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Comment by MuffinFlavored | Hacker News Reader

To me it just feels like a soft launch.

You probably have people (like myself) trying to keep up with the latest MacBook Air who get fatigued having to get a new laptop every year (I just upgraded to the M3 not too long ago, from the M2, and before that... the M1... is there any reason to? Not really...), so now they are trying to entice people who don't have iPads yet / who are waiting for a reason to do an iPad upgrade.

For $1,300 configured with the keyboard, I have no clue what I'd do with this device. They very deliberately are keeping iPadOS + MacOS separate.

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I feel like I bought the M1 air yesterday. Turns out it was ~4 years ago. Never felt the need to upgrade.

The only reason I upgraded is my wife “stole” my M1 air. I bought a loaded M3 MBP and then they came out with a 15” Air with dual monitor capabilities. Kinda wish I had the air again. It’s not like I move it around much but the form factor is awesome.

I love the air form factor. I do serious work on it as well. I have used a pro, but the air does everything I need without breaking a sweat, and it's super convenient to throw in a bag and carry around the house.

Same here, my M1 Air still looks and feels like a brand new computer. Like, I still think of it as "my new MacBook". It's my main machine for dev work and some hobby photography and I'm just so happy with it.

Interestingly, Apple still sells M1 Airs through Walmart, but not their own website.

You get a new laptop every year?

I'm sort of "incentivized" to by Apple because as soon as they release a new one, the current device you have will be at "peak trade in value" and deteriorate over time.

It's a negligible amount of money. It's like, brand new $999, trade in for like $450. Once a year... $550 remainder/12 months is $45.75/mo to have the latest and greatest laptop.

How much is a 2-year old laptop worth? Because if you buy a new laptop every two years and don't even sell the old one, you're only spending $500 a year, which is less than you are now.

You really shouldn't trade-in your laptop on the basis of trying to maximise its trade-in value, that doesn't make economic sense.

You should be incentivised by trying to minimise depreciation. You incur the greatest amount of depreciation closest to the date of purchase, so the longer you go between purchases, the less depreciation you'll realise.

If I expected to say get, $450 after 1 year, and $250 after 2 years. By trading in every 2 years, I'm getting a laptop that's a bit older, but you're also saving $14.58/month on depreciation. If the year after that becomes $150, you'd be saving $22.22/month. If the price is worth it is subjective, I'm just saying going for maximal trade in value doesn't really make sense, since you save more money the lower the trade-in value you get.

If you replace your laptop every year or two and sell the old one online you can keep on the latest technology for only a slight premium.

It's not terribly expensive if you trade-in or otherwise sell or hand down the previous.

I went from M1 to M1 Pro just to get more displays.

Still using my M1 Air and had no interest in updating to M3. Battery life has dropped a fair amount, but still like 8+ hours. That's going to be the trigger to get a new one. If only batteries lasted longer.

I don't think it costs that much to have the battery replaced compared to the price of a new laptop.

Curious how much it would cost. I think parts are on the order of $150? So maybe $4-500 for official repair?

If I can hold out another year or two, would probably end up just getting a new one

Oh no, it’s way less than that. It should be about $159. You can get an estimate here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/mac/repair

Good to know- also didn't know about that tool. Appreciate it!

I think (hope) wwdc changes this. The function keys on the Magic Keyboard give me hope.

Also, you know you don't HAVE to buy a laptop every year, right?

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