So, I was a Windows user for... 15 years (Had lots of different PC and laptop configurations throughout the years) and in the past 2-3 years I noticed the sleek and beautiful design of the apple laptops and fell in love with them. As the MBA M2 came out I literally freaked out (in a positive way) as how this laptop is just gorgeous. So I bought the midnight base model for (1100$). I'm a software developer working with .NET, ASP.NET, PHP, MySQL and MSSQL tech stack. Coming from a Lenovo Gaming IdeaPad 3 that has 1TB SSD, GTX 1650 and 32GB of RAM (have this laptop as a backup).
My main concern before buying this laptop was the following:
- Will the base model be enough for me as it has the bare minimum for 2023? (8GB of RAM and 256GB)? Like my iPhone has the same storage... bruh.
- The ability to actually do programming as .NET is Microsoft's back yard.
- How hard will be to learn MacOS as I never touched it in my life.
- What am I doing with my life spending on a second very expensive machine.
- Do I actually need it as I already have a quite descent laptop.
- Should I go up for the 16GB and 512GB?
- Apple Ecosystem?
Here are the answers:
- Will it be enough? YES, yes and yes! I constantly have more than 10+ tabs opened in MS Edge (Don't judge me on the MS Edge lol), VS Code open, XAMPP with MySQL in the background running, Docker for the MSSQL, watching YouTube videos all the time with almost everything I mentioned opened in the background. It does hit the limit of the 8GB don't get me wrong, but it has swap memory with the SSD so it still feels smooth (Unlike Windows sometimes even with 32GB :P ) As for storage, I subscribed to apples ICloud+ and bought 200GB per month of ICloud storage. All my data is stored there and as a plus I have access to it even on my iPhone.
- As for actual programming, if you are planning on developing WinForms or WPF or something really Windows specific, sorry then but Mac ain't for you. As for ASP.NET Microsoft has developed .NET Core which runs on Mac and Linux. The only downside of this is that Visual Studio 2022 is a lot different and, in my opinion, not that good on Mac, for Nugget commands and other you need to learn DotNet CLI. PHP, XAMPP, MySQL are practically the same on Win and Mac.
- MacOS is not that hard, you really need to give it time to learn it (I learnt the fundamentals in 4-5 days). As you get used to it you start to love it. Just hate the windows management, but that's fixable with 3rd party apps.
- Why did I do this? The design of the laptop, the battery life (lasts me 8+ hours per session with an external monitor hooked up), the keyboard, the screen, the portability, weight... Oh boy I can go on and on...
- To be real here, no... I didn't need it to be completely honest. But (there's always a but) if you find something that you absolutely fell in love with, you buy it :D
- Do you need the upgrade? It depends really on your budget and how much you plan to spend. Base model was 1100$, to upgrade it to 16GB I needed to add an extra 400 bucks (which is a lot tbh). If I wanted to buy the 16GB and 512GB variant I need to spend a bit over 1800$ which in my opinion is too much money to spend.
- Integration with iPhone? Best thing ever! You can open ex. Safari on iPhone, an icon will appear on mac, you click it and the site on the safari iPhone opens on the mac. iMessages are just fantastic! iCloud integration... copy something on the iPhone paste it on the Mac. Use your iPhone as a web cam, quick import export from/to iPhone or mac. Apple did really good, kudos for you apple :)
So all in all the final verdict is, if you are planning on getting the MBA M2 I recommend it for programming even with the base variant.
Here is a picture of my Mac :D
