Quote15" is now a subnotebook?

Depends on the 15". Notebookcheck added it to that category, so argue it with them if you feel like it.

QuoteFunnily enough, I'm running heavy software from my "subnotebook" just fine

Never said you can't do that. But if you're gonna do it all day every day, you might as well go for more than "just fine".

QuoteThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11

X1 Carbon Gen11 is a victim of some serious cost-cutting compared to Gen10. On top of that, Lenovo needed to cut its MSRP by 50% in order to position it against the M2 Air (which in your words is already too expensive). This should tell you enough. To be fair, at $1200 it's a decent laptop, although its peripherals and energy-efficiency are still nowhere near where they should be.

Quotethe M2 8 core is 21-22% slower than the i7 1360P

Good, now get rid of the fan noise and the PWM (on the OLED display you have in mind), give me usable speakers and touchpad, keep the $1200 price, and I'll seriously consider it next time I'm buying.

QuoteRather it tells how many people are too lazy to install separately bought SSDs in notebooks with slots.

The manufacturer has a strong incentive to lock the machine down. People being lazy and clueless is a fact of life, but if Apple had any real competition, they wouldn't do it.

QuoteDon't take this personally but April 1st is still 213 days away.

No offence taken. It's the internet, we're all blowing off steam here, more or less.

Quote from: Todor on August 31, 2023, 23:26:24

Quote from: Neenyah on August 29, 2023, 23:49:27While I agree with a lot of things here I find it funny that almost everything mentioned here is in direct collision with 256 GB of non-upgradable storage for $1,300. How exactly would an option to get a base storage SSD and replace it with your own of say 1 TB be something "that gets in the way of doing stuff" for you? 😀 $1,300. 256 GB. If you don't see that as a comically bad value then more power to you I guess.
(...)
On my end just a full Adobe CC is taking 49.2 GB and I need it for work, but you are a magician and 10 GB app for everyone else is a 1 GB app for you, fair and case closed indeed.

Don't run heavy software from a subnotebook. Get a proper workstation desktop. It will easily pay for itself. The laptop is used to connect remotely to it when you can't (or don't wanna) work from your home/office desk.

15" is now a subnotebook? 🤨 Funnily enough, I'm running heavy software from my "subnotebook" just fine, making my living out of it both at home and on the go and also playing semi-competitive CSGO (got an eGPU for that + 24" external 240 Hz monitor) to earn some sweet extra bonus money each month. All on a "subnotebook", hm.

And speaking of "subnotebooks"...

Quote from: Todor on August 31, 2023, 23:26:24As for the SSD:
1. If there was a comparable laptop at the same prace and/or with a larger SSD, I'd buy that instead, of course. I get your frustration with the fact that Apple does this on purpose, but it is what it is.

...there is a "subnotebook" called the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11; it packs a more powerful CPU than this MBA 15 (the M2 8 core is 21-22% slower than the i7 1360P), it's also lighter than the MBA 15, it has a better screen with higher resolution, better (and spill-resistant) keyboard, you can use an eGPU for more graphic power when you need it (and to play games), you can spec it up to 64 GB of RAM and you can also freely replace and upgrade its SSD on your own in less than 3 minutes of work, without any need to create more e-waste and trash a perfectly functioning machine just because of SSD error (and they always happen on every SSD, it's just a matter of when). Funny how it does exist, eh?

Quote from: Todor on August 31, 2023, 23:26:24The very fact they can get away with it serves to tell you how far behind everyone else is. We want it to be one way, but it's the other way.

@RobertJasiek gave the answer for that.

Quote from: Todor on August 31, 2023, 23:26:242. Soldered-in SSDs are the logical next step. The question is not if, the question is when.

Don't take this personally but April 1st is still 213 days away.

Quote from: Todor on August 31, 2023, 23:26:24The very fact they can get away with it serves to tell you how far behind everyone else is.

Rather it tells how many people are too lazy to install separately bought SSDs in notebooks with slots.

Quote from: Neenyah on August 29, 2023, 23:49:27While I agree with a lot of things here I find it funny that almost everything mentioned here is in direct collision with 256 GB of non-upgradable storage for $1,300. How exactly would an option to get a base storage SSD and replace it with your own of say 1 TB be something "that gets in the way of doing stuff" for you? 😀 $1,300. 256 GB. If you don't see that as a comically bad value then more power to you I guess.
(...)
On my end just a full Adobe CC is taking 49.2 GB and I need it for work, but you are a magician and 10 GB app for everyone else is a 1 GB app for you, fair and case closed indeed.

Don't run heavy software from a subnotebook. Get a proper workstation desktop. It will easily pay for itself. The laptop is used to connect remotely to it when you can't (or don't wanna) work from your home/office desk.

As for the SSD:
1. If there was a comparable laptop at the same prace and/or with a larger SSD, I'd buy that instead, of course. I get your frustration with the fact that Apple does this on purpose, but it is what it is. The very fact they can get away with it serves to tell you how far behind everyone else is. We want it to be one way, but it's the other way.
2. Soldered-in SSDs are the logical next step. The question is not if, the question is when. So if it disturbs my workflow, I should probably look into improving my workflow sooner rather than later.

Quote from: Todor on August 29, 2023, 22:04:02Just like a good musician can make a $200 guitar sound good, I can probably make do with any laptop manufactured in the last 8 or so years. The thing is, a good laptop makes work not feel like a chore. And honestly, this waaay more than justifies the asking price. I make games. Multimedia stuff. If the laptop makes sounds I didn't tell it to make, it gets in the way. If I have to ruin the color accuracy in order to get rid of the dreadful low-freq PWM, it gets in my way. Macbooks are basically the only laptops available right now that don't get in the way of doing stuff. Maybe for you they do? Well, don't get a Macbook, duh. Case closed.

While I agree with a lot of things here I find it funny that almost everything mentioned here is in direct collision with 256 GB of non-upgradable storage for $1,300. How exactly would an option to get a base storage SSD and replace it with your own of say 1 TB be something "that gets in the way of doing stuff" for you? 😀 $1,300. 256 GB. If you don't see that as a comically bad value then more power to you I guess. Because, let me repeat myself:

Quote from: Neenyah on June 20, 2023, 20:40:57I mean, 256 GB is more than enough to browse the web, watch YT, write mails and so on. But one doesn't have to spend $1,300 to do so, lol.

That's all I said about it. On my end just a full Adobe CC is taking 49.2 GB and I need it for work, but you are a magician and 10 GB app for everyone else is a 1 GB app for you, fair and case closed indeed.

Quote from: AdamB on June 20, 2023, 18:26:18I wonder where it comes from... pcie 3.0, lack of wifi 6 160, I assume no wifi 6e... 250 gb ssd... score 92%... no complains about unreplaceable ram. Author probably loves apple

it seems to be very solid machine with long battery life, but score 92% is kind of joke...

What makes a laptop good is:
- impeccable peripherals (display, keyboard, touchpad, speakers, etc)
- lasting long time on battery while maintaining stable performance for low/mid intensity workload and emitting as little noise and heat as possible
- enough durability to avoid accidental damage

If I need computing power, I'd buy a workstation or a server rack and connect to it remotely while enjoying the sunshine and greenery of my backyard. Apple is the only laptop manufacturer that *gets* laptops. Since competition is a good thing, I wish it wasn't the case. But it is.

Quote from: Neenyah on June 20, 2023, 20:40:57I mean, 256 GB is more than enough to browse the web, watch YT, write mails and so on. But one doesn't have to spend $1,300 to do so, lol. It's a complete joke yet what do we expect from a company with $400 wheels for Mac Pro or a $999 monitor stand/arm?

Just like a good musician can make a $200 guitar sound good, I can probably make do with any laptop manufactured in the last 8 or so years. The thing is, a good laptop makes work not feel like a chore. And honestly, this waaay more than justifies the asking price. I make games. Multimedia stuff. If the laptop makes sounds I didn't tell it to make, it gets in the way. If I have to ruin the color accuracy in order to get rid of the dreadful low-freq PWM, it gets in my way. Macbooks are basically the only laptops available right now that don't get in the way of doing stuff. Maybe for you they do? Well, don't get a Macbook, duh. Case closed.

Quote from: ramirez789 on June 20, 2023, 22:18:34and where the f... is the OLED ??

Hopefully nowhere to be seen until PWM becomes a non-issue.

Is there temporal dithering on this 15" Air model? You tested the 13" for it, and said "no". This is the deciding factor for me.

Great review as always

Does the 1gb have 4 x 256 chips or 2x 512

Quote from: Neenyah on June 21, 2023, 16:22:03way too little storage space.

Nah, it's really fine and works very well.

Apple never dissapoints me anymore, because I do not look forward to Apple anymore.
Gone are those days when I was in the awe of Apple products and services.
My iphone 12 gave me headache because of pwm.
My iphone 11 has become slow.
This macbook is not worth even for half the price.

Quote from: AdamB on June 22, 2023, 01:17:37Screen itself seems to be nice, but I prefer zenbook 14 with oled (myasus app sorts out the problem of PWM).

How do you get myasus app to 'sort out' PWM? Genuinely curious. If this is something like running it at 100% and then putting a black veil over it in software to 'dim', doesn't that kill battery life?

Regarding the power arguments, yes, it's always nice to have the best... but I ran some workflow tests (photography, coding, general heavy multitasking; no blender etc. here) and came to the view that this Air is basically on par with my latest gen ThinkPad workstation P15V, which has around two hours of battery life. Yes it also sucks that Apple charges a lot and gets away with it, but if you're using it for work, a top spec pays for itself fairly quickly, and amortizes easily over the long life span of the product. There were days when Apple still used spinning HD drives when you could get a great PC laptop with SSD, and back then that kind of thing made a massive difference. But now we're talking differences in SSD speed that are barely perceptible. So the overall experience becomes more of a differentiator than just the specs, which are no longer blockers.

I love a comments type like: I am designer etc... so decided to add my few "achievements".

I am just a tech enthusiast.... and by the way network engineer using laptop to work, running labs, VM and servers on my machine (more complicated on my powerfull desktop). basically- IT pro

The first thing: this is quite solid laptop with nice screen and long battery life- I think everybody agree, but...
rating 92% for this machine is a joke, and this article is some sort of apple's marketing rather than review.
1- below current standard wi fi,
2- ssd unreplaceable, below current standard, 
3- just looked at review of zenbook 14x, where "RAM not expandable" is on the cos side- in case of apple, it seems to be ok ?
4- no touch screen
5- not great cpu performance.

Screen itself seems to be nice, but I prefer zenbook 14 with oled (myasus app sorts out the problem of PWM).
Big benefit that apple's machine is quiet, but I do not care about staff like magsafe etc- prefer usb c.,
recently, I bought zenbook 14 with i5 1240p and it crashes mac in terms of cpu power, allowed me to replace sdd for bigger and faster pcie 4.0, has all working day battery life (with adoptive refresh rate - 60 on the battery). And lovely oled screen... Just want to mention that I do not care about vga and if I really need one, I am able to use egpu (via thunderblot). The only macbook advantages are fanless operation and longer battery life, but I assume that the gap will smaller under load. Price I paid - £700, "reviewed" version of apple- £2000... It's pure madness...

the conclusion is: mac is solid and nice machine for people who don't run heavy work loads, super overpriced for what it offers to the customers. But the magic of apple logo works well, even on the reviewer... 
 

Soldered storage should be a instant disqualifier for any work laptop. Too much of a data liability.
This with same keyboard as 13.
And overpriced ram upgrades.
So another facebook machine , I guess.

Quote from: John Brown on June 21, 2023, 04:00:53I'm a graphic/product/web designer, right in their 'pro' market segment, not a tech enthusiast concerned about 'upgradability' etc. (just buy it right the first time)... the power has been enough for a while now too. So I'm just massively relieved to finally have a usable work machine

One commentator here on this forum will tell you that it's not possible to do any serious and/or professional work without numpad, so buying a MacBook is a grave mistake.

But him aside, this Air is a really wonderful little beast with way too little storage space. You also get quite nerfed SSD speeds so Apple is sneakily trying to force you to upgrade to higher configs. And then, when upgraded as you want (16/512 ideally), you get very close to a MBP territory where you get faster everything and better screen. So Robert is spot on with his comment:

Quote from: RobertJasiek on June 21, 2023, 07:54:24

Quote from: John Brown on June 21, 2023, 04:00:53not a tech enthusiast concerned about 'upgradability' etc. (just buy it right the first time)...

Or not at all due to greedy upsales.

👍

Quote from: John Brown on June 21, 2023, 04:00:53not a tech enthusiast concerned about 'upgradability' etc. (just buy it right the first time)...

Or not at all due to greedy upsales.