15' MacBook Air | developer's dream

The first ever 15" MacBook Air is out, and I had to see for myself if this is the machine for developers to get.

repos in this video:

❤️ SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL 📺

Join this channel to get access to perks:

📱LET'S CONNECT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

— — — — — — — — —

#macbook #macbookair #programming

[Shaggy]

I've been using my 16" M1 Pro model for development work for the past year and a half, but recently got the 15" Air so that I have 1 device for home, and 1 for work (to seperate them out). I develop all sorts, so Java Maven, SQL Server, Web, C# etc and was worried that the M2 wouldn't be enough. However it feels just as quick as my M1 Pro and i really cannot tell the difference. I prefer the design of the 15" Air as its just so light! I can use it on my lap anywhere and hold it up with one hand on its corner. I went with 16Gb 256Gb, the 'slower' storgage didn't effect me at all due to my small file sizes I work with, and I got 16Gb to avoid swap. Boom, perfect work laptop

[toadlguy]

Although the Base models of the Air are pretty good deals (the 15” for $100 more is probably better), the difference in cost between the 14” Mac Pro and an Air with 16Gb and 512Gb SD is only $300. The weight is practically the same and the screen is an inch smaller, but the mini led screen is higher resolution, brighter and has 120hz ProMotion. It has much better speakers and mic, way more ports (card slot, usb-c, hdmi), but most importantly 50% more performance CPU cores, 60% more GPU cores, and twice the memory bandwidth. For a developer who needs the extra memory, the Pro makes a lot more sense.

[cassianoyasumitsu]

MacBook Air 13" (16 GB/512 GB) will do almost everything. And I'm always using a secondary screen. I do basically backend work. I'm currently using a 16" M1Pro from the company, but portability is terrible for me. I'll go for it as my personal machine. Thanks for the review.

[arielspalter]

It’d be very interesting to see the real world differences between a 15” Air with 512gb/24gb and the base 14” Pro with 512gb/16gb. I’m mainly interested in how Windows on Parallels and Docker perform on these 2. Here in Canada they are priced exactly the same.

[ModernTenshi]

I keep coming back to the 14" Pro as my likely upgrade. The Air is nice but while I don't always need the power the Pro line can offer, I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I'll be upgrading from a 13" Pro from 2014 so anything is going to be better, but the overall size and features, to me, make it the absolute sweet spot for power and portability.

[dinoDonga]

as one of those guys that uses the command pallet for everything i hiiiighly recommend moving the menubar to the left side of the screen ( so it does not interfer with right side scrolling) minimize its size and auto hide it. when you maximise a window it will now fill the entire screen and hitting cmd shift (i first replaced spotlight with alfred and now with raycast) is as fast as if not faster than alt tabbing to switch between windows

[yahilmadakiya]

I wanted to thank you for your video. It really helped me decide which device to choose.

Currently, I'm a software developer and I'm planning to upgrade my current setup. I have two options in mind:

1. MacBook Air 15" with an M2 chip, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 24GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

2. MacBook Pro 14" with an M2 Pro chip, 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 32GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

At the moment, I'm not using any docker containers or virtual machines, but I might start using them in the future. I'm also planning to learn AI and ML, so having some capability in that area would be beneficial.

Here are my specific queries:
1. I feel like the MacBook Pro 14" might be overkill for software development.
2. I live in India, where temperatures can reach 30-35 degrees Celsius, and I'm concerned that the fanless design of the MacBook Air might cause issues.
3. I'm planning to use the laptop for at least 5 years or more.

I would greatly appreciate your suggestions on which option would be best for my needs.

[Isildan]

Alex, your tests are the best! Thank you!

[ihgqbim]

If it supported 32GB ram, I would call a dream too.. Your tests were pretty much exactly my day-to-day. Thank you!.

[kmchmk]

Finally a real software developer review. Most other reviews are from people who just follow tutorials. Thanks!

[subsy]

The deal breaker for me, that reviews don't seem to point out since the first M1 MacBook Air, is that they can only have one external display. The Pro 14" and Pro 16" can have mulitple displays. I have the 16" with two external displays and would rather have the 24GB Air 15" for the portability, but need the external display support :(

[sebbbi]

Requirements highly depend on what kind of development you do. I used to have a 1TB SSD MacBook at Unity and it was always running out of space. I had to download several big customer projects and checkout multiple branches of big repos (with lot of git LFS data). Since then 2TB has been my SSD minimum requirement. For memory, some performance profiling (sampling) tools I use become unresponsive with only 16GB RAM, so 32GB is my minimum for memory. When compiling big C++ code bases, you want good CPU performance. Saving 10 mins daily pays back the whole device in less than 1 year. 14” M3 Max weight is only 6% more than 15” Air. But the performance is in different ballpark.

[mmind]

Hello, Alex! That was a nice video, thanks for sharing the developer's point of view.

It would be nice to see the real-world comparison of 16/512 Air 15 with MacBook Pro 16 m2 pro. It seems that this Air could be the ideal replacement for web developers who need bigger screens, but don’t need the power of MacBook Pro.

[mrcet]

Developer's perspective is really interesting; thanks! I'm shooting for retirement in a couple years or so, and probably start working on some iPhone app ideas that've been rattling around the back of my cranium for a few years!

I picked up a 16" M2-Max MBP recently. I'm amazed how much performance it has for a laptop. Heck, how much performance it has for _any kind_ of machine! I know it's beneath it's 12-CPU, 38-GPU dignity, but it's also one heck of a movie-watching machine too: Amazingly "spatial" speakers and high-contrast screen!

[curiouskitkat]

Perfect review! You answered all of the questions I had that other reviewers completely skimped over!

[MostafaAhmedAhmed]

This is why at the time of M1, I preferred MBP over MBA, despite being a fan of the MBA design. I did not want to bet on CPU ventilation and have the full performance to support my work.

[neocsp]

Yes, please compare the 8GB vs 16GB 15" Airs. Xcode + iOS simulator compile and cold start times.

[jmarbutt]

You running the new MacBook Air on top of the MacBook Pro at Starbucks reminds me of my grandparents having a TV on top of their old console TV as a kid.

[greenstar]

Love your videos for it gives the true developer insights and most of the questions you answer matches well with my curiosity. 👨🏻‍💻

[blackmamba]

I dunno if it's a developer's dream. It only supports 1 monitor natively. As a developer, I often need at least 2 screen in addition to the Macbook screen.