That too.
Not quite sure why you have an issue with it?
Honestly who cares if someone buys a MBP to just send emails or browse the web. It's their money...
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The 15" MacBook Air is Excellent! Why isn't it more popular?
- Thread starter Adelphos33
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Not quite sure why you have an issue with it?
Honestly who cares if someone buys a MBP to just send emails or browse the web. It's their money...
I don’t really have an issue with it. I’m just interested in the thought process and rationalizations that go in to the decision making process. After reading many posts on the topic it became clear to me that people were using the 15’s form factor (too big) to rationalize the purchase of a 14” MBP; a machine with more power than they probably need. A more rational move might be to buy a suitably configured 13” MBA.
Before this year I’d never owned a laptop. I bought the cheapest M1 MBA as an experiment to see if sitting on the floor would relieve the back pain I get after several hours at a desk. It worked. But, I NEEDED more than a base model M1 MBA.
Or did I?
Turns out, not really.
Now, I really do WANT a M3 MBP. I’ll probably buy one. No other justification required.
I'd say it's pretty popular, the problem is is many tech YouTubers have it 110% wrong. I can't tell you how many times people have said things like it "overheats" or "throttles" or "isn't for power users" without ever...testing...it...
Any IT person worth their salt knows benchmarks are utterly useless for gauging performance, but that's all these tech YouTubers use. They never actually try real world cases.
I have a 13" m2, I ordered it fully expecting to send it back because I do a ton on my computer, and I was blown away by its power. Some thing's I've done on mine include:
-Running simulations in Houdini.
-Editing 4k video in Final Cut (I don't have anything that shoots higher)
-Making graphics in Motion (I had 40 something layers and no slowdown)
-Music in Logic (25 tracks, zero lag, I could have probably added many more but I got bored adding tracks)
-Lots of 3D work in Blender
-Lots of Affinity Suite
-Tons of Xcode, Godot, and Unity development.
-Lots of gaming.
No lag, no "throttling", nothing. But you'd never know that if you watch ****** tech channels. Honestly the best most honest review I've seen that reflects my experience using it has been Lisa from MobileTechReviews review on the 13".
Any IT person worth their salt knows benchmarks are utterly useless for gauging performance, but that's all these tech YouTubers use. They never actually try real world cases.
I have a 13" m2, I ordered it fully expecting to send it back because I do a ton on my computer, and I was blown away by its power. Some thing's I've done on mine include:
-Running simulations in Houdini.
-Editing 4k video in Final Cut (I don't have anything that shoots higher)
-Making graphics in Motion (I had 40 something layers and no slowdown)
-Music in Logic (25 tracks, zero lag, I could have probably added many more but I got bored adding tracks)
-Lots of 3D work in Blender
-Lots of Affinity Suite
-Tons of Xcode, Godot, and Unity development.
-Lots of gaming.
No lag, no "throttling", nothing. But you'd never know that if you watch ****** tech channels. Honestly the best most honest review I've seen that reflects my experience using it has been Lisa from MobileTechReviews review on the 13".
The entire advertising industry is based on purchasing wants rather than just what is needed.
A key point being "rational"; you're searching for rational answers and justification when people make irrational buying choices...Apple products being no exception.
Again I refer back to the "pro" iphones: there are people who'll buy the pro model simply because it's the "pro model".
They won't use the extra features (or know what these features are, or how they are different to the normal phone), nor use the extra "horsepower" of the pro models...but because it's the "pro" model, it's perceived as "better" then the normal model, and worth spending the extra $$$...
Some people in the real world just run benchmarks on their Macs.
Yeah, my M2 Air 13" is just impressively good at everything I've thrown at it. The YouTubers are full of it. Benchmarks never tell a complete story, and I don't really care that a machine scored a billionty points on a benchmark, but another scored a billionty minus 200. That doesn't say much about real world functionality. Same with artificially firing up all cores and running them up to capacity for an hour and then pointing out a minor drop in performance as if it's a major flaw. That again tells me nothing about real world performance.
I bought the Air as a travel toy, largely so I can unwind when traveling by playing a game, and also for any personal photo or video editing tasks I might want to do while on the go. So I prioritized portability ahead of everything else, despite the YouTube naysayers.
What I've found is that this tiny little computer vastly outperforms my 27" iMac in virtually every way except the obvious--display and RAM (64 vs 24). Now I use the Air for all kinds of things I never planned to, including AI tasks like photo upsampling, because it's many times faster. When gaming, I don't start seeing throttling reflected in the game performance until after an hour of play, and the FPS still stays higher and more consistent than the iMac.
Don't get me wrong, obviously the 13" M2 Air isn't a perfect machine for a lot of tasks I do, and I'll be replacing the iMac with a Studio next year, but I feel very safe in saying the Air (properly configured) can easily perform above the needs of most people for general purpose computer use. It is an incredibly impressive little laptop.
I have the 13 inch, M2, maxed graphics, 16 gigs ram, 1tb drive. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing it’s a great machine. I got it when it first came out and still have no issues with it. I usually have it hooked to a studio display most of the day and it runs great.
The problem with a lot of posts on MR is that there is no real logical justification for person A's want, versus person B's counter, even if the counter makes more financial sense. Personal preference trumps financial sense most of the time on here.
I always suspected that part of the preference for the new MBP is the desire to have a device with the latest processor (M3) over the M2 chip (which is almost 1.5 years old at this point). Though price-wise, I suspect many people here would prefer getting a 15" MBA with 16gb of ram compared to the base M3 MBP with 8gb.
As an Apple shareholder I have to admit that it is somewhat satisfying to see people making irrational decisions to buy stuff they don't need. Kudos to Apple Marketing for their keen understanding of how to generate desire. More money in my pocket so I can buy stuff that I don't really need.
I bought a 14 Pro because I was unhappy with the lack of a telephoto lens on my non-Pro iPhone (a gift). IMHO a rational decision on my part. I've made great use of just that one "pro" feature. Do I need it?
Probably not.
Well, after reading through this thread and a few others I finally ordered a 15" M2 MBA (16/512). Thanks to all those who contributed. I certainly hope it's as bad/good as everyone noted.
The M1 MBA that I bought as an experiment earlier this year will replace this old beast which has clearly seen better days:
BTW, the new purchase has been fully endorsed by my frugal, incredibly rational spouse.
The M1 MBA that I bought as an experiment earlier this year will replace this old beast which has clearly seen better days:
BTW, the new purchase has been fully endorsed by my frugal, incredibly rational spouse.
I think it’s awesome and I seriously considered getting one. Having used a couple different 15-16” Intel MBPs in the past, they were always the perfect form factor and screen size for me, and I think the 15” Air is the true successor to those machines.
Unfortunately I needed a spec’d version with at least 1TB of storage and once it gets into that price range it just makes more sense to get a 14” MBP. As much as I’d love the extra inch of screen I’d be sacrificing a lot of features for almost the same price.
Now, if I could get away with a binned version I’d get it in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately I needed a spec’d version with at least 1TB of storage and once it gets into that price range it just makes more sense to get a 14” MBP. As much as I’d love the extra inch of screen I’d be sacrificing a lot of features for almost the same price.
Now, if I could get away with a binned version I’d get it in a heartbeat.
strange over here in europe/ germany it was cheaper to buy a 1 tb, 24 gb ram AIR M2 15".
I got a 32gb M2 pro 14” from work and got a 15 air m2 1TB 24gb for private use.
And honestly the 15 air is far superior to the 14”. Performance I don’t notice any big difference. Ergonomics wise the air is just soo much nicer. Bigger screen, thin base, light and comfy on the couch and just more productive if one moves around a lot. It feels even lighter even if it is the same.
80% of the time I feel the big screen is worth more.
3% of the time I feel the extra pro perf would be nice.
The 120hz I miss virtually never.
Extra gpu I‘d only need for gaming and since neither is any good there for the low end games I might play again the bigger screen is better.
in the bag also the thinner air effectively is more portable.
I really wouldn’t go for pro just because the price is close enough. Unless your usage actually changes the calc. above. Might be different for everyone but especially performance is so good today it might be much less relevant. Anyone who was okay with an old 16” MBP 2 years ago will be amazed at the airs performance. At some point extra performance gives diminishing returns.
As a developer I might want more memory but performance wise the M2 is plenty fast.
In Europe that is the same only for the keyboards. As in you rarely find reseller‘s offering anything other than the local standard. Other spec options usually exist but the best deals are often on the lowest price base models and the other spec are usually buffs across the board while someone might want max ram but not max everything else.
It defeats the purpose of a MacBook Air. It's supposed to be a thin and light notebook that is portable. Sure the 15-inch Air is perfect for some people, but the upgrade prices are insane. If you spec it out to 16GB RAM/512GB SSD, you are very close to the MacBook Pro territory. The line up should have been:
1. MacBook Air 13-inch
2. MacBook Pro 14-inch
3. MacBook Pro 16-inch
1. MacBook Air 13-inch
2. MacBook Pro 14-inch
3. MacBook Pro 16-inch
Very close it means it’s still cheeper. The reason many people preferring MBA over MBP because its lighter with better battery life while having plenty of power for their needs.
I have to disagree. It fits exactly the purpose of a Macbook Air, for those of us who only need the larger screen (in my case, because my eyesight is fading and even a little bit larger helps.) The extra features in a Pro are completely irrelevant to me, so why would I want to pay even a little bit more for them? For my use case, the heavier Pro and its cooling fan are bugs, not features.
That is until you actually put a 14" MacBook Pro next to the 15" Air.
The Air is noticeably larger, a lot thinner, and actually a lot lighter. The 14" Pro feels very dense.
Also it's all fine to consider the Pro until you start pushing it and the fan kicks in, and battery life drops from 12 hours to 5-6. I have never had any less than 10 hours out of my 15" Air no matter what I do with it.
And this is to say, I had the 14" Pro for 1.5 years before I got 15" Air on launch day. Having had the 14" Pro is precisely what pushed me to get the 15" Air. Maxed out. And I still don't regret my decision one bit.
How is your new macbook?
i remember the halloween launch were you purchased one That day.
thanks!
I have been very pleased with my 14" MBP. I like using it a lot more than the 15" MBA I had.