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Apple Announces New MacBook Air With 15.3-inch Display and M2 Chip Starting at $1,299

ric22 said:
I guess all of yesterday's keynote points towards trouble finishing the M3 family of chips, and we won't see those for nearly a year. They can't exactly release their new VR ski-goggles with an out of date CPU...
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Well, the M2 is still a very capable processor, and releasing the M3 won’t take away from that. It just won’t look nice on paper.
 
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Tagbert said:
There are only two display controllers in the M1/M2 SOC. One is used for the internal display and the other for an external display. Apple had to do some tradeoffs for space on the chip. Display controllers are large. I'm told that one display controller takes up as much space as 4 performance cores. They had to balance the silicon budget for these chips against the demand for 2 external monitors.

Perhaps the M3 will be small enough that they could squeeze in another display controller, but there are always tradeoffs and this is where we are right now.
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Thanks for the information! I suppose Apple figured most people would only want or need one external monitor at this price point?
 
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Elohim369 said:
Starting at 1399 GBP ~= 1740 USD - significantly more than the UK's 20% VAT would add to a USD 1299.

Apple Euro prices are just terrible.
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1650 euro here in Portugal. The difference between a similar spec'ed Air 15 and Pro 16 (16G/1TB) is around 1000 euro.
 
HowardEv said:
Too bad the screen isn't detachable from the keyboard and also from the CPU. Then the CPU could attach to audio interfaces, and the laptop and screen could be moved. Can't they make wireless screens by now? OK if it still needs a thunderbolt cable that's also power. Having the CPU built in to the laptop screen and keyboard is convenient as long as you don't need to hook up audio and usb interfaces and instruments to it. And it will still get hot. So can we please go back to separatable screen and computer and keyboard, like the mini, but minuscule?
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I think this would have been a better new product than the Vision glasses. Remove the screen and it becomes an iPad with IOS.
 
FlyingTexan said:
So is it 60 or 120hz?
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Typical Apple. They talked about the size, the brightness, the pixel density. They didn’t mention refresh rate. Therefore it is absolutely 60Hz and Apple is being so stubborn about this I’m surprised they didn’t find some 30Hz panel just out of spite.
 
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Abazigal said:
I thought they made it pretty clear in the keynote. A 15" windows laptop invariably compromises in at least 2 of 4 possible areas - display, battery life, specs and weight / thickness.

For example, shove in a dedicated graphics card and it's either thicker / heavier to allow for better heat dissipation, or it's thinner and throttles way more frequently. Plus, the graphics card likely results in shorter battery life as well and you typically don't get sustained performance unless it is plugged in to an external power source.

There are even 15" laptops that come with a 1080p display in a bid to cut costs and / or extend battery life. Macs likely have better trackpads, displays, speakers, build quality, just everything else one can think of.

Thanks to the M2 chip, you likely won't find another windows laptop out there which matches the M2 MBA in terms of performance, battery life and portability. That was the case when the M1 chip debuted, and it's apparent that Intel / AMD has had zero interest in trying to catch up to Apple in this regard (instead opting to double down on absolute performance at all cost).
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Not every 15" laptop buyer wants something paper thin. What Tim failed to add to the comparison was the ability to add cheap memory and SSD upgrades, more ports on Windows laptops, 4K screens, OLED screens, higher refresh screens, etc.

Yes, this 15" MBA suffices for those who don't care about ports, have lots of money for upgrades and are happy with "Retina" screen (4K is better).
 
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CarAnalogy said:
Typical Apple. They talked about the size, the brightness, the pixel density. They didn’t mention refresh rate. Therefore it is absolutely 60Hz and Apple is being so stubborn about this I’m surprised they didn’t find some 30Hz panel just out of spite.
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30Hz and charge $200 for upgrade to 60Hz. That is more like Tim Apple.
 
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Saturn007 said:
I'd reconsider. If 3.3 is “barely lower” than 4 pounds, then 2.5 is *barely lower* than 3.3. The differences are virtually identical (.7 vs. .8). If “not even close” applies to 3.3 vs. 2.5, then it applies almost as well to 4 vs. 3.3!

Going with the new 15” Air, you'd save weight, get fantastic battery life (much better than your 15” MPB), no noise, no fan, more power, faster processing, likely far less heat, new OS, longer life, etc. You would give up some ports and adjust to a different keyboard — but those could be adapted to pretty easily!
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Reducing the weight of a 15inch from 4lb to 3.3lb is a difference of 0.7lb, which is barely noticeable. Reducing it from 4lb to 2.5lb is what I expected from Apple (which is what LG accomplished, and no, I won't say the LG is better, just that Apple should be doing things better than LG). As I said, I'm not buying it this time. Maybe next year, or the other, if they manage to make it lighter.
 
asiga said:
Reducing the weight of a 15inch from 4lb to 3.3lb is a difference of 0.7lb, which is barely noticeable. Reducing it from 4lb to 2.5lb is what I expected from Apple (which is what LG accomplished, and no, I won't say the LG is better, just that Apple should be doing things better than LG). As I said, I'm not buying it this time. Maybe next year, or the other, if they manage to make it lighter.
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I assume you're referring to the LG gram SuperSlim that starts at $1700?
 
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Does anyone know why they didn't add the speaker grills to the side of the keyboards? Or why they didn't add the 120 hz? Or why they didn't get rid of the notch? Or why they didn't add a bigger battery? Or why they couldn't add more ports? Apple really cheaped out and got greedy in cost cutting ways. Sad really. I was looking forward to this 15ich Air.
 
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Abazigal said:
Well, the M2 is still a very capable processor, and releasing the M3 won’t take away from that. It just won’t look nice on paper.
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It's a great processor, but only a little bump from the M1, which was an excellent leap forwards. Apple seem to have slightly stalled since
 
Tech_Mac_Man said:
They have all that space and they still cheaped out. This 15 inch Air feels rushed and they took alot of things out. They should have placed a speaker grills so it doesn't look so empty. They could have got rid of the notch added the 120 hz. Added more ports. Man they really suck at listening to customers.
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It's purposefully gimped so people that want more buy the Pro machines, at their ridiculous prices. The notch is just a weird style thing now... Personally I'd much rather they didn't bother with a webcam on it... it's a pretty poor webcam anyway
 
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Let’s review:

The last Intel mbp 16: thin, powerful, hot, loud, unless you got a particular model discreet graphics, probably only supported a couple more years.

Recent Apple silicon mbp 16: thick, heavy, powerful, not as hot, quieter, expensive, niche gpu configurations.

Recent Apple silicon air 15: ok thickness, light, warm, powerful, quiet, well priced, unnecessarily gimped external monitor support.

You just can’t win with Apple. I’m really hoping with the m3 the mbp gets lighter/thinner or the air gets native support for a second external monitor (that this model had with Intel!), for goodness sakes. Right now there’s not alot of versatility.
 
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Elohim369 said:
100% affirmative. M class processors run rings around these old Intel chips. RAM doesn't matter as much thanks to the integrated SoC design.

At the same time, I like to have 16GB even on M processors as I have a ton of apps open during development. The MBA M1 with 8GB gets into trouble, but my 16" MBP 16GB never missed a beat. Finding it impossible to Max out RAM on this beast.
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Thank you, yes if I had the latest Macbook Pro, I could see that drop off being annoying, one more dumb question, the other thing that is important to me is the sound quality, the 2023 15" Macbook Air's speakers, they should be superior to the mid 2015 Macbook Pro's speakers, correct?
 
dmylrea said:
Not every 15" laptop buyer wants something paper thin. What Tim failed to add to the comparison was the ability to add cheap memory and SSD upgrades, more ports on Windows laptops, 4K screens, OLED screens, higher refresh screens, etc.

Yes, this 15" MBA suffices for those who don't care about ports, have lots of money for upgrades and are happy with "Retina" screen (4K is better).
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Which I think is precisely the user base that the MBA is gunning for, and I believe there are a lot of Windows laptop users who do want something thin, light, yet powerful and with great battery life. This product will just continue to steal existing windows users with a unique value proposition that the competition simply can't match.

For example, I am looking at the Dell XPS and once you throw in a bunch of upgrades, the price starts getting prohibitive very quickly. You can no doubt find laptops that are better than the MBA in some way (but which invariably compromise in other areas), but I doubt you will be able to find one that is superior to the MBA in every aspect. The M2 chip, macOS and Apple's industrial design has made sure of that.
 
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Abazigal said:
Which I think is precisely the user base that the MBA is gunning for, and I believe there are a lot of Windows laptop users who do want something thin, light, yet powerful and with great battery life. This product will just continue to steal existing windows users with a unique value proposition that the competition simply can't match.

For example, I am looking at the Dell XPS and once you throw in a bunch of upgrades, the price starts getting prohibitive very quickly. You can no doubt find laptops that are better than the MBA in some way (but which invariably compromise in other areas), but I doubt you will be able to find one that is superior to the MBA in every aspect. The M2 chip, macOS and Apple's industrial design has made sure of that.
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Who made the MBA the reference standard that other laptops need to exceed "in every aspect"? It's far from perfect.

I agree it meets the needs of some users who need thin and light. But there are other MacBooks and Windows laptops that meet the needs of most users that the MBA doesn't.

Using your own words, throwing in a bunch of upgrades to the MBA and you're close a MUCH BETTER laptop -- the MacBook Pro.

Also, the XPS -- you can buy your own 1TB or 2TB SSD for peanuts and install it yourself instead of paying Dell's price. Can't do that with Apple.
 
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applesed said:
Let’s review:

The last Intel mbp 16: thin, powerful, hot, loud, unless you got a particular model discreet graphics, probably only supported a couple more years.

Recent Apple silicon mbp 16: thick, heavy, powerful, not as hot, quieter, expensive, niche gpu configurations.

Recent Apple silicon air 15: ok thickness, light, warm, powerful, quiet, well priced, unnecessarily gimped external monitor support.

You just can’t win with Apple. I’m really hoping with the m3 the mbp gets lighter/thinner or the air gets native support for a second external monitor (that this model had with Intel!), for goodness sakes. Right now there’s not alot of versatility.
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The moment I tried Stable Diffusion on my MacBook Air 13" and while plugged in, I realized how hot the bottom chassis could get.

It's still slow as hell compared to my nVidia card though.
 
Surely those with a price point on their minds will go for an M1 MBA or even a MB 12 for form factor?
 
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