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New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

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Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#261

Post by drooopy »

Trollmann wrote: post #231
drooopy wrote: post #197

So, the cheapest configuration with 16 GB of RAM (and still with a measly 256GB of SSD) begins at €1479 (previously incorrectly stated as €1700) in the EU with VAT and that's with the older M2 chip. As for the external display thing, you basically have to "sacrifice" the laptop's screen and built in keyboard and trackpad in order to use a 2nd display. Jesus wept. CORRECTION: The price for 16/256 is at €1479.

Where in the EU? In Germany they ask for 1429€ for the configuration you specified.

That was my bad. I was looking at the 512 GB model + an additional 8 GB of RAM. Even so, €1429 for 16 GB of non-upgradeable RAM in 2024 is ludicrous.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#262

Post by LUmBULtERA »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #173
blehn wrote: post #118

I really wanted to love the 13" Air but two things made me switch to the Pro after trying it for a few weeks. One is that the internal speakers suck in comparison to the Pro. I 'm not looking for audiophile quality from laptop speakers, but the Pro speakers are good enough for casually watching youtube videos, TV shows, podcasts, etc, whereas the Air speakers are harsh and tinny. The second is that the default resolu…

Do a lot of folks actively watch media content on laptops these days? I have never really watched more than short content on that form factor. I like a bigger screen and a remote, watching anything like a movie on a laptop feels klunky.

Yeah... My wife adamantly opposes a TV in the bedroom, but watching on my laptop is not a problem =/.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#263

Post by kjkjadksj »

swyx wrote: post #201

my biggest regret of 2023 is buying the MBA with M2 chip. it is so underpowered compared to the MBP - no right hand ports, lower memory, no support for 2 monitors - that it was not worth the few hundred dollars saved and lighter weight which was something i thought I valued. so just a word of advice to fellow devs - go for the MBP. if you're on here you need it.

The battery life is crazy on the m3s, supposedly better than m2 due to more e cores. I use mine all day and can get away with charging it overnight.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#264

Post by justusthane »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #125
princevegeta89 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The speakers on Pro are definitely audiophile range. To me the screen quality alone was enough to drive me away from Air.

What's the Pro sweet spot currently for RAM/disk/screen? Edit: nvm, looks like the Air supports two external displays but the Pro only supports one.

- MacBook Pro with M3 chip = one external display

- MacBook Pro with M3 Pro chip = two external displays

- MacBook Pro with M3 Max chip = four external displays

Given that I would personally go for the M3 Pro with 18GB memory, but it depends on your needs of course.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#266

Post by w0m »

szundi wrote: post #237
NBJack wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bold statement. Videos, music, photos, all of these add up fast. I have encountered plenty of family and friends needing help when their storage is exhausted. Then there is the ever increasong bloat of software, web apps, etc. that chew through RAM. If this isn't a daily driver, sure. It is fine. But for those where this is their only computer, this is a lot of money for an 'entry level' model that can't do…

What are you talking about? Apple Music streaming, Netflix, Youtube. Nothing on the machine. Those times are over when you swim in the mainstream.

You're making the argument to get them to buy iPads, not entry level laptops for roughly the same price (+-100usd)

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#267

Post by HumblyTossed »

The5thElephant wrote: post #252
HumblyTossed wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About a year and a half ago, I was looking to get a new MBPro to replace my existing one. I loved the hardware, but having used Linux since the alphabet floppies, the software was always meh. So I was in Costco one day and they had cheap Lenovo ideapads (Ideapad 5 Pro 14") on sale for something like $700US. I bought one, put Pop_OS! on it and it's been running great since. Has and AMD processor, 16GB RAM and a 512GB…

I'm curious what you can do in Pop_OS that makes MacOS software "meh" in comparison? I have a few friends who are Linux devotees yet watching them do stuff seems so tedious and slow in comparison to my workflows. Like I get that you can setup all sorts of keyboard shortcuts and stuff to do whatever you want, but that's also possible in MacOS, so what is it exactly that you can do better/faster in Pop_OS? For most of…

>I'm curious what you can do in Pop_OS that makes MacOS software "meh" in comparison?

Having used Linux since forever ago, MacOs was "meh" to me because while it is a unix, it was just different enough for me to find it "meh". IOW, I found it to be "meh" for the fact that it just wasn't Linux.

You sound offended, don't be.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#268

Post by jwells89 »

sempron64 wrote: post #69
ketzo wrote: post #49

The degree to which Apple has kinda just “won” laptops is nuts to me. $999 for an 13-inch M2 Air is just bonkers. You can easily pay $1500, even $2000 for Windows laptops that are hotter, heavier, AND slower.

But you can also pay $400 for a number of acceptable alternatives, and about $600-$700 for a machine with a discrete GPU. It is probably the best laptop in the $1K price range for laptops that don't have a GPU, but that's basically it. The main problem with the non-Apple laptop market is that there is a mind-boggling number of confusing models, SKUs, processor/gpu variants, etc., and wildly variable physical quality…

As someone who likes to keep at least one machine dedicated to each major OS around at any given time, the thing that’s frustrating about non-Apple laptops is that just about all of them, including machines costing well in excess of base Macbook models, make big tradeoffs somewhere or another. Very few are good all-rounders, even if many are better than Macbooks in one or two aspects.

I would kill for a version of ThinkPad X1 Nano or X1 Carbon for example that had the battery life, silence, and unplugged performance of a Macbook Air for example, but no such machine exists even if I were to spend twice as much as the cost of a MacBook Air.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#269

Post by spinningarrow »

justin66 wrote: post #211
blehn wrote: post #118

I really wanted to love the 13" Air but two things made me switch to the Pro after trying it for a few weeks. One is that the internal speakers suck in comparison to the Pro. I 'm not looking for audiophile quality from laptop speakers, but the Pro speakers are good enough for casually watching youtube videos, TV shows, podcasts, etc, whereas the Air speakers are harsh and tinny. The second is that the default resolu…

As an Air user who pretty passionately hates hearing a laptop fan, my wonderment at the quality of the Pro's audio would end the moment I heard that fan whine.

I haven’t heard the fan on my Pro turn on in _years_.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#270

Post by kjkjadksj »

AndroTux wrote: post #219
flippy_flops wrote: post #206

Is M3 the same single core speed on all platforms (e.g. air vs pro vs mini, etc)? In other words, would m3 mbpro single core benchmarks be basically the same as this new air?

Yes, basically. If you’re running long-term heavy load, the lack of fans in the Air will of course throttle it. But for short bursts they will perform the same.

The thermal situation is sort of interesting. The lowest spec macbook pro has 1 fan. The middle spec and the max have the same 2 fan setup though. This would imply the coolest running one is probably the 11 core. You could probably pin those p cores all day.
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