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[HackMacDaddy]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my experience with the 2022 M2 Macbook Air coming from the 2013 MacBook Air 11,6“. I wanted to try one of these and compare it against the 11 incher. This is going to be very subjective and I‘m very picky but anyone upgrading from one of these might be interested.

Observations:
1. The difference in weight and especially size (duuh) is very noticable.
View attachment 2293752 View attachment 2293753 View attachment 2293755 View attachment 2293756


2. My palms prefer the wedge design.
View attachment 2293757 View attachment 2293758


3. Speakers on the new one have way more bass but totally lack the mids.

4. The keys on the new keyboard have a little less travel. Small difference but I prefer the old keyboard.

5. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

6. I don‘t like the new layout of System preferences in Sonoma.

7. Display, webcam, battery life and raw computepower are way better on the new one. I‘m using mine for office and media consumption tasks, but also record vocals in Logic. I don‘t need 8K video editing power.

8. Notch bothers me more than it did on the iPhone. Why isn’t it aligned with the taskbar? Just shy of a couple of pixels. And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?
View attachment 2293759 View attachment 2293773

9. I would have preferred keys for adjusting the keyboardbrightness instead of Spotlight and Focus.

10. The rubber feet on the new one are more slippery compared to the old ones. So one handed opening has it sliding away. This might change with time and depends on the tables surface.

11. The biggest gripe by far I have with it is the touchpad! It doesn‘t have any travel which irritates me so much it has me cringing when clicking. Feels like it‘s stuck or like it was "heavy" or something heavy pulling on it so you can't click it. Is this normal?? This alone makes me want to return it.


Additional points:
One USB-A port would have been a life saver when you‘re in other environments. USB-A is still everywhere.

I recently upgraded the SSD in the old one. Not having that option in the new ones is bad when you give it some thought. This has been discussed to death on this forum, but it‘s just the truth.

Oh and Apple needs to bring back the illuminated Logo 😉
View attachment 2293762


A couple of years back I tested the 12“ Macbook. Keyboard was really bad, one port only was really bad, weight and display were great!

Conclusion: 13,6“ is not for me. I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook and keep enjoying my fully functioning 11,6“.

 

[Basic75]

5. There have been long threads here on how people hate the new autoboot on all MacBooks.

6. That's macOS, not MacBook Air model specific.

8. If you configure the menu bar to solid black the notch essentially disappears. I usually forget it's even there.

9. Agree, though I don't use the backlight enough to have searched for a way to reconfigure some keys to do this.

 

[okkibs]

Of course a Macbook with a much bigger screen is bigger and heavier. If that's why you returned it in the end then you could have just gone to a store with your older Air and put them side by side...

The notch you can hide entirely by setting a black background and you'll never have to see it again. Keyboard brightness can be added to the menu bar. The trackpad is the best of any laptop on the market, perhaps you can change the click firmness in the trackpad settings and see if that helps at all. Your description does not sound right, if you have any Macbook since 2015/2016 you can try another one out since all got the same trackpad.

I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

That's one of those things I'll never understand and to me it seems like nitpicking, the one and only reason to open the lid is when you want to use the device. (For cleaning the keyboard locking the screen works.)

 

[Basic75]

the one and only reason to open the lid is when you want to use the device

Occasionally I'd just need to check whether it's switched on. That's impossible now.

 

[StoneJack]

I love my MBA M2
I had 11.6 MBA, 13 inch M1, but now quite happy with Air m2.

 

[Malus120]

Observations:
1. The difference in weight and especially size (duuh) is very noticable.

2. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

3. The biggest gripe by far I have with it is the touchpad! It doesn‘t have any travel which irritates me so much it has me cringing when clicking. Feels like it‘s stuck or like it was "heavy" or something heavy pulling on it so you can't click it. Is this normal?? This alone makes me want to return it.

4. One USB-A port would have been a life saver when you‘re in other environments. USB-A is still everywhere.

5. Apple needs to bring back the illuminated Logo 😉

1. Yes the weight difference is (very) noticeable and it's unfortunate Apple has decided to leave people who'd prefer a smaller / lighter Mac in the lurch especially now that they have the chips to do it without compromising (don't get me started on iPad as a Mac replacement 🤮

2. Yeah this annoys me about newer Macs as well. It makes cleaning them a real pain.

3. Go to the Apple Store (or your local big box retailers) and try out some other Macs and or the Magic Trackpad? I haven't noticed this, but I also haven't used a pre 2016 Mac in a good while.

4. Yep. Apple's transition to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3/4 has been worse and remains more painful than the original transition from peripheral soup to USB/FireWire that began with the Bondi Blue iMac G3/ Blue and White Powermac G3.

5. IMHO, while I do miss it, the non illuminated back grows on you over time.

A couple of years back I tested the 12“ Macbook. Keyboard was really bad, one port only was really bad, weight and display were great!

The 12" MacBook was (and still is) a joy to use in spite of its flaws. I really feel like this would be the perfect Mac to bring back with Apple Silicon...

Conclusion: 13,6“ is not for me. I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook and keep enjoying my fully functioning 11,6“.

As much as I love my 14" MBP, I feel ya. Coming from a 12" MacBook or an 11" MacBook Air, pretty much any modern Mac laptop feels like a brick. At this point we can only hope Apple will decide to produce smaller Macs again (and not just tell people to "buy an iPad.")

 

[icymountain]

Regarding to 1, I think what should be criticized here is not the size and weight ot the 13.6 inch MBA (which are quite nice for the screen size), but the fact that Apple decided not to replace the 12 inch retina MB. This could (and should) have been replaced by a great compact laptop. I still have my 11 inch MBA around although I do not use it much now that I have the 13.6 inch MBA, so I see well what we are missing.

About 5: you should be able to disable autoboot, this is a standard step if you need to open up the laptop for any reason.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Disable+Auto+Boot/110034

 

[Basic75]

About 5: you should be able to disable autoboot, this is a standard step if you need to open up the laptop for any reason.

From your linked article, "Note: Disabling Auto Boot may not work on Apple’s newer ARM-based M1 MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, released in late 2020. At this time, we don’t know any procedure for disabling Auto Boot on devices equipped with Big Sur v11.1 or later."

 

[Basic75]

I had 11.6 MBA, 13 inch M1, but now quite happy with Air m2.

Why did you need to upgrade from an M1 MBA to an M2 MBA?

 

[HackMacDaddy]

5. There have been long threads here on how people hate the new autoboot on all MacBooks.

6. That's macOS, not MacBook Air model specific.

8. If you configure the menu bar to solid black the notch essentially disappears. I usually forget it's even there.

9. Agree, though I don't use the backlight enough to have searched for a way to reconfigure some keys to do this.

It's the first time for me to experience the joy of auto-boot. Never heard of it before and I wish it was optional. I hate being force fed Apples visions this way.
Ok so I would have to add a black bar to every wallpaper I'd like to use, right? And I can forget the animated, dynamic ones from Apple...hmm..and stuff can still hide behind it...not ideal.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

Of course a Macbook with a much bigger screen is bigger and heavier. If that's why you returned it in the end then you could have just gone to a store with your older Air and put them side by side...

The notch you can hide entirely by setting a black background and you'll never have to see it again. Keyboard brightness can be added to the menu bar. The trackpad is the best of any laptop on the market, perhaps you can change the click firmness in the trackpad settings and see if that helps at all. Your description does not sound right, if you have any Macbook since 2015/2016 you can try another one out since all got the same trackpad.


That's one of those things I'll never understand and to me it seems like nitpicking, the one and only reason to open the lid is when you want to use the device. (For cleaning the keyboard locking the screen works.)

I expected it to be bigger of course, but since this is now the smallest option in Apples line-up I wanted to test it out thouroghly. There's no Apple store where I live and it would feel very awkward to test that thing to a tee in a Best-Buy style store

Thanks for the info about adding brightness to the menu bar, always good to learn new stuff. It might be praised as best trackpad on the market but I wrote down my personal eperience. It doesn't move and feels very firm because of that and I prefer keytravel, taptic engine cannot replace it for me.

I never owned a 2016 model upwards because of all the design flaws and my 2012 MBP and 2013 AIR going strong and refusing to die.

As I wrote in the beginning, "I am very picky", and being forced to accept auto boot is not what I like. Make it an option please.

 

[Basic75]

Ok so I would have to add a black bar to every wallpaper I'd like to use, right?

The settings I'm using is menu bar always visible, dark mode, and reduce transparency. The latter makes the menu bar opaque.

 

[Basic75]

being forced to accept auto boot is not what I like

We can hope they'll listen if enough of us hammer https://apple.com/feedback.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

Occasionally I'd just need to check whether it's switched on. That's impossible now.

Correct, I want to be in control of turning it on/off despite it being open/closed. I also wouldn't like my car engine to start just because I entered the car. Some will say: the only reason you want to get into your car is driving

 

[HackMacDaddy]

1. Yes the weight difference is (very) noticeable and it's unfortunate Apple has decided to leave people who'd prefer a smaller / lighter Mac in the lurch especially now that they have the chips to do it without compromising (don't get me started on iPad as a Mac replacement 🤮

2. Yeah this annoys me about newer Macs as well. It makes cleaning them a real pain.

3. Go to the Apple Store (or your local big box retailers) and try out some other Macs and or the Magic Trackpad? I haven't noticed this, but I also haven't used a pre 2016 Mac in a good while.

4. Yep. Apple's transition to USB-C/Thunderbolt 3/4 has been worse and remains more painful than the original transition from peripheral soup to USB/FireWire that began with the Bondi Blue iMac G3/ Blue and White Powermac G3.

5. IMHO, while I do miss it, the non illuminated back grows on you over time.


The 12" MacBook was (and still is) a joy to use in spite of its flaws. I really feel like this would be the perfect Mac to bring back with Apple Silicon...


As much as I love my 14" MBP, I feel ya. Coming from a 12" MacBook or an 11" MacBook Air, pretty much any modern Mac laptop feels like a brick. At this point we can only hope Apple will decide to produce smaller Macs again (and not just tell people to "buy an iPad.")

It's really strange that they didn't bring the 12" model back. The tech is there, perfect opportunity to make it the ultimate MB Air!

Also, I tried iPads but they're just toys for me, a pain to do productive work on, too many compromises.

Untill 2015 it was ok, because you had TB in addition to USB and others. Especially the 2012 MBP is like a thunderbolt dock built into it. MB Pros should always have a variety of ports, glad they brought them back.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

We can hope they'll listen if enough of us hammer https://apple.com/feedback.

Just sent out my feedback ;-)

 

[IG88]

I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook

You'll be waiting until the apocalypse.

 

[MBAir2010]

seems to me that I really hate and despise that fact that my MacBook Air 2020 M1
can run over 20 hours just on battery power.
this is not good when I want to stream sports on mute and listen to spatial music while enjoying a chordless floor on the patio during a nice autumn breeze while the exotic is excellent in style and size.
we are not supposed to enjoy life like this!

and the over experience is excellent,
so, Damn you !

 

[okkibs]

I expected it to be bigger of course, but since this is now the smallest option in Apples line-up I wanted to test it out thouroghly.

Fair enough. It's true that the trackpad is very firm. If that is a dealbreaker you won't ever be happy with any new Macbook, Apple hasn't used mechanical ones in almost a decade now.

As I wrote in the beginning, "I am very picky", and being forced to accept auto boot is not what I like. Make it an option please.

Apple isn't the brand to give you an option and after years with M1 and M2 to this day nobody has explained what exactly the benefit would be turning it off. Other than some unspecified "it's my device, it should do what I want" which I get, but what could any user possibly want when opening a laptop lid other than to use the laptop...

Occasionally I'd just need to check whether it's switched on. That's impossible now.

I see, okay. That is an inconvenience then, though the M1/M2 models boot in under half a minute until you get a shutdown button. I admit I never turn mine off ever since it stays in standby for weeks without losing more than a couple percent charge. And I know this is actually different with the M2 Airs where they'll run out of battery on standby within 2-3 weeks (which is an actual issue that Apple should fix).

 

[Contact_Feanor]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my experience with the 2022 M2 Macbook Air coming from the 2013 MacBook Air 11,6“. I wanted to try one of these and compare it against the 11 incher. This is going to be very subjective and I‘m very picky but anyone upgrading from one of these might be interested.

Observations:
1. The difference in weight and especially size (duuh) is very noticable.
View attachment 2293752 View attachment 2293753 View attachment 2293755 View attachment 2293756


2. My palms prefer the wedge design.
View attachment 2293757 View attachment 2293758


3. Speakers on the new one have way more bass but totally lack the mids.

4. The keys on the new keyboard have a little less travel. Small difference but I prefer the old keyboard.

5. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

6. I don‘t like the new layout of System preferences in Sonoma.

7. Display, webcam, battery life and raw computepower are way better on the new one. I‘m using mine for office and media consumption tasks, but also record vocals in Logic. I don‘t need 8K video editing power.

8. Notch bothers me more than it did on the iPhone. Why isn’t it aligned with the taskbar? Just shy of a couple of pixels. And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?
View attachment 2293759 View attachment 2293773

9. I would have preferred keys for adjusting the keyboardbrightness instead of Spotlight and Focus.

10. The rubber feet on the new one are more slippery compared to the old ones. So one handed opening has it sliding away. This might change with time and depends on the tables surface.

11. The biggest gripe by far I have with it is the touchpad! It doesn‘t have any travel which irritates me so much it has me cringing when clicking. Feels like it‘s stuck or like it was "heavy" or something heavy pulling on it so you can't click it. Is this normal?? This alone makes me want to return it.


Additional points:
One USB-A port would have been a life saver when you‘re in other environments. USB-A is still everywhere.

I recently upgraded the SSD in the old one. Not having that option in the new ones is bad when you give it some thought. This has been discussed to death on this forum, but it‘s just the truth.

Oh and Apple needs to bring back the illuminated Logo 😉
View attachment 2293762


A couple of years back I tested the 12“ Macbook. Keyboard was really bad, one port only was really bad, weight and display were great!

Conclusion: 13,6“ is not for me. I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook and keep enjoying my fully functioning 11,6“.

you used to be able to stop autoboot with a terminal command ( sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00 )
but I don't know if that still works. Worth a try though?

 

[mectojic]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my experience with the 2022 M2 Macbook Air coming from the 2013 MacBook Air 11,6“. I wanted to try one of these and compare it against the 11 incher. This is going to be very subjective and I‘m very picky but anyone upgrading from one of these might be interested.

Observations:
1. The difference in weight and especially size (duuh) is very noticable.
View attachment 2293752 View attachment 2293753 View attachment 2293755 View attachment 2293756


2. My palms prefer the wedge design.
View attachment 2293757 View attachment 2293758


3. Speakers on the new one have way more bass but totally lack the mids.

4. The keys on the new keyboard have a little less travel. Small difference but I prefer the old keyboard.

5. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

6. I don‘t like the new layout of System preferences in Sonoma.

7. Display, webcam, battery life and raw computepower are way better on the new one. I‘m using mine for office and media consumption tasks, but also record vocals in Logic. I don‘t need 8K video editing power.

8. Notch bothers me more than it did on the iPhone. Why isn’t it aligned with the taskbar? Just shy of a couple of pixels. And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?
View attachment 2293759 View attachment 2293773

9. I would have preferred keys for adjusting the keyboardbrightness instead of Spotlight and Focus.

10. The rubber feet on the new one are more slippery compared to the old ones. So one handed opening has it sliding away. This might change with time and depends on the tables surface.

11. The biggest gripe by far I have with it is the touchpad! It doesn‘t have any travel which irritates me so much it has me cringing when clicking. Feels like it‘s stuck or like it was "heavy" or something heavy pulling on it so you can't click it. Is this normal?? This alone makes me want to return it.


Additional points:
One USB-A port would have been a life saver when you‘re in other environments. USB-A is still everywhere.

I recently upgraded the SSD in the old one. Not having that option in the new ones is bad when you give it some thought. This has been discussed to death on this forum, but it‘s just the truth.

Oh and Apple needs to bring back the illuminated Logo 😉
View attachment 2293762


A couple of years back I tested the 12“ Macbook. Keyboard was really bad, one port only was really bad, weight and display were great!

Conclusion: 13,6“ is not for me. I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook and keep enjoying my fully functioning 11,6“.

Yeah, honestly all your points are valid, I came from a 2015 11-inch Air (the last 11-inch) to an M2 MacBook Air.

The problem for people like us is that all the changes are too much to handle, and can all feel like steps in the wrong direction.
I had all the same complaints as you for the past year, but I've slowly gotten over them all and can genuinely say the M2 Air is the better device in nearly every aspect. I would like it to be lighter, but the 11-inch Air does feel like a cramped screen to me now. I do miss USB-A, but have gotten used to the power of hubs, especially thunderbolt hubs.
I do wish for a super light MacBook. But Apple seems to be done with that; if you want the lightest, get an iPad + keyboard.

For your point 6: honestly, downgrade to Monterey. It's still very modern, but the System Preferences is the old one. I did this when I got my M2 Air.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

You'll be waiting until the apocalypse.

It‘s so funny because a couple of years back I was yelled at by people on twitter that OF COURSE a new MB 12“ is imminent, the rumours were there, and of course it would have the new M1 chip. Doubting that was stupid 😂

 

[HackMacDaddy]

seems to me that I really hate and despise that fact that my MacBook Air 2020 M1
can run over 20 hours just on battery power.
this is not good when I want to stream sports on mute and listen to spatial music while enjoying a chordless floor on the patio during a nice autumn breeze while the exotic is excellent in style and size.
we are not supposed to enjoy life like this!

and the over experience is excellent,
so, Damn you !

I guess this is an attempt of a joke but have a look at my original post:

„7. Display, webcam, battery life and raw computepower are way better on the new one.“

 

[mr_roboto]

8. Notch bothers me more than it did on the iPhone. Why isn’t it aligned with the taskbar? Just shy of a couple of pixels. And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?
View attachment 2293759 View attachment 2293773

Even if you moved your Macintosh HD icon to the right so it wasn't under the notch, every bit as much of it would still be obscured by the menu bar. The solution to this problem is "don't try to shove icons so far up the screen that they're behind the menu bar", and it applies to Macs without a notch too.

If you really want the classic no-notch experience, you can still have it. Go to System Settings -> Displays -> Advanced and turn "Show resolutions as list" on. Click Done and you'll see that not only are the resolutions a list now, there's a switch at the bottom of the list to "Show all resolutions". Turn that on and you'll see many more resolutions listed. Look at whatever your computer is set to (on my 16" M1, the current and default setting is 1728x1117) and right below it, there should be a resolution with the same horizontal and slightly fewer vertical pixels (on my 16", that's 1728x1080).

Click the slightly less tall resolution. You'll find that the menu bar (and active display area) have migrated entirely below the notch. You will not be able to lose your mouse cursor behind the notch any more. Everything will function just as if you had an old school Mac laptop with a pure rectangular display with a blank "forehead" above it.

There isn't even any compromise here. The unbroken rectangle of display area below the notch is still Apple's traditional notebook display aspect ratio of 16:10. In other words, before notches, you got only a 16:10 display, now you get a 16:10 display plus a little bonus strip up top.

And sure, some of that strip is obscured by cutouts for the camera and rounded corners. But these limitations are fine for the Mac menu bar, which seldom has anything in the middle and doesn't need rectangular corners. I predict that even if you try one of the no-notch modes, knowing what I've told you, you'll soon go back. Pushing the menu bar up into the bonus strip leaves you with more room for your windows, it's very practical. This is why Apple puts the menu bar up there by default, and why they've slightly hidden these options to not use it.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

you used to be able to stop autoboot with a terminal command ( sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00 )
but I don't know if that still works. Worth a try though?

Not working anymore and it shouldn‘t be a terminal command