I never thought they would put retina on the 13" to be honest.
I find it extremely overpriced. And you will never be able to run any game more complex than Plants vs. Zombies at native resolution, which is the reason I did not get a 15" rMBP. I would probably get a 15" rMBP when they get a much more advanced graphics card. At least 2GB vRAM.
So I guess no, my toughts remain. A 1600ishx1000ish resolution on the next Air, coupled with improved graphics should make a very capable machine, even more than the 2012 Air.
There seems to be a few variants of Haswell, starting at 10w but some of them I think go above 20+w, there being a 17w one, which would be awesome to get on the next Air as it would make it quite more powerful than this year's.
Yeah, agree about the overpricing. Guess it's cause Apple is the only one with purchasable retina laptops at this point and with the low yields, Apple has a sort of monopoly for now and has the "right" to raise prices (higher price for retina is definitely justifiable, but there is probably a premium in the cost somewhere)
Actually, the 13" rMBP proved to have much less lag compared to the 15" rMBP if you see tech reviews on prominent sites and YouTube channels, and in certain areas lag was not present. (tldtoday/jon4lakers 13" rMBP review showed 1080P video playing in an editing software while scrolling in Safari and switching between spaces while having minimal jitters) And remember.. the rMBP is a "Pro" machine - the Air is probably for those who want the most portable, so users purchasing will not use it mainly for Photoshop etc that even the next gen graphics will have stutters, but most likely use it primarily for word processing, mini games, web browsing, music, and the like where the next gen graphics will probably make basic tasks very nearly jitter free.
It's fine if you think retina isn't going in the next MBA - part of me agrees too, I guess my desire for retina is trying to keep justifying it being in the next revision.
Also, I don't think Apple will make a partial increase in resolution - only doubling. This is evident in all Apple products that have made some sort of movement for better displays. It will cause fragmentation and developers will have to update apps for 1600x1000 compatibility just for the Air (one device among many iNotebooks). Even the retina iPad doubled, though many doubted it and even the iPad mini is at the iPad 2 resolution. So even if retina is not in the next Air revision, I think the resolution will remain. (Double or nothing)
Just my personal opinion lol.