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I just don’t understand how a product with reduced functionality costs the same amount. Imagine if Apple would sell their 14“ MBP for the same price as the 16“, would you still argue that is normal as the 14“ is more portable than the 16“?
They’re not the same price, not even close.
People are comparing a day one price, straight from Apple themselves, non-refurbished, brand new, no discounts to an almost year old computer with tons of discounts from other retailers.
Straight from Apple, there is a $400 difference between the Air with 16GB ram and 512gb SSD.
$1599 for the Air, $1999 for the Pro.
That’s not the same price for the majority of people. That’s a pretty big gap.
The second that the air starts to get these sort of $200 discounts in a couple months, The price difference is gonna seem just as dramatic.
 
Not unless your MacBook gets red hot.

See: https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2007/01/epn07102.pdf

"Black" objects do absorb and radiate heat more efficiently (the two things run together), but it is only significant if they are "black" at the frequencies emitted at the temperatures involved - which you can't tell just by looking at them in visible light.

Visibly black objects do get noticeably hotter in sunlight because the "temperature involved" is that of the sun which emits a lot of energy as visible light. For objects at ambient 'earthly' temperatures ~25C, most of the radiation is in the far infra-red, so the visible colour of the object makes no significant difference. Turns out that - at those frequencies - pretty much all paint is "black".

If you look at a table of emissivity (1=theoretical maximum, for objects at room temperature) you'll see that polished metal has very low emissivity (polished aluminium = 0.07), anodised aluminium is much higher (0.77) and most types of paint are in the 0.8-0.95 range. So yeah, paint your heatsinks and radiators any colour you like because any sort of paint or coating has far higher emissivity than bare metal. I think Macs use anodised aluminium with pigments added - probably even to the 'silver' ones - so my guess would be that all modern Macs will be about the same.

Also, since we live in an atmosphere, in most cases convective cooling is far more significant than radiation, so airflow and surface area are far more important than radiation. Unless you're dealing with 6000K sunlight - and your "midnight" Mac will get hotter than a silver one if you leave it in the sun.

That sure is a lot of writing to make a circular (and wrong) point. “Pigments added” to CLEAR anodize? LOL.
 
That sure is a lot of writing to make a circular (and wrong) point. “Pigments added” to CLEAR anodize? LOL.
Following the great tradition of everyone thinking they are in expert in anything and everything on the internet. Armchair scientists, armchair lawyers, armchair engineers, etc.
 
That sure is a lot of writing to make a circular (and wrong) point. “Pigments added” to CLEAR anodize? LOL.
I see "Midnight", "Space Grey", "Starlight" and "Silver" as the available finishes. Where is this "clear" of which you speak?
 
Following the great tradition of everyone thinking they are in expert in anything and everything on the internet. Armchair scientists, armchair lawyers, armchair engineers, etc.
Which post are you talking about? The one with the links to a relevant article by an actual physicist & tables of emissivity, or the "You're wrong because I disagree with you but I can't be bothered to check any of my facts" reply?
 
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Please retreat from forcing those who prefer to read about content to watch videos.lot of us prefer reading over watching…
Reading is faster, more informative and can be done anywhere (almost). Waking up at 5:45 and my wife is still asleep? Can’t watch this video…
 
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I don't even want to know what it would take to make the fans on my 14" MBP turn on. Certainly nothing you'd be doing on an Air. I've never had them turn on even once, even working outside in 95 degree heat.
Because of a better cooling system than the MBP 14, it's practically impossible to get the fans in the MBP 16 to come on. And when they do (when running CPU stress tests or something like Handbrake) you can't hear them.
 
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Got my base model M2 Macbook Air yesterday afternoon and have been able to use it for a couple of hours. Upgrading from a base model Early 2020 Intel Macbook Air (i3) it is extremely fast and responsive. Love having Touch ID on the keyboard and having MagSafe back is one of the reasons I went with the 2022 M2 version over the previous M1. The screen brightness imho is noticeably brighter. The design of the non-tapered case and slightly larger screen area is really well done. Notch isn't bothering me at all either and glad to have a 1080p camera. So far very impressive. It is kinda strange there is nowhere on the machine where it says Macbook Air but I guess thats OK. Also really like the weight of the machine. I do really basic things on the machine so the "slower" ssd really isn't noticeable or an issue for me and probably for many people it won't be a thing either.

edit: As pointed out the original early 2020 MBA i3 had touch ID. The one on the new machine is just larger and more noticeable.

edit 2: Opened up the system information and the memory is LPDDR5 so that is a nice upgrade as well!
 
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I said “supposedly”, as many who have both side by side are saying they are noticing different.

These differences are most likely just manufacturing differences of individual MacBooks, placebo effects or some minor tweaks done to the manufacturing process. I doubt it's different in any meaningful, or even noticeable way.

But Apple says it's the same keyboard. They even say the Air was designed alongside MBPs.

There are valid reasons to get Air over the 14" MBP, as you yourself said (weight, size, price, battery life, even colors) - but keyboard is not one of them.
 
That sure is a lot of writing to make a circular (and wrong) point. “Pigments added” to CLEAR anodize? LOL.

How is it a wrong point? They explained that whatever differences in temperature of the computer the color might cause, they are negligible and probably only measurable by precise equipment.
 
Candidly the options of Midnight, Starlight, Space Gray and Silver are…not very colourful. They might have nice finishes, but they’re largely neutral and uninspiring colours.

After the rumours of colours similar to those found on the iPad Air or iMac 24 I find the current M2 MBA colour palette rather meh. Overall there is really little to distinguish the look of these from the plethora of Windows laptops already on the market—a sea of grays, silvers, dark blues and champagne like golds.
 
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It doesn't say "MacBook Air" on the bottom? The MBP14 isn't labeled on the screen either.
I don't own one but I just checked in the AR feature on the Apple Store app and the text isn't there on the bottom like it is on the MBP14.
 
You don’t understand my point. Yes the mentioned factors are fine and many people will be happy with them. I just don’t understand how a product with reduced functionality costs the same amount. Imagine if Apple would sell their 14“ MBP for the same price as the 16“, would you still argue that is normal as the 14“ is more portable than the 16“?

Bringing the 14" and 16" into this confuses things a little - it's pretty obvious that such a large difference in screen size will cost more and change the portability.

I agree that M2 Air vs. 13" M2 MBP is a bit of a stumper, though (but if the M2 13" MBP floats anybody's boat they're welcome to buy it). The price difference is almost trivial, but apart from marginally better battery life and whatever extra performance you get from the fan (time will tell on that one).

However, the M2 13" MBP doesn't have to make sense to everybody as long as people are buying it. The fact that Apple are still making an "entry level" MBP probably means that have been selling a shedload of 13" MBPs alongside M1 Airs - for whatever reasons - and think they'll continue to do so.

Possibly Apple or key distributors have got supply contracts for 13" MBPs that can be fulfilled with M2 MBPs but would have to be re-negotiated if they wanted to substitute Airs (which could be a major bureaucratic nightmare with government organisations or large corps). Or, perhaps there's a hard core of touch bar fans....

Also, the current line up means that Apple could be confident that, going into the important US "back to school" season, punters would have a nice, clear choice between the old M1 Air and the "bumped" M2 13" Pro - less portable but otherwise all-round better than the M1 Air - and wouldn't be left high and dry if the M2 Air got delayed (e.g. because of the new screen or a hitch with the all-new chassis).

I suspect we'll see some sort of shake-up after "back to school" that puts the range back to (the new) normal - we'll find out whether the M1 Air is going to hang around as the entry level, and whether there are going to be M2 Pro/Max MBPs with the same sort of price points as before.
 
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Not going to lie the color Midnight looks stunningly gorgeous! It's got that stealthier look.

I’ll be curious to see if dealing with a black MBA is as awful as it is on my surface pc provided by work. The combination of black casing plus sides that have a chamfer at the bottom make it dam* near impossible to easily insert a cable into the single USB-A and single USB-C ports on the left side. The ports disappear amongst the black casing, half of which is invisible due to the chamfer, and have to awkwardly lift up the laptop each time. It’s amazing how the little things can contribute to either a good, balanced design, or an awful, awful clumsy design.

Something as simple as the color of the silver casing (even space grey) really lets ports stand out and be easier to mount.
 
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Why wouldn't you clearly tell people to avoid the 256GB as Apple has crippled this configuration?
Only if your daily usage involves exporting 4K HEVC files in the background while surfing 10+ tabs at the same time with a need for those files to export quicker than they will on this machine.

If so, buy a higher end machine in the first place.
 
Got my base model M2 Macbook Air yesterday afternoon and have been able to use it for a couple of hours. Upgrading from a base model Early 2020 Intel Macbook Air (i3) it is extremely fast and responsive. Love having touchID on the keyboard and having MagSafe back is one of the reasons I went with the 2022 M2 version over the previous M1. The screen brightness imho is noticeably brighter. The design of the non-tapered case and slightly larger screen area is really well done. Notch isn't bothering me at all either and glad to have 1080p camera. So far very impressive. It is kinda strange there is no where on the machine where it says Macbook Air but I guess thats OK. Also really like the weight of the machine. I do really basic things on the machine so the "slower" ssd really isn't noticable or an issue for me and probably for many people it won't be a thing either.
The M1 MBA also has Touch ID on the keyboard. As does the 2020 Intel MBA (i3). I am using one right now to write this post.

Like you, I am considering upgrading to the M2 from my 2020 i3 MBA. Reasons for me: Battery Life, Mag Safe, 1080P camera, M2 chip (much faster than the i3), and no fan noise. I will go to the Apple store to check it out. The base model would be perfect for me. I am the typical entry level MBA consumer that only uses standard apps that never really push my computer: Mail, Messages, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, FaceTime, Safari (less than 5 tabs open), iWork/MS Office, Photos, and very rarely use iMovie to make simple slideshows.

Essentially, I don't render high resolution video. I never do it, but if I ever did, I would just wait a few minutes longer for the task to complete. It would cost $400 to upgrade to 16/512 from the base model. For me, that's a pretty step price to pay for a few minutes of waiting that may or may not occur once or twice over the 5 years that I plan to keep the computer. My time is valuable....but not that valuable.
 
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The M1 MBA also has Touch ID on the keyboard. As does the 2020 Intel MBA (i3). I am using one right now to write this post.

Like you, I am considering upgrading to the M2 from my 2020 i3 MBA. Reasons for me: Battery Life, Mag Safe, 1080P camera, M2 chip (much faster than the i3), and no fan noise. I will go to the Apple store to check it out. The base model would be perfect for me. I am the typical entry level MBA consumer that only uses standard apps that never really push my computer: Mail, Messages, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, FaceTime, Safari (less than 5 tabs open), iWork/MS Office, Photos, and very rarely use iMovie to make simple slideshows.
Oh you are right, forgot about the Touch ID on the keyboard. I guess this one is just bigger and more noticeable. But yeah for sure.

Yup all good reasons to make the move. It seems to be a pretty sizeable upgrade from the 2020 i3 MBA.
 
Which of these two is better for a university use (take notes, watching videos, using excel and other stuff)?:
-MBA with 512 of SSD and 8gb of RAM
- MBA with 256 gb of SSD (with the storage issue) and 16 go of RAM
Considering that I would like to keep this MacBook for at least 5-6 years
 
Which of these two is better for a university use (take notes, watching videos, using excel and other stuff)?:
-MBA with 512 of SSD and 8gb of RAM
- MBA with 256 gb of SSD (with the storage issue) and 16 go of RAM
Considering that I would like to keep this MacBook for at least 5-6 years
The "storage issue" if you mean in terms of "slow" SSD would not really impact you for those uses.

If you plan to keep it 5-6 years, I'd say go with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD. You can always plug in an external drive if you need more space but the RAM would always be stuck at 8GB.

8GB would really be enough at this time for your uses, but better to future proof on the RAM if you can.
 
Best MacBook Pro ever!
 

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