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Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#141

Post by slantyyz »

ummonk wrote: post #81
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gah, just what I need, another adapter. I guess in this day and age pretty much everything is in the cloud but still, I like having at least one USB port. A little surprised they kept the mic jack

It's getting better every year, as peripherals and other devices switch over to USB-C. Apple's imposition of USB-C as the one cable has been very frustrating, but we're starting to see the fruits of it.

>> It's getting better every year, as peripherals and other devices switch over to USB-C.

Speaking for normal people, though, how often do they turn over their devices and peripherals?

When I bought my laptop over a year ago, I made sure it had USB-C/TB3 from a future-proofing perspective, but I have yet to actually buy any device that connects to it via USB-C, and I don't foresee myself buying many either. On the other hand, I still have a ton of older devices that are USB-A that I still use.

Even when it comes to USB keys, I still prefer USB-A, because it's more than likely that I'll need to connect it to a device that doesn't have USB-C.

I do have some mobile devices that charge by USB-C like my phone, but I still charge them off of USB-A power sources.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#142

Post by 51lver »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #109
nkkollaw wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does "stable" mean? Keys don't stop working because of dust anymore..?

Having recently been switched from a 2013 MBP to 2018 MBP -- the older keycaps could wiggle a little bit if you rested your fingers on them. The new keys don't exhibit this behavior, but don't feel as nice to type on.

They are talking about the 1st gen butterfly problems. 2013 was pre-butterfly.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#143

Post by dogma1138 »

saagarjha wrote: post #41
dogma1138 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a Dual Core CPU for $1200, app compatibility aside the CPU in the new MBA might be arguably slower than the A12 bionic. It's literally going to be the same CPU as in the current 12" Macbooks with a slightly relaxed power envelope which now begs the question why is the Macbook Air even a separate product? at this point it brings nothing to the table other than being slightly larger and slightly cheaper version of…

> It's literally going to be the same CPU as in the current 12" Macbooks with a slightly relaxed power envelope Is it? I was under the impression that these were different chips.

Yes, Intel hasn't made a new CPU core for like 3 years now, this will be an Amber Lake Y CPU which are identical in function, features and performance to Kabby Lake Y.

Both are Dual Core, 4 Threads, 4MB Cache same Intel GT2 Graphics, there is literally not a single difference between them besides the SKU numbers.

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/amber_lake_y

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/kaby_lake_y

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#144

Post by dogma1138 »

mtgx wrote: post #37
dogma1138 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a Dual Core CPU for $1200, app compatibility aside the CPU in the new MBA might be arguably slower than the A12 bionic. It's literally going to be the same CPU as in the current 12" Macbooks with a slightly relaxed power envelope which now begs the question why is the Macbook Air even a separate product? at this point it brings nothing to the table other than being slightly larger and slightly cheaper version of…

It boggles my mind that Apple hasn't switched to AMD Ryzen yet. Lower cost for them, more cores/higher overall performance for their customers. What's not to like? But no, they'd rather try and sell people $20,000 Xeon Mac Pros with half the cores of an AMD Threadripper and like 4x the price.

Raven Ridge does not offer more cores than Intel CPUs, these are 4 Core dies with an iGPU while Intel offers upto 6 and now 8 with an iGPU.

While Ryzen has good power efficiency as far as power gating goes and power management it's still behind Intel considerably which we can see in actual usability batter tests it will take probably 2 more generations until AMD has the same power management capabilities as Intel does not only for the CPU but for the entire system since Intel has been developing the centralized power management since the Centrino platform.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#145

Post by ngcazz »

philjohn wrote: post #101
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple could sell you a quad-core CPU as an purchase-time $1000 upsell they would. They don't because it doesn't fit the power budget.

And thermal envelope budget.

Wouldn't that be an equivalent way of putting it?

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#146

Post by dogma1138 »

pinewurst wrote: post #134
saagarjha wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's literally going to be the same CPU as in the current 12" Macbooks with a slightly relaxed power envelope Is it? I was under the impression that these were different chips.

They are different chips in the sense of being different generations. It's interesting that the Air is a "Y" part which is the same low-power/lower performance family as the Macbook. No updates for the Macbook yet otherwise they probably would be the same. Macbook 12" 2017 = i7-7Y75 (top spec, cheaper ones are lower clocked i3/i5 Y) Macbook Air 2018 = i7-8510Y (617 graphics supposedly faster)

You can hardly call them different generations there is zero difference in the core, the Intel Graphics 617 is also looking to be a pure marketing BS it's the same Gen9 GT2 iGPU as the 615 (we have had benchmarks for it on gfx bench for a while now), maybe it will get a 50mhz more graphics boost clock but even that is doubtful since the results are the same as the 615.

Like it wouldn't surprise me if the whole i7-8510Y thing is literally Apple going to Intel and saying please increase the SKU of the same CPU you gave Google for the Slate so it would appear as like ours is faster on paper.

https://gfxbench.com/compare.jsp?benchmark=gfx50&&did1=64774...

The results are so close that they are both within the margin of error of each other and within the normal thermal/power constraints you have between two different mobile systems.

The challenge with mobile parts is that 25-30% performance delta's are not unheard of between two systems with identical parts on paper but very different thermal and power delivery solutions.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#147

Post by sometime »

mobilio wrote: post #39
microtonal wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cons: Still dual core, no USB-A, no magsafe. And still the butterfly mechanism. And apparently, specks of dust also affect the latest iteration: https://theoutline.com/post/6409/the-new-and-improved-macboo... I have been waiting for a good replacement for my MacBook Pro 2016. But this is not it. Still too few ports, still the risk of sticky keys. And given that the base model with 128GB is $1199, after the upgrade to…

Everything is OK except keyboard...

The Carbon X1 6G is 120 grams lighter and has much more ports. Gonna leave Apple for good. The MacBook Air was an amazing machine for the past 8 years, but Apple lost its way. Too many cargo cults (slimness, few ports, radical changes, secretiveness, to name a few) and too little closeness to their customers (poor repairability, high prices, unwanted features).

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#148

Post by saagarjha »

asdff wrote: post #76
saagarjha wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was probably done to only require a single Thunderbolt controller.

You can't run a ribbon wire to the other side?

For Thunderbolt? It would probably introduce too much of a delay.

Re: Apple Finally Updates MacBook Air with Retina Display, Touch ID

#150

Post by IkmoIkmo »

Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump...

Sure, there's still the old Macbook Air around, but it wasn't updated and is based on a decade old model with a CPU/GPU that's a 3 years old (5th gen i5 from 2015), and a 128 PPI screen, that's a bit ridiculous.

If you want a modern machine you're looking at $1200 for the cheapest model.

That isn't even too bad but when you go abroad, all bets are off. I still don't get this.

USD/EUR rate has been as high as 1.4 and as low as 1.05 in the past 5 years, averaging about 1.2 USD/EUR. So a $1200 Macbook Air should be €1000, typically. It's not. Instead it's more, €1350.

Or in dollar terms, that's about $1620 at the 5y average exchange rates.

That's what EU students have to pay for a modern but entry-level Macbook in the new Air. The regular Macbook or Macbook Pro are of course even more expensive.

Okay so part of this is silly exchange rates and pricing, some of it related to high EU VAT by the way, not just Apple's pricing. But part of it is also a pretty damn expensive lineup, with this new Macbook Air coming in at 20% higher prices than the previous model.

Yes prices tend to move up, inflation is a thing... but technology is supposed to be the exception, where you can get better specs after a few years without moving the price point. They just bumped it up 20%, that's pretty ridiculous.

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