Apple Announces New MacBook Air With M4 and 'Sky Blue' Color Option

[Parowdy]

How much do you get trading
Sealed MBA M3
8gb uni
512gb
15'?

Sealed? Why would you trade it in and not just sell as new?

 

[Parowdy]

Time to replace my 2017 macbook pro with the 15" Air....and now $100 less too? Nice work Apple.

What 2017 model do you have? 15“, 13“, with or without the Touch Bar? Because my 2017 13“ TB MBP needs replacing at some point and I’m curious how the recent Air‘s compare to what was once a ~2k (1700€) MacBook „Pro“.

 

[jlc1978]

Fair enough. However, another way to put it is that the M4 price drop mainly just applies to the 256 GB model.

OTOH, with the poor exchange rate now in Canada vs. the US dollar, pricing in Canada is actually cheaper than in the US, both at retail and at the edu store. Apple chose to swallow that currency exchange hit instead of pass down the hit to Canadian consumers. Currently the conversion rate is 1 CAD = 0.696055 USD or 1 USD = 1.43667 CAD.

Pricing is close, but nonetheless the US pricing ranges from about 1% to 3.5% more expensive than the Canadian

Does those prices include VAT? If so, and Canada offers a VAT refund, a US citizen could save a few dollars buying in Canada; like when I was in MD and bought electronics in DE.

 

[EugW]

Does those prices include VAT? If so, and Canada offers a VAT refund, a US citizen could save a few dollars buying in Canada; like when I was in MD and bought electronics in DE.

American and Canadian prices do not include taxes. Taxes vary by state/province.

 

[Otwer22]

No, the MBA's passive cooling is not some kind of MBA benefit. MBPs probably have even better passive cooling. One does not typically "hear a fan whirl up" with a MBP. Frankly that is a nonsense argument made by folks who chose to pay less and get no fan capability.

MBP fans do not kick in under any kind of normal usage, the fans stay normally off. And even if one does perform heavy work [that an MBA would simply throttle] personally I do not "hear a fan whirl up" unless I really work at hearing it, and even then it is to me inoffensive. And my MBP is an M2, so the M4s are likely even better heat managers.

I have a MBP M4 and can get the fans to spin up fairly easy.
Remember throttling just slows down instruction execution, when we start to see benchmarks the MBA will still be a potent laptop.

 

[Otwer22]

Laptop is great, but RAM and storage upgrade prices are INSANE. The configuration I want is actually $2,200. Look up the prices for 16 GB of RAM (yes, I know RAM is part of the SOC), and 2 TB SSD.

Buy with 1tb and use and external drive is a significantly cheaper option.

 

[Otwer22]

No nano texture display option. So sad. The one thing that's stopping me from buying one!

Keep in mind the most likely reason is with nano coat you need higher nits to overcome the coating, and having less nits in MBA will make the display even darker.

 

[Otwer22]

I love the Sky Blue! A difficult choice for me between that and Midnight (if I were looking to upgrade).

I’m in the same boat. I have a MBP in space black and love it. It does require more effort to keep looking nice. The sky blue does look good, and I have seen better photos of the color on YouTube. I just need to decide if I want another dark laptop, or a really light one. This would be a mute point for me if they kept the space grey.

 

[Kay_Ess]

Why try

 

[Oestreich Dieter]

What 2017 model do you have? 15“, 13“, with or without the Touch Bar? Because my 2017 13“ TB MBP needs replacing at some point and I’m curious how the recent Air‘s compare to what was once a ~2k (1700€) MacBook „Pro“.

13" no touch bar. I5.

Honestly, its still trucking along fine. I occasionally get the little rainbow spinning wheel. But nothing major. I am sure the M series Airs will blow the intel Macbook pros out of the water. I paid $1500 for mine and will now get a 15" MBA.

 

[stockcerts]

I'll probably order the base model in the next few days. Apple will give me $210- credit on my 2019 MacBook Pro.

 

[raccoontail]

No, the MBA's passive cooling is not some kind of MBA benefit. MBPs probably have even better passive cooling. One does not typically "hear a fan whirl up" with a MBP. Frankly that is a nonsense argument made by folks who chose to pay less and get no fan capability.

I've owned Mac laptops since the Motorola chip days, upgrading every few years. The fan in my last MBP would come on for all sorts of reasons. Watching 4k video, background software updates, actually using my laptop on my lap, etc. It was absolutely annoying and grew louder over the years. Sure the M4 is a beast of a chip and won't need active cooling as often, but that's not to say won't if Apple's future AI features place higher demands on the CPU. The absence of a fan is one reason why many users prefer the MBA over the MBP, weight being the other main reason. In my use case I use an ext monitor 80% of the time, the MBA meets all my needs, and I value the quiet and light weight as bigger benefits than the extra ports, battery life, and better screen I would get with a MBP. My preferences are not nonsense, and neither are yours.

 

[noobinator]

I've owned Mac laptops since the Motorola chip days, upgrading every few years. The fan in my last MBP would come on for all sorts of reasons. Watching 4k video, background software updates, actually using my laptop on my lap, etc. It was absolutely annoying and grew louder over the years. Sure the M4 is a beast of a chip and won't need active cooling as often, but that's not to say won't if Apple's future AI features place higher demands on the CPU. The absence of a fan is one reason why many users prefer the MBA over the MBP, weight being the other main reason. In my use case I use an ext monitor 80% of the time, the MBA meets all my needs, and I value the quiet and light weight as bigger benefits than the extra ports, battery life, and better screen I would get with a MBP. My preferences are not nonsense, and neither are yours.

Also love how the poster claims something subjective like no noise is not a benefit. If I say I like no fans running, then I like no fans running, and it is a benefit to me, no matter what they say. And lots of reports online of m4 pro fans running more aggressively than previous generations so that poster must have gotten the one silent m4 pro.

 

[Populus]

I don’t know if any of the 400 previous comments has already said this, but I’m afraid the next color Apple will introduce for the MBA will be a soft (pastel) pink.

I wish they were bolder like they did with the midnight colour.

 

[EugW]

I don’t know if any of the 400 previous comments has already said this, but I’m afraid the next color Apple will introduce for the MBA will be a soft (pastel) pink.

I wish they were bolder like they did with the midnight colour.

While I do like some bold colours, truth be told, I'd actually prefer pastel pink over midnight.

 

[Kay_Ess]

I don’t know if any of the 400 previous comments has already said this, but I’m afraid the next color Apple will introduce for the MBA will be a soft (pastel) pink.

I wish they were bolder like they did with the midnight colour.

Afraid?! That would be epic!!
“Midnight pink” or something that would change from purple to pink to silver 🥰
Or just pastel pink idc.

Tiiimmmm, plzzzz, can I have a 120 Hz display in a pink encasing?👉👈🥺

 

[raccoontail]

I don’t know if any of the 400 previous comments has already said this, but I’m afraid the next color Apple will introduce for the MBA will be a soft (pastel) pink.

The early 2000s iMacs must've been terrifying for you! They had colors like "flower power" and "blue dalmatian" etc.

 

[jlc1978]

While I do like some bold colours, truth be told, I'd actually prefer pastel pink over midnight.

Colours are a very personal choice; I’ve always gone with space gray until midnight came out. Both provide good contrast to the stickers on my MBP.

 

[Howard2k]

Silver for me. I like to see the options though. I like the sky blue, but just not above silver.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I don't need the new Air but, I am still considering the blue model. I would love to see a bright orange or deep purple. I doubt we will ever see those.

 

[Astuces iOS]

I don't need the new Air but, I am still considering the blue model. I would love to see a bright orange or deep purple. I doubt we will ever see those.

If you don’t need then don’t buy it ! Instead save your money it can be useful later!

 

[Populus]

Silver for me. I like to see the options though. I like the sky blue, but just not above silver.

Yeah, kinda the same. However, I once tried the starlight color, both on an iPhone 13 and a MacBook Air, and I have to admit it is a gorgeous color.

But I think I’d go back to silver…

 

[CausticSoda]

Still with that ridiculous notch thing…? Wish they got rid of it.

And when they do, I'll replace my M1 MBA. I sometimes wonder if it will last however long that takes, but so far it's going great. It still feels much like it did the day I bought it. Maybe a new battery and another 3 or 4 years...

 

[Trusteft]

I like how the new blue color is the least blue color one could have and still be blue. After all, we don't want to have any real colors here, just shades of grey, like our souls.

 

[CausticSoda]

That’s not strictly true. Apple has maintained a $1=£1 price conversion for some time regardless of the actual exchange rate. Also the consumer protection laws do not replace Apple warranties which U.K. customers still have to buy.

UK Consumer protection laws are quite powerful, but most consumers don't know them. In short, for products that develop a fault within an unreasonable length of time (a small claims court would make a call on that if it came to it by considering the price and reasonable expectations) it must be repaired or replaced for free. This trumps the warranty. So very likely, a £1,000 laptop that stops working within 3-4 years for example through no fault of the user would fall under this. UK retailers are fully aware of this, so will quickly buckle if you show you know what you are talking about.