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M1 MacBook Air Gets No Price Drop, 8-Core GPU No Longer an Option
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In europe m1 and m2 mba difference its 300€ (+25%)! That's a lot, and i dont remember that price before for a base mba. Inflation, pendemic? Only excuses to raise prices. otherwise EVERY other apple product should have prices rised. Do u think the m2 mba price will lower in the future? ahahahahha. You know gas prices that goes high when petrol goes high, while remain stable when petrol goes down? So u know what im talking about
Multicore performance has nothing to do with a "weighted average" of single core performance. The 18/2 math I used was hyperbole to show how absurd using the %18 multicore improvement was to imply single core performance.
Nothing, even inflation, justifies what Apple did in Europe though.
Before WWDC MBA M1 base model started at €999, after WWDC MBA M1 base model starts at €1219. That's a 20% increase in price for literally the same laptop.
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I don't know if Tim's greed works at all. I know a lot of people that "wish to try" a mac but prefer a buy a windows pc and get double performance for the same price. Or people that back from mac to windows for the same reason.Personally, i stopped to upgrade so often like before. I have an iphone 8 and still dont found a new one that can satisfy me more than it. have a imac 27 2019 and no reason to upgrade it (there is not even a new one). mba intel that i use only on holiday, that ill certainly not ugrade for a m2...
Now, every price apple decides, people buy anyway, ok. But what if apple will gain less (per item sold), but sells twice the amount? Seems neither shareholders want to try it....
Yeah I was planning on upgrading my M1 MBA. Not anymore now. It is 27,000 ~ $350 costlier now.
When has Apple ever buried a metric that showed "decent" improvement?
Singlecore and multicore performance metrics are very well documented. All my comments are consistent with their true meanings.
My comment pointed out a post that claims the M2 has an %18 single core performance improvement (it does not). After I called that out the original poster began spinning like a top.
Go ahead and read about single/multi core performance metrics and show me where I'm wrong. You cannot do that so instead you resort to childish insult.
Check it out: The new so called "M2" MacBook Air base configuration only has EIGHT GPU cores, just like the original M1 MacBook Air with 8 cores (no longer available).
It will be interesting to compare the new "M2" 8 core GPU against the M1 8 Core GPU system. That's when this so called "M2" chip will earn the name M1 Plus, which will be a more accurate name.
All the performance improvement metrics presented in the keynote compared the 10 core GPU against the 8 core GPU M1. Apple's sleight of hand at work.
It's not just 2 more graphics cores.
You also get:
Faster CPU cores
Bigger screen
Brighter screen
Magsafe
More colors
Sure... everyone hates price hikes. But it is an updated model with upgraded components.
And considering the state of the economic world today... the M2 Macbook Air is still an awesome machine.
Might also compare the "M2" 8 GPU core vs the "M2" 10 GPU core, which is a $100 USD difference. There is an 8 core GPU option for this so called "M2" chip although most peeps seem to be missing this.It's not just 2 more graphics cores.
You also get:
Faster CPU cores
Bigger screen
Brighter screen
Magsafe
More colors
Sure... everyone hates price hikes. But it is an updated model with upgraded components.
And considering the state of the economic world today... the M2 Macbook Air is still an awesome machine.
The 7 GPU core M1 option is $200 or $300 (vs 8 or 10 GPU) USD less without the options you listed.
You can order the 10 core GPU with 256GB SSD if you select the 8 core unit then bump the GPU option on the BTO page.
Summary: I think the overall MacBook Air update is good. But calling this new new chip an "M2" is BS. It should be called the M1 Plus. Apple did good work on the Pro, Max, and Ultra, so "refreshing" the original M1 would have been completely fine. This "M2" chip really doesn't contain any "internal" tech that significantly outperforms the Pro, Max, or Ultra chips. This will really be evident when this "M2" MacBook Air w/8 GPU cores is compared against an M1 MacBook Air with 8 GPU cores. Sure it will be faster, but only slightly - and thus only a minor performance bump.
Single core performance (currently unknown) will become an issue going forward because Intel is not sitting still. More importantly, all these performance metrics (single core multi core, etc... ) are really just "building blocks" used to configure a system appropriately for a user's needs. I'm a software dev so I need more CPU cores to build large open source libraries with thousands of source files. Intel hyper threading is great for this because one core could compile 2 files concurrently. Apple Silicon doesn't have hyper threading so I need more real cores to do the same job.
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I really don’t know about European pricing for Apple products, so I was referring to $US. It might be a completely different situation where you live. For the US, these prices are completely consistent with past MBA pricing of new models and phased out older MBA models. There is nothing unusual about it …… in the US.
900-1100 its still (almost) +25% so price variations between usa and europe are the same... so if there was such variation in the past ill certainly remembered it. It also depends if in the past, the new model has bigger ssd/ram than the previous so it postions little higher than the old model. But in this case both versions shares same ssd/ram.
Example:
m1
256gb: 1200€, 512: 1500€
m2
512: 1500€, 1tb: 1800€
this would be a "fair" solution. "fair" talking of apple of course, because, as i already wrote in another quote, nowadays u can get a 1tb nvme gen4 with 5000+mbps RW for 100€. people will still be forced to spend 300€ for having 256gb more, letting apple earn more than it should, but at least it'll look a lttle fair.
while giving the same ssd and bumping price by a 25% its a total theft. and, no, cpu and new design, isnt enough, its only a natural evolution of a IT product, that dont justifies so much money.
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Pricing is getting pretty steep. Here in Australia a 16GB/512GB MacBook Air is $2649.
The 16/512 14” MacBook Pro is $2999.
You miss out on a lot for a saving of $250 going for the Air. Less performance. Less ports. Smaller screen. Less thermal capacity.
But the base level Air with an iCloud subscription is going to suit a lot of people.
The 16/512 14” MacBook Pro is $2999.
You miss out on a lot for a saving of $250 going for the Air. Less performance. Less ports. Smaller screen. Less thermal capacity.
But the base level Air with an iCloud subscription is going to suit a lot of people.
There exists at least 1 core that has at least 18% performance improvement.
Whenever I've looked they seem to only offer good discounts on certain base configurations (minimum SSD and RAM). Maybe I'm wrong about that?
Actually I think you're right; pretty sure they don't get hold of any other bespoke configurations. It's peculiar though that Apple stubbornly continue to sell e.g. the base M1 Air at £100 more than the biggest go-to competitor retailer (in the UK at least); see also John Lewis...
I think there's a subset of consumers who are less tech-savvy than the type of folks in this forum. I know a guy like this, who was totally stressed out about buying a laptop and didn't have a clue what he needed. He ended up buying an M1 Air in person at an Apple Store. I think people like that are more willing to pay an extra 100 (£ or $) for the guided buying experience.
Well.... yes, I can vouch for that - it describes me several years ago!
I've come on so far since then.
(I haven't really
)
in Poland prices of the M1 have risen substantially
M1 MacBook Air before the WWDC prices:
base model 8/256 was available in regular, almost weekly promotions at official resellers for 4000 PLN (872 EUR, 935 USD) - prices in PL include tax
on the apple store website the official price was 5200 PLN (1133 EUR , 1216 USD), not a single promotion since the launch in 2020.
now:
on the Apple website: 5700 PLN (1242 EUR, 1333 USD)
at official resellers, e.g. Media Markt , the cheapest : 5000 PLN (1090 EUR, 1170 USD)
that's a 25% increase.. a daylight robbery!
btw. the price of the base M2 MBA is 7000 PLN (1526 EUR , 1637 USD)
average monthly salary in Poland is like half of that...
I don't think those M2 will be selling like hot cakes in my country...
M1 MacBook Air before the WWDC prices:
base model 8/256 was available in regular, almost weekly promotions at official resellers for 4000 PLN (872 EUR, 935 USD) - prices in PL include tax
on the apple store website the official price was 5200 PLN (1133 EUR , 1216 USD), not a single promotion since the launch in 2020.
now:
on the Apple website: 5700 PLN (1242 EUR, 1333 USD)
at official resellers, e.g. Media Markt , the cheapest : 5000 PLN (1090 EUR, 1170 USD)
that's a 25% increase.. a daylight robbery!
btw. the price of the base M2 MBA is 7000 PLN (1526 EUR , 1637 USD)
average monthly salary in Poland is like half of that...
I don't think those M2 will be selling like hot cakes in my country...
Based on what actual facts? Or just one of many conflicting rumors? Sure; Apple has no ethics. 😡
I just bought a new M1 air with 512gb and the 8 core GPU for £1,100 on Amazon and considering the state of everything it's still a reasonable deal. It's not great and I would have loved for the prices to come down, but the difference to the 512gb M2 model is just too much for me and my use case.
I'm a bit disappointed frankly that they didn't discount the M1, but then maybe that was too much too hope for in the current climate.
It's my first M1 system coming from a 2013 rMBP that more or less still meets my needs, so I'm not too worried about performance over the next few years. If the MBP hadn't destroyed itself due to battery swelling I'd probably keep using it for another 2-3 years.
That's the thing to keep in mind with Apple keeping an almost two year old system in the lineup: these things have gotten such a good performance that the average consumer will struggle to reach a performance bottleneck.
I'm a bit disappointed frankly that they didn't discount the M1, but then maybe that was too much too hope for in the current climate.
It's my first M1 system coming from a 2013 rMBP that more or less still meets my needs, so I'm not too worried about performance over the next few years. If the MBP hadn't destroyed itself due to battery swelling I'd probably keep using it for another 2-3 years.
That's the thing to keep in mind with Apple keeping an almost two year old system in the lineup: these things have gotten such a good performance that the average consumer will struggle to reach a performance bottleneck.