This is probably why Apple still sells the tapered MacBook Air.
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Does anyone know if the iPads Magic Keyboard (11“/12,9“) also has this type of trackpad? I just now tested the Logitech Combo Touch trackpad and it has nice travel and normal click to it, just as I like it.
I don’t know if the current generation is different or not, but I have a 2020 Magic Keyboard, and while the trackpad doesn’t have a lot of travel, it physically moves and clicks without haptic feedback
I'm loving my M2 MacBook Air, using for work everyday. I'm sure me and especially Apple engineers will sleep anyway.
I disagree with most of your points. I think that the M2 Air is by far superior in almost every way, but I do agree with this point. The illluminated logo is what made a MacBook a MacBook!
That alone is what sold a lot of Macs back in the day. A marketing hype for sure, but I gladly showed off whenever I used one of the OGs!
This is not so much a review of the M2 Air, but of any modern Mac laptop, from the perspective of how it compares to a 10+ year-old Mac.
I did love that 11" Air, and I had two or three of them over the years. I initially tried to replace it with the 12" Retina MacBook, but since it didn't have a usable keyboard I had to hang onto it a few more years than I'd have liked. It had a great little keyboard and performed admirably as a writing machine. But that screen is very very rough to look at in this day and age, and it got worse when Apple did away with subpixel rendering.
I do hope Apple revisits the ultralight form factor, but until they do I'm finding the currrent M1 Air a very worthy successor.
I did love that 11" Air, and I had two or three of them over the years. I initially tried to replace it with the 12" Retina MacBook, but since it didn't have a usable keyboard I had to hang onto it a few more years than I'd have liked. It had a great little keyboard and performed admirably as a writing machine. But that screen is very very rough to look at in this day and age, and it got worse when Apple did away with subpixel rendering.
I do hope Apple revisits the ultralight form factor, but until they do I'm finding the currrent M1 Air a very worthy successor.
They don't build 'em like they used to.
I don't think your plan to stick with the 11" MBA is sustainable. At some point you will need a new machine and Apple's solution for a small laptop is that you use an iPad with a keyboard. Until Tim is gone, they won't be making another small laptop. Their current strategy is to introduce useless tech like OLED in laptops, when 99% would be perfectly happy with LCD.
I don't think your plan to stick with the 11" MBA is sustainable. At some point you will need a new machine and Apple's solution for a small laptop is that you use an iPad with a keyboard. Until Tim is gone, they won't be making another small laptop. Their current strategy is to introduce useless tech like OLED in laptops, when 99% would be perfectly happy with LCD.
Just like 99% are fine with the current selection of laptops? The ultra-light, ultra-small laptop segment is as much of a niche as a budget-minded, standards-based, expandable tower. And we're not getting one of those from Apple ever again either.
Such is the suffering of being an Apple user: Their focus on a handful of product segments, and only a handful of options within those segments, I'm sure makes the design, manufacturing, and sales process easier for Apple, and makes the lives of most consumers unfamiliar with the details of technology and/or design trying to buy a computer easier. But as soon as your needs deviate from the top of the bell curve, it becomes challenging to find a solution within the Apple universe that doesn't involve significant compromise. That's not our fault, for wanting niche options, or Apple's fault, for not wanting to produce niche options. There is never a perfect single solution.
It's yet another reason to not marry yourself to any one platform. I love my Macs for what they are, and use them to their fullest extent. And I also own other devices, based on other platforms made by other manufacturers, to use in the ways that Apple is unable or unwilling to address. That's the real way to always get what you want.
1, Size/weight is trumped by a bigger screen, for me.
2, Agree. Wedge design is infinitely better- more comfy on the wrists, easier to pick up, and looks a bit better also.
3, Speakers seem better now, to me.
4, More travel = better.
5 & 6, Don't care.
7 & 8, Agree
9, 100% agree. Who uses these pointless new buttons?!?
10, Agree.
11, Modern trackpad is miles better.
I know, I would love to replace it with a modern machine, hence the test buy of the new Air. I‘m willing to hold on to it till it breaks or bevomes unusable.
The iPad Pro is still a toy in my eyes. I can’t use it in my case. Also I checked out the Magic Keyboard right now and I‘m shocked to see it doesn‘t have an escape key and a function keys row. Whaaaaat???? Apple is not even trying 😂😂😂
Good. You are helping those who wants to buy refurbished devices at a discount
IPP doesn't work for me either. Need a machine that can run a standalone copy of tax software (i.e. not restrict me to web-based) and also need a command prompt/shell.
It's true that the industry evolves but Apple is focusing on all the wrong things. They continue to be successful, not because of hardware, but because of OS. The only true alternative for OS is a lot worse.
I didn‘t buy a new one fyi. I bought a flawless customer return on Amazon. So it‘s in pristine condition but has been activated before. It‘s going back in pristine condition, wiped clean.
you gave it a try ... I am glad I got a M1 MBA 2,5 or so years ago, wedge design is so much better, for me.
this is the silliest list of complains I've seen in a while. Your new computer is better in every single way than the 11" other than ultra portability.
8. The notch has padding in the menu bar because tangents are widely considered bad design.
9. Wasting keys for keyboard backlight adjustment never made much sense to me. If you know how to type you don't care about the backlight at all, let alone would you be routinely adjusting it.
8. The notch has padding in the menu bar because tangents are widely considered bad design.
9. Wasting keys for keyboard backlight adjustment never made much sense to me. If you know how to type you don't care about the backlight at all, let alone would you be routinely adjusting it.
I don't need the backlight to type, as a touch type, but in a dark room it's very helpful for finding random function keys or numbers. It's also handy to be able to tone it down when you want to.
Then get the M1 which is basically almost the same as the old laptop you had with a better screen and cpu and cheaper!
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There is an option to hide the menu bar, but I would not use it with that screen. Unfortunately it cannot be disabled on the internal display and enabled on the external display simultaneously.
You can add an icon in the menu bar for key backlight adjustment.
I love my MacBook Air M1, although I loved the smaller MacBook 12" even more. Is the M1 Air wedge design very different from the M2 Air flat design?
As others have likely mentioned, an M1 Air would solve a handful of your issues, while a lot of the others are not really issues with the M2 Air so much as they're just issues with Apple's entire laptop lineup and modern laptops in general.
I do think an M1 Air might be worth trying out though. Performance wise its pretty much indistinguishable from the M2 Air, while keeping the wedge shape and ditching the notch.
I do think an M1 Air might be worth trying out though. Performance wise its pretty much indistinguishable from the M2 Air, while keeping the wedge shape and ditching the notch.
My biggest pet peeve about the new Air models is… the name. Air to me always indicated as light as possible, like air. Recently they introduced the 15" Air, and what is then in a name? They are no longer small, they are no longer light, so why not ditch the Air and just call them Macbook?
I really wish they return to the ultra small and light setup for the name Air.
I really wish they return to the ultra small and light setup for the name Air.
The difference is there, but not as noticable as going from the 11" to the M2 Air.
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I think the same way. The MacBook, iPad and even iPhone lineup is convoluted and doesn't make sense in many parts anymore.
Naming now only leaves room for calling a new 12" the MacBook Mini/Nano 🤣
You'll never be happy with a new Mac if you're giving something all of an hour, looking for nitpicks and reasons to be unhappy. I would recommend going with a cheap PC next time.