Apple MacBook Air thoughts.

tonybassplayer

tonybassplayer

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My MacBook Pro is now about 12 years old and has been brilliant but it’s starting to get a bit limiting and I have a chance through our business to upgrade.

Apart from the usual surfing, spreadsheets etc it’s main purpose will be to enable me to edit and store our product photography plus my personal ones.

We are looking at buying two (my business partner has now seen the benefits of a Mac) and want to keep the price sensible but not get silly.

Looking at the Air’s they look to be so more powerful than what I have now for much less than a MacBook Pro.

False economy or wise choice ?

Neither of us are heavy users like gaming or anything.

Many thanks.
 
I bought a MacBook Air M2 13”, 8GB, 512GB in February and enjoy using it. Great battery life (17 hrs), display, keyboard and trackpad are excellent and it’s no bigger than an A4 pad.

I’ve installed the Adobe Photography suite and Libre Office (though it comes with Pages, Numbers and Keynote). All work pretty well and it’s a lot quicker than my old late 2012 iMac 27. Light years ahead of my old Windoze 10 laptop (which has been binned).

The only real downside is it only has two USB-C ports, though because it charges via a MagSafe connector, both are available even when on charge. I got a USB-C dock with SD, micro SD, HDMI and USB-A which works well.

If I was buying now I’d probably get an M3 version, but the M2 with 16GB would still be a decent choice IMHO.
 
Probably a good buy, but I'd think carefully about what your storage and RAM needs might be in 5-6 years time - I'd pick M2 with 16GB over M3 with 8GB. Possibly worth buying a port replicator and an external hard drive at the same time.
 
As mentioned try and plan for the future use rather than just today, it's better to overspec for current use in order to prolong the useful life of the machine.
 
I have an M1 Air for work and a personal M1 Pro (both with 16GB RAM), I don't notice the performance difference. With the screen/connectivity differences from the newer model Air, that is where my money would go.
 
I've got an M2 Air and love it, but for future proofing I put 24Gb in it at purchase. Expensive but worth it.
 
Airs have decent screens by general standards, but the pro's real advantage is the screen, if it's something that matters to you (specifically if HDR matters, or higher or lower frame rates). I have a work Max and a home Pro, and I do notice the performance difference but not for photo use (other than serious bulk processing).

The MBA is a great machine though, if you don't know specifically why you might need a pro, you probably don't. Do go for at least 16Gb of ram though (specifically as many AI features now and in the future will be gated by the amount of ram). Got an M1 MBA in the house too, and the new ones are better still.
 
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Thanks for the replies and it looks like I will make sure I get at least 16gb of ram when purchasing (and probably 512gb disk space) as it’s likely I will keep for quite a few years

One thing I am planning on doing though is being ruthless and deleting poor images on the day of processing the good ones as realistically I never go back and they just fill the disk space.
 
I have a 2020 M1 MacBook Air 16gb and am very happy with it. It handles pano stitching in Lightroom very well. My old system I had to set if off during the night and ended up waking up to set the next one away, none of that with the air; so was a very good upgrade for me.

I think I'd like a a bigger screen than 13.3-inch (2560 × 1600) though. When editing photos in Lightroom, with just the editing module on the side, the screen can feel a bit cramped.
 
Glad I waited. Looks like Apple has listened and even the the entry Air now gets 16gb of ram and end even the entry MBP is looking tempting now.
 
Waited and delayed long enough and purchased a 13” M3 Air with 16gb ram and 512gb hard drive.

I know there will another update in spring but this should be plenty for my need and to be honest I really want to be able to use a lot of the new features in Lightroom and Photoshop that I am seeing as I do the product photography in our business and the potential to improve them dramatically (admittedly from a low base) is immense.

As this is being bought with company money I think I may be tempted to treat myself to a new iPad 13” air which should act as a nice second screen too.
 
tonybassplayer said:
Waited and delayed long enough and purchased a 13” M3 Air with 16gb ram and 512gb hard drive.

I know there will another update in spring but this should be plenty for my need and to be honest I really want to be able to use a lot of the new features in Lightroom and Photoshop that I am seeing as I do the product photography in our business and the potential to improve them dramatically (admittedly from a low base) is immense.

As this is being bought with company money I think I may be tempted to treat myself to a new iPad 13” air which should act as a nice second screen too.
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Congrats, the MacBook Air 13 is a really nice laptop.
For meetings, it fits nicely in an A4 folio.

I picked up this inexpensive USB-C dock, which has been a useful addition.

Enjoy.
 
GeeJay57 said:
Congrats, the MacBook Air 13 is a really nice laptop.
For meetings, it fits nicely in an A4 folio.

I picked up this inexpensive USB-C dock, which has been a useful addition.

Enjoy.
Click to expand...

Thank you. That looks a nice piece of kit for a modest price as it seems like normal USB slots and SD card slots are a thing of the past now since I got my MacBook Pro around 2013 lol
 
tonybassplayer said:
Thank you. That looks a nice piece of kit for a modest price as it seems like normal USB slots and SD card slots are a thing of the past now since I got my MacBook Pro around 2013 lol
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No worries. I did get a nudge from MacOS to allow connection to a USB device, but that’s it. Works fine, I have a 256GB micro SD card in it for a bit of extra local storage which gets a bit warmer than I expected to be honest.
 
normal USB slots and SD card slots
Click to expand...

Current MBPs have SD slots and by normal you mean “the old legacy ones nothing uses any more” right? Next you’ll want a SCSI connector ;-)
 
the_accidental said:
Current MBPs have SD slots and by normal you mean “the old legacy ones nothing uses any more” right? Next you’ll want a SCSI connector ;-)
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He’s already got a MacBook Air M3…
 
Yes, my point was maybe a bit subtle - he was comparing apples to oranges. MBP to MBP the SD card is still there.
 
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