M2 MacBook Air VS M1 - CPU, Disk Speed, Thermals & More!

Hello, I am based in India and planning to replace my 5 year old intel MBA with either MBA M1 or MBA M2 base model. But unable to decide which one to opt? My usage will be for browsing, you tube, zoom meeting, word/excel, file transferring etc and not for any heavy task. Which one do you suggest? I ve read that MBA M2 has heating issue with slow SSD etc. Will appreciate input from anyone. Thanks…

I will never understand why Apple created an Air M2 with a 256GB SSD much slower than the 256 version of the Air M1. Sometimes they are really crazy, there is no reason to do this foolishness.

I'm glad I got 1tb version of the m2 I didn't know that the read write would be better I just needed the space for samples and music related stuff. This is still interesting to see the comparison performing video exports and that they end up being very close. Thanks for the great information and your time and efforts testing the machines

Macbook air m1 - 1100 dollar
Macbook air m2 - 1300 dollar
All are in base variant

Which one should I choose?

What also may be equally irrelevant is to take an SUV on the race track and compare it to a Ferrari.

This y it’s prob smarter to get a m1 with 16 go ram. Just better all round budget Apple laptop if u need that but don’t wanna spend extra fr the m2 bells and whistles especially if u gonna be thermal throttled

Disappointed to see a downgrade, even thought it’s barely noticeable, but people will be paying extra US$ 200. I mean, there’s a new iPhone every year with good performance boosts but always costing the same US$ 700 or US$ 1,000. Imagine the good small gains in performance M2 MacBook Air would have if it kept the same SSD as the previous gen…

I'm waiting for m3 air base model because downgrade in SSD is a big deal for me if the price is increased!

About the M2 256GB SSD speed: is it faster or slower than the MacBook Pro 2017 A1706 512GB ?

It is dissapointing that M2 MBA has slower SSD than M1 MBA, but M2 MBA might be faster upgrading to 16GB Ram instead of upgrading the 512GB SSD HD

任天堂NINTENDO NEWYORK???

Please compare the base M2 against a M1 with 16GB - that would be a nicer comparison.

So if I get an external ssd will that take care of the slow writing speeds?

🙋 ρ尺ｏΜ𝐎ᔕᗰ

I see a very good potential of ssd chip upgrade. As the second slot is left empty. What fo you say Folks

16/256 or 8/512 m2 MBA??

this reviewer got some balls
I might even consider getting m1 eventually but this m2 lost the mark?

Greg ,I honestly think that with the now proven throttling issues in the Macbook Airs, I think that Apple will Have to add a fan or some sort of Active Cooling system (& now I am hoping that they do) to the upcomming 15" machines. The cat is out of the bag (sorry not sorry Apple) that no matter how energy efficient the chip(s) are they still generate too much heat when you are pushing the machine to it's limits. And yes I understand that you shouldn't push any computer to it's limits all of the time, but what is the point of having tons of computing power if you can't use it when you need it? I am assuming that the 14" & 16" MBP's fans aren't constantly running the entire time you have the machine on/are actively using it. I am guessing that the fans only kick in when you are doing extended intensive work in order to prevent throttling. I won't speak for others, but I would be okay with a thicker 15" Macbook that has a Fan & doesn't throttle & so I have full chip power when I need it & when I am doing non-power stuff the fan can turn off. It's ridiculous of Apple to push the power & abilities of their chips if consumers can't use it because their machine throttles. Do you have any thoughts on this?

i subscribed because you had the movie Hook on display in the background. Also video was good.

maybe we should wait for the m3 or new batch of m2 with revised ssd......

Can it be fixed with a software update?

A video I would love to see is the M2 macbook air with the single 256gb ssd chip vs M2 macbook air with 512gb dual ssd chips. I’m debating whether I should upgrade the ssd so I have 2 chips, or if I should spend the extra money and buy a 14” pro (from Holland, so price difference is bigger than in US)

I am deciding between MBA M1 16GB/256GB vs MBA M2 16GB/256GB. Which would you choose?

Not only this, they even increased the price of m1 air, i had ipad pro m1 and thought it would be nice to shift to apple ecosystem, but iphone 14 not having new chip, m2 air downgrade, nah, android and windows/linux dual boot ftw!

which speakers r better?

Alright Greg need to see this video know if it worth getting the m2

fascinating. Your shirt says 任天堂 which means "nintendo"

Which one should i buy M1 Air With 500Gb or M2 air 256 gb i am College Student A coder

Will i get better ssd speed if i get only 16gb ram upgrade and same 256gb storage?

512gb to 1tb SSD upgrade on the 14 inch macbook pro costs 200 dollars, 256gb to 512gb SSD upgrade on the M2 macbook air costs 200 dollars. Isn't that a bit strange.

What a mess... Your graphs do not start at 0, even though you display them that way, making your graphs absolutely useless and miss representing the information.
M2 throttles from 8200 to 7380: over 800 points
M1 from 6400 to 6200: 200 points, which is only a quarter of M2. Your verdict: "M1 also throttles"....

I want to buy Mac but ı cant decide 16gb Ram M1 or 8gb Ram M2. Which one is better ? (Video editing, software dev.)

Great video Greg, thanks for the comparison

16/256 m1 air or 8/256 m2 which would be great for next 4-5 years? im going to use it for programming and Photoshop/lightroom. thanks

Apple planned this…know people are forced to Pay $200 more to enjoy the performance of M2🤦🏽‍♂️

Apple will make Billions of dollars in profits cos every single reviewer will recommend everyone to upgrade the ssd💰

Base model M2 with 256 GB should not exist.

Nice comparison~ it will be interesting to see the Thermal Throttling for a longer time period, eg 50mins or 1 hour.
For M2 MBA the benchmark declines 6.76% after 20mins and 4.17% in 30 mins later, about 10.65 % in total. On the other hand the benchmark of M1 MBA decreases 3.22% and surprisedly increases 0.03%, which make it only decline about 3% (defeating the more than 10% reduction on M2 MBA )

I think that the Base model is targeted to the average person looking for a small , light laptop for note taking and or Microsoft word. Users

Thanks for the coverage, and I appreciate the beautiful shots.
One thing I hope to see different is the charts, please add the benchmark scores on the right of the bar charts, it would make comparisons clearer. Please include a percentage difference as well if possible! Thanks!

Nicely balanced review with good insights on what really matters. Yes I want the blue!

Thanks for doing the thermal test! Good to know M2 air still beats M1 even if it throttles.

Let’s be real, there’s a $400 price difference because base model M1s can be found for $799 pretty easily.

Great comparison but the way those charts depict are not linear so it's a tad misleading. Still, both are powerful models 👍

Apple shipping black stickers with a non-pro device? this betrayal shall not stand

Need a comparision between M2 MBA 8-512 or 16-512 VS base 14 inch M1 Pro

Thanks…I appreciate your thoughts. Blessings on your day!

I am out on this model. Way to much controversy

I jumped on here just to give this video a thumbs down because no sh*t it throttles. It has no freakin' fan and this device is obviously not made to be pushed to the max for sustained periods.