The 2020 MacBook Air • Hacker News Board

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#181

Post by Zarel » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 10:29 PM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #139

JohnTHaller wrote: post #19

Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line of old. It's not like the original air which was so much thinner and lighter than everything else. Thickness of the 13" MacBook Air is 0.63" vs 0.59" of the 13" MacBook Pro and weight of the Air is 2.8lbs vs 3.0lbs for the Pro. The MacBook Air is the lower-end MacBook now.

>> Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line of old. If that's the case, I'd like it to become as light as — or even lighter than — the old MacBook, which weighed merely 2.03 pounds. At this point, I'd love to have a Macbook Air with a battery that lasts "only" 6 hours, but weighs around 1.5 pounds. Hell, I'd pay extra for the option.

JohnTHaller is talking about this MacBook line, which weighed 5 pounds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2006%E2%80%932012)

Not this MacBook line, which is the one you're talking about, and took over the MacBook Air line of old:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2015%E2%80%932019)

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#182

Post by thelittleone » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #138

thelittleone wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soldering SSD to MacBook Pro motherboard. Eliminating the ability to remove it when logic board dies and retrieve data with a Simple USB adapter.

I don't think that's vanity, I think they made a conscious tradeoff in service of thinner computers. It's a good tradeoff in my opinion: the thinness of the computer has more of an impact on my average day to day usage than being able to remove a faulty logic board.

Until your logic board fails (mine has failed and been replaced 3 times on a 2016 MBP). How much space did it save to remove the most simple data recovery option that ever existed?

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#183

Post by andrekandre » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 10:41 PM UTC

snazz wrote: post #162

andrekandre wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe for the market of the air, but would definitely appreciate a lighter design option personally, so maybe there is probably a market for it, but maybe just not big enough for apple i guess

Fair enough. What are you using yours for that requires it be so light? Apple is probably trying to market the iPad Air in that space.

i ride bike/take train to work, and have my personal phone, work phone, work laptop, some other things such as power adapter, and a drink to take along the way (all in the same bag)

the other thing is, even though i mostly program, at work we are always up and about, going for meetings, or offsite etc etc

so for me, being as light as possible helps a great deal... the last gen macbook w/dual core i7 (4 thread w/hyperthreading), 16GB ram and 512GB storage, retina display, and all being less than 1kg is a huge boon

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#184

Post by Scoundreller » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

snazz wrote: post #151

Scoundreller wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And disappointing that they've removed the SD card slot. I have a nice adapter that sits flush on the Macbook air and holds an extra 128gb.

Is that at all comparable in speed to a SATA SSD? I know that Apple uses NVMe SSDs in MacBooks, but if something over the SD card bus were anywhere near the speed of any internal SSD that would be very impressive.

Depends on what you're storing. I don't care about speed for my music and movies.

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#185

Post by diebeforei485 » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 10:47 PM UTC

blablabla123 wrote: post #167

diebeforei485 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple tends to use roughly the same physical design over many years, and every new physical design is usually accompanied by a price increase. Generally speaking, every new physical design requires a lot of work and upfront cost - so this is arguably fine. Except the 2016-2019 models (except the new 16-inch model) didn't offer good value - largely because the "redesigned" keyboard was unreliable, the touch bar was la…

One should definitely do some research before buying anything expensive. On the other hand I think some models are extremely reliable and despite (or because of ;)) the fancy design far most robust than most PC laptops. 128 GB is really ridiculous, on the other hand it's possible to upgrade that. I think the higher price tag is reasonable for a laptop that lasts so many years. Also for anything compute intensive I th…

I don't think the keyboard is particularly reliable. And the storage is not upgradeable.

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#186

Post by abrowne » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 10:49 PM UTC

dsrw wrote: post #102

abrowne wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pedantic: the bad ("butterfly") keyboards started with the 2016 models: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201300#:~:text=2016

That link only refers to the MacBook Pro. The 2015 MacBook had a butterfly keyboard.

You're right! I always forget about the MacBook.

But the 2015 MacBook Pro still had a keyboard deserving of the "best laptop ever made": https://marco.org/2017/11/14/best-laptop-ever

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#187

Post by undersuit » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

rsync wrote: post #62

JohnTHaller wrote: post #19

Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line of old. It's not like the original air which was so much thinner and lighter than everything else. Thickness of the 13" MacBook Air is 0.63" vs 0.59" of the 13" MacBook Pro and weight of the Air is 2.8lbs vs 3.0lbs for the Pro. The MacBook Air is the lower-end MacBook now.

"Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line ..." OK, I think that is correct. But then what is the MacBook Air now ? I am typing on a 2015 11" MBA that is, in my opinion, the high point of laptop design and execution ever . With this laptop, Apple solved the laptop - the same way that they solved the tower form factor with the original Mac Pro.

>But then what is the MacBook Air now ?

The Ipad Pro?

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#188

Post by LeoPanthera » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

talkingtab wrote: post #45

Uh no. 8GB memory is not okay. 16GB is marginal but $200 more. Can you upgrade the memory?

It's important to remember that we often over-inflate how much memory we think is necessary because of the consumption requirements of "modern" web browsers.

But the default Safari is incredibly resource light, both in terms of RAM usage and power consumption.

Safari users will find that they don't have any problems.

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#189

Post by undersuit » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

eiriklv wrote: post #116

seppin wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer the newer keyboard, but otherwise I agree. My 2014 11'' with 16GB RAM performs better than a 2018 MBP.

Are you sure it’s 16GB RAM? I maxed out mine and only have 8GB.

Some of the Core2Duo based books could do 16GB before the first gen Nehalem I5/I7 based books could, like the 2010 13" Macbook Pro I use at work.

Re: The 2020 MacBook Air

#190

Post by LeoPanthera » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 11:07 PM UTC

Niccizero wrote: post #27

I don't see the reason to buy a such a compromised machine over a X1 Carbon or a XPS 13. No ports, crappy soldered everything, worst company for consumer rights, etc. They have nice screens I guess? And you can't deny the brand appeal of the Apple logo.

You seem to be trying very hard to avoid the obvious reason, and the reason most people buy Macs - to run macOS.

"Worst company for consumer rights" is a really big leap, too.