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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

#261

Post by teddyfrozevelt »

reaperducer wrote: post #245
oliv__ wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The Macbook feels out of place now. It has one less USB-C port, less battery power, and is $100 more expensive with lesser specs. And it has a different name. Before this new Air came out, I figured they were just going to kill the Air line and release a 13" Macbook at a cheaper price. (Which is essentially what this is)

The Macbook feels out of place now Think of it as an entry-level, but fully capable Mac. For people who use their phone almost exclusively, but need a computer once or twice a month for work. That's exactly how my wife uses hers.

But now the entry level Macbook Air is better than the Macbook in every way except the base storage level.

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

#262

Post by dewiz »

cauthon wrote: post #231
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #150

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 abroa…

> Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump... I got downvoted for posting this as a top-level comment, but it's insane to me how Apple's hardware specs have stagnated while maintaining the same price. In 2014 I bought an entry-level Macbook Pro with retina display, 2.6 GHz i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB SSD for $1300. In 2018 I can buy the entry-level Macbook Pro with…

sure Apple is expensive, but I think you're leaving out important details, like screen resolution, touchpad, keyboard (though that's been good for ages), OS improvements, power consumption, bluetooth and wifi, etc.

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

#264

Post by Zarel »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #100
masklinn wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price has skyrocketed though, entry model is $800 (used to be $500), the top end with all options is $4200.

It would be interesting to compare that to an equivalent Intel NUC, my guess is you are paying a lot for the ability to run macOS.

According to Reddit, NUCs mostly have mobile processors. NUCs with desktop processors like the latest Mac Mini tend to be more expensive than the Mac Mini.

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

#265

Post by aylmao »

jjcm wrote: post #193
koolba wrote: post #2

Summarizing a bit: * Starting price of $1,199 * 13" display with trimmed bezels * 2.75 lbs * Higher resolution screen ("Over 4M pixels") * HD front facing camera * No Touch Bar (Yay!) * No USB ports (Boo!) Assuming it doesn't have any odd dust or logic board issues cropping up in the next couple months, I can see myself getting one of these.

> HD front facing camera It amazes me that notebook makers still advertise a 720p camera as being a feature. Are we never going to get anything more than 720p for webcams? Am I the only one who wants 4k video conferencing?

Or not even 4k, I'd be good having something that matches my phone's selfie camera.

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

#267

Post by paulcole »

binoculars10 wrote: post #254
finchisko wrote: post #184

Am I the only one, who is excited and considering buying this thing? I'm still on 2012 Air. It's good device, but showing it's age (slow CPU and only 4GB of Ram, the screen resolution is joke). But new Air seems very compelling to me. I'll miss the magsafe though. Also I would like to know if the SSD can be upgraded later (unofficially of course). 2012 Air SSD can be replaced, using cheap reduction (from proprietary…

Well don't be very excited. Have you heard of Louis Rossmann? He has some videos on Youtube regarding Apple's tactics to make its hardware hard to repair and ripoff people who get them repaired at the Apple Stores. Even CBC did a story on it.

My employer buys my computer. Doesn't matter to me how repairable it is.

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

#268

Post by tptacek »

slg wrote: post #140
prolikewh0a wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any breakaway USB-C's that work with 45-65W? Serious question.

There are, but they aren't good. This [1] still seems to be the best offering by the most established brand. The reason people want Apple to make them isn't because they aren't available. It is because a version made by Apple would be expected to be far superior to anything else on the market. I assume Apple knows this and is not yet able to deliver on that quality so they simply aren't offering it. [1] - https://www…

That does not square with my recollections of managing a fleet of Macbooks with Magsafe adapters.

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

#269

Post by asn0 »

cauthon wrote: post #231
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #150

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 abroa…

> Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump... I got downvoted for posting this as a top-level comment, but it's insane to me how Apple's hardware specs have stagnated while maintaining the same price. In 2014 I bought an entry-level Macbook Pro with retina display, 2.6 GHz i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB SSD for $1300. In 2018 I can buy the entry-level Macbook Pro with…

I've been considering that leap for years, fear of the effort to get to a non-annoying Linux laptop always drives me back to Mac.

I finally took the dive on a PixelBook to try out, figured that at least the basics (battery, wireless, sound, video, command-line) should be less-likely to be an annoyance. However, at $1649 (16GB, i7 quad-core 1.3G, 512 SSD), it's not much of a savings over a reasonably-similar Mac config ($1799-1899).

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

#270

Post by IkmoIkmo »

cauthon wrote: post #231
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #150

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 abroa…

> Love the device but I can't get over how expensive it has gotten. A 20% price bump... I got downvoted for posting this as a top-level comment, but it's insane to me how Apple's hardware specs have stagnated while maintaining the same price. In 2014 I bought an entry-level Macbook Pro with retina display, 2.6 GHz i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB SSD for $1300. In 2018 I can buy the entry-level Macbook Pro with…

I mean, I hear you and I agree (I wrote the post above you after all), pricing has been a bit tough.

But since you asked, some additional background information comparing the 2014 $1300 Mac to today's $1300 Mac (which isn't a 2018 model, but rather the 2017 model and prices.)

Geekbench 4 single/multicore scores are 30% and 42% faster respectively.

The latter can do 4k resolution output.

It's almost half a pound lighter, 0.2 inches thinner and about 0.3 inches less wide and less tall. Volume is more than 20% lower.

You get an hour extra battery life.

They're definitely not major, but it did get a bit better and with minor nominal salary increases the past few years (bit of inflation), it's effectively slightly cheaper, too.

Not the sort of progress you'd hope for. But to say they're the same specs as 4.5 years ago isn't completely true, either. It's the 2017 model, 3 years after the 2014 model, a bit faster, smaller, lighter, better battery life at slightly cheaper dollars. It's underwhelming for sure, the moment we see a serious step up from that you see the price increase by $500.

(The actual 2018 model is incomparably more expensive, but then the multicore score is 2.5x as fast as the 2014 model, twice as much SSD, 5k output resolution etc, but then it's $1800)

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