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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

#741

Post by dbbk »

NBJack wrote: post #110
dbbk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can guarantee you that most people buying the $999 laptop have 5 Chrome tabs open and don't store files on their computer. 8GB/256GB is fine.

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…

The year is 2024, most people don't store videos, music or photos as files on their computer.

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

#742

Post by BitwiseFool »

bluecalm wrote: post #599
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…

I think ThinkPads are better than MacBooks. You can get P14 with 32gb of RAM, 1TB SSD, very fast and quiet CPU (AMD U series), decent battery, 2.8k OLED screen and it weights 1.34kg (weight between 13 inch and 15inch new Airs). It also has imo better ports and a track point. The problem is that Windows sucks more and more with every iteration and there is nothing Lenovo or other manufacturers can do about it. Lenovo…

One of my ThinkPads had a debilitating thermal throttling issue. On occasion it would inexplicably limit the CPU to .39 GHz and the fans would spin at max RPM. Yet, it wasn't hot to the touch and it hadn't been doing anything to build up any significant heat. I tried several things, but to no avail. I simply had to be issued a new ThinkPad.

I distinctly remember running a firmware update and the utility had several typos in it: "Updating fimiware". Sure it's just a status message on an installer, but I lost a lot of confidence in Lenovo's quality control that day. I have no proof but I'm sure that thermal control code was outsourced.

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

#743

Post by [deleted] »

dbbk wrote: post #741
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…

The year is 2024, most people don't store videos, music or photos as files on their computer.

[deleted]

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

#744

Post by sgarland »

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.)

While they do swap more often than one with more RAM (obviously), at least with the M1s, the SSDs are stupidly fast, to the point that you barely notice it for day-to-day work. They nerfed the SSD on M2 base models; not sure about M3.

For the record, on my base M1 Air, I generally have Safari, Spotify, and Alacritty open at any given time. I can also run Docker Desktop if necessary, although I prefer colima since I don’t need any of the bloat.

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

#745

Post by angst_ridden »

_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…

As others have said: encryption. Even before they supported full-disk encryption, I made it a habit of making yearly encrypted disk image files where I store all my financial and medical data. I open them when working on the info, close them afterwards. Even some attack that somehow bypassed disk encryption (like a browser hack or something) won't get anywhere.

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

#746

Post by sgarland »

eropple wrote: post #566
015a wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the air with non-sabotaged specs Anyone who says this has never used an 8/256 Air post-M1, and is complaining about them hypothetically. They're fine. They're fantastic computers. You can upgrade to 16/512, which puts the machine at $1500. This is $200 cheaper than a Dell XPS 14 16/512. "But the Dell has dedicated graphics" no it doesn't. "But, well, the Dell has a higher resolution display" no, its actually 1080p,…

Just checking: are you saying that the M2 and M3 make 8GB/256GB viable, or that they were for the M1 Air too? Because I had an M1 Air with 8GB of RAM for a while, and that thing was painful . I haven't had to be careful about how many tabs I had open in a browser for a long time--but I also haven't had 8GB of RAM in a long time, either.

I’ve had my base M1 since a few months after launch, and the only slowdowns I’ve experienced are when I turn on low power mode. Even then, it’s more that apps are slow to launch, not that they’re unresponsive once open.

I generally have between 4-10 tabs at any given time; how many do you have?

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

#747

Post by cbsmith »

Dah00n wrote: post #660
yodsanklai wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Lots of people doesn't see Apple laptops like you obviously do. Ask provocative questions and you'll get likewise answers. For my needs and my opinions: - The software is worse. Linux is better. Windows has much broader options. I run both. - I game. - Ideology? Yes, Apple is an awful company. - Familiarity? I have used it enough to know it cannot do a lot of things I need, want, like, etc. - Budget? Yes, but not bec…

> What is the monthly cost of a Mac that can run games, run old software I require for work and hobbies and (importantly) isn't locked down in either hardware or software so I can use it for something completely different later in life?

Yeah, the Mac model for long term use is that you sell it later in life so you can get whatever it is that you need later in life. (Not saying that it is a good thing nor a bad thing).

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

#748

Post by reaperducer »

Asmod4n wrote: post #676
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…

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.

I’ve been an Apple only user the last 20 years, but they simply lost me with the garbage they sold since 2016.

If they lost you eight years ago, then you haven't been an Apple user for the last 20 years.

Also, 2016 was eight years ago. Get over it. Or at least find an axe to grind from this decade.

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

#749

Post by meatmanek »

zarzavat wrote: post #575
jandrese wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife has been complaining to me about how she regularly gets the "choose which application to terminate" dialog on her Air. I knew in my heart that 8GB wouldn't be future proof, but I underestimated how fast it would be a problem. She pretty much just runs Safari and Libreoffice Calc too, nothing that should really tax the machine.

That sounds like she is running out of disk space, not RAM.

I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted -- macOS uses available disk space as swap, and if your disk is full (and thus has no more room for swap) then it will pop up this dialog.

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

#750

Post by threeseed »

Dah00n wrote: post #626
DinaCoder99 wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're stuck with MacOS Interesting way of thinking about probably the biggest draw of the hardware.

Depends. To me, software is the thing that will keep me from Apple products. IMO Linux and Android are light-years ahead and are becoming even further ahead every year.

> IMO Linux and Android are light-years ahead

Linux on the Desktop has finally arrived !

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