The 15" MacBook Air is Excellent! Why isn't it more popular?

[G5isAlive]

I said “aside from the slightly larger display”. I also work with lots of documents, but I don’t think an extra couple of inches would be that helpful there. It’s not so much bigger that I would benefit from a 2x2 grid rather than just having two docs side by side and switching between spaces. I’ve found a good window manager is much more helpful in this regard, and when I do need more space for multi-doc stuff I plug into a much larger external display.

Where the extra space would be more useful (to me) is working on single-window applications that need a larger canvas and have a lot of toolbars and timelines (photo and video editing tools, Ableton, that sort of thing).

And I disagreed, you can not dismiss the key difference just because you want to And again, you may not benefit from the difference (its more than 2x2 btw), but plenty of us do. Glad to hear you have your work flow, but some of us do want that bigger screen. It is 100% relevant.

 

[boss.king]

And I disagreed, you can not dismiss the key difference just because you want to And again, you may not benefit from the difference (its more than 2x2 btw), but plenty of us do. Glad to hear you have your work flow, but some of us do want that bigger screen. It is 100% relevant.

I didn't dismiss it. I acknowledged that there is a size difference, but that that's the only difference, and for some it's not enough of a difference to justify the higher price and a less portable machine.

 

[halledise]

Apple spent too long thinking about releasing the 15" MBA instead of releasing it at the same time as the 13". It's also too late in the M2 lifecycle to have introduced it. Instead, I think a lot of people are going to bide their time for the M3 version of the 13" and 15" MBA. I know I am. It also goes up in price quick once you spec it up in any way and then it's not that much of a stretch to the base 14" MBP. Once the M3 Air is released, sales should pick back up a bit.

if Apple wasn't making good $ on the 15" Air they'd EOL it pretty quick smart.
let's see what happens when M3 Airs are released if they continue with 15".
as previously mentioned in this thread, windoze-based 15 inchers are cheap and weigh a brick.
quality trumps price every time …

 

[Ipadfever]

Well then all of the MacBook Air and Pros are in weak demand because they’re all on sale and have been on sale for months.

I personally think the MacBook Air 15” is a great computer and I’m definitely considering one.

If something is in strong demand it will never go on sale...EVER, but if sales begin to slide than they will go on sale....."weak" demands can be put in many categories according to company expectations.

 

[ScreenSavers]

I love my 15 inch Air. Hate the fingerprint midnight though. Will never buy it again.

 

[Adelphos33]

I love my 15 inch Air. Hate the fingerprint midnight though. Will never buy it again.

Midnight is why I really wanted to move on from the 13 inch. I would love a dark navy MacBook, but it wasn't executed properly

 

[MajorFubar]

Basically every desk at any office since 10(?) years back has a dual monitor setup these days.

Maybe in your world, definitely not in mine. Over 1,000 people work in my company and I can't name one person who wants what effectively would be three screens. Instead they sit their laptop on a riser directly next to their main screen and use the laptop as a secondary screen.

If you want to sit at a workstation with two large-screen monitors, in the Apple universe you build it around a Mac Mini or a Mac Studio, not around Apple's base-model laptop. That seems pretty reasonable to me, especially considering the Mini actually has a cheaper price of admission than an MBA at any equivalent spec level.

 

[jimmy_uk]

if Apple wasn't making good $ on the 15" Air they'd EOL it pretty quick smart.
let's see what happens when M3 Airs are released if they continue with 15".
as previously mentioned in this thread, windoze-based 15 inchers are cheap and weigh a brick.
quality trumps price every time …

15" is tooled now so we will see at least 2 generations.

 

[coleblk]

Midnight is why I really wanted to move on from the 13 inch. I would love a dark navy MacBook, but it wasn't executed properly

I was set on the Midnight option and at last minute, changed my mind to Starlight. Very happy with the change, and all I have heard about the Midnight option is how grimy it looks after a small amount of usage. I feel like it would look worn pretty quickly, no doubt it is nice when it is brand new and clean though.

 

[Adelphos33]

Took my new MacBook Air 15" on a business trip today (same day turn).

1) I notice almost no difference in my laptop bag in terms of weight relative to the 13". The 15" fits perfectly into the padded laptop compartment in my existing brieface

2) Sitting here at this event, the extra screen real estate versus the 13" is huge

Bottom line - the mobility here is excellent, with a much larger screen. The next time this is redesigned, I think the bezels could be shrank a bit to reduce the overall footprint, but it is still great as is

 

[kp98077]

APPLE MARKETING

 

[Tdude96]

I think most people buy the Air because they want the smallest, lightest (and cheapest) MacBook they can buy, and that's the 13" model. That's why I bought one. Admittedly, the 15" wasn't out at the time, but I'd have stuck with the 13".

By the time buyers are looking at a larger screen, they're caring less about weight and size and probably looking at the MacBook Pro for one reason or another, even if they don't really need one. I know a lot of executives from my work who have 14" MacBook Pros. Not because they need the power a MacBook Pro provides, but because they're professionals so they think they need a professional machine. Most (all) of them could do just fine on a 15" Air, but they'd never get one, because it's not professional. I have a theory that this is a part of why Apple made the choices they did on the vanilla M3 Pro chip. The people getting that machine are getting it for the Pro name, not because they need the processing power.

That leaves the 15" Air in a bit of a niche area where people buying it are those who are knowledgeable, recognize its capabilities, understand its limitations, understand they don't need a MBP, and who also want a pretty lightweight, fairly cheap laptop as their daily driver. That seems like a small audience.

 

[x34]

I am surprised this computer apparently hasn't sold as well as people expected - maybe because of the timing of its release?

It is a huge screen, but very light - I can get much more of my work on the screen than on the 13". Seems like a great computer for both travel and for parking at home. When I need a portable machine with a lower footprint, I can use an iPad (say on something like an airplane).

yes! really a nearly perfect laptop (aside from the non promotion display). i really dig it and i am glad that apple finally has a big laptop that is not expensive as hell and over powered for normal tasks like the MBP. the current MBP is fat and heavy too.

 

[thadoggfather]

'longest slowdown since 2001' for Apple:

Apple revenue drops for the fourth straight quarter in what the company's longest slump in 22 years

The results suggest that Apple is facing bigger struggles in China than feared.

fortune.com

May just be a great product was released at a time when everyone is clenching their pocketbooks and holding onto what they got, for better or worse.

The 15 inch will have its time.. But now with being priced somewhat close to 14" MBP's when you spec them up at all, maybe it will go the way of iPhone mini sooner than later. Hard to say.

I still think the issue with mini wasn't the product, but the timing: SE2 came out, and most people for a little amount more wanted the standard and larger sized phones.

 

[Baseiseough]

Too big. The point for MBA (for me..) is having small, light and as mobile as possible device while having all the power for my needs.

My thoughts exactly. After carrying a 15" Retina MacBook Pro for 10 years, I really decided to prioritize size and weight. 10 years ago, you had to get the larger MacBooks to get more CPU performance. Now, the 13" has about the same performance as its 15" counterpart and it even has more performance than all the Intel MBP. To me, the 15" Air was not an option. Of course, it's a personal preference. Some may prefer the 15" because they really need more screen real estate or its easier on their eyesight. It's funny because it seems the MBA size sales are the opposite of the iPhone size sales. In this case, the mini seemed to sell less then the regular one.

 

[Baseiseough]

if Apple wasn't making good $ on the 15" Air they'd EOL it pretty quick smart.
let's see what happens when M3 Airs are released if they continue with 15".

If sales are bad, maybe they will do like the iPhone mini and wait after a second iteration before discontinuing it.

 

[kschendel]

Well, I just bought one a couple weeks ago. It replaced a late 2013 15" rMBP, and the only reason I needed the Pro-ness was for the 15" screen. I still have the 15" screen in a lighter, faster package.

I compared the Air 15" to the current MBP 14" and 16". The 16" is too big for me. The 14" screen is slightly nicer than the Air's 15" to my eyes, but it's not $hundreds better for what I do.

(oh, and I got the Midnight Blue by accident; thought I was ordering Space Grey. I actually like the Midnight, and the fingerprints don't bother me at all. I'll wipe it off once every 3 months whether it needs it or not.)

 

[x34]

Well, I just bought one a couple weeks ago. It replaced a late 2013 15" rMBP, and the only reason I needed the Pro-ness was for the 15" screen. I still have the 15" screen in a lighter, faster package.

this!

 

[icymountain]

The 15" MBA is fairly new in the Apple line up. It is ways too early to say whether it is popular or not.

 

[Buadhai]

For those of you who bought one, how hot does the 15" M2 MBA get?

 

[x34]

For those of you who bought one, how hot does the 15" M2 MBA get?

not hot whatsoever, with internet, office, a bit of photoshop etc.

 

[theorist9]

The MBP is better in every regard except weight. Perhaps a lot of folks upsizing display choose the much better MBP display.

And price and size and quietness. The Air is less costly, and 15% smaller (by volume) while offering 16% more screen real estate. And it's also completely silent.

But yes, the MBP is better for performance, battery life, ports, external display support, display quality and speaker quality.

 

[Buadhai]

The Air is less costly,

But not by much. Here in Thailand and similarly configured (16/512), the MBA is only 5000 baht (about US$140) less than the MBP.

 

[x34]

But not by much. Here in Thailand and similarly configured (16/512), the MBA is only 5000 baht (about US$140) less than the MBP.

in my configuration it would have been 600 euros, which is a lot of money.

very happy that apple finally has a big laptop for users with light work.

 

[theorist9]

But not by much. Here in Thailand and similarly configured (16/512), the MBA is only 5000 baht (about US$140) less than the MBP.

Yeah, and the retail difference is even less in the US ($100). The street price differs by quite a bit more—about $350—but that's because you're comparing an older M2 Air to a just-released M3 MBP.