Poll: Do you want a large MBA?

[xraydoc]

I'd like to see Apple bring back the "MacBook" and offer it in two sizes (maybe 14" and 16" standard LCD, not high-end mini-LED) running on a basic M-series chip (not the Pro or Max), then leave one size for an ultra-slim 12" - 13" MacBook Air. They then would keep the MacBook Pro line for Pro/Max processors, mini-LED 120Hz displays, etc.

 

[lordhamster]

What I'd really like is an M1 powered iPhone that I can just plug into a USB-C dock and have a MBA or Mac mini like experience.

 

[pshufd]

If anything, I'd rather see a small one return. I loved the 11" model for its ultra-tiny footprint and weight. I was a 12" PowerBook guy for a long time, and when I finally decided it was time for a faster ultra-portable, I added an 11" Air to the collection. Excellent little travel machine.

I think that they want to sell iPads for this market.

 

[tpfang56]

Apparently the mileage is more like 6 hours. To stay with your analogy this is like taking the Ferrari to do grocery shopping and running out of petrol on the way home.

According to some videos I’ve seen, the M1 MBP has slightly better battery life than the 14” M1 Pro—until you start doing anything more than basic tasks, things like video editing and rendering. Then the battery starts draining faster in the M1s as the CPU, GPU, and RAM is pushed to its limit.

I can sort of attest to that on my M1 MBA. If all I do is web browsing, it’ll last 10 hours easy. As soon as I open vscode and start coding, the battery life sharply goes down. So, it really depends on what you’re doing.

The M1 Max is a different story apparently because the extra GPU cores are extra power hungry. That’d make the M1 Pro 16” the best in terms of battery life, but ofc it’s not a totally fair comparison when the 16” is so much larger.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I want them to keep the 13" and make a 15" or 16" in addition.

One size fits all really isn't a thing on some of this stuff

 

[turbineseaplane]

If the attached rumors and mock-up are correct (off-white only bezels) then count me out. The person who is tweeting has the best forecasting track record. And it’s exactly what Apple would do…forcefully up-sell the better and larger screens in the 14/16 to consumers and pro-sumers.

Mock will wrong on screen corners I think.

 

[Chancha]

I don't, but my folks in their 70's always want bigger text and UI elements, while not needing much if at all computing power; a large Air would be perfect for them.

It is also easy to see it a good fit for executives who travel a lot, needs to do presentation sometimes, and would like a large enough screen for spreadsheets and content watching on transits.

 

[Tagbert]

BS. The 14 does not give you 16 hours. Real world tests conducted by folks on this forum and YouTubers tell us it’s far less, 6-8 hours.

I'm just going by reviews. Probably depends on your use cases. Either way, even 6-8 hours is pretty good and much better than earlier models. that's why I find it ridiculous to call the battery life "atrocious"

 

[pshufd]

I don't, but my folks in their 70's always want bigger text and UI elements, while not needing much if at all computing power; a large Air would be perfect for them.

It is also easy to see it a good fit for executives who travel a lot, needs to do presentation sometimes, and would like a large enough screen for spreadsheets and content watching on transits.

One of my services does these really wide spreadsheets and I put it up on a 4k display to be able to see all of the columns (he sends them out in PDF form). 17 inches would still be pretty small to see it but better than scrolling left and right all the time.

 

[Tagbert]

Apparently the mileage is more like 6 hours. To stay with your analogy this is like taking the Ferrari to do grocery shopping and running out of petrol on the way home.

6 hours does not seem like such terrible battery life for this much power.

Reductio ad absurdum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[pshufd]

Could someone post a review showing 6 hours of battery life? I've already seen a review showing much more than that.

 

[flapflapflap]

I'm just going by reviews. Probably depends on your use cases. Either way, even 6-8 hours is pretty good and much better than earlier models. that's why I find it ridiculous to call the battery life "atrocious"

M1 MBP gives you 14-20 hours of battery life, I’m not talking about watching youtube all day either. How is 6-8 hours acceptable? Even the new 16 has superior battery life.

 

[geejay9876]

Could someone post a review showing 6 hours of battery life? I've already seen a review showing much more than that.

This guy gets around 5-6 hours on his 16" MBP Max
https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/qkfwj3
It seems that Apple runs the screen only at low brightness during benchmarks:

Actual rating of 69.6 watt-hours (14-inch model) or 99.6 watt-hours (16-inch model). Testing conducted by Apple in September 2021 using preproduction 14-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M1 Pro, 8-core CPU, 14-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD; and preproduction 16-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M1 Pro, 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 8 clicks from bottom.

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) - Technical Specifications – Apple Support (AU)

support.apple.com

 

[pshufd]

This guy gets around 5-6 hours on his 16" MBP Max
https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/qkfwj3
It seems that Apple runs the screen only at low brightness during benchmarks:

Actual rating of 69.6 watt-hours (14-inch model) or 99.6 watt-hours (16-inch model). Testing conducted by Apple in September 2021 using preproduction 14-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M1 Pro, 8-core CPU, 14-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD; and preproduction 16-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M1 Pro, 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 8 clicks from bottom.

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) - Technical Specifications – Apple Support (AU)

support.apple.com

So not a reviewer. Just an anecdote.

Did he do any analysis to see what was consuming CPU, GPU? Activity monitors?

That's quite out of variance with some of the sites that I've seen which have done reviews for a long time and which have decent name recognition, either in the media or with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Did he run multiple tests?

Did he look at Activity Monitor to see what process(es) were using up a lot of power? Was indexing running in the background? Loading email or notes entries?

 

[geejay9876]

So not a reviewer. Just an anecdote.

Did he do any analysis to see what was consuming CPU, GPU? Activity monitors?

That's quite out of variance with some of the sites that I've seen which have done reviews for a long time and which have decent name recognition, either in the media or with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Did he run multiple tests?

Did he look at Activity Monitor to see what process(es) were using up a lot of power? Was indexing running in the background? Loading email or notes entries?

The activity monitor screenshot is at the end of his posting.

 

[pshufd]

Looks like Firefox and Messages. Maybe he has a ton of messages to download. The energy impact of Messages on my M1 mini is 0.0. The energy impact of Firefox looks normal. It would help if the list was sorted by Energy Impact in case there are others using up more power on an intermittent basis.

 

[Wolff Weber]

What I'd really like is an M1 powered iPhone that I can just plug into a USB-C dock and have a MBA or Mac mini like experience.

No way to put 15W chip into iPhone thermal envelope.

 

[geejay9876]

Looks like Firefox and Messages. Maybe he has a ton of messages to download. The energy impact of Messages on my M1 mini is 0.0. The energy impact of Firefox looks normal. It would help if the list was sorted by Energy Impact in case there are others using up more power on an intermittent basis.

The biggest impact is from the screen. That doesnt show up there. You can try to dig into details with

sudo powermetrics

 

[pshufd]

The biggest impact is from the screen. That doesnt show up there. You can try to dig into details with

sudo powermetrics

That sounds reasonable.

I'll get around to doing some battery testing on my 16 one of these days.

 

[CoffeeMacBook]

I don't, but my folks in their 70's always want bigger text and UI elements, while not needing much if at all computing power; a large Air would be perfect for them.

It is also easy to see it a good fit for executives who travel a lot, needs to do presentation sometimes, and would like a large enough screen for spreadsheets and content watching on transits.

Agreed! There are many elderly folks who also use computers that don't want a pro machine but need a consumer level laptop with a large screen for visibility. Considering that there are also lots of Apple executives who are aging, you would think they would address and offer that option to consumers? ?

Regular consumer and exec users who don't want or need beefier laptops have been pushed into the MBP purchase for the larger screen. Not ideal. The extra weight is not necessary for them and they will be vocal about thinness which seems to affect Apple's design decisions that in turn affects Pro level users ?‍?

These market segments shouldn't have to purchase the MBP since it's not ideal for their use case. Apple needs to offer MBA in different screen sizes.

MacBook Air (ultra light, portable, with small screen size options 12" and 14" screen size)
MacBooks (portable, medium performance and size, with 14" and 16" screen size)
MacBook Pros (beefier counterparts with performance in mind at 14" and 16")

Or just consolidate the MacBook Air/MacBook to being ultra ultra thin and offer 3 Screen Sizes and leave the MacBook Pro line for Pros.

 

[spiderman0616]

I'm with you OP. I was seriously considering selling my M1 MBA and getting a 14" MBP, but the portability tradeoff is pretty big, and I decided it's too much for my needs. I will definitely get a new MBA whenever they put out a redesign, solely because I know they'll be similarly thin and light, but with a fresh design and feature upgrades.

I'm glad to see the MacBook Pros are finally Pro again. Choices are good. And I'm sure the most appealing of those new features will trickle down to the next gen MacBook Air, whenever that comes out. That's my next laptop. And I'd definitely buy a larger-than-13" Air.

 

[Feyl]

I think the size is good as it is. But if they would make it 14" or 15" with the same physical size and without a notch, that would be great. I bet it could be done.

 

[nightoftune]

My M1 MBA was also getting bad battery life the first week because of indexing, some poor rosetta apps, creative cloud... so take everything with a grain of salt. I would expect the m1 pro in the 14 to get a little less than the MBP at browsing. People always tend to forget the power to watt ratio. At maximum performance the m1 pro will not draw significant less than a intel MBP but its faster.

I ordered a m1 max 14 inch. So if it is as bad as some people think i will downgrade because the whole point on the 14 inch is portability.

 

[fivenotrump]

no: 13" is just right for me