Although rumors already indicated that Apple was working on a 15-inch MacBook Air, WWDC confirmed the launch of one of the most interesting products that Apple offers in its Mac segment, since it is priced below the Pro series, but with the panel size of the more top-of-the-line MacBook Pro. In addition, it maintains the same portable design characteristic of the Air series. A perfect combination of size and portability. However, Apple has again committed a terrible design flaw despite including Apple’s new M2 chip. Stick around for more details.
The Achilles heel of the MacBook Air: the problem of not having a fan
Few drawbacks can be put it down to apple chips for your computers and laptops, due to its great performance, efficiency and low consumption. Because of these features, the MacBook Air was the first laptop of this new generation to have the M2 chip and marked the complete removal of ventilation inside its components, leaving only the passive ventilation to cool the unit.
This passive mechanism provides silence and a minor affectation to the accumulation of dust and dirt. A priori, it may seem like an advantage, but it really isn’t, because if the mechanism doesn’t dissipate heat, it makes it much more complicated. reduce the temperature of components when you’re doing tough jobs. In addition, we have to add the increase in the screen, from thirteen to fifteen inches, a resolution that can increase the temperature and invites us to work with more demanding apps.
Thermal throttling and performance drop
We cannot doubt that Apple knows what it is doing when it launches a product on the market and has previously passed numerous tests and tests that verify that this equipment meets the needs of this sector. However, when you buy a device with such characteristics and at this price, look for answer efficiently to the activities you are running, within limits and not be worried about overheating the computer and, in the worst case, reaching the thermal throttling along with its subsequent drop in performance.
In short, the absence of ventilation makes the MacBook Air unable to exercise its sustained performance over time. Obviously, we are not referring to using the MacBook Air for lighting tasks in Unreal Engine or 3D animation in Blender, but perhaps, many users do use the MacBook Air to create interfaces in Figma or use multilayers in Photoshop, apps that do not require much. power and that it is not necessary to use them professionally to reach medium levels of productivity. However, if we seek to professional projects, the MacBook Air can reach high levels of temperature.
Reduced read speed of SSDs?
Next to passive dissipation, we have to see if Apple has followed the same strategy than the 13-inch MacBook Air, where it cut the disk speed of the SSDs in the entry versions, that is, the 256 GB version, obtaining the most advanced reading values in the 512 GByte version.
The differences between both SSDs They are not very large, and it only affects when opening files or documents, although if you are not an expert user or have tried many devices, you will not notice much difference. A priori and logically, this strategy must be the same, since the MacBook Air 15 is the Same as the 13-inch, but in a larger body.
