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Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

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Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#61

Post by ianbutler »

leohonexus wrote: post #55
jmyeet wrote: post #31

The 24GB unified memory is a really nice upgrade (the M1 MBA has 8GB upgradeable to 16GB). The CPU/GPU upgrades are predictable and wlecome but the memory is huge. A lot of development isn't CPU bound but is memory bound or at least can really benefit from more memory. This upgrade makes the MBA an entirely viable dev machine for many workloads. I have a MBP (Intel) but it's expensive. Getting a viable machine for $1…

I doubt Apple will allow you to configure up to 24GB on a MBA though - they’d likely want to reserve that to the MBP which has active cooling and can sustain peak performance. Edit: as comments pointed out, I’m wrong - thanks for the corrections.

That is one of the current options for the new MBA announced today.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#62

Post by mrtranscendence »

arduinomancer wrote: post #22

Unfortunate that the wedge design is gone. The previous one was really comfortable to type on since you didn't feel the 90 degree metal edge digging into your wrist like on the pro models. Was one of the main reasons I got it.

After I taught myself to keep my wrists unbent/horizontal with the ground while I typed, this sort of thing doesn't bother me at all. Without evidence I attribute to this my lack of RSI or carpal tunnel despite being a heavy emacs user over the decades.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#63

Post by needcleartype64 »

It's still only 224 pixels per inch (ppi), not the 254 ppi of the MBP 16". Back when Apple had subpixel RGB font antialiasing like Cleartype the 224ppi was fine but 224ppi text doesn't look sharp with grayscale antialiasing. It's not without good reason that an iPad Retina display is 264ppi. I switched from Mac after Apple removed Cleartype-like font rendering because my external 4K display no longer had as sharp of text as Windows+Linux.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#64

Post by armadsen »

leohonexus wrote: post #55
jmyeet wrote: post #31

The 24GB unified memory is a really nice upgrade (the M1 MBA has 8GB upgradeable to 16GB). The CPU/GPU upgrades are predictable and wlecome but the memory is huge. A lot of development isn't CPU bound but is memory bound or at least can really benefit from more memory. This upgrade makes the MBA an entirely viable dev machine for many workloads. I have a MBP (Intel) but it's expensive. Getting a viable machine for $1…

I doubt Apple will allow you to configure up to 24GB on a MBA though - they’d likely want to reserve that to the MBP which has active cooling and can sustain peak performance. Edit: as comments pointed out, I’m wrong - thanks for the corrections.

You can indeed configure the MBA with 24 GB. It's a $400 upgrade.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#65

Post by minimaxir »

So a notable difference between the $1199 and $1499 SKUs is the 35W dual-USB-C-port charger.

Apparently, it retails for $60 alone! https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNWM3AM/A/35w-dual-usb-c-...

Retailers like Anker sell a similar charger with double the power at that price range.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#66

Post by enraged_camel »

dmix wrote: post #49

> And for the first time, MacBook Air supports fast charge for charging up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes with an optional 67W USB-C power adapter.7 Woah. Speaking of batteries I've been impressed with the battery life in the new MBPs. They last forever with these new M chips. One of the best features.

I used my M1 MBA for six and a half hours on a ten-hour flight from London to Austin (coding), and the battery went down from 100% to 60%. It's nuts.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#67

Post by jpgvm »

rnernento wrote: post #10

Why does my $500 Samsung Galaxy Book Flex have the webcam in a tiny little bezel and this thing has a giant notch?

I think the only excuse for that huge notch has to be they are planning to put Face ID in there at some point in the near future and don't want the design language to change again when that happens. i.e they are pre-reserving that space in the menu bar.

Re: Apple unveils all-new MacBook Air, supercharged by the new M2 chip

#69

Post by bayindirh »

happyopossum wrote: post #35
bayindirh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro is a dockable workstation with a small form factor. Pros have insane amount of internal bandwidth. M1 was able to edit 30 4K streams or 7 8K streams simultaneously IIRC.

The M2 air and the M2 13" Pro have the same internal bandwidth - it's the same chip, just one has a fan and one doesn't.

Inclusion of that small fan affects the frequency range and how they handle sustained workloads.

A pro won't blink while an Air will throttle to keep itself from melting. For long video and photo jobs, that really matters (or for long (>24h) running simulation/scientific code or plethora of other examples).

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