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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

#271

Post by jim180 »

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…

Although I'm still using Air with M1 chip and still love. However, that resolution thing, totally annoys me :(

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

#272

Post by toomuchtodo »

justusthane wrote: post #264
toomuchtodo wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is helpful, thank you!

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

#273

Post by bahmboo »

skadamat wrote: post #160

I'm still very bummed with Apple's strategy in using # of supported external displays as a feature to gate laptops. I had to return a decently spec-ced M3 Macbook PRO 14" because it only supported 1 display (base M3) and pay more for M3 pro even though I don't need the extra horsepower. And now the base M3 Air's support 2 displays? This is wild

Keep in mind 2 displays are only supported with the lid closed. So the only change is that now you can use an external monitor in lieu of the internal display.

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

#274

Post by turnsout »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #221
gnicholas wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MBAs are much smaller/lighter. The MBA with its lid closed is just a little bit taller than the MBP with the lid open. I love my 13" MBA!

Its a 0.75lb and 0.17”difference though, you’d have to be a calibrated scale to notice that outside of side by side testing.

Yeah I mean if you don't notice an extra 3/4 pound on a 3 pound laptop, then more power to you—get the bigger one

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

#275

Post by 999900000999 »

I'm still very happy with my M1 Air.

But I also rarely do much on it aside from web browse and write small Flutter and Golang apps.

I'm disappointed with the low ram and storage specs, but you also get a laptop that'll last until the unreplaceable battery dies.

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

#277

Post by kjkjadksj »

karmakaze wrote: post #18

Looking at this list comparing the M3 with M1 doesn't motivate me to want the M3. It seems most gains are GPU related. The M2 was underwhelming, and it seems the M3 isn't much better than the M2 so comparing against M1. > M3 takes MacBook Air performance even further: > Game titles like No Man’s Sky run up to 60 percent faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M1 chip. > Enhancing an image with AI using Photomato…

Depends on your use case. What little heavy software I run is all terribly optimized single core stuff, so even going m2 to m3 the single core gains are appreciable to me. Iirc its about a 30% bump worth it for a little bit more in price for me. Then of course much better battery life from more and faster e cores too.

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

#278

Post by datadrivenangel »

jjice wrote: post #165
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.

You're absolutely right that they make a damn fine laptop (the build quality stands out to me) and they do a great job in that market. Anecdotally, my Framework 13 AMD ran me 1500 and I ended up with 64 GB of ram, 2 TB of storage, and an AMD 7840U. I bought my RAM and storage separately to get that end cost, to be fair. I wouldn't be surprised if the M3 actually outperforms my processor by a bit, but having way more…

I'm torn as I consider getting my next laptop:

* Framework is philosophically best, and they make solid machiness. * Macbook Air has just insane battery life and is so small.

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

#279

Post by foldr »

Teever wrote: post #246
93po wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have owned probably 7 laptops over the past 20 years and every single one with a fan turned into a rattling jet engine mess. Do modern laptops not do this anymore? It was at least half the reason I got the Macbook Air

AIUI, because the macbook air's fan is contained inside the machine that has no external ventilation ports that means the fan is mostly moving clean air with no particulate in it that will eventually build up on the fan whihc make it perform poorly. I imaagine that the lubricant in the fan will still age, but that is also going to be less of an issue because of less dust contamination.

Where are you getting the idea that the Mx Airs have a fan? They don't.

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

#280

Post by kube-system »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #245
kube-system wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's on par with normal pricing from MS.

How much do they charge to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB? Or 32?

On the Surface Pro 9, it is $300 to upgrade from 8 to 16GB. To go to 32GB, they require you to choose a higher tier processor which brings the normal retail price to $2599, but it currently has a $500 discount, so the total is $2099.
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