New M2 Macbook looks a bit fruity.

yeah it just poppped up on HackerNews which is where I saw it

Who?

Got mine from John Lewis for about £100 less than Apple.

CostCo had it (very briefly!) for £600. Haven’t seen any other deals, someone would’ve posted it on HUKD surely? Obviously there’s the educational discount but that’s standard.

Just got my Basic Air M2 from Costco, £1109, so slightly cheaper than JL and a chunk cheaper than Apple. In theory, Costco do a 2 year warranty also

don’t want to get into a whole “thing” about it but, no, they didn’t say that. You’ve cut the end of the sentence off & completely changed the meaning. I will concede that the full quote could possibly be mis-interpreted by someone with a poor grasp of English, however 😀
(I won’t argue that it isn’t “cherry-picking” though 😂)

Adding 'while using 200W less power' does not define the power envelope they were talking about. Nothing to do with a poor grasp of English IMO.

I saw that £6k Intel Mac Pro geekbench score earlier, and how the new Mac Mini beats it. Something's weird about that geekbench result. My (tiny) Intel laptop beats the Mac Pro scores too for single-core, not far off multi-core either 🤔

Ooh, just looking at Costco now.

just seen this on HUKD, cracking deal on the new base spec M2, £585
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BSHWPKXR?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=pepperugc03-21&ascsubtag=2476161919

I have had Macs since first got a computer of my own (rather that using works ones).
I need Windows for work, but still have a desktop (and a laptop) Mac.

Getting a bit concerned that eventually the support for Bootcamp on these will fade, and there seems no M1/M2 path to get dual boot or emulation functional or licensed. I've read about the Parallels workaround but it seems a bit grey to say the least.

Might need to get a separate computer for Windows efforts which will be a pain.

I’ve read about the Parallels workaround but it seems a bit grey to say the least.

Crossover (WINE) definitely works, I've done it, although obviously that's something you have to get working on a per-app basis.

Might need to get a separate computer for Windows efforts which will be a pain.

Did anyone actually buy a Mac mini M2? I've just got the basic version and .......well, no one mentioned the flashing, cliching, black screen you constantly get! Has anyone sorted this yet? The interweb is full of ideas but nothing has worked yet. I'm awaiting a thunderbolt 4 to HDMI convertor that will hopefully sort the problem, but Apple seem very quiet on this issue, which is apparently very common and has been going on since the advent of the M1 chip.

Yes, got one at launch. What is the specific issue you’re talking about? (Also have an M1 Studio which I have zero problems with)

I have an M2 mini (with the Pro chip). No display issues - plugged in to a Studio Display and a Dell 27” monitor (usb-c).

Constant switching to black screen, noise and hash and screen break up and general flickering, and occasionally it goes to a grey screen of digital noise. Currently using HDMI to HDMI , but hoping to switch to Thunderbolt/USC-C type 4 adaptor when it arrives.

don't have any of those issues you describe! I wonder if it's an HDMI thing 🤔 Slight issue with my M2 Mini in that it can't control the brightness of the 2 LG HDMI monitors I have hooked up (Googled it & this is a peculiarity of the LG monitors apparently!) but the workaround is to use a 3rd party app for that 🤷‍♂️ Zero issues at all with my M1 Studio attached to Dell monitors via USB-C/Thunderbolt.

Problem solved, hopefully. USB-c type 4 to HDMI cable. So USB-C out of Mac to HDMI on monitor, Apple really need to admit to this and change their literature, of course they won't.

How are people finding the Air M2s after some use? Seriously looking one as fed up with the short battery life of my PC when travelling. The Dell machine work has given me is fundamentally ok (i5, 16GB, 256gb) but it is super annoying to live with away from the docking station. Thinking about getting an Air for travel and personal use, mainly due to the long battery life (and my somewhat magpie tendencies). One reservation is lack of HDMI port (I can buy the adapter) and the fact I’ve never had a Mac before so hoping it won’t be too hard to learn (I have used my Mums over the years). Looking at 13”, 16gb, 512 to future proof.

And are the midnight paint job rumours true?

There's nothing hard to learn about MacOS, it's just irritating like anything else that's different.

What's the battery life of your PC? It should be decent enough if it's recent - short battery life is usually down to some crappy process taking up all the battery power.

I get about 3.5 hours from it, and it doesn’t like being on standby (I’ve played with the settings). If I just shut the lid (I’ve checked the settings), the battery will be dead the following morning (or similar).

As molgrips said, checking what processes are running in the background would be the first thing to look at. A lot of apps set themselves to run at startup. If they're not things that really need to be constantly running in the background, disable them from running at startup. Dell should have a disk image available so you could try restoring it to original condition if that doesn't work.

Also, how old is it? If it's a few years old and has mostly been used unplugged, the battery is probably knackered. It might be worth checking the cost of new battery before just binning a perfectly useful computer.

We have such strict admin restrictions I can’t change any of the things at start up etc. It’s 3 years old. Work will replace it after the 5 year warranty period ends.

That is poor but sounds like there is not a lot you can do. My employer's corporate spyware used to knock battery life down a bit, fortunately they sorted themselves out.

It’s 3 years old.

If it's been used running off the battery daily for three years, the battery is probably knackered. You can run a battery condition check and see.

70% of the time its running off the Dell dock at my WFH desk. I travel quite a bit with work and use the battery a lot then.

My 13" M2 Air does many (sorry haven't measured it) hours on a charge. It's cracking little machine.

My 2020 M1 has been fantastic, it's had a lot of use unplugged and batter health reports 87%. Still goes all day easily enough. Shame I can't really justify buying a new one yet 🙂

There’s nothing hard to learn about MacOS, it’s just irritating like anything else that’s different.

Never truer words spoken, especially the bit after the comma.

EDIT And with perfect timing my 2017 MacBook Pro is reporting the battery is dying as we await the M3 powered machines. All I need to do now is convince Fun & Finance Control that this is a necessary expenditure. 🙂

You do occasionally get compatibility issues between Office on Mac and on Windows. And there are features missing too, the software is actually different.

Anything requiring Powershell is a non-starter on Macs (we have a Dell for it at work and I get an MS Hell Desk person to hold my hand through the process). The macro language is also quite a bit different and removing the older style sharing restrictions is more or less impossible.

My year old MBA M2 25gGB SSD 16GB RAM is lovely. Battery health is still 100% after 74 cycles and lasts forever (I maybe charge it once a week and use it a few hours a day).

I was worried about the Midnight blue finish as I'm greasy and clumsy, but it's still great.  Can see one medium size scrape/gouge on one edge but the finish is deep enough that it doesn't stand out and the paint around the ports hasn't scratched off, which you might expect after a year of use.

Work are asking what I want to replace my ancient Pro and I think after looking at the current crop of Macbook Pros and the MBA 15" I'll stick get another 13" MBA M2.

If I just shut the lid (I’ve checked the settings), the battery will be dead the following morning (or similar).

This has been ringing a vague bell all afternoon and it's bugging me where I read it, but I remember discussion about a Windows bug where if you shut a laptop with the charger connected, Windows shuts down in one mode where it may do housekeeping tasks / updates overnight and the battery will be flat the next morning. Disconnect the charger then shut the lid and it sleeps in "proper laptop" mode and saves power.

Might be worth a try to improve your battery life.

I'll now stop derailing the M2 Mac thread further 😉

Thanks all for the M2 comments and battery suggestion Toby. Unfortunately not that as it happens when I’m not plugged in eg get off a train and battery is flat a few hours later at my hotel.

Might stick my head into the Apple Store later 😉

Looking at getting an Air sometime soon. Is the M2 worth the extra over M1? I think I want the 15" which solves the debate I guess.

Might stick my head into the Apple Store later

IIRC you work at a university? Have a look at the discount through the (online) apple store for eduction.

You do occasionally get compatibility issues between Office on Mac and on Windows. And there are features missing too, the software is actually different.

I bounce between Windows laptop and MBA all the time, and the subtle differences do sometimes catch me out, especially in Excel IME.

Loving my MBA 13".  I've had two MBPs, each one lasting about 8 years, but the lack of fans whirring and vastly improved battery life are game-changers.

I bought an M2 mini with educational discount recently - it's about 15% on the base level spec I think, dropping to about 10% for the higher specs.

I also got a £100 apple voucher, which is slightly annoying because I have no particular use for it and would much prefer the cash!

I had a MBA from about 5 years ago, but it was so slow for my work stuff (and newer Windows emulation were rare at the time).

Now have a M2 MBA and it's lovely for work based stuff - if screen were bigger or could easily point to iMac I'd be tempted to have as dev. machine.

Well the trip to the Apple Store of course didn’t help at all…MBA M2 (16/512) ordered with educational discount. I will have to bounce between PC and Mac but after playing with it in the store for quite a while, it seemed pretty intuitive with several of the keyboard shortcuts I use a lot the same (in particular, the Alt-Tab replacement). And yeah work maybe should be able to provide me with a laptop with a longer battery life, but it will be nice to have a machine that I don’t have to wait for all the Uni software to kick in every time I open the lid (took half an hour to log in the other day!).

If you don't mind d me asking, how much did it cost with educational discount? Currently it seems M1 MBAs are being cleared out and right now (probably not for long) you can buy a 16GB/1TB for £1000 which I'm very close to buying.

That MBA M2 spec, with 70W charger upgrade, came to £1459. In general educational discount saves about 10% on a MacBook. The spec you are looking at with 1Tb on an M1 comes out as similar money (so if you’ve found one for £1k, that’s a bargain!). M2 16GB/1Tb £1609.

I was tempted by an M1on price but held out for an M2 on the basis of being a bit newer, having a better screen and MagSafe power connector (a little thing but...).

The only thing I miss about my old MB Pro is it kept my legs warm when siting on my lap. This thing is freezing!

Yeah for me, the better screen and improved webcam/speakers made the M2 make a lot more sense for me as I do quite a lot of online meetings and occasional press interviews.

My 12 year old MacBook Air is really showing its age and I'm planning to replace with a new one. Just wanted a couple of opinions on spec. I'm not a designer but I do use photo and design editors (Affinity, Graphic) semi-regularly, and do a little web design through Wordpress.

So I think I'm sold on the 15" screen, but will 16gb RAM (or unified memory, whatever) be enough? I'm comparing to PCs which appear easy to get way more RAM, but does the Apple layout mean 16gb is actually the equivalent of more in PC land? It's a big expense for 24gb with Apple, but if it lasts me another decade and makes a difference, I'd rather do it.

Next one is actual storage. Is there any reason to get a bigger internal hard drive than 256gb? It's pricy to upgrade when I could get a more affordable external drive as a back up. Other than convenience, am I missing anything?

Minor question. Currently using Chrome as my version of Safari seems to fail loading lots of pages. Is new Sfarai worth switching to?

And does anyone use the Apple mouse? I currently use a bog standard thing when at a desk. Just wondering if there's anything to really gain from the nice Apple one.

Definite first world queries here - apologies.

So I think I’m sold on the 15″ screen, but will 16gb RAM (or unified memory, whatever) be enough? I’m comparing to PCs which appear easy to get way more RAM, but does the Apple layout mean 16gb is actually the equivalent of more in PC land? It’s a big expense for 24gb with Apple, but if it lasts me another decade and makes a difference, I’d rather do it.

whats the workload? Some things like a lot more ram others don't really mind and you'll be fine ticking along with 16gb.

Next one is actual storage. Is there any reason to get a bigger internal hard drive than 256gb? It’s pricy to upgrade when I could get a more affordable external drive as a back up. Other than convenience, am I missing anything?

Cloud storage? I pay for icloud and am very happy with it, syncs transparently in the background. If i lost my laptop (which I have) I can get a new mac and within 10 mins of logging into my icloud account its almost the same computer (at least as far as the file system is concerned!)

And does anyone use the Apple mouse? I currently use a bog standard thing when at a desk. Just wondering if there’s anything to really gain from the nice Apple one.

Guestures!

Also i think its unfair that some people rag on apple kit for looking nice. If its going to clutter up a room for a decade, it really ough to to look good

And does anyone use the Apple mouse? I currently use a bog standard thing when at a desk. Just wondering if there’s anything to really gain from the nice Apple one.

i've got one somewhere, prefer a logitech.

I have an Apple mouse, I got it because I really like the touch gestures on the top of the mouse - swiping left and right to change workspaces is great.  However, it's really uncomfortable to use. And the charging port on the bottom is a PITA because it doesn't warn you the battery is low until it's nearly out. Even if they just changed that it would help.

I have the same gripe about charging the Apple mouse, I did find it comfortable though. I now use a Logitech MX master 3.

For RAM, I'd say 16 GB will be plenty for what you describe (unless you're using truly massive design objects).

Modern Safari works with pretty much every webpage IME, but if you're comfortable with Chrome why not stick with it?

I used the Apple mouse for years, didn't mind it (regardless of the placement of the charging port, still a huge improvement over the old version that took batteries, but if they were microscopically too small would randomly disconnect quite often 😂 🙄) although now have a 3dconnexion CadMouse Pro which is massively better in every way including ergonomics.

but if you’re comfortable with Chrome why not stick with it?

a huge improvement over the old version that took batteries, but if they were microscopically too small would randomly disconnect quite often 😂 🙄

this could be fixed by shoving a bit of folded up train ticket in there, to wedge them in place.  Which I still do now... 🙂

+1 Logitech MX Master 3 mouse. Had mine 3-4 years now and it's excellent in terms of feel, accuracy and configurability. Trackpad gestures are also incredibly useful, so much so that I rarely feel like I'm missing out if I end up somewhere without my MX 3.

I looked into using Chrome when I got my M1 (at launch) and pretty much everyone said it's a resource hog and Safari is quicker etc. After comparing the two, I opted for Safari because it fast, reliable and syncs with my phone. I was even prepared to do that and leave behind all the Chrome extensions/plugins I'd accumulated.