Deals: Apple's 256GB M2 MacBook Air Available for Best-Ever Price of $1,049 ($150 Off)

Before anyone says that this config sucks, I am going to speak here as an owner of an 8GB/256GB/M2 Air and a 16GB/1TB/M1Pro 14" MBP. For most daily tasks the two machines are not noticeably different to use.

There is a lot negativity about the slow SSD and lack of RAM, but if you are doing daily computing tasks (mail, surfing with lots of tabs, photos, heavy MS Office, light video editing, music etc) there is little to no difference in how these two machines perform. M1 and M2 technology is astonishing vs Intel Macs.

What does happen is that the M2 will go yellow and sometimes red on the memory pressure gauge. However, there is no performance hit or perceptible slowdowns with this. It's like the memory pressure indicator is there to help Apple sell more RAM, because without it, you would never know that you needed more memory.

Don't get me wrong, the M1Pro starts to flex when I spin up a VM, or get busy with Logic or Final Cut, but if you're not using VMs, or editing tons of 8K video, then the M2 is amazingly capable. Basically, if you need the Pro machine get it, but for everyone else, a base M2 Air is a fantastic laptop.

For the record, I don't recommend either one for gaming.

What can you do today with 256GB? Is the idea to attach an external SSD?

256GB is plenty for a lot of people. My MBP is my only computer and I am using 79GB of storage space.

I have 7,500 images in Photos, 1,400 songs in Music, 520 items in my Documents folder. At the rate I am accumulating things, I won't need 256GB for years, if ever.

I just wish someone had a model with 16GB memory and 512GB storage at a sale price. This really seems like the best option.

Honestly, this should be the starting configuration, IMO. Especially the 16GB RAM.

I just wish someone had a model with 16GB memory and 512GB storage at a sale price. This really seems like the best option.

The sweet spot ($999) is right around the corner.

What can you do today with 256GB?

For some people a lot. Not everyone requires a lot of internal storage.
Personally I would feel extremely limited with that amount. I picked 2TB for my MBP, and would have bought more if it wasn’t so insanely priced. I like to have most of my sample libraries stored on the machine.
But I know a few video editors and they all use external drives for their work and use very little internal storage.