Oh, so that means you’ve tried the new Air already? You must have, otherwise how would you know if the reviews are true or not. Share your opinion with us, please, it’s always good to know various perspectives.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
M2 MacBook Air Reviews: 'Apple's Near-Perfect Mac'
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Oh, so that means you’ve tried the new Air already? You must have, otherwise how would you know if the reviews are true or not. Share your opinion with us, please, it’s always good to know various perspectives.
Secure enough for payments facial recognition?
512 GB SSD in now base model https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/...2-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-10-core-gpu-512gb#
The number of whiners out in full force tells me that Apple has another hit product.
Those laptops Facial Recognition is nowhere near as good as FaceID. However, FaceID is too thick for all of Apples laptop form factors currently. I've had the iPhone X and every iPhone Max since, and honestly, on Mac, TouchID makes sense. I wouldn't want it to read my face and automatically approve something. I want to make sure it's all correct, lay my finger to approve, and then the transaction happens.
A base model is the lowest price config. There are two standard stock models you can order, one with a 256 GB SSD and more expensive one with 512 GB SSD.
Amazing machines but here in Europe with our weak euro far too pricey at this moment. I'm glad I renewed all my apple stuff in 2021 so I can save some money
Absurd price - only if you're comparing to a lesser PC laptop.
Slower SSD - that's only in the 256 GB model.
Ugly huge notch - subjective, but sure I guess.
no FaceID - you can't really complain about something that is not there especially when there is TouchID
Or they just want more ports, better speakers, better screen and fans to process lots of data without heating up/slowing down.
Nice red herring. I don't need to try the new Air to know that people like iJustine, Ritchie, Dalrymple, Gruber et al are simply shilling for the house.
Their track record speaks for itself.
I'm not even sure what the complaint is.
That Apple embargoed reviews of review units? Yeah, they've been doing that for years. You could also not take a review unit, buy one yourself, and release the review whenever you're ready, days or weeks after others. A lot of media outlets understandably aren't into that.
Does this lead to a veritable storm of media coverage? Indeed. And if the product is well-received by the journos, I'm sure that leads to a ton of additional sales. It reminds people that the product exists, and it also speaks to those on the fence.
OTOH, if the product sucks, that can backfire hard. Before you say "ah, but this creates pressure for reviewers to be effusive!", I point you to Gruber's Apple Studio Display review. It starts out with a segment of how the Mac was doing poorly for years. An entire paragraph says "Not good."
"OK, but he contrasts this with how much better things are now!"
Yeah, but then he talks about the Studio Display, and has a paragraph that literally says: "The new Apple Studio Display aims to be just that. Alas, it falls woefully short in one of those regards."
And he concludes, "Despite the fact that I find the camera crushingly disappointing, I’m almost certainly buying a Studio Display for myself."
That's noted Apple "shill" John Gruber.
The MacBook Air reviews aren't (by and large) positive because Apple manipulated journos to write something positive about the Air. They're positive because it is a good product; probably the best default Mac to get right now.
There's little to complain about. The slow SSD, sure, but if you care about that, you probably also care about more internal space, at which point you get a faster one, so it doesn't affect you anyway. The notch. Well, polarizing, I suppose. The choice of colors. That one I do find a bit unfortunate.
That's about it. It's a thin, light, not too pricey, fast, quiet, attractive laptop that's gonna sell like hotcakes, deservedly so.
Get a MacBook Pro 14” then and stop complaining. What commentators posting here want is the thinnest, lightest, cheapest, and most powerful apple laptop. It doesn’t work like that. The MBA is largely a consumer-oriented laptop IMO.
But the 13-inch Pro has fewer ports, worse speakers, and worse screen. It does have a fan though, yes.
The exact same was true of the M1 MBA vs the M1 13" MBP. I would say the 13" is not a very necessary machine anymore. Surprised Apple is keeping it around.
I had a M1 base model MBA and it was hands down one of the best laptops I have ever used. Not a power beast of course but I still used it for mobile app development, graphic design, photography and some video and 3D animation. I also used it with OBS and Jay for live DJ streaming.
I upgraded t o base 14" M1 Pro MBP mainly for the XDR screen and extra ports. The extra performance is nice but M1 was already so amazing I just don't notice it all that much. I imagine the M2 is even better now.
Touch bar. No notch. A little cheaper. Those are the reasons someone might pick the 13 Pro.
Sort of, but the M2 MBA makes the contrast even stranger, because that one has a completely new chassis, better screen, better sound system, better camera. The M2 13-inch MBP got none of those improvements.
With the M1, you could argue the MBP is the variant if you really want a fan. (Plus, at the time, the 14-inch MBP didn't exist yet, and the 16-inch ran on Intel.)
I think they're waiting to launch a proper successor. Either a 15-inch Air, or a "Studio".
I’ll know on Monday. It seems most of the people here critical of… No not most, all are just being critical because it’s Apple. No one has this in their hands so yeah.
It just seems weird creating a account here just because you hate Apple. Isn’t there something else in their life more interesting?
It just seems weird creating a account here just because you hate Apple. Isn’t there something else in their life more interesting?
How many Apple reviews from iJustine does one come away with the result that she does not like the product or that it has issues? Does she have honest criticism about Apple products she reviews? Honestly asking because, frankly, I can't stand her "enthusiasm" so I don't watch her reviews. If next to none, then that would be an Apple shill.