New MacBook Air with M2 • Hacker News Board

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#81

Post by seunosewa » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:05 PM UTC

simula67 wrote: post #37

Does anyone have reviews of any comparable ARM-based (good battery backup and speed) Windows laptops? Seems like there should be a transition of the entire laptop market to ARM, given that Apple has demonstrated that ARM processors are viable on the laptop.

Apple has demonstrated that ARM processors can be viable on the laptop. The ARM processors on their iPhones and iPads were way faster than other ARM processors before they transitioned their macs. Furthermore, only Apple seems to have the hardware and software tech to allow x86 code to run nearly as fast as native code on an ARM CPU.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#82

Post by jmull » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

franze wrote: post #21

Anybody got their head around why the new 13 Mac Book Pro M2 is more expensive than the Mac Air M2? Is it the (in my opinion negative UX) touchbar?

You mean the lowest-specced M2 model for each? The ones that are $1199 for Air and $1299 for 13" MBP?

I noticed the tech specs for the lower-end air have a slightly lower M2 -- 8 GPU cores vs 10... and in the Air price tool, it's a $100 upgrade to go from 8-core GPU to 10-core.

So I guess that's it -- the low-end Air is a little lower-end and a little cheaper.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#83

Post by db39 » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

Very excited about the new Air. The size (& weight!) to performance and battery life is unmatched as far as I can tell. It's literally the laptop I dreamed they would make after I stopped daily-driving my 2012 retina pro in favour of a desktop a few years ago. It's going to be great for traveling.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#84

Post by senttoschool » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #63

franze wrote: post #21

Anybody got their head around why the new 13 Mac Book Pro M2 is more expensive than the Mac Air M2? Is it the (in my opinion negative UX) touchbar?

That machine shouldn’t exist - I don’t know why they kept it around. Maybe they just had lots of old hardware they wanted to try to unload.

They kept it around because:

1. They don't have something to slot between the Air and the 14" Pro. The much rumored 15" Macbook Air isn't ready yet.

2. With how wacky supply chains are, it makes sense to rely on a supply chain that has been working since 2016, the year the 13" MBP came out.

3. Apple needed a device with active cooling to show off the power of the M2.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#85

Post by noja » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

Anyone know anything about SSD performance on the Air?

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#86

Post by balfirevic » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

hans1729 wrote: post #30

balfirevic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference in keyboards?

can't speak for op because I don't know what layout his country has. For Germany, vim is not usable beyond basic movements, because for example [ and ] have no dedicated keys. Typing { } on the default german layout is an insult to the typer. I remember a vim-shortcut that would have required to press five keys at the same time.

But that's just about software keyboard layout, isn't it? I've been using US layout since forever (configured in OS), even though my keyboards have Croatian scribbles on some keys.

I do see now that the actual physical layout might be different, having large vs. small enter key and possibly additional key next to the left shift.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#87

Post by reportingsjr » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

flatiron wrote: post #42

nojito wrote: post #4

This is quite possibly the absolute most perfect portable laptop ever released. Thin, light, no fan, and looks great with great performance and battery life.

If it only ran Linux…

Echoing janandoly's comment, the main force behind Asahi mentioned being close to a release that will support M2 machines: https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1543568303725375488

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#88

Post by millzlane » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

bigDinosaur wrote: post #62

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the first ways a cult gets everyone on the same page is altered language and speech patterns.

Fortunately I have free-thinking windows installed on my desktop to counteract my Apple cultist indoctrination.

For me it's android. As long as I can replace the default apps like the sms app and the launcher. I will continue to use android.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#89

Post by klodolph » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

Darmody wrote: post #70

Am I the only one around here that doesn't like MacBooks? The hardware is fine, yes, except the glossy screen but the software is horrible. Everything is a pain in the a*.

Pick an operating system—you can be confident that plenty of people on HN hate it. It’s true now, it was true on Slashdot twenty years ago, it was true on Usenet thirty years ago.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#90

Post by dep_b » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 1:08 PM UTC

jaimex2 wrote: post #55

I'm sure it's fast coming from previous intel Macs but really the main thing holding me back is seeing how many hurdles my fellow devs run into. There's always talk about something not running or being M1 incompatible. Well, that and I'd be forced to use OSX. So far the only real benefit I've seen seems to be for those who code on insanely long train commutes.

Haven't ran into any problems really. Anticipated a ton. I had more trouble with the latest OS version changes.