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An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

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Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#21

Post by glhaynes »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #15
dagw wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More expensive is OK, significantly thicker and heavier is a deal breaker.

I guess, but would you consider the existing 13" MBP to be "significantly" thicker and heavier? There's already very little differentiation between the models.

I bought a 13" MBP to replace my 11" MBA because I was tired of waiting for retina and the size/weight difference seemed negligible. Regretted it within a couple of days of just using it around the house.

On a purely numbers basis, the difference doesn't seem significant (hence how I talked myself into the purchase), but there's a massive "human scale" threshold that's crossed in that difference. IMO, an 11" MBA feels more "like an iPad" in those respects vs. a 13" MBP very much feeling "like a computer".

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#22

Post by lnanek2 »

kybernetyk wrote: post #18

Hmm, isn't the MBA mainly about mobility and battery life? Wouldn't a retina display drain too much power?

Supposedly the new panel is IGZO, which should take less power than previously. I use a retina macbook pro as my daily driver, but I don't even care about the retina myself. I guess I do care about battery life and lightness, though.

I suppose retina is a good bullet point for them over other laptops, though, so maybe it is worth it for them for improving sales.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#23

Post by rsynnott »

[deleted] wrote: post #12

[deleted]

Sooner or later, it's likely that all non-Retina Macs will go away. Probably not this year, though. The screen is hardly the only differentiator between the Air and Pro; current 13" Pros have a CPU of twice the frequency of that found in the current Air, and far faster graphics, while the 15" Pro has quad cores, faster again graphics, and an option for discrete graphics.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#24

Post by noir_lord »

auctiontheory wrote: post #11

Time to upgrade from my 2009 MBP? It's so hard to "throw away" a perfectly functional laptop that does everything I need - just not as well (I realize) as a faster, lighter, machine would.

I know what you mean my Vostro from a few years ago is still a decent spec (i5-2430/16Gb DDR) however I found out today you can now get the X1 Carbon with the 2560x1440...my Vostro is looking more and more like it needs replacing.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#25

Post by mikhailt »

[deleted] wrote: post #12

[deleted]

There will not be any more non-Retina displays from Apple in the near future (2 years max), they're just waiting for the fabs to catch up and for the costs to drop. This is one of the ways to do this, by reusing the iPad's screen technologies to adopt it for the Airs. This makes all the sense in the world to do, especially if Apple wants to keep it at 999$ priceline.

Apple will be seem as "falling behind" if they do not get rid of their non-retina displays sooner as the rest of the industry starts to catch up. Especially with Sharp's IGZO panels being used in many new products being released this year. Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc are all going to be releasing 4K displays in addition to including retina-class displays for their tablets and laptops.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#26

Post by mikhailt »

lnanek2 wrote: post #22
kybernetyk wrote: post #18

Hmm, isn't the MBA mainly about mobility and battery life? Wouldn't a retina display drain too much power?

Supposedly the new panel is IGZO, which should take less power than previously. I use a retina macbook pro as my daily driver, but I don't even care about the retina myself. I guess I do care about battery life and lightness, though. I suppose retina is a good bullet point for them over other laptops, though, so maybe it is worth it for them for improving sales.

Correct, that's one of the screen technologies that is supposedly already in place for the new iPad Airs.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#27

Post by dombili »

kybernetyk wrote: post #18

Hmm, isn't the MBA mainly about mobility and battery life? Wouldn't a retina display drain too much power?

That's true and Apple probably knows that. They wouldn't add retina screen to MBA and compromise on battery life. Battery life would probably stay the same.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#28

Post by dagw »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #15
dagw wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More expensive is OK, significantly thicker and heavier is a deal breaker.

I guess, but would you consider the existing 13" MBP to be "significantly" thicker and heavier? There's already very little differentiation between the models.

Yes I would. I know the difference looks small on paper, but I find the difference huge in day to day use. For example I can curl up on the sofa and comfortable use my 11" MBA cradle in one arm, I can't do that with the 13" MBP.
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