I bought a MBP 14 (max 32, 32GB, 2TB) Dec 2021 and I mostly don't regret it (probably should've only gotten 24 GPU cores and gone silver). Here are some pros and cons I don't think get enough play:
- Turning on "Low Power Mode" when on Battery gives me roughly 10h of battery life. Functionally this is more than good enough for me.
- Backlight leakage around the keys feels janky
- It's pretty hard to pick it up unless you get it by the back vent, also yeah, it's heavy
- The resolution is pretty weird. I wish it were really 4k, then bumping it down to FHD with an integer scale would make sense. As it is, the integer scale is 1512x982, which many websites think (including some you might build!) is a tablet.
- Viewing angles on the screen are not at IPS levels. At regular usage distances you can definitely see a difference around the outer 1/3 of the screen.
- Dark text on a light background is different than light text on a dark background. When I do `set bg=light` in Vim I usually need to use a thicker font or turn on antialiasing.
I think most people should get the M2 Air (or the M1 even). I have a couple of reasons that going 14 max makes sense for me: I moved abroad and my brother and I keep in touch via gaming (a lot of Steam games, etc. work pretty well on it), and I'm planning on getting back into music. Otherwise, I would argue that:
- the IPS screen on the Air is better for text
- the Air's battery life is another class
- the Air is much lighter
- the Air's resolution is more mainstream and usable
Some Air things are dealbreakers. M1 tops out at 16GB, M2 at 24, and they only do 1 external monitor. But w/e.