The "I just bought/ordered/got/shipped my new/refurb MBA" thread, [Merged]

[phoenix-mac-user]

I hear you on the 16”. I went from an M1 Air to the 16” M4 Max thinking the bigger screen would be great and it is but taking it anywhere for work.. lugging around is a great way to describe it.

It is sort of baffling to me how much those 16" Macbooks weigh considering they are Silicon. I was thinking they must have corrected the weight in the newer ones but the 16" Macbook Pro M4 still weights 4.7 lbs!

I travel for work and have to bring 2 laptops (if I want to freely surf the internet outside the prying eyes of my employer) and my Dell latitude work laptop has a slightly smaller 15.6" screen but is 2 lbs lighter. Would sort of dread packing my Macbook Pro because of how much weight it added to my backpack.

Guessing there is a reason but just seems odd that Dell can make a laptop that is almost as big as the Macbook Pro that weighs 2lbs less.

Unfortunately, most of my upgrades are done because of what is on sale. I would still be using my Macbook Pro if they weren't offering $775 trade in through Best Buy which is 75% of what I originally paid, and I got the 13 air with 24gb because it was the best deal for a higher end spec'ed Macbook Pro or Air in the Best Buy Black Friday deals but I think I lucked out here and will be keeping this one for a long time.

 

[CBlakeston]

It is sort of baffling to me how much those 16" Macbooks weigh considering they are Silicon. I was thinking they must have corrected the weight in the newer ones but the 16" Macbook Pro M4 still weights 4.7 lbs!

I travel for work and have to bring 2 laptops (if I want to freely surf the internet outside the prying eyes of my employer) and my Dell latitude work laptop has a slightly smaller 15.6" screen but is 2 lbs lighter. Would sort of dread packing my Macbook Pro because of how much weight it added to my backpack.

Guessing there is a reason but just seems odd that Dell can make a laptop that is almost as big as the Macbook Pro that weighs 2lbs less.

Unfortunately, most of my upgrades are done because of what is on sale. I would still be using my Macbook Pro if they weren't offering $775 trade in through Best Buy which is 75% of what I originally paid, and I got the 13 air with 24gb because it was the best deal for a higher end spec'ed Macbook Pro or Air in the Best Buy Black Friday deals but I think I lucked out here and will be keeping this one for a long time.

I think it’s the metal body maybe? The older Intel
MacBooks were over 5lbs so the new ones are lighter. I’ve looked at similar size windows laptops with 4080 and 4090 the game style and they are 7 or 8 pounds so much heavier.

I’m not sure how much the 15” MacBook Air weighs but maybe that’s nearer in style / power to the Dell you mention? Also what material is the dell made out of? Is it plastic? Does it flex? How powerful is it? Does it need cooling and big heat sinks inside? All that adds to the weight I guess.

 

[phoenix-mac-user]

I think it’s the metal body maybe? The older Intel
MacBooks were over 5lbs so the new ones are lighter. I’ve looked at similar size windows laptops with 4080 and 4090 the game style and they are 7 or 8 pounds so much heavier.

I’m not sure how much the 15” MacBook Air weighs but maybe that’s nearer in style / power to the Dell you mention? Also what material is the dell made out of? Is it plastic? Does it flex? How powerful is it? Does it need cooling and big heat sinks inside? All that adds to the weight I guess.

Yeah like I said I know there are probably reasons and I bet the metal shell is a big part of it, my Dell says its made of "carbon fiber" lol, but also, this is Apple. They put an absolute beast of a computer into that new tiny Mini chassis, they continue to make iPhones thinner and lighter. And now that they are using silicon, you'd think the laptops would continue to get smaller and lighter. I just searched and the 2019 16" MBP weight is 4.3lbs so 5 years later the 16" silcon MBP actually weights more than the Intel one.

Anyways, just pointing out something that seems odd to me, I am sure they are in the lab working on it, and it isn't my problem anyway because my new Air is very light and portable.

 

[sgtaylor5]

Pulled the trigger today on the Black Friday Amazon M2 (2022) 13.6” 16/256 with AC+ 3 years for just under $1k. Had a used M1 MBP that lasted a year before it broke. This is going to be faster than the 2017 i7 2.2 GHz MBA I’m now using.

EDIT: A day later: It's out for delivery! Got it at 0900; done transferring via Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adapter and setting up by 1030.

 

[redfirebird08]

Got the M2 MacBook Air with 16 gigs of RAM for $750 via Amazon the other day. Massive upgrade from my 2012 MacBook Air. Loving the fact this new machine has zero fan noise, runs much cooler than the old one, and much stronger battery life.

 

[AdamNC]

Some of you may know the nightmare the last 18 months have been for my wife and I with her going through breast cancer, a devastating spinal injury, sepsis and an almost fatal pulmonary embolism. It has been hard but well she paid me back today for everything I had done. She had ordered a Midnight Black M3 24 gig/ 512 MBA. I had a M1 MBA 8 gig 512 with the 8 core GPU. It was close to needing a new battery. 85% life left. Needless to say I am very happy with it. Finished setting up everything today. Going to let it index and such for a few hours then enjoy it. But the funny thing is because she is pretty much bed ridden now I told her before my computer was to arrive I was going to run an errand. I brought her a Alienware M16. It was on sale at Best Buy for 1599. 500 bucks off. She plays Fortnite, and other games these days. She had been using a Xbox One. So we both are enjoying our early gifts.

 

[harf]

Ordered a MB Air M3 with 10-core GPU, 16GB, 256GB SSD last weekend when I spotted a deal on that, but reading the news now I'm just gonna sit with the unopened package waiting for M4 release to do a comparison due to the unit I ordered having a 50-day no-fee return policy as long as it's not been put to use.

 

[vorob]

Hello everyone,

Today, I decided that I NEED Air bought a 2015 MacBook Air for $100. It features a Core i5 1.6 GHz processor, Intel HD 6000 graphics, 8 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD. I intend to use it primarily for retro gaming, but I’m also curious about its ability to handle modern tasks.

I have a couple of questions:

1. How well does this MacBook Air run macOS Monterey, particularly for everyday tasks like web browsing and using Google Docs/Sheets? What’s your experience with it?
2. If Monterey proves too taxing, what is the lowest macOS version I can install while still capable of running a modern browser that handles today’s web seamlessly? I don’t need App Store apps or current Apple services; third-party apps are fine.
3. What games are you playing on this machine if we have owners of it here?

Ultimately, I’m exploring this machine both as a retro gaming device and for basic web-based tasks. Looking forward to any insights you might have!

Thanks!

 

[EugW]

Today, I decided that I NEED Air bought a 2015 MacBook Air for $100. It features a Core i5 1.6 GHz processor, Intel HD 6000 graphics, 8 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD. I intend to use it primarily for retro gaming, but I’m also curious about its ability to handle modern tasks.

Great deal!

1. How well does this MacBook Air run macOS Monterey, particularly for everyday tasks like web browsing and using Google Docs/Sheets? What’s your experience with it?

We have the 2017 1.8 GHz i5 with 8 GB RAM and it's OK. It's not fast, but it's fine for those tasks.

One issue is HEVC video. We sometimes receive h.265 HEVC videos for our kids' activities and can't watch them at all on this machine, because it does not support hardware h.265 HEVC decode acceleration. In fact, this is one big reason we will be upgrading to an M3 or M4 MacBook Air this year.

Also, the 128 GB storage can be limiting. It's my wife's machine and she was up to 120 GB within the year. So, I bought a used Apple/Samsung OEM SSD - SSUBX - 256 GB and she's been good with that. However, that machine also works with third party NVMe SSDs, although power management isn't as good.

2. If Monterey proves too taxing, what is the lowest macOS version I can install while still capable of running a modern browser that handles today’s web seamlessly? I don’t need App Store apps or current Apple services; third-party apps are fine.

I would recommend sticking with Monterey. Performance is fine on this machine, and it's relatively recent with a decent feature set, and with security updates until mid 2024.

3. What games are you playing on this machine if we have owners of it here?

Can't help you there. No games on this one.