{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://rednafi.com/zephyr/descending-into-the-aether/",
  "description": "A reflection on choosing the MacBook Air M2 15-inch for portability without sacrificing screen size and development capabilities.",
  "path": "/zephyr/descending-into-the-aether/",
  "publishedAt": "2023-07-09T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:fgtm2c26vfcj74rfmeggbyqj/site.standard.publication/3mnl6f7ob462z",
  "tags": [
    "Essay"
  ],
  "textContent": "<img\n    src=\"https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/\n30027932/252213261-01adc640-3bcf-46d8-8f40-dc506e0cb493.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Macbook Air M2 15 inch\"\nwidth=\"800px\"> </img>\n\nAround a year ago, I ditched my fancy Linux rig for a beefed-up 16\" MacBook Pro and ever\nsince, it's been my primary machine for both personal and work stuff. I love how this\nmachine strikes a decent balance between power and portability. However, I often joke that\nthis chonky boy is just a pound shy of being an [ENIAC]. It's a beast of a machine when you\nneed all that power, but certainly isn't the most convenient contraption to lug around while\nflying. I work fully remote, but can't get any work done while traveling and rarely ever\nneed to tap into the full power this thing offers.\n\nSo I wanted to find an excuse to have separate machines for work and when I'm out and about.\nSure, I could've gone for a 14\" Pro to make it more portable and all, but here's the deal: I\nabsolutely detest working on anything that has a screen smaller than 15\". So when Apple\ndropped the new 15\" Air, I just knew I had to get my hands on that. Plus, I'm gonna stick\nwith my 16\" machine for work anyway, so I'm totally cool with grabbing a less powerful\ndevice that still sports a larger screen and doesn't weigh 5 pounds.\n\nBut here's the thing, if you're not down with the base model and don't mind rolling with a\n14\" screen, the 14\" Pro is actually a better deal. It's got better I/O, a slightly better\nscreen, and definitely better speakers. Personally, I already have all those perks with my\n16\" machine, so my sights were strictly set on the aesthetics and portabitly aspects of the\ndevice. And boy, it didn't disappoint. I went for the 16/256 config and snagged it for\naround 1500 USD.\n\n> This isn't a product review, and I honestly don't know a squat about reviewing things.\n> It's simply a brief piece sharing my thoughts on a product I purchased with my own money.\n> You won't find any affiliated links here - just my genius opinions. Also, this comes from\n> the perspective of a person who won't be using this as their main work machine.\n\nI was worried that I'd have a hard time adjusting to the smaller 15\" screen and wouldn't\nfind the keyboard as spacious. However, the good thing is that the differences were barely\nnoticeable, and the Air still rocks a larger-than-life trackpad. The screen gets a bit less\nbright than its big brother, but that isn't a problem since I mostly work indoors. For the\nprice, the screen is terrific, and I don't have any complaints about it. Oddly enough, I\nfound the lack of external speaker grills aesthetically pleasing, and it still gets plenty\nloud; noticeably so than the 13\" Air.\n\nIn terms of appearance, hands down, the Air looks much better than the Pros because of its\nsignificantly slimmer body. The 15\" Air is barely half as thick and weighs half as much as\nthe Pros. Did I mention it weighs half as much as the bigger Pro machine? Now, since there's\nno fan and the whole SoC is passively cooled, the performance does take a hit when compared\nwith an actively cooled machine. My workflow on this device includes writing stuff on\nVSCode, running 3-10 Docker containers, developing web applications, and the usual\nlightweight browsing. Turns out, the passively cooled 8-core M2 can handle all of those like\na champ and some more. Also, the 16 GB memory gives me enough leeway to do serious\ndevelopment work every now and then should I need to.\n\nSo far, performance hasn't been a bottleneck at all, and I can always resort to the 16\"\napparatus if I need to. However, for the work that I usually do, the device is holding up\nsurprisingly well, and I knew exactly what I'd be getting when I picked the Air over the 14\"\nPro. One big caveat is that the I/O situation is less than ideal as it only has two USB-C\nports, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a MagSafe power port - that's it. Also, it only supports\na single monitor, but that's rarely an issue because where would I even get a monitor in an\nAirbnb?\n\nFinally, I won't even talk about the insanely good battery life, as the Airs have been the\nreigning champion in that department for years. The 16\" MBP already has great battery life,\nand the Air matches that with a smaller battery due to having less powerful but more\nefficient internals. Overall, even considering my [recency bias], this is certainly one of -\nif not the most - prudent tech purchases that I made this year!\n\n\n\n\n[eniac]:\n    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC\n\n[recency bias]:\n    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recency_bias",
  "title": "Descending into the aether"
}