For $80AUD less here you can get the M2 14" refurb base, when you bump the 15" air to 16/512gb, wow.
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MBA 15 inch vs 14 inch MBP vs 13 inch MBA comfort
- Thread starter TorontoSS
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Okay.
Not my first time measuring something like this. It's pretty clear which one reaches deeper and sounds fuller. 16" is a bit deeper than 15" still.
You’re just grasping at straws at this point.
I think this is because people watch garbage YouTube channels like max tech where it's just negativity on how bad Apple products are. I have the 13" Air and I've compared it to the 14" Pro in person at the Apple store.
While I think the 14” screen is better and obviously brighter, that doesn't make the Air screen garbage. If I was going to use it outside, I might consider getting the Pro because of the brighter screen. Indoors I keep my Air at about half brightness, so the extra brightness of the Pro wouldn't do anything for me. Of course the screen might be better if you were doing photo editing but for doing things like browsing the web and general computing work I find the screen really good.
My main takeaway from comparing the 13” Air to the 14” Pro was even though the specs don't make it seem like the weight is significantly different, in person there is a huge difference on how it feels picking it up. I suspect a similar comparison will be true with the 15” Air versus 16” Pro
I don't think anyone should be shocked that the MacBook Pro with its speaker design is superior to the MacBook Air with speakers hidden inside the case. If you want better sound, and don't mind the extra weight or cost, then definitely go with the Pro. If anyone says the Air is going to sound better than that's just silly. I'm sure it sounds good, but not that good
Of course. The more interesting comparison to me is between the 15" and 14" here. It's really a case of "bigger is better" because the 15", despite being thinner, seemingly has more volume inside for the subwoofers to reproduce bass so it still somehow kicks out lower frequencies than the 14".
But still, 16" is both louder and also more extension, much more, than pretty much anything else. It's basically just like having some really good dedicated speakers built in. It's unbelievable in a sense.
That's a bit surprising to me. They didn't put speaker grills on the Air, so it has to push the sound from the hinge of the display. I could see why they didn't put speaker grills because this thing is for the average person and not necessarily some office professional so those grill holes would get crap stuck in them. People eat food while using their laptop
thank you for your effort, i do want to ask, what sample audio did you use and what was the position of the recording device in relation to the laptop.
i find that last part hard to believe, as much as i like the sound on my mbp, it can hardly touch my dedicated speakers setup with dac.
edit: spelling mistake correction.
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I came from an M1 Air too and the MBA 15 is noticeably brighter, in accordance to specs. What surprised me though is I turned off True Tone on both the MBA 15 and MBP 14 in-store and set brightness in both to max and couldn't see a difference (see photos from a few posts earlier). The MBP is supposed to be capable of HDR and 1000 nits but I just couldn't see the difference with brightness manually set to max.
I even tried playing 4K HDR content from YouTube and there's a difference with better specular highlights on the MBP 14 but it wasn't a significant difference to me. Definitely not mind blowingly impressive to my eyes. I was actually more impressed by the image from the MBA 15's larger display when side-by-side to the MBP 14.
I loved my M1 MBA 13. It still handled my photo and video editing needs admirably. I didn't need to upgrade per se, but just wanted more screen real estate. Usually I had the M1 MBA connected to a 43" 4K TV most of the time. I am torn between the more powerful MBP 14 and the adequate-powered-but-larger-screen MBA 15.
I thought I'd prefer the higher resolution of the MBP 14 but in-person it seems so diminutive next to the MBA 15's display. Both units had Final Cut Pro installed and, despite the lower resolution, it seemed more appealing to edit on the MBA 15's larger display. The included media files were only 1080 and the MBA 15 scrubbed through the timeline with ease with smooth playback. I didn't have any 4K clips to test with in-store, unfortunately, but recall my M1 Air handled those just fine for basic video editing of family vacation videos. I suspect the M2 in the MBA 15 will perform slightly better than an M1 MBA.
bigger isn't always better, i had guitar amp setups that were smaller both in driver size and cabinet space, and they were miles better than some full cab size.
you can't set the 1000 nit manually, have to have HDR playing or hack around it with an app called vivid.
Too long to explain the whole process. If you would like to read up on all of it, here's where to start, including what gears to use and how to position:
How to make quasi-anechoic speaker measurements/spinoramas with REW and VituixCAD
Quasi-anechoic measurements are a way to capture the 'real' frequency response of a speaker without the influence of a room. They are called 'quasi-anechoic' because they have the potential to get you really close to the results one might achieve with a non-reflective environment like an...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Lunar app works, too.
Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness
Control monitor brightness, adapt using the ambient light sensor, adjust volume, switch inputs and turn off displays without fiddling with clunky buttons.
Interesting. So then in normal/SDR usage the ProMotion display of the MBP line isn't any brighter than the M2 MBA line.
in picture 1 the sky being more washed out on the mba and the plains on the right being darker on the mbp
in picture 2 the asphalt line looks washed out by the sun on the mba, the mbp also has a darker valley in the background.
picture 3 is a bit too blurry to judge. but if i had to say, the blue shirt has more color depth to it on the mbp where on the mba again it looks a bit washed out.
picture 4, the sky should be quite obvious.
I have the M2 air, and I think it's slightly brighter than the M1 version but I could be wrong. I remember correctly it's 400 versus 500 nits. I don't have a meter to measure this, but right now my screen is two notches below half and it seems like a comfortable brightness to me. Even half seems to be blinding to me. Of course that depends on the ambient light and I have two 60 W equivalent LED bulbs lighting up my room so maybe not enough light?
As a few fosters have said, you can't manually set 1000 nits... I have no clue why he would want to unless you're outdoors in direct sunlight. Full brightness at 500 nits with my M2 blinds me so I couldn't imagine having 1000. Maybe others need more light for their eyes though.
Under "Displays" you can set "More Space" or even manually set a resolution. I use the more space setting because I feel like it helps with the smaller 13” screen. If I had to 15” I probably wouldn't.
correct, however the option to use apps to increase the nits cap is there, very useful under direct sunlight, however the trade off is a warm touching screen and battery life.
ah i see, i thought you done it with some high end setup like a anechoic room or you have a fancy recording studio with quite dry room. i'm not doubting your results, but i'll hold my reservation til one of the two after mentioned happens.Too long to explain the whole process. If you would like to read up on all of it, here's where to start, including what gears to use and how to position:
How to make quasi-anechoic speaker measurements/spinoramas with REW and VituixCAD
Quasi-anechoic measurements are a way to capture the 'real' frequency response of a speaker without the influence of a room. They are called 'quasi-anechoic' because they have the potential to get you really close to the results one might achieve with a non-reflective environment like an...
Lunar app works, too.
Lunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightness
Control monitor brightness, adapt using the ambient light sensor, adjust volume, switch inputs and turn off displays without fiddling with clunky buttons.lunar.fyi
I noticed what you pointed out, but only when examining still photos. When viewing the identical video on both machines side-by-side neither my wife nor I could spot a difference. At moments my wife even thought the MBA 15 looked better (not knowing the MBP 14 is a higher-end display). Heck, I knew the MBP 14 screen is better, and I expected it to be, but just didn't see it with the particular video. Playback of the video literally looked identical to me between the MBA 15 and MBP 14 and I'm a little shocked by that.
So I've been using the 14-inch Pro since release (first the M1, then the M2) and picked up the Air to try it out. Its only been one day but here's my experience
1) Loving the larger screen. The extra estate is great to have.
2) I don't watch a lot of movies- most of my work is done on desktop and apps and the screen quality is just fine for that.
3) The shift from 120Hz to 60Hz is very noticeable and my biggest "complain" with this screen. I'll see if I can get used to it and if the trade-off for having a larger screen is worth that.
4) Sound is not as good the 14-inch. It's loud, but there's a difference in bass. You just don't feel that punch. Having said that, I don't listen to music on my laptop speakers and YouTube videos are about the most I'd use and for that speech in YT videos is clear.
5) I got the 16GB/512GB model and it's as fast as the 14-inch for normal work.
1) Loving the larger screen. The extra estate is great to have.
2) I don't watch a lot of movies- most of my work is done on desktop and apps and the screen quality is just fine for that.
3) The shift from 120Hz to 60Hz is very noticeable and my biggest "complain" with this screen. I'll see if I can get used to it and if the trade-off for having a larger screen is worth that.
4) Sound is not as good the 14-inch. It's loud, but there's a difference in bass. You just don't feel that punch. Having said that, I don't listen to music on my laptop speakers and YouTube videos are about the most I'd use and for that speech in YT videos is clear.
5) I got the 16GB/512GB model and it's as fast as the 14-inch for normal work.
fair enough, granted i only had my colleagues mba to play with for couple hours since he just got it, so i haven't see the full extent of it, maybe he had a inferior panel than yours but the wash was very noticeable in some situations.
I finally got the chance to try out the 15" at a store. The screen size does look pretty good, but the machine itself is too big and a bit heavy (when compared to my M1 MBA) in terms of portability. As a student, anything larger than the 14" MBP isn't really that convenient to carry around campus. Extra screen estate might be good for those who mostly work from a desk, but the size of the 15" just makes it quite bulky. I also don't like the empty space next to the keyboard, mostly because I'm used to the speaker holes on my M1 machine, but that is just my own aesthetic preference.
I think that the major advantage of a 15” screen is ability to work on two windows open side by side, depending on your workflows. If you need this 15” makes sense, yet if you are fine with just one main working window, then a 13” MBA will still remain more comfortable.