New MacBook Air with M2 • Hacker News Board

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#611

Post by deergomoo » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:42 PM UTC

Pulcinella wrote: post #450

pc86 wrote: post #401

I spent an embarrassing amount on a lackluster early 2019 MBP. It's fine as a general purpose laptop but is just a little too slow for serious dev work, a little too heavy as the main travel laptop, battery life a little too short for my liking. I got an M1 for my work laptop maybe 4 months ago and it might honestly be the best laptop I've ever used.

In a somewhat similar situation with the 2019 16 inch Intel MBP. I wouldn't say it's too slow, but it does get embarrassingly hot during regular use. Enabling low power mode disables turbo boost and keeps it much, much cooler, but plugging into an external monitor enables the discrete graphics card and the laptop gets hot again. Going to try to get a few more years out of it hopefully until Imagination Tech's hardwar…

The 16" MBP would have been a much better machine for most people if it didn't have a dedicated GPU. The CPU got pretty toasty as-is, but adding a dGPU into the mix just turned it into a furnace.

The way the thing was wired up also meant that connecting to an external display engaged the GPU, and some unacknowledged hardware or software flaw set the power/heat floor to about 20W (it's not just the minimum draw of the chip—you can have the GPU active without an external display and it uses a fraction of that). The end result: if you have it plugged into a monitor, you're almost constantly hearing a fan, even when idle.

Mine replaced a 2015 entry-level MacBook Pro which, while it served me well, had long since fallen behind what I needed. I was so excited to have the 16" for about a week, until I realised that I was never going to not be hearing fans screaming. I know laptops (especially big laptops) aren't actually meant to be used on laps for extended periods, but I genuinely couldn't with that thing. Even mild load would make it uncomfortable to be in physical contact with. I don't understand how none of the reviews seemed to pick up on it—perhaps everyone was too distracted by finally having a functional keyboard again to notice.

The sad irony of it all is that I bet the vast majority of purchasers were developers like myself, who have absolutely no need for a dedicated GPU.

In any case I sold mine and bought an M1 Air, which I've been very happy with ever since. As nice as these new ones look (and as great as the new 14" and 16" M1 Pros are), I don't think I could justify it. This thing handles everything I throw at it (though my wife has the 8GB model and it really doesn't seem to be enough with how much RAM stuff guzzles these days).

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#612

Post by hajile » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:46 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #305

commandersaki wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Titanium hammers have half the weight and 10x less recoil to the user for about the same energy imparted to the target.

This translates DIRECTLY into reducing the chances that you wind up with carpal tunnel or jacking up your wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#613

Post by deergomoo » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:49 PM UTC

H12 wrote: post #609

I want a 15" version of this hardware so badly. It would be my perfect personal webdev machine, assuming no significant M2 thermal issues. My workflows are all lightly threaded and CPU bound, so I don't benefit much from the Pro/Max/Ultra SKUs. So considering the base M1/M2 meets my performance needs, nothing else really comes close when it comes to portability/battery life. All I really crave is a bit more screen re…

There's been rumours for a while now of a 15" Air in the next few years. It would make a lot of sense—not many people looking at the MacBook Air would be willing to pay double the price to jump to a 16" MBP just for a bigger screen.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#614

Post by weberer » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:50 PM UTC

beebeepka wrote: post #364

weberer wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation is crazy right now, so expect it to only go up.

Not sure what you mean as RAM and SSD prices have been steadily dropping. Comparable pc laptops have not increased in price nearly as much. Ryzen 6000 laptops, while scare, do not appear more expensive than last gen.

I mean the CPI in some countries is increasing by double digit percentage points. And the value of the euro has fallen so its now close to 1:1 with the USD.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#615

Post by BeFlatXIII » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:50 PM UTC

sylens wrote: post #92

Would be the perfect laptop if it could hook up to 2 external monitors instead of just one. For that reason, I have to go for the M2 Pro.

I have a hub that lets me use two external monitors. The big downside is that one of them is limited to 30Hz and moving my mouse around it feels wrong compared to the 60Hz main display.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#616

Post by hedgehog » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:52 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #588

hedgehog wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've built pieces of that already: https://developer.apple.com/xcode-cloud/ I'm not personally very excited about living inside that sealed of a bubble.

It's outsourcing a key part of the Apple ecosystem to Google (Chrome), which is why Apple will never do it. Big-tech companies go to extremely great lengths to own every part of the pathway from consumer to developer to hardware. Google first developed a browser, then an OS, then a hardware division just so Microsoft couldn't sit between Search and a microchip. Similarly, Apple has worked extremely hard to develop an…

I don't think Google factors into this plan anywhere. The endpoint is iOS devices able to build iOS apps with full fidelity using Xcode for iPad, not a web based IDE. Total control for Apple.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#617

Post by deergomoo » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:53 PM UTC

sylens wrote: post #92

Would be the perfect laptop if it could hook up to 2 external monitors instead of just one. For that reason, I have to go for the M2 Pro.

It's such an odd thing to not address. Even the old Intel MacBook Air could drive two.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#618

Post by deergomoo » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 8:58 PM UTC

burmer wrote: post #578

So strange there's no notch in the main picture on the announcement. The top bezel does not look the same as on the product page either, even aside from the notch, it's too thick. edit: the very last picture in the article also shows the wrong bezel. So strange...

If you fullscreen an app on a notched Mac it blacks out the area where the menubar would be, making it look like a top bezel the same thickness as a non-notched model. Of course, being an LCD, in person it will be more like a black notch and a very dark grey area either side of it.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#619

Post by 0_____0 » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

waynesonfire wrote: post #315

pavlov wrote: post #148

Earlier 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.

Sheesh, did you skip the MBP 2015? That's the best one they ever made, even to this day. I've been using MBP 2015 since then and just recently "upgraded" to M1. The MBP 2015 is still a better machine, better screen and keyboard. I can type waayy faster on the 2015 with less errors and the screen is better on the eye strain. The whites on the M1 are BRIGHT. I don't need a flash light shining at my face. Turning down t…

I'm not really that picky about era of MBP, honestly I'd be happy with any of them save for the era with the bad keyboards. But the 2015 vintage was certainly a good one.

I have a late-2015 rMBP as my daily driver. I'm only now starting to run up against its limitations. USB-C, better 4K support, form factor, battery life, overall speed are things I'm looking forward to when I finally upgrade.

Re: New MacBook Air with M2

#620

Post by tom_ » Wed, Jul 06, 2022, 9:09 PM UTC

jeffhuys wrote: post #316

z9znz wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This image illustrates the differences: https://appuals.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/1-11.jpg The difference is that one keyboard is made for humans who touch type, and the other keyboard is made for people who like to lift up their hand and move it every time they want to hit return... or left shift. The ones with the shorter left shift and narrower/taller return key are just bad designs. They make keys you use fr…

I'm not in the US, so I'm kinda alone in this, and forgot to tell my work I wanted an international one, so I got an M1 pro from work with the international lay-out. I've been using US layout since I was ~8. And all my other systems have the US layout. I am having such a hard time to get used to it. I keep hitting ± when I mean ~ (why would I even need a ±/§ key on my keyboard?). I keep hitting \ when I want to hit R…

Well there must be at least 3 of us, because I'm another one. I've used the US layout ever since you could save something like 28 KBytes from not loading the UK layout, and I used this with UK keyboards for years. (Very useful having a backslash key for every hand.) Then at some point I acquired an actual US keyboard, and I was an immediate convert. I just really liked the fat Return key.

When I bought my first MBP, I wasn't completely wedded to the idea of getting a Mac necessarily - but when I noticed you could order one with a US keyboard, it tipped the balance in favour.

(For any serious work, I use a USB keyboard and mouse, so in a sense it doesn't really matter. But I use the built-in keyboard often enough that I'd be annoyed being stuck with that tiny Return key...)

(This reminded me: if you go to get a battery replacement, make sure the staff member notes that it's got a US keyboard. I took mine to a UK Apple store for a battery replacement a couple of years ago, and when I went to pick it up a few days later, it had had its keyboard replaced with a UK one! The staff member was very apologetic - perhaps they correctly read my expression of speechless shock after opening it - and it got fixed, but it took a couple more days. So in the end I was without my laptop for over a week.)