x

[prime17569]

FYI, macOS for the M2 MacBook Air has had a long-standing bug in its DSP software, which might explain why it sounds weird. Check out this thread by Hector Martin, one of the developers of Asahi Linux for Apple Silicon Macs:

Hector Martin (@marcan@treehouse.systems)

Attached: 1 image OH MY ****ING GOD. Pictured: Apple's M2 MacBook Air 13" speaker response (measured with a mic), and the response you get when you zero out every 128th sample of a sine sweep. **They have a stupid off-by-one bug in the middle of their bass enhancer AND NOBODY NOTICED NOR...

social.treehouse.systems

 

[r98266]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my experience with the 2022 M2 Macbook Air coming from the 2013 MacBook Air 11,6“. I wanted to try one of these and compare it against the 11 incher. This is going to be very subjective and I‘m very picky but anyone upgrading from one of these might be interested.

Observations:
1. The difference in weight and especially size (duuh) is very noticable.
View attachment 2293752 View attachment 2293753 View attachment 2293755 View attachment 2293756


2. My palms prefer the wedge design.
View attachment 2293757 View attachment 2293758


3. Speakers on the new one have way more bass but totally lack the mids.

4. The keys on the new keyboard have a little less travel. Small difference but I prefer the old keyboard.

5. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

6. I don‘t like the new layout of System preferences in Sonoma.

7. Display, webcam, battery life and raw computepower are way better on the new one. I‘m using mine for office and media consumption tasks, but also record vocals in Logic. I don‘t need 8K video editing power.

8. Notch bothers me more than it did on the iPhone. Why isn’t it aligned with the taskbar? Just shy of a couple of pixels. And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?
View attachment 2293759 View attachment 2293773

9. I would have preferred keys for adjusting the keyboardbrightness instead of Spotlight and Focus.

10. The rubber feet on the new one are more slippery compared to the old ones. So one handed opening has it sliding away. This might change with time and depends on the tables surface.

11. The biggest gripe by far I have with it is the touchpad! It doesn‘t have any travel which irritates me so much it has me cringing when clicking. Feels like it‘s stuck or like it was "heavy" or something heavy pulling on it so you can't click it. Is this normal?? This alone makes me want to return it.


Additional points:
One USB-A port would have been a life saver when you‘re in other environments. USB-A is still everywhere.

I recently upgraded the SSD in the old one. Not having that option in the new ones is bad when you give it some thought. This has been discussed to death on this forum, but it‘s just the truth.

Oh and Apple needs to bring back the illuminated Logo 😉
View attachment 2293762


A couple of years back I tested the 12“ Macbook. Keyboard was really bad, one port only was really bad, weight and display were great!

Conclusion: 13,6“ is not for me. I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook and keep enjoying my fully functioning 11,6“.

I’m waiting for Apple to get out of this design phase as well. I love my M1 Air.

They finally got rid of the Touch Bar (thankfully). Don’t add a touch interface to a tactile surface, and it make so I have to look down to search and press. Leave my function keys alone.

Notch.. Apple has me by the nether-regions on the phone, but I refuse to buy a tablet or computer with a notch. I will switch away if needed. Face ID is cool, but not enough to sacrifice my viewing experience.

And, I also very dislike that opening the lid or pressing ANY button turns the computer on. Sometimes I just want to look at the machine, not use it. Let the power button do power button things, or best idea, let users choose things.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

Have you tried not putting your icons behind the menubar? They’re usually more visible when you don’t move them behind core UI elements.

Hahaha instructions unclear, please advise 😂😂

 

[HackMacDaddy]

FYI, macOS for the M2 MacBook Air has had a long-standing bug in its DSP software, which might explain why it sounds weird. Check out this thread by Hector Martin, one of the developers of Asahi Linux for Apple Silicon Macs:

Hector Martin (@marcan@treehouse.systems)

Attached: 1 image OH MY ****ING GOD. Pictured: Apple's M2 MacBook Air 13" speaker response (measured with a mic), and the response you get when you zero out every 128th sample of a sine sweep. **They have a stupid off-by-one bug in the middle of their bass enhancer AND NOBODY NOTICED NOR...

social.treehouse.systems

Interesting!! I‘ll have to do a deep dive into this.
I do music production for a living and my gut feeling was correct 😂

 

[HackMacDaddy]

I’m waiting for Apple to get out of this design phase as well. I love my M1 Air.

They finally got rid of the Touch Bar (thankfully). Don’t add a touch interface to a tactile surface, and it make so I have to look down to search and press. Leave my function keys alone.

Notch.. Apple has me by the nether-regions on the phone, but I refuse to buy a tablet or computer with a notch. I will switch away if needed. Face ID is cool, but not enough to sacrifice my viewing experience.

And, I also very dislike that opening the lid or pressing ANY button turns the computer on. Sometimes I just want to look at the machine, not use it. Let the power button do power button things, or best idea, let users choose things.

100% with you on all of that

 

[MBAir2010]

And that's a problem with Sonoma (and Ventura for that matter.) Everyone hates System Settings. It's why I downgraded back to Monterey on my Macbook Pro and will stay on Monterey until there comes a point one of my main apps run better on Sonoma.

How did you revert to Monterey?
my game plan is to factory reset the macbook air M1
or reboot with a usb thumb drive.
i do use monterey with an external drive which has 512 gb but rather install that on the mbam1

thanx in advance!

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

How did you revert to Monterey?
my game plan is to factory reset the macbook air M1
or reboot with a usb thumb drive.
i do use monterey with an external drive which has 512 gb but rather install that on the mbam1

thanx in advance!

There's the option to Erase all Content and Settings from the Macbook, essentially factory reset it. That's what I did.

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

Use Erase All Content and Settings to quickly and securely erase all of your settings, data, and apps, while maintaining the operating system currently installed.

support.apple.com

 

[jezbd1997]

The rear light up logo is nothing at all, notch too just fades away within a couple of weeks.
The rear logo is something I was worried about on my MBP but I like it better now, in the dark sometimes I would wonder what the light was.
Also means no light bleed from sunlight directly into your display which has me thinking is the reason they finally got rid of it

 

[benwiggy]

The only time I notice there's a notch on my MBP is when people complain about there being a notch. It's like The Game™.

You can't "lose a file behind it", because the Desktop doesn't extend into the menubar.

The only complaint I have about my M1 Pro 16" MBP is that the edges are a bit harsh against my palms -- but frankly, I'm prepared to accommodate a certain amount less than perfection, given how much better it is than my previous MBP in terms of performance, battery life, screen, sound....

 

[genexx]

There will always be different tastes because we humans fortunately also have a different character and the use cases will also always differ.

I for one am very satisfied with my MBA M2 and have not bought an Apple laptop since 2016 because they no longer appealed to me but PC laptops and the variants then operated with Hackintosh.

For the OP, it would have been advisable to test an MBA M1, or even visit an Apple Store and take a look at all the models on site.

I'm always amazed that so many buy a 2000 dollar piece of technology without even looking at it in advance.

But that's not Apple's fault. If you don't like it, you better inform yourself beforehand and don't cry about the pain when you run into a concrete wall because you thought it was made of foam.
The wall is definitely to blame. Guaranteed. It did it on purpose and it's just there to hurt you....
I really can't listen to this anymore. What a nonsense.

Here is also nothing that has not been described in any form a thousand times or was unknown even at the sales start in 2022 and yes I have informed me before my purchase very accurately incl. of course a visit to the Apple Store.

So I have exactly what I want and I would not buy an MBA M2 15 "or an MBP.

 

[Shirasaki]

5. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off

Yeah scared the crap out of me when I first unboxed my MacBook Pro M1 2020.
I don’t get why auto boot is forced on everyone Using Apple silicon Mac. iPhone iPad doesn’t auto boot…

4. The keys on the new keyboard have a little less travel. Small difference but I prefer the old keyboard.

old one does have longer travel but new one is just as good imo. Also the slightly more tactile feeling is great.

And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?

Probably makes no sense to write code handling collision or border handling from Apple’s perspective so they just didn’t care. I still think notch is a compromised design, and a major push for me to use iPad instead of iPhone, even when going out for shopping. Yes I hate notch that much.

Even if you moved your Macintosh HD icon to the right so it wasn't under the notch, every bit as much of it would still be obscured by the menu bar. The solution to this problem is "don't try to shove icons so far up the screen that they're behind the menu bar", and it applies to Macs without a notch too.

If you really want the classic no-notch experience, you can still have it. Go to System Settings -> Displays -> Advanced and turn "Show resolutions as list" on. Click Done and you'll see that not only are the resolutions a list now, there's a switch at the bottom of the list to "Show all resolutions". Turn that on and you'll see many more resolutions listed. Look at whatever your computer is set to (on my 16" M1, the current and default setting is 1728x1117) and right below it, there should be a resolution with the same horizontal and slightly fewer vertical pixels (on my 16", that's 1728x1080).

Click the slightly less tall resolution. You'll find that the menu bar (and active display area) have migrated entirely below the notch. You will not be able to lose your mouse cursor behind the notch any more. Everything will function just as if you had an old school Mac laptop with a pure rectangular display with a blank "forehead" above it.

There isn't even any compromise here. The unbroken rectangle of display area below the notch is still Apple's traditional notebook display aspect ratio of 16:10. In other words, before notches, you got only a 16:10 display, now you get a 16:10 display plus a little bonus strip up top.

And sure, some of that strip is obscured by cutouts for the camera and rounded corners. But these limitations are fine for the Mac menu bar, which seldom has anything in the middle and doesn't need rectangular corners. I predict that even if you try one of the no-notch modes, knowing what I've told you, you'll soon go back. Pushing the menu bar up into the bonus strip leaves you with more room for your windows, it's very practical. This is why Apple puts the menu bar up there by default, and why they've slightly hidden these options to not use it.

Great to know this trick. No use for me right now but definitely will come in handy in the future.

 

[TokyoKiller]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my experience with the 2022 M2 Macbook Air coming from the 2013 MacBook Air 11,6“. I wanted to try one of these and compare it against the 11 incher. This is going to be very subjective and I‘m very picky but anyone upgrading from one of these might be interested.

Observations:
1. The difference in weight and especially size (duuh) is very noticable.
View attachment 2293752 View attachment 2293753 View attachment 2293755 View attachment 2293756


2. My palms prefer the wedge design.
View attachment 2293757 View attachment 2293758


3. Speakers on the new one have way more bass but totally lack the mids.

4. The keys on the new keyboard have a little less travel. Small difference but I prefer the old keyboard.

5. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

6. I don‘t like the new layout of System preferences in Sonoma.

7. Display, webcam, battery life and raw computepower are way better on the new one. I‘m using mine for office and media consumption tasks, but also record vocals in Logic. I don‘t need 8K video editing power.

8. Notch bothers me more than it did on the iPhone. Why isn’t it aligned with the taskbar? Just shy of a couple of pixels. And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?
View attachment 2293759 View attachment 2293773

9. I would have preferred keys for adjusting the keyboardbrightness instead of Spotlight and Focus.

10. The rubber feet on the new one are more slippery compared to the old ones. So one handed opening has it sliding away. This might change with time and depends on the tables surface.

11. The biggest gripe by far I have with it is the touchpad! It doesn‘t have any travel which irritates me so much it has me cringing when clicking. Feels like it‘s stuck or like it was "heavy" or something heavy pulling on it so you can't click it. Is this normal?? This alone makes me want to return it.


Additional points:
One USB-A port would have been a life saver when you‘re in other environments. USB-A is still everywhere.

I recently upgraded the SSD in the old one. Not having that option in the new ones is bad when you give it some thought. This has been discussed to death on this forum, but it‘s just the truth.

Oh and Apple needs to bring back the illuminated Logo 😉
View attachment 2293762


A couple of years back I tested the 12“ Macbook. Keyboard was really bad, one port only was really bad, weight and display were great!

Conclusion: 13,6“ is not for me. I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook and keep enjoying my fully functioning 11,6“.

You know there is still the 13” MBA and MBP that are smaller in size than the 14” MBA you bought and the 13” MBA has the t

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my experience with the 2022 M2 Macbook Air coming from the 2013 MacBook Air 11,6“. I wanted to try one of these and compare it against the 11 incher. This is going to be very subjective and I‘m very picky but anyone upgrading from one of these might be interested.

Observations:
1. The difference in weight and especially size (duuh) is very noticable.
View attachment 2293752 View attachment 2293753 View attachment 2293755 View attachment 2293756


2. My palms prefer the wedge design.
View attachment 2293757 View attachment 2293758


3. Speakers on the new one have way more bass but totally lack the mids.

4. The keys on the new keyboard have a little less travel. Small difference but I prefer the old keyboard.

5. I hate that it auto boots when I open it (wtf?) and I can‘t turn it off.

6. I don‘t like the new layout of System preferences in Sonoma.

7. Display, webcam, battery life and raw computepower are way better on the new one. I‘m using mine for office and media consumption tasks, but also record vocals in Logic. I don‘t need 8K video editing power.

8. Notch bothers me more than it did on the iPhone. Why isn’t it aligned with the taskbar? Just shy of a couple of pixels. And the mousepointer and icons going behind the notch irritates me. You could literally "lose" a file on your desktop behind the notch. Why Apple?
View attachment 2293759 View attachment 2293773

9. I would have preferred keys for adjusting the keyboardbrightness instead of Spotlight and Focus.

10. The rubber feet on the new one are more slippery compared to the old ones. So one handed opening has it sliding away. This might change with time and depends on the tables surface.

11. The biggest gripe by far I have with it is the touchpad! It doesn‘t have any travel which irritates me so much it has me cringing when clicking. Feels like it‘s stuck or like it was "heavy" or something heavy pulling on it so you can't click it. Is this normal?? This alone makes me want to return it.


Additional points:
One USB-A port would have been a life saver when you‘re in other environments. USB-A is still everywhere.

I recently upgraded the SSD in the old one. Not having that option in the new ones is bad when you give it some thought. This has been discussed to death on this forum, but it‘s just the truth.

Oh and Apple needs to bring back the illuminated Logo 😉
View attachment 2293762


A couple of years back I tested the 12“ Macbook. Keyboard was really bad, one port only was really bad, weight and display were great!

Conclusion: 13,6“ is not for me. I‘ll be waiting for a new smaller Macbook and keep enjoying my fully functioning 11,6“.

So why wasn't your conclusion that you should have bought the 13" MBA which is still sold today and is still a VERY powerful machine for most users and tasks? It is smaller, it has the tapered edge design you enjoy and is even less costly.

As for the trackpad, you need to turn on the clicking "sound" to get the travel you're looking for.

Anyway, things have changed a lot since 2011 so comparing old tech to new tech is somewhat not logical as there are generational and technical gaps that have taken place since.

 

[timmodugdale]

I am sorry you feel that way. For me, I love my M2 MacBook Air. It is the first Air model I've purchased (I usually bought the MacBook Pro) but I feel no loss in power or features with the Air. It is, in fact, my favorite Apple laptop I've ever had. And the price is great.

 

[Thehangmn]

We are all entitled to our opinions on such things, but I feel like you’re making mountains out of molehills with most of these.

 

[Wokis]

Seems most things are related to how modern macs are designed vs 2013.

I can agree with some but consider them nitpicks. Others, like "I don't need all this power", I just don't know how to comment on. Are you after them making a cheaper A15-powered model?

 

[Timpetus]

The majority of these complaints are unfortunately issues with Apple's general direction in hardware or software. I sympathize with many of them.

The trackpad hasn't had any travel for years now, it's all haptic since at least my 2016 MBP. Probably earlier. I believe system preferences does allow you to adjust the forcefulness of the feedback, but I don't remember since the default always felt fine to me.

As for the keyboard, I'm a weirdo who really liked the butterfly keyboard on my 2016 MBP. Got lucky with it having no issues and then it was replaced along with the battery about a year ago. I still have it sitting around but upgraded a few months ago to a 14" M1 Max MBP that has been awesome, aside from not running my older Intel games.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

Oh wow, I never would have thought so many people got triggered and offended by this 🤯😂 chill guys

 

[Gudi]

The OP raises a lot of good points and a few weaker ones. Of course you do not want USB-A on any device going forward. Legacy ports must die now or they will live forever.

The wedge design is 2.8 lb, the M2 design is 2.7. Not only that but the tallest part of the wedge design is 1.61 cm, while the height of the M2 is 1.13.

Nobody really cares about the tallest part of a wedge. That's just how Apple sold it. The M2 MBA is still thicker from every angle you look at it. Uniform thickness has its benefits, but its neither looks nor ergonomics.

Below the notch is the same 14:10 resolution you're used to. The space at the notch is added space so in reality you have more screen real estate with the notch present.

Even though a notch is better than thick bezels, it's still a highly irritating design.

You can adjust keyboard brightness from the Control Center.

That's a horrible solution. Why can't I hold down the option key and use the screen brightness keys [⌥+☼]?

The glowing logo was removed for a reason. Aside from needing the screen hinges to be thick in the back to accommodate the light, overtime the logo burned through the display.

It didn't "burn" through anything. If you put a bright lamp behind the logo, the light shines through.

Many are begging for them to bring the design back as an affordable MacBook SE.

Which is why it's not (yet) coming. Apple is far from lowering the prices on Macs. Inflation is still high.

Most of those issues you listed were minor gripes, and you'd rather use a much slower computer that isn't getting security updates anymore, is horribly outdated in specs and performance, over the faster, quieter, miles longer battery life having, and all around better ARM Macbook?

Okay then~

All he said was: I dislike the new design. And I don't love it either.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

I agree whole heartedly with the autoboot. That's annoy af. It also boots if you hit any key. That's annoying af because I like to wipe down the finger prints when I shutdown. I can't do that without accidentally booting it back up if I'm wiping the keys down. So I just leave it on, wipe it down, then shutdown. But the problem with that is now you're pressing keys in the OS. So yeah. give the option to disable this Apple.

 

[techno-Zen]

Get with the times Gramps

 

[HackMacDaddy]

Get with the times Gramps

Get off my lawn

 

[HackMacDaddy]

The OP raises a lot of good points and a few weaker ones. Of course you do not want USB-A on any device going forward. Legacy ports must die now or they will live forever.

Nobody really cares about the tallest part of a wedge. That's just how Apple sold it. The M2 MBA is still thicker from every angle you look at it. Uniform thickness has its benefits, but its neither looks nor ergonomics.

Even though a notch is better than thick bezels, it's still a highly irritating design.

That's a horrible solution. Why can't I hold down the option key and use the screen brightness keys [⌥+☼]?

It didn't "burn" through anything. If you put a bright lamp behind the logo, the light shines through.

Which is why it's not (yet) coming. Apple is far from lowering the prices on Macs. Inflation is still high.

All he said was: I dislike the new design. And I don't love it either.

Thank you!
Some people chose to be offended and there‘s nothing I can do about it. Wasn‘t my intention at all.

 

[NightfallOrchid]

Probably makes no sense to write code handling collision or border handling from Apple’s perspective so they just didn’t care.

They actually did bother to write collision handling code. When you click on the menu bar and then move to the notch, the cursor skips the notch.

The glowing logo was removed for a reason. Aside from needing the screen hinges to be thick in the back to accommodate the light, overtime the logo burned through the display.

Since the light-up logo used the display's backlight, it also wouldn't really work with the MBP's Mini-LED display. The backlighting can selectively turn off in zones, so, depending on what is displayed on the screen, the logo wouldn't even be evenly lit or not at all...

 

[missingar]

Hahaha instructions unclear, please advise 😂😂

I'm glad you took my comment as playfully as I meant it

 

[applepotato666]

1. I agree. The 12" MacBook should come back with an M-series processor or perhaps an A-series and the new old good keyboard at a reasonable cost, but they'd never do it.

3. True. But it's a significantly improved driver and there are ways to EQ them to your preference with third-party software, afaik.

4. To me it appears to be the same travel but the keys are a lot more stable. On the previous Air the keys would move around under your finger a lot before you pressed them, which would give the impression of more travel but they felt a lot mushier.

5. sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00 in Terminal changes this behavior (Edit: Apparently doesn't work on M-series Macs)

8. Otherwise it'd look separated, when actually menu bar items that can't fit in the left overflow into the right part. It's the same on the iPhones with a notch/dynamic island. There's some padding below the status bar. Design decision.

10. I believe it's because it's new. They get softer which makes them grippier, and also rub off a little, levelling off with time. I have the M1 MacBook Pro so it still has the circular feet and I remember thinking the same when I upgraded.

11. There is no travel - it's haptics. There could be something wrong with yours as the click is quite convincing. In the System Settings under Trackpad, there is a Click option where you can adjust your click between 3 levels. You could perhaps give that a try and see whether you're better suited with another level?