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Apple’s next major Mac revealed: the radically new 12-inch MacBook Air

9to5mac.com

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Re: Apple’s next major Mac revealed: the radically new 12-inch MacBook Air

#12

Post by Someone1234 »

This seems almost "too" radical even for Apple. Which is to say I'm struggling to believe it.

Apple have always been after that smaller and lighter device, but the cost here seems too high: much worse keyboard (due to loss of spacing), losing all of the standard USB, losing the SD Card slot, losing Magsafe, etc only so the already super light Air can be even lighter?

I don't know if this is true, if it is true then it is a step backwards if you ask me. My Surface Pro 3 has one standard USB port, and that to me isn't enough, having effectively zero is just a non-starter.

If this is true (which again, I have my doubts) I wonder how much battery would have to be cut also. If you look in a current Macbook Air, it is largely just battery [0] internally.

PS - Apple's cooling is a little suspect in the last few years both from first hand experience and from other's first hand experiences. So let's hope they get it right with this machine.

[0] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Early+2014+...

Re: Apple’s next major Mac revealed: the radically new 12-inch MacBook Air

#13

Post by dubya »

Someone1234 wrote: post #12

This seems almost "too" radical even for Apple. Which is to say I'm struggling to believe it. Apple have always been after that smaller and lighter device, but the cost here seems too high: much worse keyboard (due to loss of spacing), losing all of the standard USB, losing the SD Card slot, losing Magsafe, etc only so the already super light Air can be even lighter? I don't know if this is true, if it is true then i…

The keyboard part definitely doesn't make sense. The Macbook air 11 inch I'm typing on has 7/16" of flat part on both sides of the keyboard, so trimming the width by 1/4" would require no rearrangement at all. The escape key jumping to the other side makes no sense either, nor does increasing the width of the power key.

Re: Apple’s next major Mac revealed: the radically new 12-inch MacBook Air

#15

Post by aselzer »

Apple is introducing a pretty big gap between their MacBook Pro line and the new MacBook Air if this is true.

The current MacBook Air 13" has 1.08kg while the current 13" MacBook Pro has 1.57kg. That's a pretty big difference if you carry a laptop almost all the time.

For me, losing both USB ports, the SD slot, and having to carry a USB adapter and converter would be just inconvenient.

If they really removed the SD slot, why wouldn't they instead replace it with a MicroSD slot? It seems like microSDs are very popular right now, have become insanely cheap, and fit into every camera with a normal SD slot through adapters.

Why would they drop the thunderbolt port? Again, if this is correct, Apple could of course be working on a Chromecast-esque thing you can carry around and put into the HDMI slot of the TV, connecting to it over 802.11ac WiFi or so.

No charging port? Ok, maybe Apple is developing a high-power wireless charging technique, but I have my doubts. Possibly the port is just on the back.

Eliminating all bezels on the sides of the keyboard for all models of the new MacBook Air (only one model, the 12" one) seems exaggerated. I would much rather have a slightly bigger MBA with some bezels (it is also comfortable to rest the hands on them) and a decent battery (the current MBA's is great).

My preferred solution would be for them to keep the current 13" MacBook Air, give it a retina display, USB 3.1, and maybe upgrade the processor.

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