Hands-On With the New 15-Inch MacBook Air

[Wokis]

Did anyone notice that despite the fact that it's a fanless laptop, it does have air vents?
You can see them here, at the 6 minute mark:

I don't see any at the 6 minute mark. At 6:30 the speaker grills (hidden in the hinge) are shown.

It wouldn't be that weird actually to have some real ventilation holes, though. There is still warm air near the heatsink that gets trapped by the casing. I'm assuming they thought the speaker holes were enough, though.

 

[adrianlondon]

Could someone please take the time to explain why I would benefit from one of these. I would love one of these machines but I'm just an average consumer and I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), 2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3. It works perfectly and seems to me as good/quick as the day I bought it nearly 10 years ago..
Why should I get this 15 MBA?

Until I broke the internal display 3 years ago, I was happily using that same MBP. After then using it as a Ubunto workstation for a while, I recently used OCLP to put Ventura on it. It runs very well. (Of course, I have to either use an external monitor or remorte-desktop into it due to the aforementioned smashed screen.)

If the weight isn't bothering you, and you don't mind the hassle of using OCLP or are happy running Big Sur (or whatever the latest supported O/S is) then keep it. I'd wait another year and then consider the 15" when it gets the M3 chip.

 

[adrianlondon]

I have a question re the webcam.

On my Intel 2020 MBA, it's awful. Unless I use it in bright light, it's a mess. Much worse than my 2013 MBP. I guess this is due to the thinness of the lid. Luckily, I can use the "continuity camera" feature to use the camera on my iPhone 11, but it's a hassle I'd like to skip.

How's the webcam on the new 15" MBA?

 

[1rottenapple]

The smudge this is relative. I’m not too picky and I love my 13.6 midnight.

 

[mytdave]

I wouldn't call the M2 "outdated". Apple has just barely updated Mac Studio and Pro with M2 series. The M2 is so far ahead of the competition (in its class) that there's no need to release a M3 this year. They'd do well to just call the M2 the chip for 2023, and then update all Macs with M3 next year.

If any changes to the lineup should take place this fall, it would be a spec bump. For example, 8GB of RAM is not enough anymore, it's just not, even with the Apple Silicon architecture's far more efficient use of memory than competitors, 8GB is now anemic.

So in the fall, bump the standard RAM up, provide larger SSDs (and get back to dual chips), and maybe a slight clock speed increase then call it a day.

...and maybe finally get all devices updated to WiFi 6e and Bluetooth 5.3.

 

[fcapriles]

Wondering can this MB Air be used with an external monitor wile the lid is open?

Tried yesterday using an MSI USB C Dock and didn't extend my screen... is there any settings i need to change for this?

TIA.

 

[smaffei]

And, yet, Apple still continues to hobble base models with a paltry 8Gb of RAM…

C'mon Apple, 16Gb of RAM should be the base these days.

Make it $100 more with 16Gb of RAM and I would buy it in a heartbeat (after Amazon discounts it by $100).

 

[marsattacks]

Would love to hear from anybody who is moving from an older 16 Macbook Pro to 15 MacBook Air - is the reduced screen size noticeable for extended use, does it feel like a downgrade, or harm the experience? I’m thinking of moving from a 16 MBP Intel to the new MBA. performance not an issue for my needs, but as my main machine I’m 8hrs+ per day in front of the screen. Thanks

 

[Saturn007]

And the pitting? haven't noticed a single one. to say that I really like it.

Would you please elaborate on what you mean by “pitting”? Do you mean the scratching around the ports? I thought that was a Midnight issue, not Starlight. If you've seen user reports that you could link to and post here that would be helpful. Thanks!

The wedge is a lie! 😊

That wedge shape fools your eyes into thinking the device is thinner when it’s really thicker through most of the case. The new designs are more honest in that regard.

LOL! Let's settle this urban myth, once and for all. Or, NOT! 😎

The M1 MBA varies in thickness from .16 to .63. The original MBA series varied from .11 to .68.

Their average height is .395”. (Half way between the .16” and .63” — or between the .11” and .68”.)

That's less than the .44” thickness of the M2 MBA!

So, they're not thicker through most of their case. The original MBA and the M1 MBA are, indeed, thinner overall.

However, having described that, there's a huge wrinkle, a big caveat.

It pertains to honesty — it's important to determine exactly what Apple’s measuring when it reports that data.

I just measured my own 2015 13” MBA and this is where things get tricky…

It seems that the quoted Apple specs are for the side of the bottom case of the laptop when it's open!

They don't take into account the feet or the lid!

A close look also shows that the top case tapers from the center *over and down* to the side and that even the bottom tapers *up and over* to it. So, measuring the side edge of the laptops as Apple did is misleading.

Do they do the same with the specs for the M1 and M2 MBAs? I have neither of them, but suspect that they have! If so, it likely still means that the original tapered MBA is the overall thinner one!

Now, contrary to what some have claimed, I don't believe for a minute that Apple tapered the original MBA to “cheat” on thinness. They did it because it was elegant, iconic, and more comfortable to type on. It had the added benefit of not only being thin, but looking thin, too! That's artistry. It was also the thinnest laptop at the time, too — so “Truth” was on their side.

For many of us with larger hands, the tapered MBA was wonderful for typing. In contrast, the MacBook Pro had a much higher and more substantial squared-off front edge that would dig into our palms and leave creases or even red lines.

 

[compwiz1202]

Yes then it renders properly - but it is significantly smaller. My eyes aren't what they used to be, so the more space setting doesn't really work for me.

Yea I'd like to see how the 15 looks. My wife's 13 is definitely sharper than my 17" PC laptop, but too small. I wonder if with it being sharper, I would be good with 15?

 

[hudson1]

Any thoughts on which power supply to get (35W dual USB-C or 70W USB-C)?

 

[spicynujac]

This thing is gonna fly off the shelves. The pricing is way lower than I expected!
Only the base model is only 256GB storage, and the more reasonable 512GB is $1,500.

Apple is better than anyone at pricing schemes--make it look super cheap but really most will opt for the $1,500 model, which is kind of pricey for a laptop.

Anyway, my 2015 "best laptop ever made" 15" MBP (the one with ALL the ports) is still chugging along so I'll probably hold off for the M3 MBA in a year or two. Maybe by then I can finally say goodbye to my ports. But this will be a huge seller!

I used to use a 13" MBA for travel, but this new 15" is small enough and light enough that it can replace both my MBA and MBP !

 

[i7m1m2]

Very impressed. My decade old Macbook Retina 15" was reaching EOL and while fine for general browsing and light photo-retouching, doing anything AI (eg sharpening with Topaz or De-noise with Lightroom) would take minutes, not seconds, or just crash. Astonished by the speed difference with the MB Air 15, OK so that's not a surprise with a machine that is a decade more advanced, but was it worth it? Hell yes. Some image processing that took 5 mins on the old laptop now takes less than 3 seconds and the whole workflow of taking a Lightroom image and then editing in Photoshop is now fluid and fast whereas before it felt the older laptop was about to crash at any second (and often did on larger files).

It's basically the same size as the original 15" Retina (give or take), weighs less, sounds better and my geekbench scores are now 2629/9942 (GB6) compared to 796/3100 (GB5) which doesn't really do justice to how much faster this new M2 really is.

Glad I waited for the 15". Perfect for photo work.

 

[darngooddesign]

I don't see any at the 6 minute mark. At 6:30 the speaker grills (hidden in the hinge) are shown.

It wouldn't be that weird actually to have some real ventilation holes, though. There is still warm air near the heatsink that gets trapped by the casing. I'm assuming they thought the speaker holes were enough, though.

Heat vents passively through all the keyboard openings, probably through some of the hinge openings as well.

 

[GuruZac]

Gonna trade my M1 MBA on the 15" soon! Looks like exactly the computer many of us have been waiting for.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Agreed! Why can we not just have MacBook and MacBook Pro? And I don't care what they say about the volume of the M2 Air compared with the M1 Air Wedge design. The M2 looks thicker, and it feels thicker.

I concede that this is all subjective, but I hard disagree on that.

The M2 feels thinner than my (now daughter's) M1 by a lot. The uniformity of thickness throughout the device and the really clean lines works better here than on the MBP's which seem, "chunky", at least until you see them in person.

I never really liked the wedge's asymmetry, despite Apple making it about as elegant as you could get a wedge shape to be.

But for me, it was like trying to pick up doo by the clean end.

 

[3xBoom]

Would be great to resurrect the 11" MBA with an M2 (esp if macbook 12" is done for good)

 

[devinher]

Dan does such a great job with these. Love his enthusiasm

And it does look like a great machine.

 

[psxp]

Did anyone notice that despite the fact that it's a fanless laptop, it does have air vents?
You can see them here, at the 6 minute mark:

those Vents are for the speakers

 

[ignatius345]

Any thoughts on which power supply to get (35W dual USB-C or 70W USB-C)?

Either will charge the laptop, but the second one will do it faster. With my M1 Air, the battery life is so good I only end up charging it overnight (and often not even then), so charge speed is almost irrelevant. I would imagine this M2 Air would be similar.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Would you please elaborate on what you mean by “pitting”? Do you mean the scratching around the ports? I thought that was a Midnight issue, not Starlight. If you've seen user reports that you could link to and post here that would be helpful. Thanks!

Oh - HA! Typo! "Finger printing" is what I meant to type. 😂
Fixed original.

 

[compwiz1202]

Heat vents passively through all the keyboard openings, probably through some of the hinge openings as well.

Plus it will pass through the casing material, but they will want to keep that within reason so it doesn't burn the users.

 

[Saturn007]

Oh - HA! Typo! "Finger printing" is what I meant to type. 😂
Fixed original.

Chuckled over your reply — and appreciated the clarification. I'd blame it on Apple's poor auto-correct system! If we're not careful, all sorts of things slip through.

I wish it would properly handle apostrophes (e.g., it insists on it's rather than it), inadvertent commas, missing spaces, and mistaken letters instead of spaces between words (often, c, b, n, m for me). Hope that the upcoming AI language-smart AC fixes that, but I’m not ho,ding my breath! (Left that comma error in there as an example of something Apple's AC doesn't know to fix!)

In any case, Imwonder if forensics can lift fingerprints more easily off midnight than starlight! (Left “Imwonder” in there as another instance of auto-correct‘s lack of smarts.)

 

[Wokis]

Heat vents passively through all the keyboard openings, probably through some of the hinge openings as well.

Yeah I should have thought of that, especially since that was my own conclusion when testing thermal throttling clamshell vs open (I dock mine usually) and finding a measurable difference when having it closed vs open.

Thermal pad + vertical clamshell (in a stand) seems to be the best thing, though! If one dares doing the procedure..

 

[DarthDon]

Nice. If it doesnt have problems within the next weeks, i'll get one...