on Amazon or get an Apple refurbished model. Battery life and camera appear to be the only two issues still outstanding. The camera is the one that is the easiest to conceal; it’s great. It is ideal for facetime, Zoom meetings, and sporadic video calls. Microphones consistently and dependably perform their function.

Even though the camera isn’t as good as on the best Windows laptops, 99.9% of all laptops still have 480p or 720p webcams. Let’s now discuss battery life. Wow is the only word I can think of to describe this. The battery life is incredible. With this laptop, charging almost slipped my mind. Easily ten hours of film. A full day of browsing is simple. And as soon as you activate Low power mode, things only get better. Ten hours turn into 14, which equals a day and a half. Battery life won’t let you down, I assure you. The battery health is the only thing that irritates me. My health has decreased to 99 percent after three months with only 39 charges. I find it strange because previous laptops have always remained in perfect working order after 100 or more cycles. Be mindful of that. So what do I think of this laptop overall? Does it merit the cost? My opinion hasn’t changed at all in three months. It is exceptional in some areas while being only average in others. Although I had hoped for a little bit more for $1200, I can’t say the money was wasted. I have no regrets about my purchase, so take advantage of the opportunity if you can get it for less than Apple charges.

However, try to choose models with 16 gigabytes of RAM. I have no problem imagining teachers or students using this laptop casually. Pay more for the 14-inch Pro if you’re aiming for tasks that require a modicum of professionalism. But kindly avoid purchasing the M2 13-inch Pro. Just a lousy computer, that one. How do you feel about this laptop? Do you and I share the same sentiments?

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Title: Three months later, the M2 MacBook Air! Truthful Long-Term Review