Just putting this out there for all the “one external display” concerns. I run two 34-inch ultrawides from my M1 Air via a DisplayLink dock. Sure you can’t run Crysis 3 on ultra, but it certainly does the job for browser, terminal, and editor windows
New MacBook Air with M2
301–310 of 796 posts
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#302It's very tempting, but my MacBook Air M1 has been great and performance wise any improvement is probably barely noticeable in the day to day that I'd end up feeling like I just bought a new chassis. Which could still be nice.. although most of the time it's in clamshell attached to my monitor. I'll have to sleep on this!
Also on the fence. For me the reason to upgrade would be the 24GB RAM option: more tabs. I'll wait and see what the hands-on reviews say. Not sold on flat slab either, the wedge is very practical. The M1 MBA is going to be hard to beat.
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
The notched area of the screen isn’t used in full screen mode. The remaining non-notched area of the screen is a standard size and ratio. The notch is a total non-issue during normal use because it only exists in the menu bar area. It basically looks like another item occupying your menu bar. If you go full screen you still have a notch-free experience. They probably show it that way in promotional materials because…
How does the notch deal with programs with enough menus to hit that midpoint? Which includes the one I do pretty much all my paying work in. Or people who have enough stuff squatting in the right side of the menu bar to cross the midpoint from the other direction. Which is also me when I'm not hiding most of them with Bartender. So many things just want to plop an icon up there. I guess I'll find out soon, because on…
I'm guessing, since the OS handles those menu items and the OS knows about the notch, it'll just skip the notch and continue the menu items to the right.
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 2016 MacBook Pro was a turd. The butterfly keyboard would inevitably break. I went through several of these laptops. To add insult to the injury, this model's unique innovations were "Touch Bar" and "no ports"... I've been buying Macs since 2000, and the 2016 MBP is definitely the worst Mac I ever had. It was enough to drive me to purchase a Surface Book as an alternative.
Oh my, the 2018 one I have is a terrible piece of junk, notably the USB subsystem (overheats on one side, prone to interference, regularly resets which kills and connects to some device, may it be mouse, keyboard, or external display) and although I liked the touch of the butterfly keyboard, the arrow keys still trip me up (and of course the reliability) > "Touch Bar" The default touch bar UI is terrible, except for…
> except for a few special cases (e.g Logic Pro / GarageBand sliders/knobs).
yeah that .. I enjoy it for quickly setting/sliding brightness and volume. And you can add a screenshot button to it which does not break focus so it allows me to screenshot things the keyboard cmd+shift+3/4 UI can't (ie context menus)
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#305I'm sorry if this doesn't add anything to the discussion, but one of MKBHD's latest reviews discusses the differences between the MacBook Pro 13 and this new MacBook Air. The video does a great job of shining a light on all of the tradeoffs between the two devices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSdKnNj7ozk This little device is a beast!
What annoys me about MKBHD's video is that he complains about an ageing design like it's a bad thing for the general case. I laud any manufacturer that's come up with a time tested design that doesn't change, which is why the IBM Thinkpads of the day were so popular. But in this specific case, MKBHD is right, this is an Apple being lazy about design and probably reusing their existing parts and tooling just to slap o…
I agree with this take. Tools should rarely require style updates. Sometimes you see style updates in hammers for example, but mostly they are gimmicks. A hammer from 89 years ago still hammers or pulls out nails. Some forms may be better for certain jobs (framing hammer, pein hammer, etc), but overall the design does not change very much.
When you introduce things like “titanium” and nail holders, etc., it’s mostly marketing gimmick and is reminiscent of kids’ toys. Kids need to constantly be provoked for new interest.
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#306I'm sorry if this doesn't add anything to the discussion, but one of MKBHD's latest reviews discusses the differences between the MacBook Pro 13 and this new MacBook Air. The video does a great job of shining a light on all of the tradeoffs between the two devices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSdKnNj7ozk This little device is a beast!
What annoys me about MKBHD's video is that he complains about an ageing design like it's a bad thing for the general case. I laud any manufacturer that's come up with a time tested design that doesn't change, which is why the IBM Thinkpads of the day were so popular. But in this specific case, MKBHD is right, this is an Apple being lazy about design and probably reusing their existing parts and tooling just to slap o…
> he complains about an ageing design like it's a bad thing for the general case
I don't think that statement is true. He speaks to the specific pros/cons of each. It isn't that the design is old--the problem is that that specific design was hobbled from the start, a condition that is especially apparent in comparison to the Air.
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#307Do we still need Mighty App? M2 is significantly faster than Xeon and Epyc in single core speeds which is what matters the most in web browsing speed. There's also no latency that Mighty has. Just get yourself a 24GB M2 Macbook.
Did we ever need Mighty?
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
The notched area of the screen isn’t used in full screen mode. The remaining non-notched area of the screen is a standard size and ratio. The notch is a total non-issue during normal use because it only exists in the menu bar area. It basically looks like another item occupying your menu bar. If you go full screen you still have a notch-free experience. They probably show it that way in promotional materials because…
How does the notch deal with programs with enough menus to hit that midpoint? Which includes the one I do pretty much all my paying work in. Or people who have enough stuff squatting in the right side of the menu bar to cross the midpoint from the other direction. Which is also me when I'm not hiding most of them with Bartender. So many things just want to plop an icon up there. I guess I'll find out soon, because on…
Apps that have been updated to work with the notch will flow around it.
If you have an old app that hasn't been updated, you can enable the "Scale to fit below built-in camera" option on the executable and it will show the full menu bar under the notch, exactly like it worked before the notch existed.
Best way to think about the notch is that it's not subtracting from your 16:10 screen, it's just pushing the menu bar up into the area on either side of the camera. It's previously wasted space that now takes your menu bar so you get the full 16:10 screen for content.
Re: New MacBook Air with M2
#309I'm sorry if this doesn't add anything to the discussion, but one of MKBHD's latest reviews discusses the differences between the MacBook Pro 13 and this new MacBook Air. The video does a great job of shining a light on all of the tradeoffs between the two devices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSdKnNj7ozk This little device is a beast!
What annoys me about MKBHD's video is that he complains about an ageing design like it's a bad thing for the general case. I laud any manufacturer that's come up with a time tested design that doesn't change, which is why the IBM Thinkpads of the day were so popular. But in this specific case, MKBHD is right, this is an Apple being lazy about design and probably reusing their existing parts and tooling just to slap o…
I don't think any part of the old MacBook Pro design was "time-tested" or "popular" though. MagSafe being removed wasn't popular, USB-C ports only wasn't popular, no SD card reader wasn't popular, Touch Bar wasn't popular and the keyboard… Well, the less said, the better.
That's part of the reason why the new MacBook Pro was so liked. Apple did a complete 180° and fixed everything that people hated - but they're still selling the hated one.