With a design that matches the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, the new M2 MacBook Air sure looks tempting, but you should avoid the base model of this laptop at all costs. Wondering why? Well, just keep reading.
4. You Get an Inferior GPU
When Apple showed off the next-generation M2 chip at WWDC22, it quickly compared the processor to the M1 chip, claiming that the M2 is 18% faster in the CPU department and 35% faster in terms of GPU performance. Now, it looks like that 35% improvement is a big jump over the previous generation, right? Well, guess what? The base model M2 MacBook Air doesn’t deliver that performance.
What Apple showed on stage was the 10-core GPU variant of the M2 chip, which the base model MacBook Air doesn’t have. Instead, you get an inferior chip with 8 GPU cores, that match the core count of the original M1 chip. To get Apple’s advertised claims, you’ll need to custom-configure the MacBook Air with the fully unlocked M2 chip for an extra hundred dollars, or buy the 512GB storage variant that costs $1,499.
3. There’s No Fast Charger Included
The redesigned M2 MacBook Air features a MagSafe port for charging, just like the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. And thanks to that, you can now fast charge your Mac from 0 to 50% in 30 minutes. But unfortunately, Apple doesn’t include the necessary fast charger with the base model MacBook Air.
We’re not quite sure why Apple decided to cheap out on this, but you get the same 30W USB-C power adapter that the company bundled with the M1 MacBook Air. Fortunately, this isn’t an expensive upgrade, as you can purchase the 67W USB-C power adapter separately for just $20 from the Apple Store.
2. 256GB of Storage Isn’t Enough
Despite the $200 price increase over the previous generation, the base model M2 MacBook Air still comes with 256GB of storage space, which isn’t reasonable for 2022’s standards. Unless you’re purely using this machine to browse the web or stream movies, you will run out of space pretty quickly, considering how huge apps, photos, and videos are these days.
To get 512GB of storage space, you’ll need to pay a $200 premium and custom-configure your Mac from the Apple Store, or purchase the 512GB pre-configured variant that costs $1,499. Of course, you could buy an external storage drive and call it a day if you don’t want to pay Apple’s exorbitant upgrade costs, but remember that they’re much slower than the internal drive on the Mac.
1. 8GB of RAM Is Underwhelming
Considering how sub-$600 Windows laptops come with 16GB of RAM these days, we’re not sure why Apple is adamant about sticking with 8GB of memory for its $1,199 M2 MacBook Air. Although we admit that Apple’s unified memory performs better than an equivalent DDR4 RAM, it’s still not an excuse for a 2022 laptop to pack just 8GB of RAM.
Apple wants you to shell out an extra $200 if you want to have 16GB of RAM with the M2 MacBook Air, which is unreasonable pricing for a RAM upgrade. What’s funnier is that even the higher-end MacBook Air comes with just 8GB of memory. And if you want to max out the RAM, Apple charges $400 for 24GB of unified memory.
Customize Your M2 MacBook Air for the Best Experience
As you can tell, buying the base model M2 MacBook Air may not be the best idea for most people. Some users may want that extra bit of GPU performance for video editing and encoding, whereas others would need 16GB of RAM for multitasking and future-proofing.
So, as long as you can push your budget, you should go out of your way to customize your MacBook Air on the Apple Store with all the hardware you think you’d need in the long run for an ideal experience. Or, make sure you buy the $1,499 model in store instead.
