Until Apple makes an Air with four USB ports, I am stuck buying more horsepower than I need. Multi-port accessories don’t seem to have the juice to run things that need power, like DVD player or even an external backup drive. *sigh*
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Gurman: New MacBooks Will Be Announced at WWDC in June
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I really hope the new-model 13" and 15.5" MacBook Airs adds vapor-chamber cooling for the SoC. That way, the laptop doesn't suffer from thermal throttling caused by the occasional running of more complex apps.
But Tim Cook is not about simplicity. He is about all sorts of price points. So scenario 1 is the more likely one.
It's been mighty quiet recently at the MR sister site, MacFacts dot com
It's less than two months until the event, and it's a "probably won't have M3 chip" 😆
I mean, he's not even trying to pretend he doesn't know anything anymore.
Whatever Apple's decision is - M2 or M3 or Z4 - it's already been made months and months ago, it's just that Gurman has no idea, hence the need to speculate and add words like "probably".
It's always easier to wait another year to get all benefits and avoid problems. v1 always too v1.
The idea that M1 and even M2 is dated and obsolete is perfect nonsense only fanatics and posers will subscribe to. The roads are full of perfectly good older model cars and trucks that do whats needed of them with perfectly satisfied owners. The fact they’re no longer the newest, latest models doesn’t invalidate their value and usefulness.
Calling M1 and M2 outdated when the general competition hasn’t even caught with 1 released two years ago is absurd.
If you need a computer right now then you can get a perfectly satisfiable device now.
Calling M1 and M2 outdated when the general competition hasn’t even caught with 1 released two years ago is absurd.
If you need a computer right now then you can get a perfectly satisfiable device now.
LOL. Ok. So they're going to announce this at WWDC.....with a year old SOC.
thanks for such original advice. 3nm chips such as the M3 are 20-30% more energy efficient than 5nm chips (the M2). I buy a laptop for portability so I can use it on the go. Thus, battery life IS the most important thing for me. Hence why I'm waiting for the M3.
Apple is likely to still weight improvements to computer performance rather than just longer battery life. It’s how it’s been with the AS platform laptops.
I don't give a hoot about the M3's processing power. Processing power is NOT why I'm waiting. I'm waiting because the M3 is a next-gen 3nm chip and the M2 is an old-gen 5nm chip. 3nm chips are 20-30% more energy efficient than 5nm chips, which means much longer battery life. The energy efficiency is the big advantage of 3nm over 5nm. And battery life is the most important thing in a laptop for me.
If the M2 were already 3nm, I wouldn't be waiting until the M3 to buy the 15" MBA, which I've hoped Apple would make for over a decade now.
M4 and M5 chips will also be 3nm, which is why I'm not going to wait for them as they will feature the same underlying chip technology as the M3.
This is an odd rumour. Puts a freeze on a MBA purchase for me for the next 2 months.
M1 and M2 are already 15-18+ hours battery life. An extra maybe 2 hours from M3 isn’t a big deal. In practical terms the current MacBooks give you two days worth of work time on a single charge. Meanwhile the competition is still stuck at maybe 8-10 hours battery life.
Some people need to get real.
Some people need to get real.
A matte black MBP, even a midnight one, would fly off the shelves.
I am a bit confused. If there is no M3, why to update the 13" MBA then ?
I could see as consistent options not updating the 13" MBA and adding an 15" MBA with similar chips, or releasing the M3 and moving all models to it (hence, updating the 13").
I could see as consistent options not updating the 13" MBA and adding an 15" MBA with similar chips, or releasing the M3 and moving all models to it (hence, updating the 13").
Most of this rumor has realized that the 15” MBA will be M2 based because some speculation had the M3 being available way sooner than it could be. Still a lot we’re hopeful.
It was mentioned April and then March and now June? Could it end up be in the Fall?
Sounds like a solid plan for Apple, especially if the M3 processor isn't ready for prime time. I can understand this! My next upgrade to MacBook whatever will have to have an M3 or later processor.
Without reading your updates, I felt you were making the right decision. I mean, if your current MacBook Pro wasn't working well, you would have already upgraded it! This speaks volumes for Apple in that older technology can still pack a punch for many, many years.
I am like you, it has to be M3 and mostly for the reasons you explained later. Already the M2 variants can address up to 96gb memory coupled with 8TB drive so I am hoping that the M3 can address even more memory, along with more core. It's nice to have options, right?
How can it possibly be just an A2 chip? They waited a *whole* year just to announce the same computer in a new size? How does that make sense?
512 GB SSD standard?
Airjet cooling chip? Numpad in trackpad? Blue color without fingerprints? Display? Speakers?
Not if they want to sell this product immediately. Why delay it because people are clambering for the next SoC family for some strange reasons like ultimate energy savings rather then what the M1 and M2 already provides.
Not sure if you are aware that chip is not the only part that sucks power and that display can be also significant. So it will be less then 20-30%. Besides that Chip will be more powerful so will probably suck similar power as M2.
Where the Mac Pro fits into Apple's current hardware paradigm is an open question, but I don't think the question of launching a M2 MacBook Air right now is really a hard one to solve. The people who buy MacBook Airs are not people focused on chips processes. They're people who want a more affordable Apple laptop, and who previously haven't been able to get a bigger screen without a significant price and weight cost. I assume at some point the product will get refreshed with the 13" in a "normal" cadence and it'll just be a historical weirdness bit that it launched with an M2 super late after the 13", like how the shift to unibody laptops took a while and there was weirdness like the metal MacBook that lasted a generation before being turned into a Pro.