15" M2 MacBook Air is too heavy

[Euroamerican]

I don't know. I feel that my unibody Macbook Pro 2010 13" is "heavy'. Yes, it's only 4.5 pounds!

I think I've been spoiled by my iPads. They are so light and handy.

A 15 inch Air in the 4 pound range seems light too, especially with the screen size!

 

[spiderman0616]

There are so many opinions in this thread alone on what Apple “should” be making, most of them ending in “but Apple never will because they’re greedy and evil.” I think it’s just more they have to pick a strategy. They can’t make every machine that each of you wants.

 

[Lioness~]

There are so many opinions in this thread alone on what Apple “should” be making, most of them ending in “but Apple never will because they’re greedy and evil.” I think it’s just more they have to pick a strategy. They can’t make every machine that each of you wants.

Apple devices on demand for those who want special devices and are willing to pay a lot for them.
Why not? I'm sure Apple would get some new ideas from it as well.

 

[MagnusTheDog]

There is only a 90 gram difference in weight between the 15" M2 MacBook Air and the 14" MacBook Pro. What's the point of calling it an Air if it weighs the same as a MacBook Pro.

Apple needs to add more high quality materials such as carbon and magnesium to get the weight down more.

If any Apple laptop is too heavy for people then I suggest more time in the gym pushing weights and less time pushing game controllers. 🙃😉. P.S. I used to travel as a project managers back in the day so I understand the sediment. But seriously 5-6 pounds occasionally?

 

[applesed]

If any Apple laptop is too heavy for people then I suggest more time in the gym pushing weights and less time pushing game controllers. 🙃😉. P.S. I used to travel as a project managers back in the day so I understand the sediment. But seriously 5-6 pounds occasionally?

I lift and work out, but have small wrists. Lighter laptops around the house, picking up with one hand is appreciated.

 

[aevan]

Gram supports 3 external monitors and Air supports one… just apples and oranges. Gram include actually still useful usb-a ports. Nuff said.

Well, it's also slower, noisier, hotter and the battery life is half as good. Screen is worse, speakers are worse, build quality is worse, camera is worse. Nuff said.

 

[James Godfrey]

There is only a 90 gram difference in weight between the 15" M2 MacBook Air and the 14" MacBook Pro. What's the point of calling it an Air if it weighs the same as a MacBook Pro.

Apple needs to add more high quality materials such as carbon and magnesium to get the weight down more.

I think you are misconceiving how apple looks at ‘Air’ models these days… they are no longer the thinnest and lightest version of a device… there is a 0.01lb difference between the iPad Air and iPad Pro 11”. Apples obsession with thin and light ended quite a while ago.

The ‘Air’ moniker in Apples eyes is now a less featured version of a high end product, basically without all the bells and whistles.

 

[applesed]

Well, it's also slower, noisier, hotter and the battery life is half as good. Screen is worse, speakers are worse, build quality is worse, camera is worse. Nuff said.

It’s not at all noisy, either way I’m not taking a nap; and external monitors are as good as I want, same for external camera and external speakers. Build quality is superb and lighter by a lot! My work laptop and gram fit in one sleeve! Air laptops cannot be bricks, smh.

 

[loby]

Perhaps the word surprise was too strong, I expected it to be heavier, but I did expect that it overall it would have the same thin and light feeling as the 13 inch, which it does not.

I suppose what is the most unexpected, is how dense the 15 inch feels. It’s as if it’s carved directly out of a solid block of aluminum, where is the 13 inch feels like it’s hollowed out of a block of aluminum. Apple has gone on record, saying that they had to add extra strengthening to the 15 inch MacBook Air, and it is correspondingly heavier as a result.

Now to everyone who’s laughing at this thread, I think the point that OP is making is that this laptop has the moniker “air“ which set an expectation that this thing is going to weigh nothing. When I handed a good friend of mine, my 13 inch M2 air, his first comment was “why does it feel so heavy?!” Apple’s marketing has people thinking that this computer weighs nothing at all.

I think Apple had to reinforce the frame to make it stronger as they might have learned from previous 15" laptops.

I have 15" MacBook Pro 2018 and it is prone to bending slightly (effecting the logic board)when you pick it up with one hand (holding it on the side front side near the trackpad instead of hold it with two hands on each side when carrying can cause issues). I noticed that the frame would move a little due to the weight and might have caused the ports to break (as I had to take it in for repair). The dimension design proportion requires a little more strength to support the frame and is probably why it seem solid and a little heavier. The quest for "thin" and "light" requires more cost and Apple will not eat any costs.

 

[spiderman0616]

I think Apple had to reinforce the frame to make it stronger as they might have learned from previous 15" laptops.

I have 15" MacBook Pro 2018 and it is prone to bending slightly (effecting the logic board)when you pick it up with one hand (holding it on the side front side near the trackpad instead of hold it with two hands on each side when carrying can cause issues). I noticed that the frame would move a little due to the weight and might have caused the ports to break (as I had to take it in for repair). The dimension design proportion requires a little more strength to support the frame and is probably why it seem solid and a little heavier. The quest for "thin" and "light" requires more cost and Apple will not eat any costs.

I had several different variations of this 15" design and noticed the same weak points. I even had one from my previous job that came in new in the box with the back hinge cover pre-bent. I didn't worry about it because it wasn't my computer but I did hate it.

 

[spiderman0616]

Apple devices on demand for those who want special devices and are willing to pay a lot for them.
Why not? I'm sure Apple would get some new ideas from it as well.

I get it, I just don't think that's the kind of business they want to be in. That's the kind of nonsense that got them in trouble in the 90s.

 

[JustinePaula]

Can someone please explain the air v the pro? I am old enough to remember powerbooks, the G, then all of a sardine, Steve Jobs has a major row with motorola, or they served chedder instead of vegan cheese at a motorola event, it matters not, all of a sardine, Apple is going with Intel, the new range will be called Mac.. macbook and macbook pro..

The Macbook was plastic, built to a price, not upgrade possible, then there was the macbook pro, with the drop out battery, the ram hidden behind the battery, aluminium case...The world was great, Steve was a hero, then he **** the bed, dropped the plastic macbook, for the air, ok, I see there should be 3 laptops now, sort of makes sense.. 1-Plastic for kids/schools, 2-the air for the mobile user, 3-pro for the power user, video editing/music/creatives that need all day battery.. The range makes complete sense...

Steve or Tim, one of them, bins the plastic school version, goes all in for air and pro, now in 2023, the range is confusing, they look almost identical, have almost if not the same internals, have the same number of ports, one is mag safe, one is not, or both now have mag safe...

In my mind, the pro was designed to be serviced by your own company's inhouse IT team, who have been trained by Apple, certified by Apple, to do everything the Apple goons can do, but no, now you need to have the goons tell you, cannot be fixed, yet there are 10 000 shops/techs on youtube that can do the work for $100 or less...


Pro=professional, I assume?? Air is meant to be light, portable, used by accountants running not numbers, but excel or googlesheets.. Apple hates numbers/pages/keynote...

Pro for Resolve, Prem Pro, Audition, not final cut...

I am so confused, what is a pro, and what is the air, if not the same damn device now in 2023??

 

[Rinka]

“but Apple never will because they’re greedy and evil.”

No ones calling them evil, but their main concern is maximising revenue for shareholders.

It's not good business sense to release a perfect laptop as then people would keep it for 10 years. Much better to release ones with flaws that they can improve on and give people a reason to upgrade every couple of years.

 

[Rinka]

Air is meant to be light, portable

As another poster says above air these days means cheaper & less features.

 

[JustinePaula]

As another poster says above air these days means cheaper & less features.

I have no idea, laptops age, we get that, but they are also getting more and more expensive, so keeping laptops for 10 yrs is not impossible, I type this on a 2013 macbook pro, OS High Sierra, as it works, I would have spent close to, if not more than a brand new laptop over the 10 years, had I been able to upgrade RAM, SSD, the screen, battery, etc, no question, and as is the Apple way, force me into an upgrade as they make apps only viable on M1, M2 etc, I bought a macbook air, M1, and if it was possible, in year 3 ownership, I would love to visit the istore, spend on upgrades to 16 or 32GB RAM, a bigger SSD, but I cannot, this is income not earned by Apple, for 1 really silly reason.. Post purchase upgrading is not possible, it should be.. If the macbook pro was designed, built, priced to allow for upgrades, I would have bought the pro in 2020/2021 and upgraded each year as and when funds allow...

The air should be /build to order, the Pro should be post purchase upgrade viable.. I would pay that tax no question, I want to pay it, I want to spend money at the istore... Does Apple not want my money???

 

[h.gilbert]

sure you can pick up it one handed open but you won't be holding to for long like that

Indeed my favourite past time is holding my 13" Pro one handed for extended periods of time. That's why I won't be buying the 15" thank you tim apple

 

[h.gilbert]

It's the sum of everything in the backpack that counts. Laptop, charger, bunch of dongles, water bottle, whatever you might want to carry around. That's why the focus on biceps in this thread is a bit odd, people don't usually carry their laptops around with their hands all day.

my local gym has decided to replace their range of dumbbells with 15" Airs after I showed them this thread

 

[h.gilbert]

Even air has weight — almost 15 pounds per square inch. So in that regard, Apple is being conservative with their use of the term “Air”, wouldn’t you say?

Wow Apple surprises me everyday. Their release of the 15" Air is a witty nod to the fact that air weight around 15 psi.

 

[lcseds]

I have the 12th Intel Gen LG Gram 17". Awesome machine, unless you're a Windows hater, then I guess it sucks. I use it along side my M1 MBP 16. Both are great machines. The LG has an extra SSD slot I have not used. But with a great display, 32GB Ram, two SSD slots with a 1TB used in one slot, and a great display, plus being able to pick it up with a couple fingers, for $1500. Well.....depends on the OS you want to use I guess.

 

[spiderman0616]

Awesome machine, unless you're a Windows hater, then I guess it sucks.

I guess that would be the one gotcha, yeah. 😜

 

[Tenashus1]

I guess that would be the one gotcha, yeah. 😜

What can I say. I have never been a windows guy. Thank heavens for the Mac interface. Loved it from the start.

 

[raythompsontn]

I have worked in both Mac and Windows environments. They both have their quirks and strengths. Now with W10 and W11, Ventura and Monterey, there are still things to like and dislike about both. The strongest part of the Mac is integration between the Mac, iPhone, iPad and watch. Windows will not achieve that because Microsoft does not have a phone, tablet, or watch. The Microsoft Surface line of the laptops is on par with Mac for size weight and performance for most common tasks. Video editing and creation is where the Surface falls flat compared to the M2 Air.

The one real positive about Windows is the hardware supported. Prior to the requirement for security chip, Windows would run on very old hardware. The number of hardware peripherals supported was awesome. Most of it just worked. Not so easy sometimes with the Mac.

Whether the need to always require Apple hardware is a good thing can be debated. Probably more so than the 8 Gig vs 16 Gig argument. I see the positives, and the negatives of the reliance on Apple hardware for the Mac OS. It are what it are in that case.

If you really want to suffer, work in the Linux environment. Arcane command lines, multiple distributions and dependencies, abysmal support, quirks in hardware support. Some solutions even require a recompile and linking of the kernel.

Computers are becoming, or have become, commodity items. Find the software you need, find the hardware that best supports the software, find a machine that works for the individual.

And with that, the one thing I really miss is a backspace key on my M2 Air.

 

[MacMandy]

It’s not heavy. It’s slim and light for a 15.3” screen. Feels much more svelte than the 16” mbp to me.


MacBook Air 13.6. 1.24kg. 10.97”/kg

MacBook Pro 14.2. 1.60kg. 8.88”/kg

MacBook Air 15.3. 1.51kg. 10.13”/kg

MacBook Pro 16.2. 2.15kg. 7.53”/kg

 

[spiderman0616]

What can I say. I have never been a windows guy. Thank heavens for the Mac interface. Loved it from the start.

With you there. I had PCs up through about 2010 and then couldn’t stand it anymore. Already had an iPhone and iPad by then anyway.

 

[NeonNights]

It’s not heavy. It’s slim and light for a 15.3” screen. Feels much more svelte than the 16” mbp to me.


MacBook Air 13.6. 1.24kg. 10.97”/kg

MacBook Pro 14.2. 1.60kg. 8.88”/kg

MacBook Air 15.3. 1.51kg. 10.13”/kg

MacBook Pro 16.2. 2.15kg. 7.53”/kg

That's an interesting metric but it discounts the differences in display quality and resolution. For instance, you get more pixels per kg on the Pro models (total resolution/kg). Most of the weight difference between Air and Pro lines is attributed to the fans and cooling system, or lack thereof. They are all great laptops and therein lies the problem. It's like trying to pick a favorite shoe, purse, food, book, movie, ice cream flavor, or child (kidding, of course!)...just too many excellent options. Just like our favorites change over time, so will our choice in MacBooks.

MBP 14 = 3.71M pixels/kg

MBP 16 = 3.59M pixels/kg

MBA 15 = 3.56M pixels/kg

M2 MBA 13 = 3.44M pixels/kg