16 ms·

The 13-Inch MacBook Air

145 points by FabHK 4y ago

medionsa23 4y ago
cycomachead 4y ago
Comparing Apple Silicon and x86 as the difference between having modern plumbing or not...not exactly where I expected the review to go! Gruber's hyperboles can be entertaining for sure. But damn, I can't wait for the time for me to upgrade my Intel Macs.
- ihateolives 4y ago
  But the difference really is stark. Hard to describe, you have to try it yourself. I was lifelong win/lin user but switched over to macos just because of m1 was better in the price range than anything else. I hated my work issued 2019 intel macbook with passion but I love my m1. I suspect it's going to be a long wait until I can switch back.
- tailspin2019 4y ago
  > Gruber's hyperboles can be entertaining for sure. Perhaps Apple have finally released a device which is truly worthy of Gruber-level hyperbole!
  - cycomachead 4y ago
    Oh I think they are! Gruber is by no means alone in his praise. And the technical details are impressive. (Plus the 14" and 16" are fantastic improvements.)
- AHTERIX5000 4y ago
  Classic. Switch from Intel to M1 felt more like an upgrade from NetBurst laptop to Core series for me, a great step forward but not really groundbreaking imho.
beepbeepcabbage 4y ago
Really hope x86 virtualization/translation gets better. Love the battery life and snappiness of the 16inch model I have from work but docker and other stuff I need daily to work on x86 projects is worse than on my 2015 Razer laptop. I really would love to pick up an air for personal use though and just ssh/vnc into my Linux machines remotely
- theplumber 4y ago
  I doubt it will get better. Mosy likely the developers will start releasing native M builds
  - 4ad 4y ago
    The point of Docker is to run in development what you run in production. As long as you deploy on x86, the fact that the software can be compiled for ARM, is not that useful.
    - jen20 4y ago
      Surely the alternative is to deploy on ARM? Graviton demonstrates the benefit pretty nicely - substantially lower cost per unit of performance, and better achievable density because of less heat.
      - viraptor 4y ago
        Graviton is AWS-specific. Arm is not only still uncommon for hosting, non-AWS arm is often not that competitive. Even big names like ovh or heroku won't let you run apps on arm. (ovh only on bare metal)
        bboreham 4y ago
        Soon on Google Cloud too. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/arm-on-compute https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/arm-on-compu...
teruakohatu 4y ago
> The new M2 MacBook Air is clearly better in every regard. The price has gone up dramatically, well above inflation, at least where I live, so I would argue it is not better in every regard. For most people the M1 MacBook Air is a much better investment while Apple has them in stock.
- newsclues 4y ago
  If you are judging based on price and inflation continues to go up, the value will stabilize or improve.
- throw0101a 4y ago
  > The price has gone up dramatically, well above inflation, at least where I live […] Where do you live? Currency value changes perhaps?
  - Macha 4y ago
    It's €1599 here for the M2 air, compared to €1229 for the M1 air. This is compared to US prices of $999 and $1199. The euro has weakened relative to the dollar for sure, but that's as much driven by the dollar being relatively strong and let's be real, most of apple's costs are in yuan anyway. And also the difference between $1 = €0.90 and $1 = €1 is not sufficient to account for a 25% increase in costs. If Macs were already low-margin items you could say it's just adding in padding for future currency movement that had been diminished over a longer time period (say 5 years ago when $1 = €0.80), but it's not like they are low-margin.
    - reaperducer 4y ago
      Don't think of it as a 25% difference. Think of it as a 15% difference, since in many places, Americans will also have to pay up to 10.5% sales tax.
    - least 4y ago
      Is VAT included in that markup or is that an additional cost? In the US, we don't have VAT, though most states do have Sales Tax which is not included in the price of the device.
janandonly 4y ago
My daily driver is a MacBook Air M1, with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB NVME. It really is the perfect laptop. While I see other working on big old and clunky laptops (usually Dell or Thinkpad) that basically need to be hooked up to a power cord, my laptop will nicely purr away for two days before it needs a recharge. To be honest, I usually work in Word and Excel (I think Pages is a joke for serious writing) and I don't do anything very strenuous, but then again, neither do they. I actually think that, to this day, the M1 MacBook Air is a better choice than the M2. Why? Because the M2 is a lot more expensive to be similarly fast. It needs the 512 GB SSD (actually NVME): Lastly, there’s the kerfuffle over the fact that SSD read and write performance is slower with the 256 GB configuration, because it uses just a single NAND chip, whereas all other storage configurations use multiple NAND chips. It costs $200 to upgrade the base model to 512 GB storage. None of these are dealbreakers to me, just minor details to be aware of if you’re eying the $1,200 base model. It’s best, in my opinion, to consider the $1,500 configuration as the true base model (10 GPUs, full-speed SSD performance, and the new 35-watt charger), and to consider the $1,200 configuration something more like the “discount” configuration.
- Synaesthesia 4y ago
  You certainly don't need the slightly faster SSD, I bet most people would never notice the difference.
  - bigDinosaur 4y ago
    They shouldn't be offering 256GB on the base model given the price rise (arguably at all, even on the M1 MBA). Let alone making it slower by default.
    - theplumber 4y ago
      They want you to buy more cloud services/storage.
      - votepaunchy 4y ago
Synaesthesia 4y ago
Apple should make a MacBook Air 15", and a smaller laptop like the MacBook 12". With the Apple Silicon, it would be perfect.
- 4ad 4y ago
  Yeah, I really hope they do release a laptop smaller than the 13-inch Air. My 12 inch Macbook was my favorite laptop ever. For comparison, the 11-inch iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard is significantly heavier and bulkier than the 12-inch Macbook. Hell, it's the same weight as this 13-inch M2 Macbook Air, but more bulky and more annoying and more restrictive (iOS vs. macOS).
  - Synaesthesia 4y ago
    Yeah I'm not really sure why they haven't made it, should be a no-brainer with the M1, which they put into an iPad ... Maybe they don't want to canabalize iPad sales or something.
  - tailspin2019 4y ago
    > My 12 inch Macbook was my favorite laptop ever If Apple could make a case back in the day to build that underpowered/overheating Intel-based 12-inch MacBook, you'd think the case would be pretty strong now to bring it back as an M-powered device. That awesome small form-factor based on M-generation chips would likely be a superb machine. The 12-inch was ahead of its time - it really needed an M1/M2 chip in it!
nbzso 4y ago
Silicon M1 or M2 processors cannot natively connect more than one external monitor. Apple?
- danaris 4y ago
  All this means is that if you need this, you need to get one of their computers with a Pro or Max chip. Most people I know who are not developers or visual artists have no need for more than one external display. (Hell, most have no need for even one external display!) Back when the M1 was first out, and the Pro and Max hadn't yet been announced, it was somewhat legitimate to be concerned with this drawback, because it wasn't yet guaranteed that there would be an alternative. Now, it's very clear that Apple has no problem supporting this; it's just not in their entry-level chip. This seems, to me, like a perfectly reasonable tradeoff.
  - hendersoon 4y ago
    Everybody at my IT company other than the front desk has two monitors, even the suits and sales guys. This is not a reasonable tradeoff, as it invalidates the MBA for us.
    - 2-718-281-828 4y ago
      Everybody has it b/c it turned into a status symbol at your company - doesn't mean everybody actually needs it.
      - hendersoon 4y ago
        Do you use multiple monitors? Do you really need them, or could you do without? I could do without too, but I'm not going to! They're productivity tools, not status symbols. Monitors are extremely inexpensive, assuming you don't buy Apple's.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      It's really annoying as the M1 Mini can drive two external monitors (it has no internal) so the M1 Air in clamshell mode should be able to drive two externals, but it can't. I can't give up my four externals (+ the laptop screen itself) so my Intel MBP will soldier on until I get a Pro.
W0lf 4y ago
I still cannot fathom how one can take anything seriously when it comes to the author talking about Apple, given his biased opinion regardless. Maybe it's just this irrational and unconditional excitement. In any case my mind just has problems with this setting, every time an article from Gruber comes up here, even though I own lots of Apple products myself and quite like them. Yeah, I think it really is the lack of objectivity that just makes me feel uncomfortable reading his stuff. Your mileage may vary though.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- dilap 4y ago
  He loves Apple for sure, but he's definitely honest and calls out the problems as he sees them. E.g., he trashed the camera of the Studio Display. And Gruber's attention to the little details is unrivaled. What other reviewer is going to notice and call out Apple's keyboard for getting shiny over time because of the particular kind of plastic they use?
- 4ad 4y ago
  People read Gruber precisely for his subjective insight, not for objective reviews.
  - W0lf 4y ago
    Right, but the entropy is literally zero in my opinion.
- seydor 4y ago
  Apple ads have always been popular. Their marketing surpasses that of fashion, cars etc.
- _ph_ 4y ago
  I think there are no unbiased opinions. With every reviewer, you have to know that person and take that persons perspective in mind. Just depending what your typical usage szenario is, can make a huge impact on a review. With Gruber, I do think he is honest. His strength is, that he can give a good view, what might have been the reasons for the design decisions Apple took - as any device is the consequence of design decisions. Of course, he also has a ton of experience in the Mac world, so he can very well compare to all the other Mac models.
PebblesHD 4y ago
Having swapped from my beloved 15” 2013 MBP to a slightly tarted up M1 14”, I have to say how impressed I’ve been with just about everything. Most of my work can be done from native Apple silicon apps which feel refreshingly snappy and result in just incredible battery life, and even when I’m running x86 apps in rosetta, it feels faster than my old i7 machine. The thing is still build like a tank, the screen is amazing, the speakers sound great when I use it for music in various hotel rooms, I really do love it as a tool. I was similarly impressed with the M2 air I’ve bought my partner. Its fast, weighs nothing, and feels really solid. The minor imperfections with the notch and such fade into the background when using it, same as they do on my pro. If I had any issues, its that running a Windows VM feels like a dodgy trick when I need to, as they still don’t license it legitimately. For Apple’s part, they seem to have made a very solid machine for people who just want a good computer to do work on. Of course, if you depend on Windows software, it’s not going to be for you, and I feel like the world lost its best windows laptop when bootcamp died, but thats only my opinion. I hope one day the Dells and HPs of the world can make machines that feel as solid as the Macs, but over the years I’ve always regretted buying XPSs and Omens because they just didn’t quite make the bar.
- bergenty 4y ago
  Yep, loved having both OSs on the same laptop and a solid MacBook at that.
dinom 4y ago
The article states "There is no catch"... but if I'm not mistaken I'll need to run Apple's operating system, is that right? As much as I like the salacious hardware, that would be a reasonably sized "catch" in my book :-( Or am I wrong; is there an official way to run GNU/Linux as the main operating system?
- gorgoiler 4y ago
  I don’t pretend that this is the answer you want, but Docker for macOS these days is incredible and it gives you a native Linux experience like nothing else, at least in terms of doing command line hacking. It is extremely fast. If you want a full GNU system then it’s a less attractive route.
  - endorphine 4y ago
    My co-workers on M1 Macs constantly face issues with Docker, whether it's filesystem performanc, regressions after every other upgrade or requiring a restart because something just reaches an unrecoverable condition.
    - greymalik 4y ago
      It might not be the M1. I face the same issues with Docker on my MBP.
    - sdflhasjd 4y ago
      I would say docker for macOS has always fallen significantly short of "incredible" and it's even worse on M1.
- _ph_ 4y ago
  There is. Apple does not restrict you from booting into other operations, they actually have even slightly improved the ability to do so over time on the ARM Macs. The catch is to get another OS which supports your hardware. With Linux, it actually looks good, the Asahi Linux project (https://asahilinux.org/ https://asahilinux.org/) is making great strides, you can install it on ARM Macs, the biggest drawback currently is, that while there is GUI support, it isn't accellerated yet. But it seems, that even the CPU rendered UIs are faster than the GPU on a Raspberry Pi. GPU support for Asahi Linux is making good progress too, so I expect something not too far into the future.
dmitriid 4y ago
My reaction to this was: $1200 machine: - slow, low capacity SSD - non-native scaled resolution - only one external display support - cheap plastic in keyboard keys - old charger "The best laptop, this is what Apple thinks the best laptop is" It's still, without a doubt, a great machine. But the amount of corner-cutting in an otherwise premium laptop is inexcusable.
- avidphantasm 4y ago
  It’s not a premium laptop, it is an entry-level Mac, which amounts to a mid-level PC, except PCs don’t have AppleSilicon, so this can best high-level PCs in some regards.
  - dmitriid 4y ago
    > It’s not a premium laptop, it is an entry-level Mac As if those two things are mutually exclusive.
  - dividedbyzero 4y ago
    An entry level laptop at that price point definitely is a premium product. It happens to be plenty powerful, but what most people will probably do on it would work just as well on a machine less than half the price. I'd put it in the luxury segment of laptop computers, which is why Apple can get away with the markup. You're not just buying the hardware metrics, you're also buying a design, aesthetics, finish and status. Yes, a Macbook signals status in lots of places, most people aren't SV software engineers (and even there, not getting the option may be perceived as a loss of status).
    - avidphantasm 4y ago
      You are also buying a machine that will last substantially longer than most PCs costing less. If you can afford them, Macs are usually more cost-effective in the long run. I guess that makes it premium, but it’s not a high-end machine.
      - 4y ago
amelius 4y ago
> There is no catch. The catch is that the competition is falling behind. One way or another this will give Apple power they will use against you, the customer (and perhaps developer).
dlkf 4y ago
> The ideal everyperson computer is a laptop. That laptop has a full-sized keyboard and a beautiful 13-inch display. Maybe a 14-inch display with really small bezels. A smaller display is too small for most people’s taste (and possibly necessitates a slightly cramped keyboard); a larger display makes for too big and heavy a device for everyperson needs. This may be true but I really wish it weren’t. 15”-16” is the sweet spot for me.
endorphine 4y ago
No mention of the value-for-money of the M2. In my opinion this should be a factor when you decide if this is the "best laptop" out there. I've read elsewhere (can't find it now) that the M1 Pro is a better deal, in terms of value-for-money. There _is_ catch: cost. It's pretty expensive if you want the 512GB/16GB version.
endorphine 4y ago
Do you people think Linux on Apple Silicon will become a thing? I'm following Asahi - I guess what I'm trying to say is: do you believe this pipe dream will become true? If there's Linux support on M1/M2 that's on par with Lenovo's laptops, this will be my dream setup.
- e-clinton 4y ago
  Linux x86 has a hard time consistently supporting drivers of popular hardware (WIFI, for example). I doubt ARM will ever be a thing for consumer systems, let alone Apple silicon.
  - beninsydney 4y ago
    I don't think it's likely any time soon but forcing Apple etc to provide drivers would be a pretty natural extension of the 'right to repair' and other tech regulation demanding interoperability, to guarantee M1/M2/etc devices remain useful beyond their years of macOS support.
  - _ph_ 4y ago
    I wouldn't say so. The nice thing about the Apple Silicon seems to be, that the hardware is pretty constant. So once WIFI works, it should continue to work, maybe with minor tweaks on each generation. Lenovo just announced an ARM laptop too, and I got the impression that they are officially planning for Linux support.
- Mandatum 4y ago
  There’s a lot of ground being covered and I feel like as soon as we have a semi reliable setup that Apple devs are going to switch to, they’ll see a flood of open source and hardcore nerds switch to Macs just because it’s common hardware that will make Linux on the laptop just fucking work.
  - cersa8 4y ago
    They are not keen on becoming a hardware only vendor and I expect pushback when alternative OS's gain traction on Apple Silicon.
endorphine 4y ago
Would you go for the 16GB or 24GB setup? I'm currently on Linux doing web dev stuff (Go and Node).
- viraptor 4y ago
  The memory usage won't change massively, so check your current usage for a good idea. Just remember to ignore the buffers / cache usage.
franciscop 4y ago
> Basically, there are millions of people whose computing needs would be more than met by the MacBook Air but who feel like they probably need a slightly thicker laptop with a fan on the inside and the word “Pro” stamped on the outside Something interesting, is that in both my current and previous employers I specifically asked for the Macbook Air instead of the Pro, and in both cases I received a big overpowered machine that is a drag to take around. In the world of remote working, and for the front-end I do I have way more than enough with the Macbook Air m1/m2.
- viraptor 4y ago
  Is the whole company getting the same? The reason could be that they can easily get it back if you quit and give it to someone else, or have a common replacement ready when your laptop dies.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    This is likely the reason - companies that are large enough to have someone "handling" the computers will order batches of standard configurations. Maybe one or two at the most - even if they don't order them all at once they'll want to get the same across the board. Smaller companies that basically expense the laptop and "give" it to the employee to keep even if they leave will often be less rigorous.
- ghaff 4y ago
  I find it somewhat amusing when people talk about a sub-3 pound machine (which a 13/14" MacBook Pro is) as big :-) They're very portable laptops by any historical measure.
  - franciscop 4y ago
    Agreed! But by any historical measure traveling and remote working with a single backpack was a no-go, people would carry luggage around if they also brought their computer/laptop or go to a local workplace. If you carry a single backpack, don't overload in tech and go all usb-c those extra cubic cm and weight of the air vs the pro do add up! Edit: I also got versions of the pro larger than 13 inch!
rr808 4y ago
Can we get a bigger screen Air? I'm well over six foot and these Apple devices are way too small, they look built for middle school kids or petite people. Working on these tiny screens and keyboards seems like cruel punishment.
- bbx 4y ago
  The Air is probably too thin to not become too fragile in bigger sizes. Just get a MacBook Pro in 14 or 16.
- lancesells 4y ago
  Honest question. Does screen size matter for larger people? I would understand keyboard, trackpad, etc. But is your FOV markedly different or is it the center of the screen is too low on your working surface?
  - pharmakom 4y ago
    Further away on a standard size desk Bulk is less of a concern because other things (like rucksacks) can be scaled up.
jmyeet 4y ago
I don't really need a laptop at the moment. If I did I'd buy an M2 MBA in a heartbeat. I'm really pleased to see the return of the MBA. From 2011 it was really the perfect laptop with a good compromise of size, performance and cost. But it languished for years just needing a Retina display upgrade and then it got killed by the awful 12" Macbook in Johnny Ive's crusade for thinness at all cost (which also brought us the terrible butterfly keyboard to save 0.5mm). But Johnny Ive is gone (yay!). The only issue I've seen people talk about is thermal throttling under high loads. Given that the RAM is shared with the GPU then 8GB in the base model seems low. I think I also read there's a difference in the SSD between the base model and the upgraded model?
- oskr 4y ago
  Yeah the base model's SSD are slower
cehrlich 4y ago
It seems like a fantastic laptop, but for people who are just buying one for themselves (vs 100+ for a corporate fleet) I don't think it's a great value proposition right now. A base model M1 MacBook Air can be bought refurb from Apple for $850, a much more palatable price than the $1200 for the base M2 model. On the other hand, if you add 16GB RAM to the high end M2 Air, it's only $300 less than the 14" MacBook Pro, which is a much nicer computer in pretty much every aspect except weight.
- ant6n 4y ago
  > On the other hand, if you add 16GB RAM to the high end M2 Air, it's only $300 less than the 14" MacBook Pro, which is a much nicer computer in pretty much every aspect except weight. …and it’s not fanless.
  - pythonaut_16 4y ago
    My experience with a 16" M1 MacBook Pro is that the fans don't come on unless I'm running games anyway. You could likely achieve an essentially "fanless" experience on the 14" M1 Macbook Pro as on the Air.
lvl102 4y ago
Apple really needs to step up and help with Linux port on these ARM machines. That could get a lot more developers to buy-in.
- viraptor 4y ago
  What would be the gain for Apple? Currently a lot of Linux devs are already using macs and some are motivated enough to do the porting without any cost to Apple.
  - intrasight 4y ago
    The gain would be selling A LOT more products. There are lots of folks like me that love the hardware but hate the crappy OS. Most Mac users I know are either a) iOS app developers, b) remoting in to some other system, c) running a Windows VM. Give me a solid Linux machine and I'd buy a Mac in a heartbeat.
    - viraptor 4y ago
      I'd say the idea that there are enough devs who haven't got a mac and would want to buy it with Linux to offset the development cost and actually get profit... needs some data. I'm one of them, but it feels like "there's dozens of us... dozens!"
dann0 4y ago
I find it amusing that Intel MacBooks were slammed for being overpriced compared to Windows and Linux boxes, but now Mn Macs are being smashed for not running Windows or Linux. No one is forcing you to buy a Mac. Just buy the machine that best suits you and enjoy all the money you’ll save.
sgt101 4y ago
actually the notch on my pro is a pain in the arse because MacOS hides icons in the menu bar behind it.
- Braini 4y ago
  I am really wondering if/when this is getting fixed, really strange that it is still happening.
- Tagbert 4y ago
  Those icons often get out of control if you have a lot of apps. Even without the notch. I have been using Bartender for years for this reason. It lets you hide most app icons that only appear when you mouseover the menubar. It is a great tool. There are alternatives, like Dozer, if you don’t like to pay for software like Bartender.
etempleton 4y ago
The Air is just about the perfect laptop for most people. The only thing for me is the lack of support for two external displays. I never thought I would be a person that would opt for the lower power option, but the Air never feels slow.
e-clinton 4y ago
This[0] is probably the most honest review I've seen for this new computer [0] https://www.wired.com/review/apple-macbook-air-13-inch-2022/ https://www.wired.com/review/apple-macbook-air-13-inch-2022/
_ph_ 4y ago
I took delivery of mine yesterday morning and I absolutely adore it. I have to fully agree with what Gruber wrote. If you are looking for a compact, very mobile solution, the Air is exactly designed for that and leaves little to be desired. Apple should add another display unit to the M3 processor, but it isn't a problem for me - I could have had a 14" MB Pro for little more, as it was on sale on Amazon, but I went for the Air to have the more portable solution. I also quite liked the idea of not haven any fan in my computer. I still remember the times when computers for private usage didn't have fans yet.
- D13Fd 4y ago
  > I still remember the times when computers for private usage didn't have fans yet. What time was that? I remember fans going waaaay back, at least to the 386 days. Maybe the 286 days.
  - _ph_ 4y ago
    Well, that was the time, when home computers ruled the world :) Like the C64, the Amiga 500, the Atari ST. The very first ARM computer, the archimedes. Indeed, PCs always had fans, were big and noisy. But home computers, you just switched on.
  - Tagbert 4y ago
    During the days of the Commodore 64, Atari, and some others (early to mid 80’s) those devices did not have fans.
    - _ph_ 4y ago
      Some did into the early 90ies. Mind you, PCs at that time had a fan in the power supply but not on the CPU. My mother had a 486/33, that didn't even had a heat sink on the CPU.
haunter 4y ago
Love the hardware, wish I can run other another OS on it
benreesman 4y ago
If I want one of these things badly enough to pay extra to have it now (i.e. I could expense it) what’s the move? Everybody from Apple to Amazon is showing this as like a month waiting list. Where’s the secondary market?
- Tagbert 4y ago
  You could try to go to an Apple store and see if they have any of them in stock. You might get lucky. They typically stock the 8/256 and maybe 8/512 in the store. Not sure if any of them will stock a 16GB model.
nanook 4y ago
I wish apple would put a damn 5G chip on their laptops! It makes no sense that you can get a 12.9" iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular but not a 13" MBA Wi-Fi + Cellular. Sure, battery life might take a bit of a hit but I like that compromise more than needing to fret about my phone's battery levels because of the extra drain from tethering.
- zuhsetaqi 4y ago
  I think this will come when they have in house 5G chip, which they’re working on since they bought Intels department. They’re currently relying on Qulacom on the iPhone/iPad
- Tagbert 4y ago
  Apple is currently developing their own cellular modem chips. The expectation is that once they have their own chips, they will use them in most of their products, including the laptops. They supposedly had a setback this year and the program is delayed by another year or so.
- RL_Quine 4y ago
  It's clearly on their mind, there was a prototype macbook from 2012 or so that had a 3G modem built into it.
rwalle 4y ago
> it was underpowered because a thin, fan-less, high-performance laptop was and remains an impossible dream for the x86 computing architecture Eh, Surface Pro (i3/i5 before 8th gen), anyone? From what I heard the machine is very usable -- in fact a daily driver for many people. Is it fair to blame the failure of one Apple product on an entire CPU architecture?
- Terretta 4y ago
  > From what I heard the machine is very usable ... Ah, so you didn't own it as your own daily driver. Our bank, and other banks, outfitted branch VPs with Surface Pros (least worst option among a dozen trialed). Across banks (so not unique to a given IT department's config) they mostly ended up in bottom drawers or stuck tethered to the desks by charging cables, proving essentially useless unplugged and woefully underpowered regardless of power state. Turns out even an x86 MBA running bootcamp was a better option. And then turned out that by using corporate apps in Microsoft Edge, a MBA running MacOS, managed by JAMF or inTune, ran anything branch employees needed better, longer, and with a fraction of the support tickets.
  - woojoo666 4y ago
    Can't speak for the other commenter, but I personally used it as a daily driver for over 5 years, and casual use for another 3. Used it for programming, art, writing, light gaming, and even some blender. The surface pros are a great line of products, and even after 8 years the battery is still surprisingly good compared to other laptops I've seen.
    - Terretta 4y ago
      I owned a couple as well. They were the least worst.
- BearOso 4y ago
  It's not even the architecture. It's the fact that Intel was stuck on 14nm for a decade. Apple also paid for the pick of the litter from TSMC, so they're always a step ahead of everyone else. Current AMD mobile processors are very power efficient. Intel's foundries will catch up eventually, too.
dominotw 4y ago
i am in the market for a laptop for kid going to college this fall to study CS. I am hoping m2 air to be the one but i am not sure if the screen size will be too small or if its going to be under powered for CS work.
- Tagbert 4y ago
  Definitely not underpowered for CS work. The screen is typical for a 13” laptop but the detail is good and your kid’s eyes will probably be fine with higher resolution settings. They may want an external monitor at their home/apt. A 24” 4K monitor is not expensive. I would recommend the 16GB RAM upgrade, though. This would be a very good monitor for a student of nearly any type. It is small and lightweight. The processor is more powerful than most other laptops with an Intel processor. The battery will last for many hours. The only real downside is that there are not a lot of video games available for Macs. If they don’t care about that, this it a really good choice.
  - 988747 4y ago
    > A 24” 4K monitor is not expensive. Do they even make such thing? There are no 4K monitors under 27" available in my country.
    - Tagbert 4y ago
      This is an LG 24” 4K for $280. I don’t know if it is any good but it is available. I only mentioned the 24” as they might not want the larger monitor in a dorm or small apt. https://www.amazon.com/LG-24UD58-B-24-Inch-Monitor-FreeSync/dp/B01LPNKFK0/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1MQJPX8O2K3UC&keywords=Monitor%2B4K%2B24”&qid=1658022943&sprefix=monitor%2B4k%2B24%2B%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-3&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/LG-24UD58-B-24-Inch-Monitor-FreeSync/...
Tsiklon 4y ago
I recently bought a 14" Pro - fantastic machine, but I would be wrong to say that I wasn't very very tempted by the m2 Air. My one need that the Air didn't fill is to drive two external monitors. For me - everything else - is absolutely catered for in the Air. It'll be a perfect machine for my partner who has no desire or need for that.
gnicholas 4y ago
I bought one of these on launch day. The only thing I wish it had was an SD card slot. People with oodles of cash can scratch this itch by upgrading to the 2TB SSD, but for the rest of us it's a pricey tradeoff.
- geerlingguy 4y ago
  I'd love an SD card slot so I can offload footage/pictures from cameras... at least they added that back on the Pro models. The 13" Air had it, for a few years :(
  - gnicholas 4y ago
    Yes, the glory days of nice keyboards and SD slots! At least the keyboard issue has been fixed...
cloudkilla 4y ago
Apple: I would love to see an improved key material. Synthetic ivory is a thing: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352940721000810 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235294072... ( But glass or ceramic might be nice, too! )
- qzw 4y ago
  Heck, why not go with lab grown sapphire like they oringinally planned to with the Apple Watch.
stakkur 4y ago
I still hold that the M1 is still a better choice. The M2 is slick, but it’s not a meaningful upgrade, all things considered. The M1 Air just got everything right.
lizardactivist 4y ago
Premium computers at a tripple-premium price.
stereoradonc 4y ago
Look Ma! No ports! You'd junk so much money for no ports, and then junk a lot of money to buy "accessories"? It's self defeating argument.
badkarma1963 4y ago
I would consider an air over pro but screen size is too small for me. I dislike the thickness on the new macbook pros
karakot 4y ago
I want 12" M1 or M2 so bad, I have M1 Air and it's an awesome laptop, but I'd change it for 12" in a heartbeat.

145 points by FabHK 4y ago

Comparing Apple Silicon and x86 as the difference between having modern plumbing or not...not exactly where I expected the review to go! Gruber's hyperboles can be entertaining for sure. But damn, I can't wait for the time for me to upgrade my Intel Macs.

ihateolives 4y ago
But the difference really is stark. Hard to describe, you have to try it yourself. I was lifelong win/lin user but switched over to macos just because of m1 was better in the price range than anything else. I hated my work issued 2019 intel macbook with passion but I love my m1. I suspect it's going to be a long wait until I can switch back.
tailspin2019 4y ago
> Gruber's hyperboles can be entertaining for sure. Perhaps Apple have finally released a device which is truly worthy of Gruber-level hyperbole!
- cycomachead 4y ago
  Oh I think they are! Gruber is by no means alone in his praise. And the technical details are impressive. (Plus the 14" and 16" are fantastic improvements.)
AHTERIX5000 4y ago
Classic. Switch from Intel to M1 felt more like an upgrade from NetBurst laptop to Core series for me, a great step forward but not really groundbreaking imho.

beepbeepcabbage 4y ago

Really hope x86 virtualization/translation gets better. Love the battery life and snappiness of the 16inch model I have from work but docker and other stuff I need daily to work on x86 projects is worse than on my 2015 Razer laptop. I really would love to pick up an air for personal use though and just ssh/vnc into my Linux machines remotely

theplumber 4y ago
I doubt it will get better. Mosy likely the developers will start releasing native M builds
- 4ad 4y ago
  The point of Docker is to run in development what you run in production. As long as you deploy on x86, the fact that the software can be compiled for ARM, is not that useful.
  - jen20 4y ago
    Surely the alternative is to deploy on ARM? Graviton demonstrates the benefit pretty nicely - substantially lower cost per unit of performance, and better achievable density because of less heat.
    - viraptor 4y ago
      Graviton is AWS-specific. Arm is not only still uncommon for hosting, non-AWS arm is often not that competitive. Even big names like ovh or heroku won't let you run apps on arm. (ovh only on bare metal)
      - bboreham 4y ago
        Soon on Google Cloud too. https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/arm-on-compute https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/arm-on-compu...

teruakohatu 4y ago

> The new M2 MacBook Air is clearly better in every regard. The price has gone up dramatically, well above inflation, at least where I live, so I would argue it is not better in every regard. For most people the M1 MacBook Air is a much better investment while Apple has them in stock.

newsclues 4y ago
If you are judging based on price and inflation continues to go up, the value will stabilize or improve.
throw0101a 4y ago
> The price has gone up dramatically, well above inflation, at least where I live […] Where do you live? Currency value changes perhaps?
- Macha 4y ago
  It's €1599 here for the M2 air, compared to €1229 for the M1 air. This is compared to US prices of $999 and $1199. The euro has weakened relative to the dollar for sure, but that's as much driven by the dollar being relatively strong and let's be real, most of apple's costs are in yuan anyway. And also the difference between $1 = €0.90 and $1 = €1 is not sufficient to account for a 25% increase in costs. If Macs were already low-margin items you could say it's just adding in padding for future currency movement that had been diminished over a longer time period (say 5 years ago when $1 = €0.80), but it's not like they are low-margin.
  - reaperducer 4y ago
    Don't think of it as a 25% difference. Think of it as a 15% difference, since in many places, Americans will also have to pay up to 10.5% sales tax.
  - least 4y ago
    Is VAT included in that markup or is that an additional cost? In the US, we don't have VAT, though most states do have Sales Tax which is not included in the price of the device.

janandonly 4y ago

My daily driver is a MacBook Air M1, with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB NVME. It really is the perfect laptop. While I see other working on big old and clunky laptops (usually Dell or Thinkpad) that basically need to be hooked up to a power cord, my laptop will nicely purr away for two days before it needs a recharge. To be honest, I usually work in Word and Excel (I think Pages is a joke for serious writing) and I don't do anything very strenuous, but then again, neither do they. I actually think that, to this day, the M1 MacBook Air is a better choice than the M2. Why? Because the M2 is a lot more expensive to be similarly fast. It needs the 512 GB SSD (actually NVME): Lastly, there’s the kerfuffle over the fact that SSD read and write performance is slower with the 256 GB configuration, because it uses just a single NAND chip, whereas all other storage configurations use multiple NAND chips. It costs $200 to upgrade the base model to 512 GB storage. None of these are dealbreakers to me, just minor details to be aware of if you’re eying the $1,200 base model. It’s best, in my opinion, to consider the $1,500 configuration as the true base model (10 GPUs, full-speed SSD performance, and the new 35-watt charger), and to consider the $1,200 configuration something more like the “discount” configuration.

Synaesthesia 4y ago
You certainly don't need the slightly faster SSD, I bet most people would never notice the difference.
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  They shouldn't be offering 256GB on the base model given the price rise (arguably at all, even on the M1 MBA). Let alone making it slower by default.
  - theplumber 4y ago
    They want you to buy more cloud services/storage.
    - votepaunchy 4y ago

Synaesthesia 4y ago

Apple should make a MacBook Air 15", and a smaller laptop like the MacBook 12". With the Apple Silicon, it would be perfect.

4ad 4y ago
Yeah, I really hope they do release a laptop smaller than the 13-inch Air. My 12 inch Macbook was my favorite laptop ever. For comparison, the 11-inch iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard is significantly heavier and bulkier than the 12-inch Macbook. Hell, it's the same weight as this 13-inch M2 Macbook Air, but more bulky and more annoying and more restrictive (iOS vs. macOS).
- Synaesthesia 4y ago
  Yeah I'm not really sure why they haven't made it, should be a no-brainer with the M1, which they put into an iPad ... Maybe they don't want to canabalize iPad sales or something.
- tailspin2019 4y ago
  > My 12 inch Macbook was my favorite laptop ever If Apple could make a case back in the day to build that underpowered/overheating Intel-based 12-inch MacBook, you'd think the case would be pretty strong now to bring it back as an M-powered device. That awesome small form-factor based on M-generation chips would likely be a superb machine. The 12-inch was ahead of its time - it really needed an M1/M2 chip in it!

nbzso 4y ago

Silicon M1 or M2 processors cannot natively connect more than one external monitor. Apple?

danaris 4y ago
All this means is that if you need this, you need to get one of their computers with a Pro or Max chip. Most people I know who are not developers or visual artists have no need for more than one external display. (Hell, most have no need for even one external display!) Back when the M1 was first out, and the Pro and Max hadn't yet been announced, it was somewhat legitimate to be concerned with this drawback, because it wasn't yet guaranteed that there would be an alternative. Now, it's very clear that Apple has no problem supporting this; it's just not in their entry-level chip. This seems, to me, like a perfectly reasonable tradeoff.
- hendersoon 4y ago
  Everybody at my IT company other than the front desk has two monitors, even the suits and sales guys. This is not a reasonable tradeoff, as it invalidates the MBA for us.
  - 2-718-281-828 4y ago
    Everybody has it b/c it turned into a status symbol at your company - doesn't mean everybody actually needs it.
    - hendersoon 4y ago
      Do you use multiple monitors? Do you really need them, or could you do without? I could do without too, but I'm not going to! They're productivity tools, not status symbols. Monitors are extremely inexpensive, assuming you don't buy Apple's.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    It's really annoying as the M1 Mini can drive two external monitors (it has no internal) so the M1 Air in clamshell mode should be able to drive two externals, but it can't. I can't give up my four externals (+ the laptop screen itself) so my Intel MBP will soldier on until I get a Pro.

W0lf 4y ago

I still cannot fathom how one can take anything seriously when it comes to the author talking about Apple, given his biased opinion regardless. Maybe it's just this irrational and unconditional excitement. In any case my mind just has problems with this setting, every time an article from Gruber comes up here, even though I own lots of Apple products myself and quite like them. Yeah, I think it really is the lack of objectivity that just makes me feel uncomfortable reading his stuff. Your mileage may vary though.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dilap 4y ago
He loves Apple for sure, but he's definitely honest and calls out the problems as he sees them. E.g., he trashed the camera of the Studio Display. And Gruber's attention to the little details is unrivaled. What other reviewer is going to notice and call out Apple's keyboard for getting shiny over time because of the particular kind of plastic they use?
4ad 4y ago
People read Gruber precisely for his subjective insight, not for objective reviews.
- W0lf 4y ago
  Right, but the entropy is literally zero in my opinion.
seydor 4y ago
Apple ads have always been popular. Their marketing surpasses that of fashion, cars etc.
_ph_ 4y ago
I think there are no unbiased opinions. With every reviewer, you have to know that person and take that persons perspective in mind. Just depending what your typical usage szenario is, can make a huge impact on a review. With Gruber, I do think he is honest. His strength is, that he can give a good view, what might have been the reasons for the design decisions Apple took - as any device is the consequence of design decisions. Of course, he also has a ton of experience in the Mac world, so he can very well compare to all the other Mac models.

PebblesHD 4y ago

Having swapped from my beloved 15” 2013 MBP to a slightly tarted up M1 14”, I have to say how impressed I’ve been with just about everything. Most of my work can be done from native Apple silicon apps which feel refreshingly snappy and result in just incredible battery life, and even when I’m running x86 apps in rosetta, it feels faster than my old i7 machine. The thing is still build like a tank, the screen is amazing, the speakers sound great when I use it for music in various hotel rooms, I really do love it as a tool. I was similarly impressed with the M2 air I’ve bought my partner. Its fast, weighs nothing, and feels really solid. The minor imperfections with the notch and such fade into the background when using it, same as they do on my pro. If I had any issues, its that running a Windows VM feels like a dodgy trick when I need to, as they still don’t license it legitimately. For Apple’s part, they seem to have made a very solid machine for people who just want a good computer to do work on. Of course, if you depend on Windows software, it’s not going to be for you, and I feel like the world lost its best windows laptop when bootcamp died, but thats only my opinion. I hope one day the Dells and HPs of the world can make machines that feel as solid as the Macs, but over the years I’ve always regretted buying XPSs and Omens because they just didn’t quite make the bar.

bergenty 4y ago
Yep, loved having both OSs on the same laptop and a solid MacBook at that.

dinom 4y ago

The article states "There is no catch"... but if I'm not mistaken I'll need to run Apple's operating system, is that right? As much as I like the salacious hardware, that would be a reasonably sized "catch" in my book :-( Or am I wrong; is there an official way to run GNU/Linux as the main operating system?

gorgoiler 4y ago
I don’t pretend that this is the answer you want, but Docker for macOS these days is incredible and it gives you a native Linux experience like nothing else, at least in terms of doing command line hacking. It is extremely fast. If you want a full GNU system then it’s a less attractive route.
- endorphine 4y ago
  My co-workers on M1 Macs constantly face issues with Docker, whether it's filesystem performanc, regressions after every other upgrade or requiring a restart because something just reaches an unrecoverable condition.
  - greymalik 4y ago
    It might not be the M1. I face the same issues with Docker on my MBP.
  - sdflhasjd 4y ago
    I would say docker for macOS has always fallen significantly short of "incredible" and it's even worse on M1.
_ph_ 4y ago
There is. Apple does not restrict you from booting into other operations, they actually have even slightly improved the ability to do so over time on the ARM Macs. The catch is to get another OS which supports your hardware. With Linux, it actually looks good, the Asahi Linux project (https://asahilinux.org/ https://asahilinux.org/) is making great strides, you can install it on ARM Macs, the biggest drawback currently is, that while there is GUI support, it isn't accellerated yet. But it seems, that even the CPU rendered UIs are faster than the GPU on a Raspberry Pi. GPU support for Asahi Linux is making good progress too, so I expect something not too far into the future.

dmitriid 4y ago

My reaction to this was: $1200 machine: - slow, low capacity SSD - non-native scaled resolution - only one external display support - cheap plastic in keyboard keys - old charger "The best laptop, this is what Apple thinks the best laptop is" It's still, without a doubt, a great machine. But the amount of corner-cutting in an otherwise premium laptop is inexcusable.

avidphantasm 4y ago
It’s not a premium laptop, it is an entry-level Mac, which amounts to a mid-level PC, except PCs don’t have AppleSilicon, so this can best high-level PCs in some regards.
- dmitriid 4y ago
  > It’s not a premium laptop, it is an entry-level Mac As if those two things are mutually exclusive.
- dividedbyzero 4y ago
  An entry level laptop at that price point definitely is a premium product. It happens to be plenty powerful, but what most people will probably do on it would work just as well on a machine less than half the price. I'd put it in the luxury segment of laptop computers, which is why Apple can get away with the markup. You're not just buying the hardware metrics, you're also buying a design, aesthetics, finish and status. Yes, a Macbook signals status in lots of places, most people aren't SV software engineers (and even there, not getting the option may be perceived as a loss of status).
  - avidphantasm 4y ago
    You are also buying a machine that will last substantially longer than most PCs costing less. If you can afford them, Macs are usually more cost-effective in the long run. I guess that makes it premium, but it’s not a high-end machine.
    - 4y ago

amelius 4y ago

> There is no catch. The catch is that the competition is falling behind. One way or another this will give Apple power they will use against you, the customer (and perhaps developer).

dlkf 4y ago

> The ideal everyperson computer is a laptop. That laptop has a full-sized keyboard and a beautiful 13-inch display. Maybe a 14-inch display with really small bezels. A smaller display is too small for most people’s taste (and possibly necessitates a slightly cramped keyboard); a larger display makes for too big and heavy a device for everyperson needs. This may be true but I really wish it weren’t. 15”-16” is the sweet spot for me.

endorphine 4y ago

No mention of the value-for-money of the M2. In my opinion this should be a factor when you decide if this is the "best laptop" out there. I've read elsewhere (can't find it now) that the M1 Pro is a better deal, in terms of value-for-money. There _is_ catch: cost. It's pretty expensive if you want the 512GB/16GB version.

endorphine 4y ago

Do you people think Linux on Apple Silicon will become a thing? I'm following Asahi - I guess what I'm trying to say is: do you believe this pipe dream will become true? If there's Linux support on M1/M2 that's on par with Lenovo's laptops, this will be my dream setup.

e-clinton 4y ago
Linux x86 has a hard time consistently supporting drivers of popular hardware (WIFI, for example). I doubt ARM will ever be a thing for consumer systems, let alone Apple silicon.
- beninsydney 4y ago
  I don't think it's likely any time soon but forcing Apple etc to provide drivers would be a pretty natural extension of the 'right to repair' and other tech regulation demanding interoperability, to guarantee M1/M2/etc devices remain useful beyond their years of macOS support.
- _ph_ 4y ago
  I wouldn't say so. The nice thing about the Apple Silicon seems to be, that the hardware is pretty constant. So once WIFI works, it should continue to work, maybe with minor tweaks on each generation. Lenovo just announced an ARM laptop too, and I got the impression that they are officially planning for Linux support.
Mandatum 4y ago
There’s a lot of ground being covered and I feel like as soon as we have a semi reliable setup that Apple devs are going to switch to, they’ll see a flood of open source and hardcore nerds switch to Macs just because it’s common hardware that will make Linux on the laptop just fucking work.
- cersa8 4y ago
  They are not keen on becoming a hardware only vendor and I expect pushback when alternative OS's gain traction on Apple Silicon.

endorphine 4y ago

Would you go for the 16GB or 24GB setup? I'm currently on Linux doing web dev stuff (Go and Node).

viraptor 4y ago
The memory usage won't change massively, so check your current usage for a good idea. Just remember to ignore the buffers / cache usage.

franciscop 4y ago

> Basically, there are millions of people whose computing needs would be more than met by the MacBook Air but who feel like they probably need a slightly thicker laptop with a fan on the inside and the word “Pro” stamped on the outside Something interesting, is that in both my current and previous employers I specifically asked for the Macbook Air instead of the Pro, and in both cases I received a big overpowered machine that is a drag to take around. In the world of remote working, and for the front-end I do I have way more than enough with the Macbook Air m1/m2.

viraptor 4y ago
Is the whole company getting the same? The reason could be that they can easily get it back if you quit and give it to someone else, or have a common replacement ready when your laptop dies.
- bombcar 4y ago
  This is likely the reason - companies that are large enough to have someone "handling" the computers will order batches of standard configurations. Maybe one or two at the most - even if they don't order them all at once they'll want to get the same across the board. Smaller companies that basically expense the laptop and "give" it to the employee to keep even if they leave will often be less rigorous.
ghaff 4y ago
I find it somewhat amusing when people talk about a sub-3 pound machine (which a 13/14" MacBook Pro is) as big :-) They're very portable laptops by any historical measure.
- franciscop 4y ago
  Agreed! But by any historical measure traveling and remote working with a single backpack was a no-go, people would carry luggage around if they also brought their computer/laptop or go to a local workplace. If you carry a single backpack, don't overload in tech and go all usb-c those extra cubic cm and weight of the air vs the pro do add up! Edit: I also got versions of the pro larger than 13 inch!

rr808 4y ago

Can we get a bigger screen Air? I'm well over six foot and these Apple devices are way too small, they look built for middle school kids or petite people. Working on these tiny screens and keyboards seems like cruel punishment.

bbx 4y ago
The Air is probably too thin to not become too fragile in bigger sizes. Just get a MacBook Pro in 14 or 16.
lancesells 4y ago
Honest question. Does screen size matter for larger people? I would understand keyboard, trackpad, etc. But is your FOV markedly different or is it the center of the screen is too low on your working surface?
- pharmakom 4y ago
  Further away on a standard size desk Bulk is less of a concern because other things (like rucksacks) can be scaled up.

jmyeet 4y ago

I don't really need a laptop at the moment. If I did I'd buy an M2 MBA in a heartbeat. I'm really pleased to see the return of the MBA. From 2011 it was really the perfect laptop with a good compromise of size, performance and cost. But it languished for years just needing a Retina display upgrade and then it got killed by the awful 12" Macbook in Johnny Ive's crusade for thinness at all cost (which also brought us the terrible butterfly keyboard to save 0.5mm). But Johnny Ive is gone (yay!). The only issue I've seen people talk about is thermal throttling under high loads. Given that the RAM is shared with the GPU then 8GB in the base model seems low. I think I also read there's a difference in the SSD between the base model and the upgraded model?

oskr 4y ago
Yeah the base model's SSD are slower

cehrlich 4y ago

It seems like a fantastic laptop, but for people who are just buying one for themselves (vs 100+ for a corporate fleet) I don't think it's a great value proposition right now. A base model M1 MacBook Air can be bought refurb from Apple for $850, a much more palatable price than the $1200 for the base M2 model. On the other hand, if you add 16GB RAM to the high end M2 Air, it's only $300 less than the 14" MacBook Pro, which is a much nicer computer in pretty much every aspect except weight.

ant6n 4y ago
> On the other hand, if you add 16GB RAM to the high end M2 Air, it's only $300 less than the 14" MacBook Pro, which is a much nicer computer in pretty much every aspect except weight. …and it’s not fanless.
- pythonaut_16 4y ago
  My experience with a 16" M1 MacBook Pro is that the fans don't come on unless I'm running games anyway. You could likely achieve an essentially "fanless" experience on the 14" M1 Macbook Pro as on the Air.

lvl102 4y ago

Apple really needs to step up and help with Linux port on these ARM machines. That could get a lot more developers to buy-in.

viraptor 4y ago
What would be the gain for Apple? Currently a lot of Linux devs are already using macs and some are motivated enough to do the porting without any cost to Apple.
- intrasight 4y ago
  The gain would be selling A LOT more products. There are lots of folks like me that love the hardware but hate the crappy OS. Most Mac users I know are either a) iOS app developers, b) remoting in to some other system, c) running a Windows VM. Give me a solid Linux machine and I'd buy a Mac in a heartbeat.
  - viraptor 4y ago
    I'd say the idea that there are enough devs who haven't got a mac and would want to buy it with Linux to offset the development cost and actually get profit... needs some data. I'm one of them, but it feels like "there's dozens of us... dozens!"

dann0 4y ago

I find it amusing that Intel MacBooks were slammed for being overpriced compared to Windows and Linux boxes, but now Mn Macs are being smashed for not running Windows or Linux. No one is forcing you to buy a Mac. Just buy the machine that best suits you and enjoy all the money you’ll save.

sgt101 4y ago

actually the notch on my pro is a pain in the arse because MacOS hides icons in the menu bar behind it.

Braini 4y ago
I am really wondering if/when this is getting fixed, really strange that it is still happening.
Tagbert 4y ago
Those icons often get out of control if you have a lot of apps. Even without the notch. I have been using Bartender for years for this reason. It lets you hide most app icons that only appear when you mouseover the menubar. It is a great tool. There are alternatives, like Dozer, if you don’t like to pay for software like Bartender.

etempleton 4y ago

The Air is just about the perfect laptop for most people. The only thing for me is the lack of support for two external displays. I never thought I would be a person that would opt for the lower power option, but the Air never feels slow.

e-clinton 4y ago

This[0] is probably the most honest review I've seen for this new computer [0] https://www.wired.com/review/apple-macbook-air-13-inch-2022/ https://www.wired.com/review/apple-macbook-air-13-inch-2022/

_ph_ 4y ago

I took delivery of mine yesterday morning and I absolutely adore it. I have to fully agree with what Gruber wrote. If you are looking for a compact, very mobile solution, the Air is exactly designed for that and leaves little to be desired. Apple should add another display unit to the M3 processor, but it isn't a problem for me - I could have had a 14" MB Pro for little more, as it was on sale on Amazon, but I went for the Air to have the more portable solution. I also quite liked the idea of not haven any fan in my computer. I still remember the times when computers for private usage didn't have fans yet.

D13Fd 4y ago
> I still remember the times when computers for private usage didn't have fans yet. What time was that? I remember fans going waaaay back, at least to the 386 days. Maybe the 286 days.
- _ph_ 4y ago
  Well, that was the time, when home computers ruled the world :) Like the C64, the Amiga 500, the Atari ST. The very first ARM computer, the archimedes. Indeed, PCs always had fans, were big and noisy. But home computers, you just switched on.
- Tagbert 4y ago
  During the days of the Commodore 64, Atari, and some others (early to mid 80’s) those devices did not have fans.
  - _ph_ 4y ago
    Some did into the early 90ies. Mind you, PCs at that time had a fan in the power supply but not on the CPU. My mother had a 486/33, that didn't even had a heat sink on the CPU.

haunter 4y ago

Love the hardware, wish I can run other another OS on it

benreesman 4y ago

If I want one of these things badly enough to pay extra to have it now (i.e. I could expense it) what’s the move? Everybody from Apple to Amazon is showing this as like a month waiting list. Where’s the secondary market?

Tagbert 4y ago
You could try to go to an Apple store and see if they have any of them in stock. You might get lucky. They typically stock the 8/256 and maybe 8/512 in the store. Not sure if any of them will stock a 16GB model.

nanook 4y ago

I wish apple would put a damn 5G chip on their laptops! It makes no sense that you can get a 12.9" iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular but not a 13" MBA Wi-Fi + Cellular. Sure, battery life might take a bit of a hit but I like that compromise more than needing to fret about my phone's battery levels because of the extra drain from tethering.

zuhsetaqi 4y ago
I think this will come when they have in house 5G chip, which they’re working on since they bought Intels department. They’re currently relying on Qulacom on the iPhone/iPad
Tagbert 4y ago
Apple is currently developing their own cellular modem chips. The expectation is that once they have their own chips, they will use them in most of their products, including the laptops. They supposedly had a setback this year and the program is delayed by another year or so.
RL_Quine 4y ago
It's clearly on their mind, there was a prototype macbook from 2012 or so that had a 3G modem built into it.

rwalle 4y ago

> it was underpowered because a thin, fan-less, high-performance laptop was and remains an impossible dream for the x86 computing architecture Eh, Surface Pro (i3/i5 before 8th gen), anyone? From what I heard the machine is very usable -- in fact a daily driver for many people. Is it fair to blame the failure of one Apple product on an entire CPU architecture?

Terretta 4y ago
> From what I heard the machine is very usable ... Ah, so you didn't own it as your own daily driver. Our bank, and other banks, outfitted branch VPs with Surface Pros (least worst option among a dozen trialed). Across banks (so not unique to a given IT department's config) they mostly ended up in bottom drawers or stuck tethered to the desks by charging cables, proving essentially useless unplugged and woefully underpowered regardless of power state. Turns out even an x86 MBA running bootcamp was a better option. And then turned out that by using corporate apps in Microsoft Edge, a MBA running MacOS, managed by JAMF or inTune, ran anything branch employees needed better, longer, and with a fraction of the support tickets.
- woojoo666 4y ago
  Can't speak for the other commenter, but I personally used it as a daily driver for over 5 years, and casual use for another 3. Used it for programming, art, writing, light gaming, and even some blender. The surface pros are a great line of products, and even after 8 years the battery is still surprisingly good compared to other laptops I've seen.
  - Terretta 4y ago
    I owned a couple as well. They were the least worst.
BearOso 4y ago
It's not even the architecture. It's the fact that Intel was stuck on 14nm for a decade. Apple also paid for the pick of the litter from TSMC, so they're always a step ahead of everyone else. Current AMD mobile processors are very power efficient. Intel's foundries will catch up eventually, too.

dominotw 4y ago

i am in the market for a laptop for kid going to college this fall to study CS. I am hoping m2 air to be the one but i am not sure if the screen size will be too small or if its going to be under powered for CS work.

Tagbert 4y ago
Definitely not underpowered for CS work. The screen is typical for a 13” laptop but the detail is good and your kid’s eyes will probably be fine with higher resolution settings. They may want an external monitor at their home/apt. A 24” 4K monitor is not expensive. I would recommend the 16GB RAM upgrade, though. This would be a very good monitor for a student of nearly any type. It is small and lightweight. The processor is more powerful than most other laptops with an Intel processor. The battery will last for many hours. The only real downside is that there are not a lot of video games available for Macs. If they don’t care about that, this it a really good choice.
- 988747 4y ago
  > A 24” 4K monitor is not expensive. Do they even make such thing? There are no 4K monitors under 27" available in my country.
  - Tagbert 4y ago
    This is an LG 24” 4K for $280. I don’t know if it is any good but it is available. I only mentioned the 24” as they might not want the larger monitor in a dorm or small apt. https://www.amazon.com/LG-24UD58-B-24-Inch-Monitor-FreeSync/dp/B01LPNKFK0/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1MQJPX8O2K3UC&keywords=Monitor%2B4K%2B24”&qid=1658022943&sprefix=monitor%2B4k%2B24%2B%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-3&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/LG-24UD58-B-24-Inch-Monitor-FreeSync/...

Tsiklon 4y ago

I recently bought a 14" Pro - fantastic machine, but I would be wrong to say that I wasn't very very tempted by the m2 Air. My one need that the Air didn't fill is to drive two external monitors. For me - everything else - is absolutely catered for in the Air. It'll be a perfect machine for my partner who has no desire or need for that.

gnicholas 4y ago

I bought one of these on launch day. The only thing I wish it had was an SD card slot. People with oodles of cash can scratch this itch by upgrading to the 2TB SSD, but for the rest of us it's a pricey tradeoff.

geerlingguy 4y ago
I'd love an SD card slot so I can offload footage/pictures from cameras... at least they added that back on the Pro models. The 13" Air had it, for a few years :(
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Yes, the glory days of nice keyboards and SD slots! At least the keyboard issue has been fixed...

cloudkilla 4y ago

Apple: I would love to see an improved key material. Synthetic ivory is a thing: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352940721000810 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235294072... ( But glass or ceramic might be nice, too! )

qzw 4y ago
Heck, why not go with lab grown sapphire like they oringinally planned to with the Apple Watch.

stakkur 4y ago

I still hold that the M1 is still a better choice. The M2 is slick, but it’s not a meaningful upgrade, all things considered. The M1 Air just got everything right.

lizardactivist 4y ago

Premium computers at a tripple-premium price.

stereoradonc 4y ago

Look Ma! No ports! You'd junk so much money for no ports, and then junk a lot of money to buy "accessories"? It's self defeating argument.

badkarma1963 4y ago

I would consider an air over pro but screen size is too small for me. I dislike the thickness on the new macbook pros

karakot 4y ago

I want 12" M1 or M2 so bad, I have M1 Air and it's an awesome laptop, but I'd change it for 12" in a heartbeat.