The trackpad is indeed a joy, and such an improvement over the early Air, hinge design. It is purely haptic; if you power down the computer you can't click the trackpad!
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I'm Back to Mac - (15" M3 Air impressions...after 12 years away)
- Thread starter krspkbl
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I know there are haptics but I could swear I saw the trackpad move when pressing so I thought it still clicked. I guess it was just flex in the materials. I'll need to try press it when it's off. So it works like the trackpads on a Steam Deck? Mines is powered off and I tried pressing it but it doesn't move yet when it's on it feels like it's moving. Really impressive
I also don't think people factor in how drastic of a difference one sort of application can have on RAM deficits over another. Most of your time at the screen is spent with the computer waiting for you to do something even if it's swapping heavily. Over the past few years, I've learned to not freak out about memory pressure on my laptop.
On a server though? I wouldn't be caught dead even short 1KB of RAM. That is instant pain. There is no question.
Applications and environment matter. It's not all the same. If you're in a situation where you truly need everything you can get, you already know. If you have to wonder, you're probably fine... for that use case.
Yup, there is a bit of flex. If you try pushing down at the very edges or corners, you can get it to flex without activating the haptic response. The flex is slight, but noticeable.
Is this different between the M1 and M3 MBA? The trackpad, I mean, because the M1 does have a physical click even when powered down. I'd be hesitant to upgrade mine if this isn't the case on the M3 - haptics on my phone and iPad really don't work at all well for me.
Congrats on your new MBA! Your review is tempting me to make the switch to something smaller and lighter than my 16” M1 Max MacBook Pro — but I need the GPU performance for the simulation work I do. I’m with you on having a clean desktop with no files and no dock visible. I also love using Mission Control / 3-finger swipe up to navigate between all windows and spaces. However, Stage Manager has really grown in me and now I find it indispensable as Apple has fixed it so that it works really well with Mission Control. And, yes, there is a setting to automatically hide Stage Manager until it is activated. I configured my Mac to show Stage Manager by hovering over the left edge of the screen, show my app dock by hovering over the right edge of the screen, and bring up Mission Control using a three finger up-swipe. The combination provides effortless, intuitive access and navigation between apps, windows, spaces and stages using Magic Trackpad. Magical!
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So if I buy an MBA with 8GB RAM and I'm not satisfied with the performance, will you give me a full refund?
No but Apple will... you have 14 days to use it then return it.So if I buy an MBA with 8GB RAM and I'm not satisfied with the performance, will you give me a full refund?
No intention to waste time on experiments when I can buy MBA with 16GB/24GB RAM from the beginning. After all, time equals money.
Weird, that one still need te enable it. And the right click too...
As if both were not state of the art in 2024?
A lot of the same technology is shared between the iPhone, iPad, and with the Mac. This includes instant wake from sleep. I almost never have any need to shut down my MacBook Pro. Closing the lid to initiate sleep mode is usually more than enough to preserve the battery. Normally the only time I restart is to install macOS updates. So you won't have any issues there.
If you want to extend the life of the battery in your MacBook Air I would recommend the Al Dente app. It enables you to cap the battery charge to whatever you set (I use 80% most of the time). By preventing your MacBook Air from staying fully charged at 100% most of the time you can keep the battery healthy a lot longer. You should still let the battery cycle (charge from ~0% to 100%) about once a month.
One minor niggle about macOS is that sometimes it's a bit too eager to sleep when you're in the middle of a long-running process, such as downloading a large file or a large app update. The Amphetamine app can help with this. It prevents your Mac from sleeping for the duration you set. I found this solution because Xcode is notorious for taking a lot of time to download and install. When there is an Xcode update I set Amphetamine to four hours and that's usually enough time for it to complete.
Another thing.... regarding the track pad. You can spare your wrists from carpal tunnel by enabling three-finger drag. It's a bit hidden in the settings but you can find the option under Accessibility => Trackpad.
Add to that people who say AS MBA’s thermal throttle all the time because they don’t have fans, or the screens suck because they aren’t oled, or they get too many fingerprints when they have never owned one…. Armchair engineers.
Makes total sense.I did have an iPad (2021 11") and considered waiting for the M3 Pros but you're right it does seem like the better option but those "gripes" aren't really issues for me. I love using the Air and I'm happy with it. 60hz isn't a problem and I don't need iOS apps I just thought it was a thing on Apple Silicon that all them worked on it. That's my mistake for not researching it properly. I've got a better used to how MacOS works... remember I'm too used to how Windows works so there is some adjustment. And I have been keeping the Air in sleep
My main computer has always been a desktop so I feel more at home having a full desktop OS experience and doing things through the web browser instead of an app. Touch screens hold me back if I want to do something quick or be productive and I know you can add a keyboard/mouse to iPad but it's an optional accessory that raises the cost and I wanted the biggest screen I could reasonably afford in a portable form factor so it was either this 15" Air or the much more expensive 16" MBP. The cheapest iPad Pro I'd get with a keyboard/trackpad cost £1,568 (£1,978 if I went for the 12.9" model) and my Air cost £1,700 so I don't mind the extra cost for bigger screen, MacOS, etc.
I gave iPad a shot and this time I just went with the Air because I've been wanting a Mac again for 12 years so decided that's what I'll get
Then why did you ask the question?No intention to waste time on experiments when I can buy MBA with 16GB/24GB RAM from the beginning. After all, time equals money.
No, it’s not different.
Apple has been using haptic trackpads since 2015 on the MacBook Pro, and since 2018 on the MacBook Air.
All Apple Silicon laptops have the haptic trackpad, including your M1.
This! Another thing I've discovered with 3-finger turned on, is you can select text with three fingers, no need to reach up and hit a modifier key first, or even click to "set" the cursor.
You sure about that? I think you may have mistyped a value. 1KB is nothing today. Last server(s) I maintained had 256GB of RAM.
Surprisingly, with all the talk about 8GB being "so yesterday" and Apple should not even have 8GB as the base memory. Dell is still selling servers with 8GB of memory. Of course they can be upgraded. A server would seem to benefit from more memory than a simple laptop.
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I hate it on the internal trackpad. I'm forever selecting things when I type on the internal keyboard. On the other hand I always to turn it on when I'm docked and using an external keyboard a magic trackpad. I even created a shortcut to automate turning it on and off (which painfully breaks on every new version of macOS.)
Huh? I think we’re saying the same thing. I’m really paranoid about any RAM shortfall on a server, but have a much more relaxed approach on my laptop.
Let’s say it this way then… “I wouldn’t want to be 1GB short on a server. No, I wouldn’t even dare to be 1MB short. Actually, I wouldn’t even want to be 1KB short.”
Make sense now? It’s exaggeration for rhetorical purpose.
No. If you will read my comment I stated the memory could be upgraded. Last server(s) I maintained all had 1TB of memory, expensive stuff, matched pairs, error correcting, would put Apple memory upgrade prices in the ghetto region. Most servers for reliability, and speed, require matched pairs and error correction. It can be done without such memory but that puts the operations and data at risk.
If you look at the prices for Dell memory upgrades for their laptops the costs are actually higher than Apple. The base price, with 16GB is about what Apple charges for a computer with the 16GB upgrade. Upgrading a laptop to 64GB over the base 16GB will cost $1,000.00. Apple only charges $800.00 over the base price to get to 64GB.