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An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

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Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#51

Post by danmatte »

shurcooL wrote: post #41

It frustrates me more than it should when these high profile articles make mistakes about basic Mac hardware facts. >. > Recall that Apple made the discrete GPU-less 13.3” Retina MacBook Pro thinner last year, but not the 15.4” model. These facts would match up nicely with a three-tier laptop segmentation strategy. Eventually, Apple would sell only three Retina MacBooks ranging from thinnest to thickest, stratified b…

Good catch. I'll update the post.

To clarify, what I meant by three-tier:

11.9" Retina Air - slightly thicker than the current Air

13.3" Retina Pro

15.4" Retina Pro

And the older Air would stick around for a while.

I really doubt Apple would throw away the Air branding or thinner design.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#52

Post by seunosewa »

glhaynes wrote: post #21
matthewmacleod wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 feel…

You're comparing apples and oranges: the 13" Retina Mabook Pro should be compared with the 13" Macbook Air & not the 11" Air.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#53

Post by cenhyperion »

baddox wrote: post #48
snowwrestler wrote: post #42

To create the MacBook Air, Apple took out the spinning HD, the optical drive, and soldered in the battery. To create the new Retina MacBook Pro, Apple took out the spinning HD, optical drive, and soldered in the battery. But they also put in a Retina display--as well as the more powerful GPU and larger battery it requires The current MacBook Pro IS the Retina Air in everything but name only. It's the thinnest and lig…

I don't understand your point. Technology improves over time, and it's reasonable to expect that Apple will create an even smaller laptop with a Retina display which it might call a "Macbook Air."

> Technology improves over time

Not so much in battery tech. It's really holding back a lot of hardware innovation on computers and also holding back the viability of EVs for many consumers.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#54

Post by chad_oliver »

mdkess wrote: post #36
noir_lord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you're a developer - take a look at the keyboard first. They replaced the F keys with capacitive buttons (ie. touch sensitive buttons as opposed to physical buttons) and the capslock key was split into a home/end key instead. Sure it's still a nice laptop, but that sort of thing would drive me crazy.

I'm not so pleased with the capacitive F keys, but changing the capslock key to a home/end key sounds absolutely great.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#55

Post by ucha »

snowwrestler wrote: post #42

To create the MacBook Air, Apple took out the spinning HD, the optical drive, and soldered in the battery. To create the new Retina MacBook Pro, Apple took out the spinning HD, optical drive, and soldered in the battery. But they also put in a Retina display--as well as the more powerful GPU and larger battery it requires The current MacBook Pro IS the Retina Air in everything but name only. It's the thinnest and lig…

The Macbook Air runs on a CPU with a nominal TDP of 15W vs 28W for the Macbook Pro Retina. I'm pretty sure a Retina display could run with the current Macbook air CPU given that they share the same integrated GPU. That will make a difference.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#56

Post by mikhailt »

cenhyperion wrote: post #53
baddox wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point. Technology improves over time, and it's reasonable to expect that Apple will create an even smaller laptop with a Retina display which it might call a "Macbook Air."

> Technology improves over time Not so much in battery tech. It's really holding back a lot of hardware innovation on computers and also holding back the viability of EVs for many consumers.

That is true but CPUs and panels do decrease in power usage over time to the point that you can adopt Retina in MBA without harming the battery life. Not to mention if they find a way to cut down on the weight, they can also increase the battery's capacity.

The Retina display in iPad Air is much more power efficient compared to the retina display in 3rd gen iPad due to reduction of backlight LEDs and move to IGZO type of panel.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#57

Post by danmatte »

protomyth wrote: post #13
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 would wait a bit for reports of how well the retina displays are doing. I have a MBP 15" that I need to take back in to get the display replaced since it ghosts the old images for minutes. Also, I am curious if the chipset drives the display decently.

Actually, I would buy right away. Apple generally sources higher-binned (higher quality) components early on. i.e., only Samsung panels when the Retina MBP first launched in 2012.

Broadwell will be perfectly capable of driving the display.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#59

Post by farinasa »

seunosewa wrote: post #52
glhaynes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 feel…

You're comparing apples and oranges: the 13" Retina Mabook Pro should be compared with the 13" Macbook Air & not the 11" Air.

Which is exactly why an 11 inch retina would sell well. There is no small pro.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#60

Post by glhaynes »

seunosewa wrote: post #52
glhaynes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 feel…

You're comparing apples and oranges: the 13" Retina Mabook Pro should be compared with the 13" Macbook Air & not the 11" Air.

It would be a better comparison in some ways, you're right. Still, when I've picked up a 13" MBA, it's felt more similar to an 11" MBA than a 13" MBP to me, in large part I think because of the difference in thickness: both MBAs are "0.3-1.7 cm" while the 13" MBP is 1.8 cm all the way through. The weight also puts the 13" Air halfway between the 11" MBA and 13" MBP.

Not knowing more about the specs of this hypothetical 12" machine, I'm theorizing it'd be approximately halfway between the 11" and 13" Air in size/weight. That of course may not be right, but it seems unlikely to be way off. So, while my comparison is hypothetical and imperfect, I don't feel it's quite apples and oranges, either.

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