MacBook Air storage?

For sure, you should consider bumping the storage to 512GB. For photo editing, bump the RAM to 16GB.

If the M2 is within your budget, go for that, too. Why get last year's CPU chip?

You'll want to set up your photo library using the 1TB SSD drive. You'll want another 1TB external drive for your Time Machine backups. (Can't mix data and Time Machine backups on the same drive).

Hope this helps.

ARMLINK wrote:

School work would be my psychology major classes, work as in grading assignments is what I do, in terms of photography, I'm not actually experienced in that field, I just like taking photos and I'm a newbie at photo editing so I never really taken any photography classes so I don't know anything. I'm considering photography as a hobby, not professional work. And a MacStudio is way outside my budget. I've heard from tons of people Mac is what people prefer, especially for photography, whether be it as a hobby or professional work.

Photography, as has been mentioned, is an awesome hobby. If you start to get into it, you'll find 3 roadblocks if you elect to go with the least expensive MacBook Air option:

• Not enough internal disk storage space. Sure, you can use an external drive to increase disk storage, but you'll sacrifice convenience and contend with some operations that are more sluggish than is optimal.
• Not enough RAM. While you can get by with 8GB, you'll find (should you dig into it) that there's a whole lot of memory swapping going on. And this will cause the occasional spinning beachball, indicating your computer is too busy at the moment. The sad truth is that RAM can't be upgraded...what you start with is what you'll end with.
• Not enough processing power. While the M1 is perfectly fine for most tasks, things like photo editing (and video editing) can task the processing capabilities of any computer.

And I was actually considering the m1 MacBook Air because it was more in my budget than the m2 was. And also this would be my first time using a MacBook once I make the final decision to purchase it. I always used windows all my life.

Oh and couple more things, I already use an external 1 TB ssd and I use cloud services like Google Drive/Photos, OneDrive, and iCloud to store the hundreds of photos and videos I have.

This makes me ask a few other questions:

• Do you have an iPhone or Android phone? (Many are amazed at the "synergy" that exists with Apple products...things like Universal Clipboard, Continuity...even "little" things like getting 2FA messages sent to your phone that appear on your Mac, without even having to look at your phone).
• Which music streaming service do you subscribe to? If it's Apple Music, there are possible savings if other Apple Services are of interest.
• Is it absolutely necessary to have Microsoft 360, assuming you have it as you mentioned you can use OneDrive? Asking because there are ways to save, as Apple's free (and very full-featured) apps like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote can easily handle nearly 100% of the things needed by users of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. And these apps can read and write to their Microsoft counterparts.
• Do you have an Apple TV? Ever wondered what's on Apple TV+? In my mind, this is the premier streaming service out there. Certainly not in terms of quantity...but for sure in terms of quality. There just aren't any BAD Apple TV+ shows.

Earlier I mentioned some possible savings. The savings depend on how many of Apple's Services you'd want or need: Apple One - Apple

Apple One is probably your best bet if you'd subscribe to as many as 2-3 of the Apple Services. Personally, I have an Apple One Premier account, as I use iCloud, Fitness+, Apple TV+, and Apple Music. And my family members appreciate it, as I can share it with them.

Hopefully, you'll be able to make an informed decision regarding your MacBook Air, should you pull the trigger and purchase one. Don't hesitate to ask questions here the the Support Community once you do make the decision.

Hopefully this helps.

ARMLINK Said:

"MacBook Air storage?: [...]Oh and couple more things, I already use an external 1 TB ssd and I use cloud services like Google Drive/Photos, OneDrive, and iCloud to store the hundreds of photos and videos I have."

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Note - iCloud Storage Varies:

One photo can be up to 4MB in size. As an Apple user, you are granted 5GB of iCloud storage, free of charge (if permitted on your account's country). So, 1,000 Photos would be 4GB. So, you might not get so much in there as expected without upgrading your iCloud Plan: iCloud+ Plans and Pricing - Apple Support

I did not expect my previous answer to be satisfactory.

I'm considering using it for school/work/streaming,

Those are three separate requirements. What school and what work are you anticipating? If you are a cinema student or professional film producer you may be expected to produce full length studio quality movies. Get as much storage as you can possibly afford. It will be in the multiple terabyte range. If that were the case you probably would be considering a Mac Studio anyway, and not the svelte MacBook Air.

... internet browsing,

You need hardly any storage for that. Same for video streaming.

... and maybe photo storage/photo editing?

Like video production and editing, that also tends to be demanding of storage requirements. If you only have a few photographs, you don't need much storage. If you have tens of thousands of photos and / or you intend to use Adobe's notoriously expensive bloatware for high quality image editing, again you will need as much storage as you can afford. And if you use Adobe you can afford it 😄

As you can see no one here can possibly advise you regarding how much is enough.

You really ought to avail yourself of Apple's "Chat with a Mac specialist" feature available on their website, here: Chat with a Mac Specialist. Their advice is likely to be conservative, and they don't work on commission, so you should lend serious consideration to whatever they may recommend.

If you are comfortable using an external drive or various cloud services, then the amount of storage becomes less important. 512 GB may be ok in your case. Hundreds of photos is within reason. Tens of thousands... no.

Personally I think tethering an external drive to the ultraportable MacBook Air is like towing a U-Haul trailer behind a Porsche Carerra. But that's just me.

I think you would benefit by chatting with a Mac specialist, if only to confirm what you may already have decided upon.

Please don't get only 256 GB though, no matter what they say 😄

The M2 MacBook Air has a few improvements over the M1 MacBook Air. The CPU and GPU are a bit faster, but that is not necessarily what you'll notice in day to day use.

Some other changes:

• You can order as much as 24 GB of RAM. (The limit was 16 GB for the M1 MacBook Air.)
• You can get the M2 models in 13" and 15" sizes. The M1 model only came in a 13" size.
• The sound system is supposed to be better.
• There's a MagSafe 3 charging port. (You can still charge over USB-C, if you like, but the extra port lets you plug in a charger without taking up one one of the two multi-purpose USB-C / TB ports.)

Adobe recommends at least 16 GB for their applications (Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic). 8 GB might be enough for some types of light photo editing, but I would think that 16 to 32 GB would be preferable for a photo editing machine. (32 GB for people doing heavy work for a living; not for the type of stuff you’re talking about.)

You can’t expand either RAM or Internal SSD space after purchase, but you can add external storage. There is nothing you can plug in externally that will help if you do not have enough RAM.

Note that all of the M1 and M2 MacBook Airs have a limit of one external monitor. It can be a very high-resolution one, but you can only have one.

To date I have never heard a single Mac user regret buying too much storage.

Or too much RAM.

Armlink...sounds like you're pretty well set with your services!

Look forward to seeing you here in the future asking questions about your MacBook Air.

All the best!