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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

#431

Post by dividedbyzero »

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #225
michaelcampbell wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not in the same weight class as a MacBook Which might not be a consideration whatsoever. It isn't for me; I bring my laptop to the office, or from the office, and am never using it where weight makes one bit of difference.

Commuting to/from an office is usually a prime example of when a laptop's weight would matter.

Commutes can be very different, too. Someone who walks and uses public transport will feel differently about the weight of their laptop than someone who just has to lug theirs to their car and across the parking lot. Same with travel: Flying with just a carry-on bag and crossing big airports on foot makes lightweight laptops a lot more attractive.

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

#432

Post by superb_dev »

izacus wrote: post #385
numbers wrote: post #355

I was recently buying a Dell laptop for my sister and it boggles my mind how most other companies (maybe Framework is an except) still have dozens or even 100s of SKUs for consumer laptops. I didn't enjoy the process of looking through dozens of various lines that Dell has and then other companies like Lenovo and HP earlier in the process, just to find a "mid-range usable computer with a decent screen". If you didn't…

Oh come on, you're overexaggerating a bit. If you follow your pattern with Apple, you'll end up with a measly 8GB/256GB model which will only be useful for basic browsing. (And with more and more Electron apps, might struggle even with that once you hop onto a video call.)

I do all of my development on a measly 8GB/500GB model. The only application that has performance problems for me VCVRack, and that’s only after I surpassed 900 modules

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

#433

Post by threeseed »

izacus wrote: post #385
numbers wrote: post #355

I was recently buying a Dell laptop for my sister and it boggles my mind how most other companies (maybe Framework is an except) still have dozens or even 100s of SKUs for consumer laptops. I didn't enjoy the process of looking through dozens of various lines that Dell has and then other companies like Lenovo and HP earlier in the process, just to find a "mid-range usable computer with a decent screen". If you didn't…

Oh come on, you're overexaggerating a bit. If you follow your pattern with Apple, you'll end up with a measly 8GB/256GB model which will only be useful for basic browsing. (And with more and more Electron apps, might struggle even with that once you hop onto a video call.)

Video transcoding is done on the GPU and has nothing to do with memory/storage.

And there isn't a trend towards more Electron apps. Increasingly developers are using Tauri which is Rust based and extremely lightweight.

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

#434

Post by garrickvanburen »

zdragnar wrote: post #429
Longhanks wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, most people looking for "just a notebook" don't care about any of those things. They want a low maintenance, high performant (for day-to-day tasks, not gaming) portable computer with a great battery that runs Chrome, Office and Spotify, and comes with great customer service - nothing comes close to being able to bring your Mac to the next Apple Store.

You could just get a Chromebook for that and save yourself a ton of money. It's what my wife did, and she's not wanted anything else for seven years. It isn't close to an apple device in terms of materials or performance, but at a tenth of the cost of a pro it makes a lot of sense.

Laptops in my household are a mix of Macs and Chromebooks. All are >5yrs old. Love the resilience and useful life of both.

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

#436

Post by anfelor »

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

You can use more external displays using a dock and DisplayLink Manager though. I got three extra monitors to run on my M1 Air with no problems that way.

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

#437

Post by superb_dev »

eurekin wrote: post #304
jm4 wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think even worse than that is that they still only put 8 GB RAM in the base and middle options.

That's so extremely backwards in relation to everything else it's mind boggling. 16 gb being considered and priced at premium, where I had a single chrome tab eating 3gb easily few time's recently.

What website were you on? 3gb for a Chrome tab is just plain unacceptable in most cases

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

#438

Post by agumonkey »

numbers wrote: post #355

I was recently buying a Dell laptop for my sister and it boggles my mind how most other companies (maybe Framework is an except) still have dozens or even 100s of SKUs for consumer laptops. I didn't enjoy the process of looking through dozens of various lines that Dell has and then other companies like Lenovo and HP earlier in the process, just to find a "mid-range usable computer with a decent screen". If you didn't…

Even at a logistical / production level.. having all theses different units, options, suppliers, information, incompatibilities, tests, after sales.. insane.

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

#439

Post by crowcroft »

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

Does the M3 MBP get more displays that a MacBook Air with an M3? I thought it was a hardware limitation with the processor.

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

#440

Post by DavidPastrnak »

system2 wrote: post #330
seam_carver wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The m3 mbp is getting macos update to match MBA m3 display support, so you'll get 2 external displays with lid closed too. https://9to5mac.com/2024/03/04/14-inch-m3-macbook-pro-multi-...

I can do 4 monitors with my lid closed with my Dell XPS 13. It is crazy to see an Apple Laptop that costs $2000+ cannot do a laptop that costs $1000. People with money really don't know how to shop.

* $1,499
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