Hi all! Now that the iPad has M4, we’re in unusual territory where the iPad has the state of the art chip before the Mac.
A few questions the iPad Pros have raised for me:
Can the MacBook Air get even thinner now, like the iPad Pro? How much of it can we shave down without sacrificing battery life? (The 3nm chip should help with that.)
Is this the point where cumulative YOY updates mean the M4 is double the computational speed of the M1 in a Mac? What about the M4 Max vs the M1 Max?
I’m sure you all can come up with even better questions and thoughts. For me, if the M4 Max was twice as fast as the M1 Max, and the MacBook Air got even thinner, I’d strongly consider swapping my 16” M1 Max MBP for a M4 Max Studio and the smallest MacBook Air.
There are a couple of variables here. The battery on the big iPad Pro went from 40.88 watt-hours to 38.99 watt-hours. The 11” actually increased from 28.65 watt-hours to 31.29 watt-hours. On the consumption side, the new 3nm chip probably helps some, but remember the M3 is already a 3nm chip. I don’t know that we have any data on how power consumption varies between the n3b process used on the M3 and the n3e used for the M4. The other variable here is the OLED screen. They’re both more power efficient, since you’re only powering pixels that are lit up, as well as thinner, since they don’t need a backlight. However, I wouldn’t expect an OLED in the next MacBook Air (the MacBook Pro, on the other hand…).
Sounds like we have the same config! I agree generally. My MBP is easily the best Mac I’ve ever had. But it feels to me like my M4 iPad Pro is a bit quicker (at single core tasks, at least). There are a lot of variables in quantifying that, including New Device Bias, wifi signal strength, the amount of RAM and CPU constantly in use on my Mac (a lot), etc. So who knows. But I don’t think I’d regret updating for double the speed.
@ChrisUpchurch i totally forgot the OLED panels are probably the reason for the size reduction. Dang. And we’re still not quite at double the power. I’m curious how these chips will compare to their Mac brethren with Mac thermals, but I imagine it’ll be similar results. Ah well. One can dream. I dearly miss the wedge shape MacBook Airs and am one of the weirdos unimpressed by the current slab shape and thickness. Thin, but not thin enough for an Air label in my books. I want more.
My wife still loves her (pink) 12“ MacBook and prefers it over her iPad Pro for anything remotely productive - even if it’s slow.
So a new MacBook 12“ would make her very happy - and if that can run Logic as well she’d be even more happy . She uses the MacBook even today for light mobile Logic stuff but if she was able to do her Orchester compositions with a light laptop she would be sold immediately:blush: - she might even accept a non-pink version .
So yeah a fan-less M4 12“ MacBook in pink would be her dream machine
I would also love a machine like that! The smaller they make the non-Pro laptops (the Pros should remain chonky), the more interested I am in getting one.
There’s the irony, because thinness matters less on the MacBook Pros than on the MacBook Airs. The current MacBook Pro designs are thicker than the ones they replaced because most MBP buyers are willing to sacrifice thinness for extra ports.
Is this where Apple starts to use all of that capacity in the M chips to:
drop Intel support in macOS, and
add extra complexity in the OS (AI anyone) which chews up extra memory, plus processor and GPU cycles
People keep saying that the M1 computers will be around for a long time, and I agree from a hardware perspective, but Apple must have a plan on the Mac to use the hardware to it’s potential and if so, I can see the M1 becoming “slower” in the next two releases of macOS.
Never say never, but I think it might be at least one more year before Apple drops support for Intel-based processors from MacOS, if only because they released an Intel iMac in August 2020 (after Apple Silicon had been announced, but before the M1 shipped). 4 years feels too short when most Macs have historically gotten 6 or so years of MacOS releases, plus 2 years of security updates.
I could see Apple dropping support in 2025, however—one year sooner than the norm doesn’t seem out of the question.
I agree, but the last time Apple switched CPU architecture, the 2005 Macs only got 4 years of new macOS updates.
I also agree that if it does happen, Apple will be be unfairly sticking it to people who bought the iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) in good faith, an expensive computer they were still selling brand new in 2022.
Based on used prices I think there must also be some demand for the last Intel Macs (maybe for bootcamp, dunno) so at least the value isn’t falling off a cliff for those people who bought the last Intel models.
If Apple’s AI really ups the game for needing RAM that could immediately obsolete all the Mn Macs with 8GB of RAM that were sold because you only need half as much RAM with an M chip.
M4 Macs may all come with 16GB minimum RAM?.
Might not be a good idea to purchase an Mn Mac where M≤4 at this time if you want to be “future-proofed”. AI might just be the way to get people upgrading their Macs on a regular basis again.
. She uses the MacBook even today for light mobile Logic stuff but if she was able to do her Orchester compositions with a light laptop she would be sold immediately:blush: - she might even accept a non-pink version 
.