The M2 Air chassis isn't thick enough for HDMI.
Yeah, and I might, too, but Apple is calculating that most people won't.
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Gurman: M4 MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac Coming This Year
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The M2 Air chassis isn't thick enough for HDMI.
Yeah, and I might, too, but Apple is calculating that most people won't.
A physically lighter MBP would be nice, but "hardly qualifies as a portable"?
The current 14-inch weighs 15% less than the 2016 Touch Bar 15-inch, 24% less than the 2012 Retina 15-inch, 38% less than the 2008 Unibody 15-inch and 39% less than the initial MacBook Pro. I'll skip the PowerBooks, but it also weighs 79% less than the product literally called Macintosh Portable.
Well, that, and also a battery. Those weigh a lot.
Sure, but in that case, you're simply more of an Air customer, and that's fine.
To me, the additional p-cores and higher RAM options mean that I prefer the 14-inch. And the HDMI port.
I'm staying hopeful for a Touch Bar model. Maybe MacBook Air? Maybe optional?
On paper, I thought it was a good idea. The execution just wasn't there. And perhaps it cannot be; tactile feedback perhaps matters too much even for F-keys.
I was considering picking up a Mac Mini m4 Pro, 1 tb HD, and maxing out the ram. Instead, this morning I ordered a MBP 16" M3 Max (36gb ram, 1tb ssd) from Best Buy for $2650 and plan on mating it with a Dell Ultrasharp 40" 5K 4025QW curved display. Could not pass on the $850 savings for an excellent condition open box model.
That’s not very realistic in terms of heat dissipation.
But I’ll say the 14-inch MacBook Pro isn’t that far off from the 12-inch PowerBook from back in the day. It weighs 26% less and is 48% slimmer, although it is also 13% wider and 1% deeper.
Weren't there some issues with some M3 Macs? I was thinking this was one reason (there certainly could be others) why Apple avoided equipping the Mac Minis with the M3 processor.
No, the issue was with TSMC's 3nm N3B process for creating chips that was expensive and had low yield. Word was that half the chips failed validation testing, though it supposedly improved over time, but not by enough to warrant continued use of that N3B process. Apple wanted to get off of that process and on to TSMC's N3E process, which was cheaper and had significantly higher yields. There was nothing wrong with the Macs. Apple just didn't want to keep using M3 chips. Keep in mind the ones that pass validation are just fine and not defective. They're just expensive to make and have a high initial rejection rate.
To clarify, the M3 family and A17 Pro uses the N3B process while the M4 family and A18 family uses the N3E process.
Other computer makers skipped the N3B process entirely and waited for N3E, but supposedly Apple really wanted to be the first to come out with a 3nm device, so they were willing to use that N3B process for their MacBook Pros and Airs.
That doesn't explain why they released MacBook Airs earlier this year and will continue to ship them through next year, but it's possible they'd bought up enough inventory of base M3 chips to warrant that, so they picked one product to use up all their inventory. Meanwhile every other device Apple ships will either replace those M3's next month or never had M3 variants in the first place. Note that devices like the Mac mini, all iPads, Mac Pro, and Mac Studio never had M3 variants used for them while it's expected the MacBook Pros and iMac that do will be replaced next month. After those devices start shipping, no new Apple products except the MacBook Air will use chips based on N3B. Though Apple kept the iPhone 15 in the lineup, that uses the A16 based on a 5nm process.
Just continuing that flow…
So when the MacBook Airs switch to M4 next year. What do you think is the plan for the least expensive MacBook Air (the current M2 version)?
Will Apple just discontinue the lowest end MacBook Air.
Will Apple just continue to sell the M2 version [that’s what I think perhaps starting with 16GB of RAM]
Will Apple continue to sell a single M3 MacBook Air configuration.
Or something else.
It’s a good question, but I think they’ll simply replace the M3 with the M4, and maybe knock $50 off the M1 and M2.
They want the M3 / A17 Pro dead ASAP.
The M1 version is only sold at Walmart, IIRC. I’m guessing that will be discontinued. Apple will use the M2 version as their discount version and the M4 will get rid of all M3’s. Apple really doesn’t want to continue the N3B processors. Just a guess, though. I wonder if they’re even making more M3’s and are just selling from inventory.
It might be an excuse to put a gap in the prices with M4 version selling for $1199 while the M2 sells for $999 instead of the $1099 the M3 version sells for now. The reasoning will be because of the extra 8GB of RAM if Gurman is correct about all base M4 Macs starting at 16GB.
Oh, right.
I think that's right. They can go $949 or maybe $899 on the M2, then $1099 for the M4.
That's also a good point. Perhaps that means the M2 stays $999 for a little longer, and the M4 starts at $1,199. A $200 gap isn't too terrible. I can't imagine them making their mainstream current-gen laptop much pricier, though.