I ordered one! 16GB/1TB/Midnight. Bring it on!
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Apple Announces New MacBook Air With 15.3-inch Display and M2 Chip Starting at $1,299
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Starting at 1500e, and only 2 usb ports no even 4k, 2k display no hdmi 😒 wtf is this? Apple trying to rip off customers as usual!😇
I cannot believe the timing on this. My fiancé has had a Windows laptop for 7 years, and it started breaking in recent months but got much worse today of all days. He came to me asking me which laptop he should get. What does he need? Bigger screen than his current 13”, 256GB storage, 8GB RAM, and he doesn’t want to spend much over a $1000.
Now, he’s planning to get the Air. If the timing or pricing had been any different, he wouldn’t be getting a Mac. Now, we’re waiting for the new model to be in Apple Stores so we can look at it before he buys for sure, but I bet we will be walking out with one next week.
Now, he’s planning to get the Air. If the timing or pricing had been any different, he wouldn’t be getting a Mac. Now, we’re waiting for the new model to be in Apple Stores so we can look at it before he buys for sure, but I bet we will be walking out with one next week.
It's too bad they still can't find the courage to go for some actual fun colors.
It's like the colors are chosen by a committee.
What a shame Apple. Why not yellow, orange, red, bright bright BRIGHT colors? Keep the boring ones too if you want them so much, but ffs...
It's like the colors are chosen by a committee.
What a shame Apple. Why not yellow, orange, red, bright bright BRIGHT colors? Keep the boring ones too if you want them so much, but ffs...
I have the m1 14 and the specs for the new Air did not wow me. No interest in selling mine. The screen is still very superior and battery life is basically the same. Like having more ports.
I've seen those YouTube reviews and was part of the discussions last summer when the M2 Air came out. I don't mean that all Airs are meant for entry level consumers, just that the base model is more likely to be bought by people who do not have demanding performance needs that would need the fastest SSD speeds. If that matters to you then you probably will want to get the larger capacity SSD. You don't need to go all the way to 2TB to fill all of the slots and get maximum speed. As I recall it was either the 512GB or the 1TB that used all the SSD slots and gave you the max speed for that device.
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).
Why would they not buy one. It is exactly what we expected but at a surprisingly low price.
Here, have some popcorn 🍿
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.
Or they can just make the m3 mbp less beefy and lighter, since hoping for multiple displays on a lesser speced air seems pointless.
Very disappointed that Apple still provides only 2 thunderbolt connectors. I would have changed my MBA M1 otherwise.
My all-time favorite MacBook was my 2017 15” Pro. The keyboard was crap, but the size and shape was in the perfect Goldilocks zone for a larger-screened laptop. Switching to m-based processors meant going up or down in size and weight, all outside of the sweet spot in my opinion.
As the successor to that MBP, this is a slam dunk. I have already ordered.
For those considering the 14” MBP, the reason it didn’t work for me was the default scaling being the same as the 13” models. It worked like an oversized small screen, not a slightly shrunken large screen, if that makes sense. If you are used to the scaling of the 15-16” models, the 14” is cramped. If you are not used to the larger screens, the 14” is the superior purchase over this new Air in most ways.
As the successor to that MBP, this is a slam dunk. I have already ordered.
For those considering the 14” MBP, the reason it didn’t work for me was the default scaling being the same as the 13” models. It worked like an oversized small screen, not a slightly shrunken large screen, if that makes sense. If you are used to the scaling of the 15-16” models, the 14” is cramped. If you are not used to the larger screens, the 14” is the superior purchase over this new Air in most ways.
Particularly when you can nab one for $800
2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop: Apple M1 Chip, 13” Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage, Backlit Keyboard, FaceTime HD Camera, Touch ID. Works with iPhone/iPad; Gold
Apple’s thinnest and lightest notebook gets supercharged with the Apple M1 chip. Tackle your projects with the blazing-fast 8-core CPU. Take graphics-intensive apps and games to the next level with an up to 8-core GPU. And accelerate machine learning tasks with the 16-core Neural Engine. All with...
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I say shame on Apple. It still comes with only 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. It’s time for them to come with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. To make it usable with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage will cost you $1,699.
Sigh, easily dealt with. Simply set your menu bar to a black background and it "disappears". Personally, being a fan of darkmode, my entire background is black. I have long forgotten the notch even exists. And when I do remember, I smile, as I know that it simply gives me a much smaller top bezel, as now my menu bar sits right up high, level with the camera. Note, if you go to full screen mode, the menu bar disappears, and the "full screen" sits below the camera, and the now invisible menu bar is simply black.
It also has an audio upgrade over the 13" M2 MBA - to 6 speakers with force cancelling woofers.
Nice! That is the one I would buy if I needed a laptop. I am trying to figure if I could get the entry level and have it run Windows ARM with Parallels successfully. If so, I could save $$$. Congrats on your purchase!
Yeah pricing is good.... unless, like me, you want at least 24GB RAM and 2TB SSD, in which case, it is so close in price to the 16" M2P MBP (which can go to the 32GB RAM that I have on my 16" M1P MBP), that I'm left a bit underwhelmed. However, yeah, if you're happy with more like base spec, but want a bigger screen, the 15" MBA is a joy to see.Okay, so the pricing is a surprise.
If Apple end up dropping their ridiculous RAM/SSD prices, and give the max RAM spec of the MBA another boost, then it will possibly be my next upgrade one day.
