Which variant model is suits for me?

[nandhakumarr]

Hi all, I'm planning to buy a new Macbook Air (M2) for my personal uses (Web browsing, Multimedia usage, and other personal tasks). I'm not going to do any video editing or rendering. Which variant would be enough for the above purposes?

Macbook Air M2 (8GB, 256GB)

or

Macbook Air M2 (16GB, 512GB)

Famous YouTubers like MKBHD suggest not buying the base variant. I'm confused now; can anyone help me on this?

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi all, I'm planning to buy a new Macbook Air (M2) for my personal uses (Web browsing, Multimedia usage, and other personal tasks). I'm not going to do any video editing or rendering. Which variant would be enough for the above purposes?

Macbook Air M2 (8GB, 256GB)

or

Macbook Air M2 (16GB, 512GB)

Famous YouTubers like MKBHD suggest not buying the base variant. I'm confused now; can anyone help me on this?

The base amount of storage, 256 gigabytes, is stored in a single SSD chip, which slows down data access, contrary to the “awesome” speeds of Apple Macs, mainly because it’s comprised of two separate chips which act much like a Raid 0 drive setup (alternating between two drives), which has a theoretical effect of twice the speed. So I recommend going with at least 512GB, mainly because the other factor that contribute to the speed of the Mac is the amount of memory. Eight gibibytes of RAM is hardly enough to contain active memory for direct access by the system and running apps. The system will then need to temporarily write data in memory to the (slow) drive (aka caching), to free up more memory.

Anyway, unless the additional cost of the basic upgrade to 16GB/512GB) will gravely impact your budget, I suggest making the investment in order to get more performance, and life, out if your M2 MacBook Air.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Totally agree with the advice above, as long as the 16GB/512GB model falls within your budget, that is the one to go for.

 

[MightyGem]

Hi all, I'm planning to buy a new Macbook Air (M2) for my personal uses (Web browsing, Multimedia usage, and other personal tasks)

I have an M1 MBA for exactly those task plus video editing with iMovie. My MBA has the 8GB and I find it perfectly adequate for my needs, although I did upgrade to a 512HD.