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Comment by jrochkind1 | Hacker News Reader

I'd still buy the 14" Pro for the more ports, slower chip for more $ or not.

And real function keys instead of a touchbar?

They seem to be making weirdly inconsistent choices in the product line.

I thought they were going to be getting rid of the touchbar (and maybe adding more ports?) and they were only still in the legacy 13" because it was legacy. But apparently they mean to indefinitely have a 13" Pro with a touchbar and a 14" Pro (actually the same size device, just less bezel, I think?) with function keys?

And the new M2 Air has a magsafe power connector (like the M1 14" and 16" Pro)... but the new M2 13" Pro does not? Why?

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Actually, I just realized the new Air has a magsafe power connector and two additional USB-Cs, and does not have a touchbar.

I was about to buy a 14" M1 Pro, not because I needed the speed at all, but I wanted magsafe, I didn't want a touchbar, and two USB-C ports (inclusive of power supply) is not enough. Also the built in HDMI out was nice.

The new Air has everything I want except the HDMI. Separate magsafe power PLUS two more usb ports (that's enough for me), no touchbar... yeah, I'll be waiting for this and saving significant money over the 14" M1 Pro I was about to get.

> The new Air has everything I want except the HDMI

I use a USB-C -> HDMI cable. Works great on my Dell.

What's the best solution for when you take your computer to a conference room that has a male HDMI plug that you're supposed to use? I have a USB-C mini dock, but I'd rather not have to bring that everywhere.

I have a mini dock, less than 100g, that does usb-c to hdmi, vga, dvi. I just have that in my travel backpack. Works with my chrome book as well, and I think iPad too.

What product do you have, just so I have an example?

QGeeM USB C to HDMI Cable Adapter,QGeeM 6ft Braided 4K@60Hz Cable Adapter(Thunderbolt 3 Compatible) Compatible with iPad Pro,MacBook Pro 2018 iMac, Pixel,Galaxy S9 Note9 S8 Surface Book hdmi USB-c https://a.co/d/6xniK1E

I bought it to see if I could play movies from my phone. It didn't work, so I chucked it in a drawer.

More recently, I bought a 50" TV to use as a giant developer monitor, and this cable works better than my Dell's HDMI port. What happens is that the HDMI port can only do 4k at 30hz, but this does 4k at 60hz.

You'd think something like that wouldn't matter for an IDE, but shockingly, moving a mouse at 30hz is... Just... Weird.

Keep in mind that the air with the ram and storage of the 14 gets pretty close in price.

I guess, depending on what you mean by "pretty close".

M2 MacBook Air 13" with 8-core GPU (10-core would be $80 more)

* 16GB RAM, 512GB storage: $1599

* 16GB RAM, 1TB storage: $1799

M1 14" MacBook Pro with 14-core GPU

* 16GB RAM, 512GB storage: $1999

* 16GB RAM, 1TB storage: $2199

So $400 cheaper, ~20%

It gets closer depending the country. In germany it's 1960€ for the M2 Air with 16GB/512GB, and 2250€ for the base 14" model. That's 13% difference compared to the 20% in the US and makes the M2 a lot less attractive.

Ah i guess I was thinking of the education pricing on the 14 or the discounts I see all the time, but those would also affect the air

I don't think M2 is meant as an upgrade over last year's M1 X or Pro.

What is the 13" M2 Pro meant for, do you think? Why would you buy it instead of either the new M2 13" Air or the 14" M1 Pro? I can't find a reason.

I guess if you really love the touchbar, this is the only thing that has it? (That HN hates and we all thought they were getting rid of based on the M1 Pro's). Or you really hate magsafe power connectors, this is the only new laptop that lacks it?

It is meant to fill the gap in the product line between the Air and the 14" Pro. The fact that it did not get redesigned alongside the Air makes it a weird and confusing product. Performance-wise, it should beat out the Air thanks to the inclusion of a better cooling system. Just like with the M1 versions of the 13" and MBA.

I can't figure this one out either. The Air now has the same screen as the MBP 13", same processor, slimmer form factor. The air is also $100 cheaper than the MBP so that's not a justification. The only thing that is different on the specs page is the GPU count 10-cores versus 8. Why keep the 13?

I'm guessing they can get slightly better sustained performance out of the 13" Pro than the Air because it has a fan? But still doesn't really seem to explain it. Unless they want to bring the Touchbar back to the other pros.. which hopefully isn't the case.

I feel like it's a business-driven decision to sell the 13" Pro. They can get rid of their Touchbar inventory, and I assume the margins on that one are ridiculously high, since it's a design that's been unchanged since 2016. Kind of like the iPhone SE that is repurposing the 2017 iPhone 8.

How much Touchbar inventory can they possibly have? And unlike the SE, which some people purchase because they like the form factor and low price, I feel like the only people who get a 13" MBP are uninformed about how it stacks up against the MBA.

I wanted to get a revamped MBP, but after seeing the horrendous stats (2 ports, no MagSafe, no SD/HDMI!) it was a no-brainer to get in line for the MBA, which is cheaper, lighter, and has more ports and a better camera.

Yeah the touchbar needs to stay dead.. hopefully this isn't it rising from the dead.

The Air can also be upgraded to the same proc spec as MBP.

Its interesting that they don't have the same screen. The Air is .3in larger and supports more colors?

Air 13.6-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1664 native resolution at 224 pixels per inch with support for 1 billion colors

MBP 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors

https://www.apple.com/macbook-air-m2/specs/

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/specs/

An... extra 4 pixels in height resolution?

Like... they just found a manufacturer that already made these screens and didn't want to retool for Apple's order, or what? Why extra 4 pixels?

My guess is just different displays selected for products at different stages in their hardware lifecycle. The MBP shares a case dating to before M-series processors. The M2 Air is new hardware.

Don't forget that AppleCare and repairs (e.g., battery replacements) are cheaper for MBAs than MBPs.

Is the M2 faster than the M1 Pro/Max? They didn't do a direct comparison, but it's only 20% better than the original M1. I bet the pro/max still perform better.

The 13” feels like a stopgap product. Maybe they had supply chain problems and they couldn’t redesign it so they just put an M2 in it.

It could be the case they want to keep at least one machine with touchbar on the market for some poor souls who have invested in it.

Same logic for how they keep the iPhone SE with a physical home button.

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