The big question: 14" MBP vs M2 MBA?
Jul 28, 2022, 11:05 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 17
The big question: 14" MBP vs M2 MBA?
Which is the better laptop and why? Which do you use? How are they to travel with?
I've been pondering both of them and can't make up my mind. The Air seems a no brainer for travel/*air*ports (I mean, it is called the "Air" after all). But the 14" is still relatively compact, and the screen is beautiful. I sometimes wonder if the improved screen could relieve some fatigue when traveling...tho perhaps that's unrealistic...it is .8lbs heavier. Anyone get the chance to travel with either yet? What's your assessment?
What's the best laptop to get?
I've been pondering both of them and can't make up my mind. The Air seems a no brainer for travel/*air*ports (I mean, it is called the "Air" after all). But the 14" is still relatively compact, and the screen is beautiful. I sometimes wonder if the improved screen could relieve some fatigue when traveling...tho perhaps that's unrealistic...it is .8lbs heavier. Anyone get the chance to travel with either yet? What's your assessment?
What's the best laptop to get?
Jul 29, 2022, 11:46 am
#3
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I have a MBP 16 and honestly don't find it to be that big of a burden. Somewhat depends on how you travel. I either use a backpack or a wheeled laptop bag (former if I need my bigger rollerboard for a longer trip, latter if I'm just going somewhere for 1-2 days and can fit my clothes in the wheeler).
Either way the extra 2 pounds (MBP 16 is 4.7lbs) is either just distributed on my back (where I don't really notice it) or it's in my wheeled laptop bag so it's completely irrelevant.
That said if you carry your laptop in a messenger bag or tote bag or something along those lines, the weight definitely is a legitimate consideration
Either way the extra 2 pounds (MBP 16 is 4.7lbs) is either just distributed on my back (where I don't really notice it) or it's in my wheeled laptop bag so it's completely irrelevant.
That said if you carry your laptop in a messenger bag or tote bag or something along those lines, the weight definitely is a legitimate consideration
Jul 29, 2022, 8:24 pm
#4
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,918
It depends on what your use case is. I know I annoy many of the members of this forum because I'm trying to get more details before answering, but in this case, it is important. There are a lot of things going for the M2MBA but several that work against it as well.
Keep in mind the MBA is passively cooled and thus depending on your load, could throttle. If all you're going to do is youtube and productivity apps, then sure, it'll be fine. But if you're going to be editing 4k60 video or some serious coding, the MBA might not fit your use case. In that case, you might do better with the M2 MBP13... Quite likely you are somewhere in-between, but it depends. Also keep in mind that they are likely to offer an M2PRO (and M2EX and M2ULTRA and M2SUPERDUPER) MBP in the relatively near future.
If I were you, I'd pick up something that will do what you need now with room to grow and see how it goes from there.
Keep in mind the MBA is passively cooled and thus depending on your load, could throttle. If all you're going to do is youtube and productivity apps, then sure, it'll be fine. But if you're going to be editing 4k60 video or some serious coding, the MBA might not fit your use case. In that case, you might do better with the M2 MBP13... Quite likely you are somewhere in-between, but it depends. Also keep in mind that they are likely to offer an M2PRO (and M2EX and M2ULTRA and M2SUPERDUPER) MBP in the relatively near future.
If I were you, I'd pick up something that will do what you need now with room to grow and see how it goes from there.
Jul 29, 2022, 10:23 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 17
It depends on what your use case is. I know I annoy many of the members of this forum because I'm trying to get more details before answering, but in this case, it is important. There are a lot of things going for the M2MBA but several that work against it as well.
Keep in mind the MBA is passively cooled and thus depending on your load, could throttle. If all you're going to do is youtube and productivity apps, then sure, it'll be fine. But if you're going to be editing 4k60 video or some serious coding, the MBA might not fit your use case. In that case, you might do better with the M2 MBP13... Quite likely you are somewhere in-between, but it depends. Also keep in mind that they are likely to offer an M2PRO (and M2EX and M2ULTRA and M2SUPERDUPER) MBP in the relatively near future.
If I were you, I'd pick up something that will do what you need now with room to grow and see how it goes from there.
Keep in mind the MBA is passively cooled and thus depending on your load, could throttle. If all you're going to do is youtube and productivity apps, then sure, it'll be fine. But if you're going to be editing 4k60 video or some serious coding, the MBA might not fit your use case. In that case, you might do better with the M2 MBP13... Quite likely you are somewhere in-between, but it depends. Also keep in mind that they are likely to offer an M2PRO (and M2EX and M2ULTRA and M2SUPERDUPER) MBP in the relatively near future.
If I were you, I'd pick up something that will do what you need now with room to grow and see how it goes from there.
Ah yes I am somewhere in between. I mostly do a lot of editing/composing long documents in MS office, with lots of big PDFs and LOADS of tabs in Safari, Chrome and Firefox open at once. I tend to leave lots of apps open at the same time, but usually am not doing that CPU intensive stuff.
However, photography is a hobby of mine. I have a large (400GB) Photos library with some videos. Occasionally I import video from my Gopro and need to trim out the garbage footage before adding it to my ginormous library (so it doesnt grow so much bigger lol). Occasionally I'll also stitch the small trimmed videos together in iMovie and add music and transitions, but that is as far as I go with video editing.
It would be nice to be able to do that trimming without having to close all my tabs and without any GUI lag (resizing windows or switching between tabs for example)
Is that possible on the M2 Air? Or do I automatically need the Pro for that?
Yeah, I bet they'll do an m2Pro in October...unless they dont, then I'll be waiting even longer.
I have a 15" rMBP 2014 that does all these tasks fine. Except, inexplicably and with no warning, sometimes the fans turn on FURIOUSLY and I occasionally get UI lag when this happens. When I'm doing nothing, just with a bunch of tabs/windows open, no trimming or anything. Very strange, I don't know what the trigger is. But I don't want that in my new laptop.
All that said, I traveled extensively with that 15" MBP and DESPISED it. Carrying it, an ipad pro, the charging brick and a P&S camera and a swimsuit and tshirt etc in my carryon was just hell. So something portable would be a big plus
I also want to get a Studio Display with the new laptop for use at home, not sure if that will stress the Air's GPU cores or lead to throttling sooner?
Jul 29, 2022, 11:18 pm
#6
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,918
Ah yes I am somewhere in between. I mostly do a lot of editing/composing long documents in MS office, with lots of big PDFs and LOADS of tabs in Safari, Chrome and Firefox open at once. I tend to leave lots of apps open at the same time, but usually am not doing that CPU intensive stuff.
However, photography is a hobby of mine. I have a large (400GB) Photos library with some videos. Occasionally I import video from my Gopro and need to trim out the garbage footage before adding it to my ginormous library (so it doesnt grow so much bigger lol). Occasionally I'll also stitch the small trimmed videos together in iMovie and add music and transitions, but that is as far as I go with video editing.
It would be nice to be able to do that trimming without having to close all my tabs and without any GUI lag (resizing windows or switching between tabs for example)
Is that possible on the M2 Air? Or do I automatically need the Pro for that?
Yeah, I bet they'll do an m2Pro in October...unless they dont, then I'll be waiting even longer.
I have a 15" rMBP 2014 that does all these tasks fine. Except, inexplicably and with no warning, sometimes the fans turn on FURIOUSLY and I occasionally get UI lag when this happens. When I'm doing nothing, just with a bunch of tabs/windows open, no trimming or anything. Very strange, I don't know what the trigger is. But I don't want that in my new laptop.
All that said, I traveled extensively with that 15" MBP and DESPISED it. Carrying it, an ipad pro, the charging brick and a P&S camera and a swimsuit and tshirt etc in my carryon was just hell. So something portable would be a big plus
I also want to get a Studio Display with the new laptop for use at home, not sure if that will stress the Air's GPU cores or lead to throttling sooner?
However, photography is a hobby of mine. I have a large (400GB) Photos library with some videos. Occasionally I import video from my Gopro and need to trim out the garbage footage before adding it to my ginormous library (so it doesnt grow so much bigger lol). Occasionally I'll also stitch the small trimmed videos together in iMovie and add music and transitions, but that is as far as I go with video editing.
It would be nice to be able to do that trimming without having to close all my tabs and without any GUI lag (resizing windows or switching between tabs for example)
Is that possible on the M2 Air? Or do I automatically need the Pro for that?
Yeah, I bet they'll do an m2Pro in October...unless they dont, then I'll be waiting even longer.
I have a 15" rMBP 2014 that does all these tasks fine. Except, inexplicably and with no warning, sometimes the fans turn on FURIOUSLY and I occasionally get UI lag when this happens. When I'm doing nothing, just with a bunch of tabs/windows open, no trimming or anything. Very strange, I don't know what the trigger is. But I don't want that in my new laptop.
All that said, I traveled extensively with that 15" MBP and DESPISED it. Carrying it, an ipad pro, the charging brick and a P&S camera and a swimsuit and tshirt etc in my carryon was just hell. So something portable would be a big plus
I also want to get a Studio Display with the new laptop for use at home, not sure if that will stress the Air's GPU cores or lead to throttling sooner?
Aug 2, 2022, 11:57 am
#8
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO
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i have both (14" m1 pro and just bought sig other the m2 MBA), honestly the M2 MBA is more than enough for most people and I'd say that includes the use cases you outlined. The M2 MBA is is significanly thinner and feels meaningfully lighter - so much so I'm considering swapping my laptop out for the MBA.
Aug 2, 2022, 5:02 pm
#9
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i have both (14" m1 pro and just bought sig other the m2 MBA), honestly the M2 MBA is more than enough for most people and I'd say that includes the use cases you outlined. The M2 MBA is is significanly thinner and feels meaningfully lighter - so much so I'm considering swapping my laptop out for the MBA.
Aug 3, 2022, 7:27 pm
#10
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Baltimore MD
Posts: 3,457
I was between a 14" MBP and M2 MBA. I wanted a 16 GB and a 512 GB HD and ultimately decided on the MBP for the ports and the screen. The price difference was only $100 during prime day. Coming fro a 2012 rMBP this is a huge step up
FDW
FDW
Aug 3, 2022, 7:32 pm
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Dec 29, 2022, 11:20 am
#12
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 6
My Two Cents:
I too went through the same thought process as you. I was traveling with an ‘18 15inch pro and an older ipad air, and occasionally a 13inch work dell laptop. I was more than ready to go lighter. It was time to replace the ipad as it was 8 or 9 years old and slow as could be. With the new M2’s my thinking was it can be a better option than the ipad and pro laptop.
I dont do any photo or video work but usually put a heavy load on the computer between multiple apps and tabs open. The M2 so far gas been perfect. I got a configuration with 16gb of ram, 10 core gpu, and 1tb hd. The form factor, weight, speed and battery life are killer. In my travel backpack I went from the stuff listed above with a massive heavy power brick, a bulky set of bose nc700 headphones and went to airpods pro 2, and an anker nano ii 65 watt charger and my bag now feels like there is nothing in it. Its almost too light. Its amazing! Go for the M2 you won’t be disappointed.
I too went through the same thought process as you. I was traveling with an ‘18 15inch pro and an older ipad air, and occasionally a 13inch work dell laptop. I was more than ready to go lighter. It was time to replace the ipad as it was 8 or 9 years old and slow as could be. With the new M2’s my thinking was it can be a better option than the ipad and pro laptop.
I dont do any photo or video work but usually put a heavy load on the computer between multiple apps and tabs open. The M2 so far gas been perfect. I got a configuration with 16gb of ram, 10 core gpu, and 1tb hd. The form factor, weight, speed and battery life are killer. In my travel backpack I went from the stuff listed above with a massive heavy power brick, a bulky set of bose nc700 headphones and went to airpods pro 2, and an anker nano ii 65 watt charger and my bag now feels like there is nothing in it. Its almost too light. Its amazing! Go for the M2 you won’t be disappointed.