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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

#671

Post by varispeed »

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…

Is your system your enemy? Serious question.

Having suffered through many Dell laptops (flagships) I'd rather flush the money down the pan than buy one machine from them.

What Dell is selling in comparison to Apple is legacy technology with shoddy workmanship.

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

#672

Post by newaccount74 »

_ugfj wrote: post #656
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finally made the switch to Apple after being thoroughly frustrated with Windows laptops. It's not even close to a competition. Macbooks are just so far ahead of everyone else that you can't even compare them. Most Windows laptops have abysmal batteries, to the point that you can barely call them laptops. The trackpads are downright unusable. The keyboards are a hit or a miss. And for some reason, so many companies…

The problem is the storage is not removable in the Apple Macbooks. It is disturbing it didn't sink the Macbooks. It speaks volumes of how little people care about their own data. About their own privacy. There should've been zero sold. It truly is dismal and a very large systemic problem a laptop like this is sold. Because when it breaks, are you going to wipe it and restore from backup? No. You will just hand it ove…

Nobody has access to anything unless you give them your password. Macs have full disk encryption built in. If you aren't using FileVault, you are doing it wrong.

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

#673

Post by Dah00n »

lcmatt wrote: post #410
izacus wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 have the base level M2 Air and it’s anything but a basic browsing machine. Runs everything I throw at it development wise, while a good few other things are open and it has never felt slow. Compare that to any Windows laptops with the same spec and it would be chugging along with just Chrome open.

>chugging along with just Chrome open

This is just FUD. Even my kids 2017 laptop doesn't "chug along with just Chrome open". It can run chrome and a game too just fine.

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

#674

Post by cstrat »

jm4 wrote: post #301
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

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

Agree it is crazy, I am writing this from my M1 Air with 8GB of RAM and I am yet to ever have a real issue with a RAM limitation... the OS does an amazing job juggling RAM.

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

#675

Post by ben-schaaf »

dangus wrote: post #531
bloopernova wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lordy does that multiple monitor thing grind my gears. I just want to display on 3 screens. But the base model is the only one that corporate IT will buy. So I have to buy a DisplayLink adapter to do what the Intel macbooks did with zero problem.

It’s not on Apple to make sure their cheapest consumer-targeted computer is good enough for enterprise use. To me it’s not really relevant what the old computer models used to do. You have to evaluate what is available today and choose accordingly. Like it or not Intel chips had different strengths and weaknesses. It’s a different design entirely. I’m split on whether this is a dirty price segmentation trick or a leg…

Celerons from 10+ years ago support 3 monitors and 32GB of RAM. There is no excuse.

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

#676

Post by Asmod4n »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #457
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…

I finally made the switch to Apple after being thoroughly frustrated with Windows laptops. It's not even close to a competition. Macbooks are just so far ahead of everyone else that you can't even compare them. Most Windows laptops have abysmal batteries, to the point that you can barely call them laptops. The trackpads are downright unusable. The keyboards are a hit or a miss. And for some reason, so many companies…

I’ve been an Apple only user the last 20 years, but they simply lost me with the garbage they sold since 2016. The M series was too little too late. It also didn’t help that macOS didn’t get better anymore and the yearly release cycle only made it more buggier. I’m happy with AMD finally catching up to intel and nvidia with a performance to price ratio Apple will never deliver.

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

#677

Post by varispeed »

piva00 wrote: post #565
danpmurray wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much RAM does it have, and have you ever wished you had more?

My MacBook Pro M3 has 36GiB RAM and does all of the comment above + music producing (dozens of VSTs on some 1-2 dozens tracks) + projection mapping and can run some LLM models locally like the Mistral ones. I've only managed to hear the fan when chatting with a LLM, for anything else it's been an absolutely silent beast.

I have M2 Pro 16GB from a client. It's comfortable for typical dev work - tons of tabs open, Docker, VS Code etc. Though the swap is about 20GB now and sometimes it lags. Still it beats any Intel or AMD laptop I ever had in terms of performance. This machine is on a whole another level.

My own machines are M1 Max 32GB and they fare slightly better.

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

#678

Post by bombcar »

wmf wrote: post #461
rad_gruchalski wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I just recently tried out (and took a photo of) an m2 macbook pro with 2k displays attached, lid open and screen mirroring on. 4 screens with 60“ tv in the distance. Would that really not work on an m3 mac?

The M2 supports two native display outputs. If you have more than that you must be using janky Displaylink dongles.

The M1 Max supports many more, so it might depend on which M2 you have.

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

#680

Post by thomaslord »

yodsanklai wrote: post #630
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…

This will sound slightly provocative but I genuinely wonder: why would anyone buy anything else than an apple laptop? Gaming? ideology? budget constraints? lack of familiarity with MacOS? They are marginally more expensive, but they also very easy to sell second-hand. I'm speculating that the monthly cost is on par with a PC.

I don't like MacOS these days, I like the idea of being able to repair my computer if something breaks, and I want the option to at least attempt data recovery if I have a drive failure.
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