M1 vs M2 MacBook Air: Which one to buy in 2025
MacBook Air M2 comes with faster M2 Chip, newer design, more color options and magsafe charging but the cheaper M1 MacBook Air holds still holds its ground with faster SSD speed and some other benefits
When the M1 MacBook Air was dropped with first silicon chips, it completely changed the game. But then came the M2 in 2022, making things even more exciting for the Air lineup. Fast forward to today, and we’ve got the M3 MacBook Air — and with the M4 chips (for MacBook Air) on the horizon, Apple’s about to take things up a notch again. But, these shiny new models come with a hefty price tag.
This makes us to look for options that are efficient as well as affordable. MacBook Air M1 and M2 are certainly two great options. Plus, with plenty of used ones floating around in the consumer market, there are definitely better deals to be had without breaking the bank.
Apple claims that the M2 chip is 18% faster than the M1, So, is the overall upgrade worth the extra 200 bucks ? My research is going to revolve around this question. I’m about to lay out a simple yet thorough MacBook Air M1 vs M2 comparison, covering everything from the specs and design to how they really perform in the wild — beyond just the benchmarks.
M1 vs M2 MacBook Air: What’s Different in a Nutshell
If you’re short on time and just want the key takeaways from this MacBook Air M1 vs M2 showdown, here’s a quick summary of the most important facts and findings from my in-depth study.
Prices are subject to change, check Out Amazon for today’s best deals on these MacBooks.
M1 MacBook Air Renewed Premium (8GB/256GB)
13-inch M2 MacBook Air (16GB/256GB) ➡ (20% Off)
15-inch M2 MacBook Air Renewed (8GB/256GB) ➡ (6% Off)
Design:
- The MacBook Air M1 has a classic wedge-shaped design and is slightly thicker, while the M2 MacBook Air is lighter, with a flatter design, thinner bezels, and a more modern look. The overall design is more similar to the M3 MacBook Air.
Display:
- The MacBook Air M1 has a 13.3-inch Retina display with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and 400 nits brightness, while the MacBook Air M2 features a bigger 13.6 & 15 inch Liquid Retina display, a higher 2560 x 1644 resolution, 500 nits brightness, it support for over 1 billion colors, and is 25% brighter compared to M1 MacBook Air.
- When you are outside in bright you’ll feel the difference with the MacBook Air M2.
Performance:
- MacBook Air M1 comes with 8-core CPU, 7 or 8-core GPU while the MacBook Air M2 comes with a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU to deal more demanding tasks like graphics, video editing, and coding. MacBook Air M1 is great for everyday tasks and moderate workloads.
- GPU is where the real difference lies, but M2 though has same CPU cores has better structure
SSD Speed:
- Surprisingly, the MacBook Air M1 has faster SSD speeds, with 2,920 MB/s read and 2,230 MB/s write speeds in my testing. In comparison, the MacBook Air M2 has slower SSD speeds, with 1,451 MB/s read and 1,380 MB/s write speeds.
- Slower SSD speeds ( I also confirmed from other reliable sources) is a bit of a surprise.
Battery Life:
- Both rated for 18 hours of video playback, but the M2 MacBook Air offers slightly better efficiency with longer battery life in real-world use.
Webcam:
- The MacBook Air M1 has a 720p webcam, while the MacBook Air M2 features a better 1080p webcam for better video quality, similar to the M3 MacBook Air.
Audio:
- The MacBook Air M1 has stereo speakers with grills, while the MacBook Air M2 features quad speakers with better sound quality and support for spatial audio.
Charging:
- The MacBook Air M1 has standard USB-C charging, while the M2 includes MagSafe charging, freeing up USB-C ports for other uses.
Ports:
- Both the MacBook Air M1 and M2 have two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on the left and a headphone jack on the right, while the M2 supports high-impedance headphones
Weight:
- The MacBook Air M1 weighs 2.8 lbs (1.29 kg), while the MacBook Air M2 is slightly lighter at 2.7 lbs (1.24 kg), despite having a larger battery.
Colors:
- The MacBook Air M1 is available in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold, while the MacBook Air M2 comes in Silver, Space Gray, Midnight, and Starlight colors.
- Apple introduced two new colors in to the Air line up starting out the the M2 MacBook Air with Starlight and Midnight Color. Even the latest M3 MacBook Air also has the same four colors.
Price Difference:
- There is a difference of almost 200$ between M1 to M2 MacBook Air approximately.
M1 vs M2 MacBook Air: Design
The M1 MacBook Air comes with a classic wedge-shaped design that is iconic to the MacBook line. It is sleek, light, and incredibly portable. The M2 MacBook Air, however, introduces a flatter design with slightly thinner bezels, giving it a more modern look.
M2 MacBook is thinner than the M1 MacBook Air which is not too obvious in the first glance.
Keyboard:
Since the M1 MacBook Air has that rounded chassis, I find it more comfortable typing on the M MacBook Air than M2 (wrist can dig into that hard edge), but everybody is different. Overall more people will enjoy typing on M2 MacBook Air because of more tactical response as compared to more mushy keys of MacBook Air M1. You also have larger function keys on MacBook Air M2, overall there is not much difference between the keyboards of M1 and M2 MacBook Air.
Track-pad:
The Track-pad on the MacBook Air M2 is slightly wider than the M1 MacBook air track-pad.
Ports:
Both MacBook Air models come with two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on the left side, but the M2 has a leg up with support for MagSafe charging (and it does come with color matched cable).
This is a welcome return for many MacBook enthusiasts, as MagSafe allows for fast charging while freeing up the two USB-C ports for other uses (but only if you buy 67 watt charger at additional cost for fast magsafe charging).
On the right side of both M1 and M2 MacBook Air, you get the standard 3.5 milimeter Audio Jack but on M2 MacBook Air you also get built-in support high impedance headphones for (any) audio files out there.
Both models support Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, ensuring fast and reliable wireless connectivity.
Weight:
At just 2.8 pounds (1.29 kg), the M2 MacBook Air is only slightly lighter than the older MacBook Air M1, which weighs in at 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg). The difference might seem tiny, but when you consider the M2’s larger battery, it’s pretty impressive that it still manages to weigh less than the M1!
Sizes:
Both devices are a 13 inch footprint, the screen is actually slightly larger on the M2 MacBook Air due to smaller bezels.
Webcam:
Not a game changing difference but you are going to find a 1080P webcam on MacBook Air M2 as compared the 720P webcam on the M1 MacBook Air.
Audio and Speakers:
The MacBook Air M1 has stereo speakers with grills, whereas on MacBook Air M2, we have the quad speakers that are built in at the top inside of the MacBook.
The Audio is also better on M2 MacBook Air with a four speaker sound system and the support for spatial audio.
Colors:
MacBook Air M1 is available in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold. M2 MacBook Air on the other hand is available in four colors, Silver, Space Grey, Midnight and Starlight. Midnight is an awesome color but it has the tendency of showing some finger prints. Starlight is another new color in the MacBook Air line up.
Note: The design of both M1 and M2 MacBook Air wont allow you to replace the RAM or the SSD (its all soldered or glued)
M1 vs M2 MacBook Air :Display
Although Apple comes with those fancy name like 13.6 inch Liquid Retina Display with M2 MacBook Air and a 13.3 Retina Display for the M1, both M1 and M2 MacBook essentially have the similar LCD panel display, but there are other differences.
MacBook Air M2 Display has a slightly better resolution of 2560 X 1644 Pixels as compared to MacBook Air M1’s 2560 X 1600 Pixels. Both laptops has a P3 Display, which is a wider Color gamut. Both M1 and M2 MacBook Airs offer true tone. This means that there are sensors that can detect the color temperature of the ambient light in the room and then adjust the display accordingly. M2 MacBook Air display supports over 1 Billion plus colors while the M1’s display can support 16.7M colors.
One noticeable difference you are going to find is that the M2 MacBook Air Screen can get up to 25% brighter than the M1 MacBook Air screen. The reason is that the M2 MacBook Air comes with 500 nits brightness as compared to 400 nits of MacBook Air M1. So if you are someone who spends a lot of time outside in the sun, or in glaring environment, you’ll notice the difference.
If you are doing some work in an environment where color accuracy matters, you’ll feel the difference in the Display of MacBooks. M2 MacBook Air has bigger, brighter display and a is better option if you are working outside dealing with reflections.
M1 vs M2 Chips:
At the core of this Macbook Air M1 vs M2 comparison lies the M1 vs M2 chip difference. The actual performance of the MacBook Air depends on chip being used.
The core difference between the two MacBook Air models lies in the processors. The M1 chip comes with 8-core CPU and up to 7 or 8 GPU cores. M2 gives you a 10-core GPU and an 8-core CPU that can handle even more demanding workloads. So, the M2, certainly takes things up a notch. So we have the same 8 Core CPU in both M1 and M2 MacBook Air with one or two additional GPU cores in the M2 MacBook Air.
M2 also has an extra Media Engine adding ProRes support to the existing support for H.264 and HEVC introduced the M1.
GeekBench CPU Testing
As I ran my GeekBench on both MacBooks, MacBook Air M2 shows better performance in Single and Multi-core performance. In Geekbench Single-Core performance the M2 MacBook Air with 1925 points easily beats the M1 MacBook Air which scores 1705 Points. Similarly in Multi-Core performance, again the MacBook Air M2 with 8943 points, comfortably beats the MacBook Air M1 which scores 7396 Points. These results show similar trends to some other credible benchmarking Sources. A
GeekBench GPU Testing
In GeekBench GPU performance the trend remains the same with M2 MacBook Air showing better performance because of better GPU Core count. The MacBook Air M2 with 10 Core GPU scoring 27320 points beats the M1 MacBook Air with 8 Core GPU which scores 23702 points.
Black-magic SSd Speed Test
Now lets get on tto some real world performance in this MacBook Air M1 vs M2 comparison. I started out things with the SSD Speeds. I ran the Blackmagic SSD test on MacBook Air M1 and M2. The MacBook Air M1 achieves an SSD read speed of 2,920 MB/s, while the M2 MacBook Air achieves 1,451 MB/s. For SSD write speeds, the M1 MacBook Air reaches up to 2,230 MB/s, while the M2 MacBook Air lags behind, pulling 1,380 MB/s.
As a surprise, the M2 MacBook Air is about 50.32% slower in SSd read speed and 38.07% slower in SSD write speed compared to the M1 MacBook Air.
To make things further real life, I transfered a same 100 plus GB file on both MacBook Air M1 and M2. And the results are somewhat similar to the Blackmagic SSD Speed Test. The M1 MacBook Air, again took half the time of MacBook Air M2. M1 MacBook Air completed the file transferring 3:35 min:sec while the M2 MacBook Air took 6:37 min:sec to complete the same process.
Monica Chin a famous Tech Reviewer on “The Verge” also claimed the MacBook Air M2 SSD is slower than the M1 MacBook Airs SSD.
Speedometer Test
As for snappiness and using for regular things like web browsing both M1 and M2 MacBook Air going to be very good. The M2 is updated so it going to be a little faster. I tested both of them on speedometer (web based test), the M2 MacBook air was 406 while the M1 was 278. In real life you are not going to feel much of a difference.
Xcode Test for Programming
A lot of coders love the MacBook Air, it is efficient, portable and affordable. I ran an xCode project on both M1 and M2 MacBook Air. First thing i noticed is that the M2 MacBook Air heats faster than the M1 MacBook Air.The MacBook Air M2 took 2 minutes and 5 seconds to complete the project while the M1 completed in 2 minutes and 33 seconds. The difference is around 18 percent.So, even if the M2 runs hotter and throttles more ultimately, it is still faster for coding.
Music Production on Logic Pro
As for the music production, i measured how many tracks these laptops can handle without overloading. M1 MacBook Air could handle 76 tracks while the M2 MacBook air was slightly better handling 78 tasks. And as far bouncing (exporting) the files is concerned it is very much the same. So, if you are expecting better music production with the MacBook Air M2, it is going to be similar performance like the M1 MacBook Air.
Graphics Performance using Blender
I rendered and Classroom scene using the Blender on both Machines. During the process I witnessed the M2 MacBook air was clearly ahead with temperatures being the same on both machines. The machines stayed cooler even when they both maxed out, perhaps that test wasn’t using all the GPU capabilities. M1 MacBook Air finished in 6 minutes and 25 seconds and the M1 MacBook Air finished the rendering in 4 minutes and 24 seconds. That is a substantial difference of around 24 percent.
Photo Editing Testing Adobe Lightroom Classic
This test also uses graphics alongside the CPU. I exported same 50 raw images on both M1 and M2 MacBook Air wihin the Adobe Lightroom classic. As a bit of surprise I got the M1 completing the the export process slightly faster in 2 minutes and 10 seconds while the M2 MacBook Air completed the same in 2 minutes and 17 seconds. May be SSD speeds are playing a bit of role here. That also means if you are using these machines on tasks that use both CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD resources, the M1 MacBook Air may eventually be faster.
Video Editing with Final Cut Pro
I had a simple 4K project with some effects. As I exported this 5 minute proect in Final Cut Pro on both M1 and M2 MacBook Airs, M1 MacBook Air completed the export in 2 minute and 20 secods, while the M2 MacBook Air completed the process in 2 minutes and 18 seconds. So, both these machines could be reasonabl good for light mode Video editing work. If you are working on ProRes, raw footage for black magic, M2 MacBook Air would be better because it has better encoder in improved media engine and ProRes support as well.
MacBook Air M1 vs M2: Battery Support
Apple counts both of them as same battery support wise, but M2 MacBook Air has better efficiency Cores, you can actually get a little better battery life with M2 MacBook Air.
Both of these models are rated for 18 hours of video playback and 15 hours of wireless web browsing. The M2 MacBook Air has a 52.6 watt battery while the M1 MacBook Air has a 52.6 watt battery, which is good enough to get you through the day of full use.
M1 vs M2 MacBook Air: The Final Verdict
The M2 MacBook Air offers noticeable upgrades: MagSafe charging, a sleeker design, a brighter display, and better performance with its improved M2 chip. It’s a solid option for those looking to future-proof their device, especially if you do tasks like light video editing or graphics work. If you’re planning to keep it for years, the M2 is worth the extra investment.
That said, the M1 MacBook Air still delivers fantastic value, especially for everyday tasks like browsing, media consumption, and office work. If you can find it at a discounted or refurbished price, it remains an excellent choice — offering nearly identical real-world performance at a lower cost.
Amazon does offer deals and discounts from time to time:
M1 MacBook Air Renewed Premium (8GB/256GB)
13-inch M2 MacBook Air (16GB/256GB) ➡ (20% Off)
15-inch M2 MacBook Air Renewed (8GB/256GB) ➡ (6% Off)
In short, the M1 MacBook Air is perfect for budget-conscious buyers who don’t need all the latest features. But if you want a more modern design and a little more power, the M2 MacBook Air is a great upgrade. For more demanding tasks, though, consider stepping up to the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Affiliate Disclosure: As an amazon affiliate I may earn a small commission withou costing you anything extra, if you make a purchase through some of the links provided above.
