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The MacBook Air M2 is the best Mac I have ever owned

I’m typing this on my week and a half old MacBook Air M2. I’m already convinced this is the best Mac, and the best computer I have ever owned. Currently I own a Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra processor and 64Gb Ram, a 16” MacBook Pro Intel i9 and now, the MacBook Air M2, and out of all of them, I am enjoying it the most. I am enjoying the MacBook Air M2 the most because it is ergonomically easy, and it is a do anything laptop that is lightweight, comfortable, with a clear bright screen and a battery to let me use it anywhere. I don’t think I want for anything else in a computer.

I am a demanding computer user

I buy a computer for photography, video editing, web and other tasks to do creative work to pay the bills.

In the past I have owned PCs that were maxed out to the best specifications in RAM, CPU and GPU possible. I started on Macs with a maxed out G5, and then a top of the line Core2Duo MacBook pro 15”, later 17” and 8 Core Mac Pro. By 2014 I had bought the new Xeon 12 Core Mac Pro cylinder. I justified it’s extreme price because of the time it saved me in exporting videos and graphics and that everything from high res photos, graphic design, 3D and 4k video editing was just smooth. My time saved was worth the money.

More recently, thanks to my employer, I have had the privilege of owning an Intel i9 16” MacBook Pro that was the fastest Mac laptop, and probably fastest Mac, I have owned up until now. It never froze. It just got things done. But, it is heavy. And despite it’s excellent screen, the best screen out there on a laptop for photography, design and video, it was, is an uncomfortable laptop to carry around and use. It is just awkward. But I always thought I needed a big screen for the Adobe apps and to get things done. Then again, most of the time when I am using the laptop in the office it is plugged into an external display. Now, at home, my desk has been invaded by the Mac Studio and 2 27” screens and external hard drives.

My MacBook Air M2 is perched comfortably on my knee and I am loving the soft but satisfying keyboard as I type this article.

The MacBook Air M2 has a lot of processing power

No, really. I’ve tested Adobe Lightroom exports, Media Encoder with 4K video and Cinebench against the intel i9 MacBook Pro and, well, the M2 MacBook Air wins. The M2 in a MacBook Air is faster, and outperforms my MacBook Pro with an 8 Core Intel i9.

Cinebench M2 vs i9 Benchmark Test

Needless to say, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio with 64Gb ram pummels the M2 in terms of performance. That’s ok, it is meant to. But the fact is the M2 MacBook Air is one of the first laptops I am enjoying using on battery on my lap. The 13.6” screen that I originally thought would be too small to be useful for my needs seems just right. I am enjoying myself using this computer. The screen is crisp, text is clear, colours are right and the brightness is easy on the eye. In have already got a lot of work done with this MacBook Air M2 this weekend. I have designed a flyer and a poster in Indesign, edited a promotional video, prepared a presentation, updated my blog, made some YouTube videos and now, settling down to write this article about how pleased I am with this computer.

The MacBook Air M2 is, in the spirit of the Mac, a computer to do everything out of the box with no hassle. For me, that was never 100% true before because of the photo and video editing work I do. Well, previous Mac Pros, and ultra maxed out MacBook Pros could do everything out of the box for my needs, but they compromised in that they needed to be at the desk, and were never comfortable on the lap for an extended period of time, and could never be used easily in an airline seat. The M2 MacBook Air is changing that for me.

I got mine with a 2Tb SSD, so storage to last a long time. My Lightroom library backs up to iCloud as I need. I don’t miss having a laptop spin up its fans and cook my legs.

The most powerful computer is not the computer with the best CPU, GPU and the most RAM. We are at an age where most computers can do almost anything. Today’s standards are the supercomputers we lusted over 10 years ago. The most powerful computer is the computer that people enjoy using, and that enables them to get work done, and doesn’t inhibit them. The most powerful computer is a computer that just lets people do what they need to do in their life. Work, play, organise, whatever we use a computer for. For me, the most powerful computer is my MacBook Air M2. And in my study is the Mac Studio, switched off and currently, not needed.

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