New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by kjkjadksj » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:05 PM UTC

pama wrote: post #15

retskrad wrote: post #3

I can't tell the difference between my new M1 Max MacBook Pro and the new M3 Max Macbook Pro. Corporations have become pros at exploiting our human psychology. Their ads can make you believe that the smallest bump in improvements will make your older computer appear useless in comparison. That's why it's for the best if you avoid ads as much as possible.

An interesting difference with the new pro models, if you want to pay around $5k, is that you can have 128Gb unified Ram in them and run inference locally with exciting LLMs.

5k for a computer with 128gb doesn’t seem like a great deal. You can get that much ddr5 today for like $400 sometimes less than that on sale.

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

#92

Post by gjsman-1000 » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:06 PM UTC

sempron64 wrote: post #69

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.

But you can also pay $400 for a number of acceptable alternatives, and about $600-$700 for a machine with a discrete GPU. It is probably the best laptop in the $1K price range for laptops that don't have a GPU, but that's basically it. The main problem with the non-Apple laptop market is that there is a mind-boggling number of confusing models, SKUs, processor/gpu variants, etc., and wildly variable physical quality…

I bought a laptop for about $600 with a GPU (RTX 3050).

The display... is not comparable. Sure, it's 144hz compared to the Mac's 60hz... but it's only 74% NTSC at 250 nits with 1080p, so the color accuracy and dim picture is distractingly bad.

And as for sleep, it's just useless. You close it with 70% at night and it's dead by morning. Supposedly the battery is the same size, but even when it's awake, the battery never makes it last more than ~2 hours. Also, that's two hours... when I'm not gaming, as I painfully learned when trying to download a Windows ISO. When I'm gaming, well, then it's shorter.

I might as well mention the thick, heavy, completely plastic construction. Feels like it will shatter from one drop. On the upside I managed to upgrade it from 8GB to 16GB... but then I'm wondering why this laptop even shipped with 8GB in the first place.

Ultimately though, it runs Windows with a basic GPU. Desktop Parametric CAD isn't coming to Mac anytime soon.

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

#93

Post by switch007 » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:07 PM UTC

switch007 wrote: post #45

£1,699 for 13" Air with M3 (8/10/16), 24GB RAM, 512GB vs £2,299 (from Costco) for 14" MBP M3 Pro (11/14/16), 36GB RAM, 512GB I'm unsure if £600 extra is worth it for average dev use? The main points I know are: better screen, speakers, fans, 12GB extra ram. But not sure about valuing those at £600. Hm (I'm making this specific comparison because I've just ordered the MBP, but could return it, and get the MBA :D)

(replying to myself)

Half the reason I'm getting is a Mac is because they're so nice to look at, so I think I really want the better screen. And the extra RAM is always nice. And I know I'll appreciate the decent speakers.

Plus it'll arrive way quicker. I think I'm happy with the MBP...

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

#94

Post by sombrero_john » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:07 PM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #88

vultour wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they have Linux integrated into the system. I'm amazed how many developers get a Macbook just to install Docker Desktop right after.

Isn't docker's filesystem performance still terrible in macox compared to linux?

Good enough for local development

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

#95

Post by Der_Einzige » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:08 PM UTC

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.

999 for a laptop with 8 gbs of ram in 2024 That's pathetic.

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

#96

Post by brigadier132 » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:09 PM UTC

kjkjadksj wrote: post #79

brigadier132 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm compiling a lot of code, my hands got sweaty because of how hot the intel macbooks got.

External keyboard and a laptop stand would have helped.

at that point why am i using a laptop?

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

#97

Post by kjkjadksj » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:09 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #50

addandsubtract wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The M2 and M3 are more evolutions of the M series. If you already have an M1 machine, there's no real need to upgrade. But if you don't, the M3 seems like a great device to get.

Depends which chips you're comparing. Eg: The M3 Max is a substantial improvement over the M2 Max in both CPU and GPU. But the M3 Pro is a moderate improvement at best compared to the M2 Pro.

Depends on your use case. Iirc all the m3 are 30% faster than m2 in single core.

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

#98

Post by justinclift » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:09 PM UTC

samatman wrote: post #85

sempron64 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can also pay $400 for a number of acceptable alternatives, and about $600-$700 for a machine with a discrete GPU. It is probably the best laptop in the $1K price range for laptops that don't have a GPU, but that's basically it. The main problem with the non-Apple laptop market is that there is a mind-boggling number of confusing models, SKUs, processor/gpu variants, etc., and wildly variable physical quality…

> But you can also pay $400 for a number of acceptable alternatives, and about $600-$700 for a machine with a discrete GPU. People love to say this without linking to a model. That's because the models in this price range are obviously not in the same weight class as a MacBook. Edit: Weight class and weight-of-laptop are not the same thing. I don't know how to explain the idiom "weight class" so that the more... lite…

Personally, I'm ok with getting 2nd hand business grade models off Ebay. They're generally pretty good (and cheap).

But a lot of people (especially the less technically inclined) will only buy brand new, which I think is for safety.

Anyway, 2nd hand laptops on Ebay can be both really good and in that price range. :)

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

#99

Post by lozenge » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:10 PM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #63

Outside of pricing, why would one buy Air vs Pro these days? I've had OG Air back in the day and tapered form factor was great. I recently was in an Apple store and looked at pro and airs.. they felt same, and also air seemed heavy (compared to ye olde tapered one). Now with Pro at 14" and Air pushing to 15".. why?

The new Air supports two external displays.. if the laptop is closed (ie internal display is off). That's a pretty big caveat.

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

#100

Post by justsomehnguy » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 5:10 PM UTC

zer0zzz wrote: post #58

elthran wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Cynic/Windows user here with a genuine question - why is this interesting? I'm currently looking at my wife's old corporate-issued windows laptop, which is running 2 external monitors as well as it's own display - am I missing something here, or is this just a case of Apple being held to different standards to other manufacturers in terms of feature parity?

It’s interesting because the whole M# line started with a smart phone and built a pc out of that. As a result it has some unfortunate restrictions that aren’t there when you build a machine out of capable yet pretty clunky intel hardware. I don’t doubt there are similar tradeoffs in the WoS world but I’m not aware of what they are specifically. The restriction I am most annoyed with these days is the lack of external…

> As a result it has some unfortunate restrictions

Ah, yes, "poor Apple couldn't find a way".

Except it did for the more pricey models.