15-Inch MacBook Air Demand Reportedly 'Weaker Than Expected' So Far

[theotherphil]

As someone who wanted the 15” MBA so badly to come it was a HUGE disappointment.

I wanted 80% of the power of the 16” MBP in the 15” MBA. Dell XPS 15” with NVIDIA is killing the thin & light space right now among other brands.

If the 15” MBA came with M2 Pro and more GPU cores, it would’ve sold like hot cakes. Instead it’s much slower with less battery life!

Also:

- Screen brightness is horrible
- No WiFi 6E

The cheapest XPS 15 with nVidia is $2,998 in Australia (16Gb/512).
The MBA15 with 16Gb/512 is $2,799

There's a common theme on this forum where users complain about the price of an Apple product then proceed to explain how a more expensive option has more features, then add a wish list of items and suggest a price drop before adding "it'd sell like hot cakes" or some other analogy 😂

Meanwhile, official figures and not speculation, goes on to show that said device is actually selling like hot cakes.

 

[theotherphil]

You can grab a DisplayLink dock to get around the 1 external display restriction, right? More money, of course.

I acidentally purchased a DisplayLink dock and returned it in less than 4hrs. Try playing any protected content on them - Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, AppleTV etc, etc and you just get a black screen in the player. MacOS sees DisplayLink as a man-in-the-middle, and thus cuts protected output across all screens (not just the external screens) when it detects DisplayLink active to prevent piracy.

Sure, there's workarounds such as disabling hardware acceleration or the official "unplug DisplayLink devices whilst watching protected content", but that level of messing around isn't for me.

The kicker was, it wasn't much cheaper than a CalDigit TS4 that works perfectly with my M1 MAX.

 

[playtech1]

In the UK a new XPS with 16GB/1TB and Intel Arc graphics (which I think is a fairer comparison against M2) is £1,150 vs £2,000 for a 15 inch Air with 16GB/1TB.

Bump the XPS up to an OLED screen, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD and a 4060 and it's £2,300. At that point the Air can't really compete, but it's £2,600 to get it up to 24GB RAM and 2TB. The XPS has user upgradeable RAM and SSD too.

I would still buy the Air because I'm a Mac guy and appreciate MacOS, Apple Silicon and all the little things, but if I was agnostic on the point I would see the Dell as being better value.

 

[theorist9]

In the UK a new XPS with 16GB/1TB and Intel Arc graphics (which I think is a fairer comparison against M2) is £1,150 vs £2,000 for a 15 inch Air with 16GB/1TB.

I agree the Intel Arc 370M should be reasonably comparable to the GPU in the M2 Air. GeekBench 6 Open CL scores for the Arc 370M and M2 are 27,500 and 26,000, respectively.

But the laptops as a whole are not really comparable—in most other ways (except for one big one*), the Air is superior:

1) The XPS has a 1920 x 1200 display, vs. 2880 x 1864 for the Air: The Air's resolution is 50% higher.
2) Much longer battery life with the Air.
3) Much lower weight with the Air (3.3 lbs, vs. 4.2 lbs for the Dell).
4) No noise at all from the Air; I assume the XPS gets noisy under load.
5) Likely far higher performance for the Air when on battery (the M2 doesn't throttle due to being on battery, while the Intel mobile processors typically do).

*The big advantage of the XPS15 is that it can drive more than one external display (the Air is limited to one).

For the CPU, it's a bit of a wash--the Air is ~10% faster SC, the XPS is ~10% faster MC. Though note that most workloads on these machine will be SC.

Plus in the US, the pricing difference is much less pronounced: $1350 for the Dell vs. $1700 for the Air. [Prices taken from their respective websites; the Dell's price includes a $210 discount (retail price = $1559), as is typical for Dell. You can reduce the Apple's cost with edcatioal pricing, but can probably do the same for the Dell's.]

So, to my mind, an extra $350 for advantages 1–5 seems like a good value, assuming you don't need to drive more than one external monitor.

Of course, as you said, you don't buy a Mac principally for the hardware. You buy it for the superior software--i.e., you can use MacOS.

 

[theorist9]

If the 15” MBA came with M2 Pro and more GPU cores, it would’ve sold like hot cakes.

I don't see how you could have expected that them to offer that. They already offer a 14" M2 Pro and 16" M2 Pro laptop. It doesn't make sense that Apple would add a 15" M2 Pro laptop. That's not where the gap in their product line was. Instead, the gap was not having a large display for those who didn't need the power of the M2 Pro/Max. And that's exactly what the 15" Air offers.

I.e., the point of the 15" Air was to decouple display size from processor performance, and thus offer a 15" display in the lightest, thinnest possible package. Accommodating the battery and thermal dissipation needed for an M2 Pro would have defeated that purpose—and further didn't make sense, since they already offer a product line for those who need the M2 Pro.

The only way they could accommodate your desires without compromising the 15" Air would be to offer six laptops, each having the minimum size needed to accommodate the battery and thermal dissipation requirements of the processor. But I doubt Apple is willing to have that many SKU's:

13" & 15" M2 Air
14" & 16" M2 Pro
14" & 16" M2 Max

 

[enb141]

The cheapest XPS 15 with nVidia is $2,998 in Australia (16Gb/512).
The MBA15 with 16Gb/512 is $2,799

There's a common theme on this forum where users complain about the price of an Apple product then proceed to explain how a more expensive option has more features, then add a wish list of items and suggest a price drop before adding "it'd sell like hot cakes" or some other analogy 😂

Meanwhile, official figures and not speculation, goes on to show that said device is actually selling like hot cakes.

Are you sure?

In the US, MacBook Air 15 M2 16/512 costs $1700.00+ tax.

Dell XPS 15 16/512 $1300.00+ tax.
G15 Gaming 16/1TB (4060) $1350.00 + tax.
Vostro 16/512 $680.00 + tax.

Those are just some examples, of course there's a XPS 15 that costs $2400.00 but that one has touch display 3.5K (3456X2160) OLED (16/512), which smokes any laptop display that apple offers.

 

[theorist9]

Indeed, the average Joe is much smarter than MacRumors.

I was in the Apple Store last week and I was laughing how a guy went off an Apple employee about the 15“ MacBook Air, that he had to pay $200 extra to get a normal SSD, which he found super overpriced. The Apple employee was lying his ass off saying Apple uses “high-quality” SSD’s, but the guy wasn’t having it.

That was probably an MR member 😄.

 

[Abazigal]

Sorry, it’s my fault for still sticking with my M1 MBA and not upgrading. 🫤

 

[JimmyG]

Methinks a key reason for Apple's poor laptop sales has to do with the void created by Cupertino's decision not to roll out an M-series 27" iMac. Business, educational, creative folks need their home base computer for which the laptop becomes the adjunct travel unit. And that "base" computer, since 2009, has been a roomy 27-inch display with a computer conveniently built-in...one cord to rule them all.

Apple has to now deal with the fact that the Studio/Studio Display combo is a gross underperformer in the marketplace, Tim's bet that it would supplant 27" iMac, a "bad bet" at best and marketing "blunder" at worst. (That's what he gets for listening to the Woz/"folks want more slots" camp! Haw!)

At this point, Apple needs to scramble to get a 27-or-larger iMac in the marketplace ASAP so folks can get back to, uh, businessing, educating and creating as they've come to know and appreciate for the past decade-plus with the tools that work for them...a large 27" desktop screen (or larger!) with a computer built-in, and a satellite laptop, if they so choose.

Stupid simple, deadly effective...something the Studio, er, cheerleading bench just simply does not, um, "get".

 

[Serqetry]

What you said is true, but part of what made that 11.6” model so small was the 16:9 aspect ration on the screen. It was reasonably wide but vertically challenged. I used one for several years and still have it. I powered it up recently and it is fun to look back at it but it was a tight fit. Whenever possible, I connected it to an external monitor and used that display to get some more workspace.

I think that the 12” Macbook is probably a better size. The width was similar to the 11” but the 12” had the extra height in the screen.

Well I agree, I like vertical screen space. The move to 16:9/16:10 on everything was a mistake, there should be more variations, especially for smaller screens. The iPad benefits from better aspect ratios for small screens. Also, the 11" MBA had a huge border around the screen... it wouldn't need to be like that if it was redesigned. It could use the same 10:7 screen as the 11" iPad Pro... now that would be amazing.

 

[_Spinn_]

That is somewhat surprising.

 

[Tulani]

Remove the notch

 

[1rottenapple]

I think the average Joe that thinks a $400 windows machine is all he or she needs is never going to look at a Mac. I think the average Joe that understands quality costs will look at a Mac.

True. I tried convincing several regular computers to buy a mac for grad school and had zero takers. They just want something to crunch word docs and research, which any of these windows machines can do.

 

[RokinAmerica]

Been a while since I have bought a windows laptop, 2016 I believe. I had to travel between 2 offices and my home office so I would choose the largest screen with the best GPU and CPU but the least storage and ram.

I would then replace the storage with a larger SSD and then replace the DVD player with a drive caddy and put the HDD in there. I would also bump the ram to either 16 or 32 and then I was set for years. Still have my last laptop as a backup solution for my work. NVMe as OS, HDD as backup and a Sata SSD as data storage.

As my storage needs have changed ( most of my work is now cloud based storage) I finally was able to go with a Mac Air as an addition to my work needs. I chose the 16GB with a 256 SSD as I need the Ram but not the storage. Had I needed a 1TB SSD in it, I would not have gotten a Mac.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

It's an odd product I think.

Love my 13 inch Air, its super portable that's the beauty of it. The 15 inch is less portable than the 13 but doesn't really offer anything else in addition to the screen real estate.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

In the UK a new XPS with 16GB/1TB and Intel Arc graphics (which I think is a fairer comparison against M2) is £1,150 vs £2,000 for a 15 inch Air with 16GB/1TB.

Bump the XPS up to an OLED screen, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD and a 4060 and it's £2,300. At that point the Air can't really compete, but it's £2,600 to get it up to 24GB RAM and 2TB. The XPS has user upgradeable RAM and SSD too.

I would still buy the Air because I'm a Mac guy and appreciate MacOS, Apple Silicon and all the little things, but if I was agnostic on the point I would see the Dell as being better value.

You are comparing a 13 inch XPS to the 15 inch MBA here, no?

Worth noting that the MBA ship with a much better screen, unless you pay for the OLED in the XPS so once you factor that in and the fact that the Mac probably laps the XPS in battery life i'm not sure it is better value really.

 

[Tagbert]

It's an odd product I think.

Love my 13 inch Air, its super portable that's the beauty of it. The 15 inch is less portable than the 13 but doesn't really offer anything else in addition to the screen real estate.

And that larger screen is the main appeal. You get a noticeably larger screen for only $80-100 more. If you are not really using it as a portable most of the time then having more screen space may be worth the trade off in portability.

 

[RealRuler]

As a PC user, the MBA line is perfect for those who just need a casual laptop that's thin & light with great battery life since those aren't exactly a dime a dozen in the PC world.

I went from MBP 13 late 2013 -> M2 MBA 13 -> M2 MBA 15 and no complaints.

Primary rigs are a desktop with dual 27 1440p monitors running @ 240hz/155hz respectively & an Alienware M17 R5 4K @ 120hz along with a Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra 8/128, so the base MBA 15 perfectly complements the setup since both PCs have 32/1TB; more intensive tasks are run on those other rigs anyway w/ moonlight streaming allowing me to actually PC game on the MBA 15 as well.

For my workflow, the MBA 15 is the perfect supplemental computer but definitely would not be using it as a primary rig with the base specs; also understand the mindset that going beyond the base spec further removes the "value" that the air line supposedly brings since a couple hundred more can get you a refurbished MBP 14.

 

[lxmeta]

Initial customer demand for the new 15-inch MacBook Air has been "weaker than expected," according to a DigiTimes report citing sources within Apple's supply chain. The report claims that 15-inch MacBook Air shipment volume in July has been 50% less than originally estimated amid a broader downturn in the notebook market.Told

As a result of this "poor start," the report claims that some Apple suppliers have requested a reduction in 15-inch MacBook Air shipments.

Told you so! I asked for a super slim 12" one, not a 15" that is in between the 14" pro and the 16" pro, but isn't...
If I need a bigger screen, I (personally) also want more power and memory, and would go for a pro.
I think that there is no great place in between 14 and and 16 for a lower budget version...

 

[playtech1]

You are comparing a 13 inch XPS to the 15 inch MBA here, no?

Worth noting that the MBA ship with a much better screen, unless you pay for the OLED in the XPS so once you factor that in and the fact that the Mac probably laps the XPS in battery life i'm not sure it is better value really.

I am looking at the 15 inch XPS: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-2-in-1-pcs/xps-15-laptop/spd/xps-15-9530-laptop

For me, I would choose the 15 inch MBA, but I think lots of people will save the cash and still end up with a very nice laptop.

With M1 Apple's pricing stacked up very well against equivalent PC laptops, but Apple's price rises on M2 and stagnating specs, plus some good CPU and GPU bumps on the Windows side, mean that Apple is not where it was a year ago in terms of value for money.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

I am looking at the 15 inch XPS: https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-2-in-1-pcs/xps-15-laptop/spd/xps-15-9530-laptop

For me, I would choose the 15 inch MBA, but I think lots of people will save the cash and still end up with a very nice laptop.

With M1 Apple's pricing stacked up very well against equivalent PC laptops, but Apple's price rises on M2 and stagnating specs, plus some good CPU and GPU bumps on the Windows side, mean that Apple is not where it was a year ago in terms of value for money.

Ah ok, that is surprisingly cheap for the XPS 15, i'm wondering what the catch is!

I agree with you generally re value on the Mac side, the big issue is the amount they gouge for any upgrades beyond the base configs. Really kills the value proposition.

EDIT: Ah the Dell is discounted from £1500. Still not bad at full price.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

MacBook Air: I miss this iconic chassis design. 👇

 

[theotherphil]

The cheapest XPS 15 with nVidia is $2,998 in Australia (16Gb/512).
The MBA15 with 16Gb/512 is $2,799

There's a common theme on this forum where users complain about the price of an Apple product then proceed to explain how a more expensive option has more features, then add a wish list of items and suggest a price drop before adding "it'd sell like hot cakes" or some other analogy 😂

Meanwhile, official figures and not speculation, goes on to show that said device is actually selling like hot cakes.

Are you sure?

In the US, MacBook Air 15 M2 16/512 costs $1700.00+ tax.

Dell XPS 15 16/512 $1300.00+ tax.
G15 Gaming 16/1TB (4060) $1350.00 + tax.
Vostro 16/512 $680.00 + tax.

Those are just some examples, of course there's a XPS 15 that costs $2400.00 but that one has touch display 3.5K (3456X2160) OLED (16/512), which smokes any laptop display that apple offers.

Yes, I am sure - I was replying to somebody stating they would buy the cheapest XPS15 with nVidia graphics. In Australia, it is ~$200 more expensive than the MBA in the 16/512 config.

In the US, the XPS15 with 13th gen i7-13700 RTX4050 and 16/512 is $1,949.
The MBA in 16/512 is $1,699 ($250 cheaper)

It's a slightly skewed comparison though as that particular XPS15 is more of a workstation than a thin and light and would be better compared against the MBP. Regardless, the MBA has a much greater resolution screen (+50%) and is 18% lighter. The MBA has significantly greater performance on battery and the battery life is also significantly higher. These quality of life improvements are more important to most people than a spec list on the box.

 

[enb141]

Yes, I am sure - I was replying to somebody stating they would buy the cheapest XPS15 with nVidia graphics. In Australia, it is ~$200 more expensive than the MBA in the 16/512 config.

In the US, the XPS15 with 13th gen i7-13700 RTX4050 and 16/512 is $1,949.
The MBA in 16/512 is $1,699 ($250 cheaper)

It's a slightly skewed comparison though as that particular XPS15 is more of a workstation than a thin and light and would be better compared against the MBP. Regardless, the MBA has a much greater resolution screen (+50%) and is 18% lighter. The MBA has significantly greater performance on battery and the battery life is also significantly higher. These quality of life improvements are more important to most people than a spec list on the box.

If you are looking for a laptop with an Nvidia graphics, then:

1) Any Nvidia smokes any apple graphics offerings.
2) You are talking about discrete vs integrated, apple doesn't offers add on video cards for their laptops anymore, when they did, they were more expensive than PC laptops with equivalent video card.

So the only reason to go apple laptop (assuming you don't care about the operating system/software) is the amount of hours the battery will last.

 

[iJest]

So the only reason to go apple laptop (assuming you don't care about the operating system/software) is the amount of hours the battery will last.

This is pure and utter tosh.