That would be an incorrect guess! Bigger screen yes, but speed should be on par with the MBA 13" from last year, UNLESS... if you recall, the new MBA 13" introduced us to SSD-gate. Instead of the base model SSD getting a 2x128 configuration as with the wedge M1 model, Apple switched to 1x256... which, if you pushed the machine to do what no base model of the MBA would be purchased to do, did not perform as well as the wedge M1. But if you ordered 512GB of storage or more, you still got the 2x configuration. In the latest MBPs however, Apple switched to a 1x512 configuration for those ordering that size SSD. Only 1TB and above gets the 2x configuration. So I wonder if that will be the story with the new MBA 15" -- the 256 and 512 storage tiers will get a single chip, in which case the MBA 13" 512GB might outperform the 15" model on certain tasks.
I don’t care….
Don't you? It's sad that Apple gives you less and wants to charge you more to get back what they took away.
And still only supports one external monitor for no apparent reason.
I suppose it’s because Apple wants to provide more differentiation between the Air and Pro lines. Makes sense to me that “pro” users are more inclined to go for 3+ display setups and be tolerant of fan noise and additional weight. The 15” MacBook Air is in my opinion the pinnacle of consumer notebooks because it asks so little of the user and blends into a lot of consumer lifestyles, at least for those who aren’t computer geeks or serious gamers.
Buyers like choices, and the Air line is always a contender in the purchase decision process because it’s so well balanced. It’s the Toyota Camry of notebook computers, i.e., not perfect for everyone and everything but usually a satisfying choice that you won’t regret. There’s a lot of reasons the MacBook Air is Apple’s best selling Mac.
I get tired of seeing posts like this: "We tried Final Cut Pro and..."
It's like to me this is a Student laptop, or laptop for people who need something for Starbucks. I mean don't get me wrong that is such an A$$hºl3 thing to say, but Final Cut Pro? Why oh why...
It's literally an iWorks laptop (Office), email/calendar, Safari (Chromebook)! Lightweight work anybody?
But every time it's like we've got this tiny small laptop and "Here's how FCP did on it". WHO CARES!?!
Like someone before me posted, "If someone wants to do FCP, (especially REAL FCP), they're gonna get a Pro Line machine, yeesh... I mean come on we all know it's gonna run FCP, but are you really wanting this thing to spectacularly perform?
Laters...
I'm tired of seeing posts like, "This is a student laptop or laptop for people who need something for Starbucks." You DO realize that the M2 MBA is more powerful than most Intel Macbook Pros of recent vintage, right? So do you also dismiss those MBPs as being "granny laptops" for doing FaceTime with the grandkids? 'Cause if you do, that would be news to the many pros using those machines to do professional work.
Final Cut Pro runs just fine on the M2 MBA, especially upspec'd to more memory and a dual chip SSD.... you obviously haven't tried it or you would know that. Would I want to be editing the next Marvel movie in IMAX on it? No. But there is a helluva lot of FCP capability with an M2 MBA.
The days of the granny laptop are over. Macbook Airs are now powerful enough to be used professionally by most people.
I get tired of seeing posts like this: "We tried Final Cut Pro and..."
It's like to me this is a Student laptop, or laptop for people who need something for Starbucks. I mean don't get me wrong that is such an A$$hºl3 thing to say, but Final Cut Pro? Why oh why...
It's literally an iWorks laptop (Office), email/calendar, Safari (Chromebook)! Lightweight work anybody?
But every time it's like we've got this tiny small laptop and "Here's how FCP did on it". WHO CARES!?!
Like someone before me posted, "If someone wants to do FCP, (especially REAL FCP), they're gonna get a Pro Line machine, yeesh... I mean come on we all know it's gonna run FCP, but are you really wanting this thing to spectacularly perform?
Laters...
I'm tired of seeing posts like, "This is a student laptop or laptop for people who need something for Starbucks." You DO realize that the M2 MBA is more powerful than most Intel Macbook Pros of recent vintage, right? So do you also dismiss those MBPs as being "granny laptops" for doing FaceTime with the grandkids? 'Cause if you do, that would be news to the many pros using those machines to do professional work.
Final Cut Pro runs just fine on the M2 MBA, especially upspec'd to more memory and a dual chip SSD.... you obviously haven't tried it or you would know that. Would I want to be editing the next Marvel movie in IMAX on it? No. But there is a helluva lot of FCP capability with an M2 MBA.
The days of the granny laptop are over. Macbook Airs are now powerful enough to be used professionally by most people.
All I know is that since the advent of personal computers all of my personal computers have always spent a hell of a lot more time waiting for me than I've spent waiting for them. Yeah, there are always big problems that need massive levels of compute power, and I've used some of them in work and research environments. But if we had something back then with the capabilities of today's MacBook Air with M1 or M2 we would have thought that Earth had been visited by aliens and they left us a thank-you gift for consuming half of our population during their visit.
The thing that's really amazing today is just how much computing power is put in the hands of ordinary people for so little money. And I mean hands literally, as in the current iPhone and iPad Pro. Anyone who's saying they think the current Apple Silicon equipped MacBook Airs are low-end starter or granny computers must be close to solving the nuclear fusion challenge all on their own, or maybe needs to send out a distress call to the recently departed alien mother ship to let them know they've left one of their brethren behind with us primitives.
The thing that's really amazing today is just how much computing power is put in the hands of ordinary people for so little money.
Exactly right. And yet the narrative doesn't change: "Oh, this is only good for email and web-browsing." Even when the power of the latest Mac Pro desktop is in an MBA, as it undoubtedly will be in the not too distant future, some idiot will be saying the same thing.
The thing that's really amazing today is just how much computing power is put in the hands of ordinary people for so little money.
Exactly right. And yet the narrative doesn't change: "Oh, this is only good for email and web-browsing." Even when the power of the latest Mac Pro desktop is in an MBA, as it undoubtedly will be in the not too distant future, some idiot will be saying the same thing.
Some of it comes down to your frame of reference. There was a time when single computer systems had to be shared by everyone that needed access to them. You had to get in line, submit your job (initially on punch cards), get queued up to run, and you'd stand around waiting for your job to complete and hope you hadn't made a mistake and have to fix your code and repeat the whole process. This was truly a time when you did have to wait on the computer because the computer was pretty much fully utilized and you didn't own it.
When we were waiting on computers, it was as if everyone that needed the computer was queued up waiting to drink from the same water fountain (bubbler in some regions).
When PCs came along you owned the whole thing and were free to access it whenever and for however long you wanted to use it. When your computer wasn't being tasked with completing a job submitted by you it was still powered up it was wasting computing capacity and no longer being fully utilized. It was like you jammed the actuator on the water fountain and water was always running down the drain even when you were not drinking. That's when computers started waiting for us.
The only thing that's really changed since then is that from an opportunity cost (in CPU cycles) everyone is basically draining a reservoir's worth of water every day compared to work that the same computer could be doing if it was shared. I guess that's fine because we don't care about waste, don't want to share, and most modern personal computers are fairly power efficient and some useful work is still done in the background when we're not driving it.
At the same time there are still limits to the flow rate that we ask for at any given time, so even if we're wasting capacity most of the time, when we need it to flow quickly the system may not be able to deliver at the rate we need it to. Too bad the wasted capacity cannot be banked and used to increase the flow rate when it's needed most. It comes down to deciding how much wasted potential you can tolerate, knowing that more capable computers waste capacity more quickly, but also having sufficient flow rate to handle peak demand that may occur infrequently.
So should you buy a computer based on your typical needs or your peak needs? If you go with your typical needs you're wasting/paying less but know that at peak demand you're going to have to wait a little longer. But if you're intolerant of waiting, even when it's very infrequent, you'll buy more capacity that is wasted most of the time, but when you need the peak capacity - you got it. I spent some time in retail automation and you can easily see how most grocery stores and other retailers approach the typical-vs-peak conundrum with POS systems. They buy a lot more POS capacity than they need but can handle the few days a year when they need peak capacity to keep wait times tolerable.
Buying a personal computer is really no different than the a retailer deciding how many POS stations to buy. One easy way to get personal computer buyers to buy more capacity than they typically need is to present comparisons based on benchmarks. If your typical computing needs are dominated by running the applications (or similar apps) that are used as benchmarks the choice may be easy. Saving 21 seconds on rendering is a big deal if you render a lot. But if that's not your case, well you have to decide whether the additional wait times are tolerable or buy more capacity than you need, or are projecting to need over the effective lifetime of the computer.
Personally, when I look at the latest MacBook Airs I know that they would satisfy my typical needs fabulously. On the few occasions where a MacBook Pro would get the job done faster, I'm willing to wait a little longer. At least the penalty for waiting will take place in the lighter weight, cooler, and quieter presence that the MacBook Air delivers.
I get tired of seeing posts like this: "We tried Final Cut Pro and..."
It's like to me this is a Student laptop, or laptop for people who need something for Starbucks. I mean don't get me wrong that is such an A$$hºl3 thing to say, but Final Cut Pro? Why oh why...
It's literally an iWorks laptop (Office), email/calendar, Safari (Chromebook)! Lightweight work anybody?
But every time it's like we've got this tiny small laptop and "Here's how FCP did on it". WHO CARES!?!
Like someone before me posted, "If someone wants to do FCP, (especially REAL FCP), they're gonna get a Pro Line machine, yeesh... I mean come on we all know it's gonna run FCP, but are you really wanting this thing to spectacularly perform?
Laters...
I'm tired of seeing posts like, "This is a student laptop or laptop for people who need something for Starbucks." You DO realize that the M2 MBA is more powerful than most Intel Macbook Pros of recent vintage, right? So do you also dismiss those MBPs as being "granny laptops" for doing FaceTime with the grandkids? 'Cause if you do, that would be news to the many pros using those machines to do professional work.
Final Cut Pro runs just fine on the M2 MBA, especially upspec'd to more memory and a dual chip SSD.... you obviously haven't tried it or you would know that. Would I want to be editing the next Marvel movie in IMAX on it? No. But there is a helluva lot of FCP capability with an M2 MBA.
The days of the granny laptop are over. Macbook Airs are now powerful enough to be used professionally by most people.
My only things, why can't we just an article that is akin to:
"The M2 MacBook Air 15 inch is a great machine for students and anyone who wants to relax at Starbucks. It has a beautiful and large display, a powerful and efficient chip, a long-lasting battery, and a sleek and silent design. It also has amazing sound, video, and software features. You can get it now from [Apple] or [Amazon] with a discount. Don’t miss this chance to get the world’s best 15-inch laptop! Oh and for those who need to give Final Cut Pro a shot while on the run, it can handle that too"
That's all, just everyone be freakin' happy that we all have a really really powerful, for a CHEAP (IMHO), machine, that yes can run pro apps if needed. But a no hiccup machine for this price is amazing!
Comments
Buyers like choices, and the Air line is always a contender in the purchase decision process because it’s so well balanced. It’s the Toyota Camry of notebook computers, i.e., not perfect for everyone and everything but usually a satisfying choice that you won’t regret. There’s a lot of reasons the MacBook Air is Apple’s best selling Mac.
Final Cut Pro runs just fine on the M2 MBA, especially upspec'd to more memory and a dual chip SSD.... you obviously haven't tried it or you would know that. Would I want to be editing the next Marvel movie in IMAX on it? No. But there is a helluva lot of FCP capability with an M2 MBA.
The days of the granny laptop are over. Macbook Airs are now powerful enough to be used professionally by most people.
"The M2 MacBook Air 15 inch is a great machine for students and anyone who wants to relax at Starbucks. It has a beautiful and large display, a powerful and efficient chip, a long-lasting battery, and a sleek and silent design. It also has amazing sound, video, and software features. You can get it now from [Apple] or [Amazon] with a discount. Don’t miss this chance to get the world’s best 15-inch laptop! Oh and for those who need to give Final Cut Pro a shot while on the run, it can handle that too"
That's all, just everyone be freakin' happy that we all have a really really powerful, for a CHEAP (IMHO), machine, that yes can run pro apps if needed. But a no hiccup machine for this price is amazing!
Thanks