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0:00
Let's start with entry-level M3 MacBook Airs
0:05
I think that these new laptops are practically perfect. They are the best Airs ever, and there's only one thing
0:14
one small thing, maybe not small, that's missing that would make these the best laptop of all time
0:22
for most people, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Griffin, I'll let you take it away
0:26
Yeah, well, previously with the M2 MacBook Airs, there were two small things that kept them behind
0:33
Another one was that on M2 Macs, with the base model of 256 gigabytes of storage
0:39
Apple used a single storage chip instead of two storage chips. So, on the 512 gigabyte and higher
0:45
it used two chips running in parallel, so you'd have really fast read and write speeds for storage
0:51
but if you had the base model, it would only read and write half as fast
0:56
And the M2 was actually a regression from the M1 MacBook Air before that
1:00
which also used two chips on the base model, and tests showed a decline in performance
1:05
between like 30 and 50%, which is pretty significant. Yeah. But they fixed that on the entry-level M3 MacBook Air
1:14
As YouTuber MaxTech shows in his 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 teardown video
1:19
the new machine uses two 128-gigabyte storage chips. This ensures the SSD delivers better performance
1:26
than the M2 model, which, with benchmarks indicating 33% faster write speeds
1:34
and a whopping 82% faster read speeds. So, this is a pretty significant upgrade
1:41
I personally don't think that the read and write speeds was the biggest problem with the old M2 MacBook Airs
1:47
because people ordering the base model MacBook Air probably aren't the sort of people
1:51
who are doing a lot of reading and writing, gigabytes at a time, but it is nice that they fixed this
1:57
not least because there's no longer any wiggle room for an outraged clickbait news cycle
2:04
to complain about these new MacBook Airs. Well, there is one thing, Griffin
2:08
There is one thing. And it's still a money grab if they would just ship these things
2:14
with 16 gigs of RAM base. It would literally be the perfect laptop
2:19
And I think the only reason they don't is the same reason that they skimped with the SSD chips
2:24
and only put one in is because it probably saves them like 25 cents per machine
2:30
That's true. And TC, I heard, was like negotiating, I forget what the number was
2:35
but when he negotiates, when he personally negotiates component prices, I heard that they were quibbling
2:43
over like the ninth decimal place, you know, like for some of these component parts
2:49
Well, here's the thing. How much does it cost to upgrade from eight gigabytes to 16? Is it $100 or $200
2:54
I forget, but it's a lot of extra money. Now we got- Yeah
2:58
Either way, if you buy it in the education store, you get $99 off. So you could consider that a free upgrade
3:03
Sure, you could do it that way. IKF Davis saying eight gigabytes is enough
3:07
I don't know, man. I bought my wife the M1 base M1 MacBook Air
3:13
and that thing is constantly telling her that she needs to close applications
3:18
because it's out of memory. So I don't know if it's the apps that she's using
3:23
I'm guessing it probably is, but I have literally never seen that message
3:27
on a MacBook Pro in my life, and I've also never had eight gigabytes of RAM
3:31
I think 16 in 2024 is the play. I think that eight gigabytes
3:37
when you take into account, you know, how much RAM some apps use
3:43
and how people like to have a lot of apps open and they don't restart very often
3:47
I think it's on the low end. The fact that my wife is encountering it, she is by far no power user
3:53
The thing is about power, like not being a power user, is that you wouldn't think that a non-power user
3:58
would use a lot of applications, but on the other hand, non-power users use Google Chrome
4:02
with like 3,800 tabs open. Right. And each one of those tabs is like 300 megabytes
4:07
and so it fills up pretty fast. And it's not just Google Chrome either, because if you use the official Slack app
4:13
instead of making a Safari web app, then that's another instance of Google Chrome, which is another 300 megabytes there
4:17
It adds up. There you go. And actually, she may be a Google Chrome user
4:24
but her computer, that M1 MacBook Air, it's like the perfect size, the perfect form factor
4:31
All it needed was the distinct SSD chip so that they could increase the write speeds
4:38
and then the extra RAM, and it would literally be the perfect computer
4:42
And you could actually do real work on it, like editing videos, like Photoshop
4:47
They would just add extra RAM. The performance would be exactly where it needs to be
4:51
Of course, it's their entry-level computer, so I get it. There probably isn't a reason for a business purpose
4:59
for a business case for Apple to do that, because they want to keep the thing cheap, and they don't want to take sales away from the MacBook Pro
5:05
but like they're so close. Like the 15-inch MacBook Air with 16 gigabytes of RAM
5:11
and the dual SSD chips is kind of like the perfect computer
5:17
for I think 95% of people, and would even steal sales away from the MacBook Pro
5:23
if you're just doing light editing, video editing and stuff. But anyway, this is a huge performance increase
5:32
for the new MacBook Air, and I just want to give credit to Max Tech
5:36
for being all over this issue in previous MacBook Airs, and I have no doubt that they're airing this
5:45
as an issue on their YouTube channel, is probably something that significantly contributed
5:50
to Apple making the change, because they kept getting bad press, and it made them look so stingy that they were doing this
5:59
that I think eventually they were like, okay, we're gonna get called out on this again
6:03
It's gonna be something that people continually clown on us and dunk on us for, like let's just go ahead and change this
6:10
because it probably cost them very little money. Holy cow! We got Hugo Last in with the $50 Super Chat
6:19
Oh my goodness! Hugo, I think Hugo makes a donation like every single show
6:24
He's single-handedly keeping us going here. He says, I'm making my first purchase
6:28
into the Cult Last, the Cut Last Company? The Cult Last Company
6:34
I'm guessing you spelled cult-cast wrong. This should get me my .0000
6:38
I'm not gonna read all those zeros. 1% company ownership. That better come with board voter rights
6:47
Bad news, Hugo, it doesn't. But I grant you your share, your ..
6:53
I don't know how many zeros are there. It looks like there might be 15. .0000001 share of Cult Cast
7:00
I grant you that ownership, sir. Thank you for your contribution. It comes with absolutely no rights
7:05
although once we have the Cult Cast Command Center fully built out, you will be welcome
7:09
to come use the pickleball courts in the steam room and perhaps the executive suite bathrooms
7:16
But thank you for that huge donation. LK will be very happy to see that go directly into his pocket
7:22
Let's see here. Anything else on that story, Griffin? I don't think so
7:27
We should actually vlog that. With the RAM thing, I think somebody graphed
7:32
how much Apple has increased the base RAM over time and it's been at eight gigabytes
7:35
for close to 10 years now
#Computer Hardware
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