Considering the shared GPU memory, 8 GB is going to be very limiting going forward. Also, this Mac is very likely going to have the same slower SSD like the recently released 13 inch M2 MBP. This means you have to upgrade the SSD as well, if you care about performance. I would not recommend buying an MBA with base specs.
And once you spec it up to the 16 / 512 that it minimally needs to be for any serious work, you are close to the (now discounted) price for the base 14 inch macbook pro at third party resellers. This air is currently way overpriced. At the price it was released it should have had 512 gb storage, which also would have avoided the performance issues. It is still going to sell really well though, so maybe the previous model was just underpriced.
For reference, the slower speed seems to be around 1500 MB/s read and write, compared to 3000 MB/s read speeds for the M1 MBP [0]. While there are definitely applications that would benefit from the extra speed, I wouldn't call 1500 MB/s - ~2.5x the speed of the fastest SATA SSDs - a "performance issue."
I agree. I'm torn between the already discounted 14" Pro model and the new MBA. The weight difference is quite considerable, so it's a tough choice if you value portability. I'll have to compare them in the store before I decide.
