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An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

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Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#41

Post by shurcooL »

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 by price and screen size: 11.9”, 13.3”, and 15.4”.

The latest 13" rMBP was made thinner than the 13" rMBP before it, but it only _caught up_ to the thinness of the original 15" rMBP. The first 13" rMBP was actually thicker than 15" rMBP (something I found quite odd when it first happened).

(Mid 2012, Early 2013, Late 2013) 15" rMBP - 0.71 in high

(Late 2012, Early 2013) 13" rMBP - 0.75 in high

(Late 2013) 13" rMBP - 0.71 in high

So that entire paragraph is making an argument based on an incorrect statement.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#42

Post by snowwrestler »

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 lightest laptop that Apple can make with a retina display.

In summary: the hard part of a Retina Air is not the pixel density, the hard part is the power. Any blog post that does not address that question is not adding much to the conversation.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#46

Post by dhruvmittal »

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 really wish more people recognized this relationship between the number of pixels and power necessary to drive those pixels. Journalists seem to constantly call for higher pixel densities on everything, ignoring the practical reasons and tradeoffs that must be considered.

The current Macbook Pro/Air situation is fairly elegant- it's a simple tradeoff between portability and resolution when you choose between the two 13" Macbooks. And it's not as if you get shafted by that choice, given how similar the machines are aside from their displays.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#47

Post by throwaway20002 »

jknightco wrote: post #34
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.

I would check out the X1 Carbon in person before making that decision. The display is terrible. It's the only device over ever used that's given me significant headaches after even moderate use.

I second this. I returned mine after few weeks due to worst display I have ever seen. I can't believe that passed any sort of QA.

Sorry for throwaway.. long time lurker, just posts seldom.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#48

Post by baddox »

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."

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#49

Post by danmatte »

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…

A Retina Air would be more like a thicker Air than a thinner Retina MacBook Pro.

As for power, I deliberately didn't go into detail, but the short answer is Broadwell.

Re: An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air

#50

Post by grapeshot »

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.

There will probably be multiple suppliers of these displays, like there were for the Macbook Pros. If the new panel is IPS and from LG, it will probably have the same ghosting problem. (If you have a LG IPS display, you can see this issue clearly by watching a Youtube video in a window for 15-30 minutes and then immediately loading Metafilter in the same window.)
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