Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

941–950 of 1001 posts

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

#941

Post by seuraughty »

blehn wrote: post #118

I really wanted to love the 13" Air but two things made me switch to the Pro after trying it for a few weeks. One is that the internal speakers suck in comparison to the Pro. I 'm not looking for audiophile quality from laptop speakers, but the Pro speakers are good enough for casually watching youtube videos, TV shows, podcasts, etc, whereas the Air speakers are harsh and tinny. The second is that the default resolu…

So you can get the 0.5 resolution without text aliasing (which I agree is annoying) you just get a smaller viewing area. I keep hearing complaints about aliasing on the Air, and I can respect that since the default resolution causes it, but it is fixable at the expense of reduced viewing area.

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

#942

Post by ngrilly »

LUmBULtERA wrote: post #262
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do a lot of folks actively watch media content on laptops these days? I have never really watched more than short content on that form factor. I like a bigger screen and a remote, watching anything like a movie on a laptop feels klunky.

Yeah... My wife adamantly opposes a TV in the bedroom, but watching on my laptop is not a problem =/.

I’m exactly like your wife :)

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

#943

Post by kjkjadksj »

deskamess wrote: post #770
kjkjadksj wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get open box macs from some retailers a few months after the sku releases for huge savings sometimes almost 20%. I got a mbp for like over $400 off iirc from best buy with three cycles on the battery. At that price it didn’t even make sense to go with apple refurbished.

Would it still be under the default warranty? 1 year or so?

Yup same 1 year.

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

#944

Post by kjkjadksj »

gnicholas wrote: post #254
kjkjadksj wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a 0.75lb and 0.17”difference though, you’d have to be a calibrated scale to notice that outside of side by side testing.

Framed differently: it's 37% taller and 25% heavier. In the context of laptops, this is pretty hard not to notice. I have an MBA and my wife has an MBP — the difference is very easy to see/feel.

Its not like killing you lifting a little bit more, its already so light. Its certainly appreciably much lighter than the 15 inch 2012 mac still kicking around my house. It feels easy to hold one handed even.

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

#945

Post by asyx »

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.

Gaming is a big one. Apple has now forced gaming companies twice to do work that is not necessary for a percent of their customer base. Thrice if you are picky.

The picky one is the death of Rosetta 1

Then they killed 32 bit binaries. This is the main reason the little Mac icon on steam is useless.

Then Arm processors and yet another recompile that was probably more than a recompile.

If you buy a windows machine, the last 30 or so years of gaming are available to you. And everything older can be emulated.

For me personally, it's a few things I dislike. I do computer graphics for fun. I like using OpenGL and Vulkan because it's the most accessible both in terms of audience and material available. Apple doesn't support either (OpenGL is deprecated, Vulkan only available via translation layer).

Additionally, and this is probably more problematic because I actually like Metal as an API, I don't live in the high income region of the US. I know I won't be happy with the default SSD. I know I want at least 16GB of RAM (can't run integration tests locally at work with 8). For a Windows laptop I go for 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM. But the added premium makes this really difficult. I'm in Germany so it's not like a Mac would eat up a year of my net wage but it's enough that I'd maybe rather go for the thinkpad.

And if I actually tried to get a bit more beef in my GPU and by a larger model because I think the 13 inch are a bit small, I'd probably spend 3k or 3.5k. That's a maxed out gaming laptop. Really hard to justify the price.

For my wife though? Base MBA all the way.

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

#946

Post by xcv123 »

justin66 wrote: post #211
blehn wrote: post #118

I really wanted to love the 13" Air but two things made me switch to the Pro after trying it for a few weeks. One is that the internal speakers suck in comparison to the Pro. I 'm not looking for audiophile quality from laptop speakers, but the Pro speakers are good enough for casually watching youtube videos, TV shows, podcasts, etc, whereas the Air speakers are harsh and tinny. The second is that the default resolu…

As an Air user who pretty passionately hates hearing a laptop fan, my wonderment at the quality of the Pro's audio would end the moment I heard that fan whine.

The M series laptops do not have fan noise. I have a M1-Pro 16" (personal) and M2-Pro 16" (work) and never heard the fans.

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

#947

Post by grecy »

seuraughty wrote: post #934
adrianmsmith wrote: post #872

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now I can comfortably say I'm keeping my M1 Max for a decade. That's a nice thought but the computer will probably lose security updates in the next 10 years. And that really annoys me. The press release says that the new computer is "built to last" and I'm sure that's true, physically. I have a 2015 Macbook Pro which works fine (obv. slower than a modern computer but fine for everything I need to do), it does stil…

My long-term plan is to drop a lot of money on external peripherals (monitor, speakers, etc) and then get the cheapest 16gb MacBook on sale to keep the portability option. Then I can upgrade to another cheap laptop as needed. I should’ve adopted this strategy originally.

I just bought a used M1 MBA with 16GB and 2TB for exactly this reason. $800.

It's replacing a 2015 MBP I bought used in 2019, which replaced a 2011 MBA I bought used in about 2013.

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

#948

Post by RussianCow »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #662
bombcar wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple does partially cover that market, but only via refurbished. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FGN63LL/A/refurbished-133... The thing that's really sad is that the build quality on sub $1k laptops is just such shite

> Apple does partially cover that market, but only via refurbished. That's not the same thing. If you're budget conscious then you presumably need to keep it for a long time, but now you've got a used battery and a machine that will fall out of support sooner. > The thing that's really sad is that the build quality on sub $1k laptops is just such shite The secret to this one might be refurbished Framework laptops. Su…

> If you're budget conscious then you presumably need to keep it for a long time

I don't know why you would assume this to be true. Maybe you need a new computer right now but cash is currently tight.

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

#949

Post by filoleg »

ponector wrote: post #636
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.

Few years back I had a MacBook pro 2019 and an old ultra wide LG screen with resolution 25:9 and HDMI only input. Apparently, official Apple's USB to HDMI connector cannot handle screen resolution 2560*1080 at that time. Thing that was possible at 300$ windows laptop cannot be done on 2500$ machine with 60$ connector.

I had a 2019 MBP, and it worked fine with my LG 5K ultrawide at full resolution (5120x2160).

I would check your HDMI cable (not all hdmi cables support the resolutions you want), but mine worked perfectly fine using a USB-C thunderbolt 3 cable, as well as an USB-C to DisplayPort cable.

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

#950

Post by harkinian »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #812
wlesieutre wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disregarding that there are 10 different laptop product lines to choose from, if I've already somehow decided that what I want is an XPS and I want a 13 inch screen size, my first two search results are - XPS 13 Laptop or - XPS 13 Laptop https://i.imgur.com/2SHL91Y.png I gather that one of these is a newer revision than the other, but it's a lot more confusing than "M2" and "M3". I need to know whether I want (up to)…

Isn't it the same with Apple? You choose between Air or Pro 14" or Pro 16". But then there are all the variations with different amounts of RAM, SSD, processors (M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max) And every little upgrade costs you 10X compared to a PC laptop.

There are going to be screen and components options on any laptop, and that's fine. What's weird is how many different but similar products Dell has, same with HP.

The most confusing laptop lineup Apple ever had that I remember was early 2015: MacBook, MacBook Air, Macbook Pro, and the old non-retina MBP from 2012 that they were still selling.

Post reply on HN