The Best 3 MacBooks
When you purchase a laptop, you have to take the time to find the one that will be perfect for your needs. Otherwise, you might get one that will have to be replaced in a few years. Intel chips Apple has been using since 2006 are no longer available, and were replaced by the company’s own in-house chips in 2020. In 2022, the company released five new M1 options. iPhones and MacBooks use the ARM architecture, which allows Apple more control over both hardware and software. This results in better performance and longer battery life. Apple doesn’t have any Intel-based Macs, but you can get one from a third-party retailer. Here are our recommendations for where to spend your hard-earned money, we created a guide to help you find the best 3 MacBooks for your needs and another to help you plan for 2022.
1) Apple MacBook Air M2
The Best 3 MacBooks
With the new MacBook Air, Apple has updated its product’s design. It ditches the thin wedge design of the past and adds new colors. As well to the traditional colors, the MacBook Air is available in starlight blue and deep, dark blue called midnight. It has an updated webcam, a bigger screen (13.6 inches instead of 13.3), and a smaller keyboard. With thinner borders, a 500 nit screen, and a notch housing a 1080p camera.
Despite the lack of new ports, Apple gave the MacBook Air the same power/accident prevention functions as the high-end MacBook Pros. MacBook Air users can also take advantage of faster charging if they purchase a power adapter with a 67-W USB-C connection. I had to charge the laptop after about eight hours of use, and Apple claims that the laptop can charge up to 57% in just 30 minutes. In outdoor settings, I had to charge it after about six hours. This year, the M2 provides 8 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores to the user, who can choose which to use. It handles multiple tasks seamlessly while running on a 10-core GPU and 8GB of unified memory.
Drawbacks
However, its limitations became evident when dealing with complicated tasks when dealing with periods of stress. While I had never experienced the rainbow wheel on the 2021 M1 MacBook Air, it was worse on the 2021 M2 MacBook Air. I struggled to switch between tabs, scroll, minimize, and expand windows due to sluggish performance. We recommend the M1-powered MacBook Air as a low-cost option. The M2-powered Air is designed to support graphics-intensive work, like video editing, but does not require a top-of-the-line chip like the M1 Pro or M1 Max. Upgrading the memory to 24GB is a good idea if you have the capability.
2) MacBook Air M1
The Best 3 MacBooks
When you use apps natively engineered for the new processor, like the Safari web browser, you get an extremely powerful machine. And since the price is a lot less than the top-end models with Intel, the laptop with the M1 chip from 2020 is one of the best laptops to get at any price.
You can still install Intel-made apps on your Mac. But over the past two years, many apps, such as Adobe Lightroom and Google Chrome, have come out with versions for the M1, so you probably won’t encounter any issues. If you’re concerned that your favorite app might not work, you should do some research or explore online forums to find out whether an M1 version is available and if the x86 version will be fine.
Battery and Sleep Mode
In my use of Safari and work apps like Slack, the MacBook Air lasted me more than a full workday, with the battery reaching 22 percent after running it almost nonstop from 9 am to 7 pm. (I had to plug in the old Intel model by 4 pm.) The M1 machines can also instantly wake up from sleep whenever you touch the keyboard or trackpad or lift the screen, just like when you tap your iPhone or iPad to wake it up. The MacBook Air is also quieter than older MacBooks which took several seconds to start up. There is no fan inside the MacBook Air, so it remains whisper-quiet even when loaded with heavy applications. It has a thermal heat dissipator to dissipate heat, but it also doesn’t get too warm.
You can upgrade to another model with an extra graphics core and 512 GB of storage. The additional core isn’t worth the price difference unless you need more storage. You’re better off spending $200 more for 16 GB of RAM, which will let you run more applications simultaneously without slowdowns. M1 Macs only support one external monitor natively, and the built-in 720p webcam isn’t great either.
3) Apple MacBook Pro M2
The Best 3 MacBooks
With a 13.3-inch display, a 720p webcam, and two Thunderbolt ports, the MacBook Pro M2 is equipped with modern earphone jacks. With a fan, it does get warmer and utilizes more power for a longer period of time than the MacBook Air. For those who need to perform professional-level tasks, such as video editing, but can’t afford the expensive Apple models, this is a good option. Besides having a different battery life and the Touch Bar at the top of the keyboard, this is the only Apple MacBook that includes the feature. The Air is still slim, and it matches the size of the 2.7-pound model.
Apart from running on the same chipset as the Air, it has a 10-core GPU and an 8-core CPU, both of which are far more powerful than the MacBook Air. When testing the laptop, most of the tests returned positive results. When I had 20 tabs open and a few background apps running on Google Chrome, the system seemed a bit slow to switch between windows and tabs and a rainbow wheel appeared sometimes.
For example, in Adobe Photoshop and Pixelmator, the lag was negligible, but in Final Cut Pro, there was some lag and stuttering. The machine stuttered when I rotated, used sliders, and adjusted the colors, but it went through lots of layers and effects without turning on the fans.
The new M2 alone is not worth the upgrade to the new MacBook Pro, considering how little has changed from the 2020 version. It is not unusable for intensive tasks, but it may not be powerful enough to handle heavy workloads. Instead, we recommend looking for the M1 MacBook Pro at a third-party retailer instead if you want to save money.
How to Choose One?
Choosing a new laptop can be overwhelming–no matter if you’ve got your eye on a brand-new model or want to buy something used. If you’re struggling with this decision, don’t fret: just ask yourself these three questions and choose accordingly: Do I want an Apple product? Do I want a device for video editing? Am I looking for a personal computer or an enterprise-grade device? Once you answer these questions, finding the perfect laptop will be much easier. For example, if you answered yes to the first question and yes to the second question, then an expensive professional-grade machine might work well for you. On the other hand, if you answered yes to all three questions, then it’s likely that buying one of Apple’s newest laptops is your best bet. Just remember that choosing which new MacBook is right for you may depend on which question(s) you answered yes.