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Jobsian

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 30, 2009
853
98
Ok it's 2013. The MBA is the finest piece of notebook architecture I've ever seen and has been an incredibly handy and mobile machine. I've already run my 2012 MBA into the ground, sitting on 226 battery cycles which is a lot considering it was released just 212 days ago!

CPU:
I don't push the current CPU too much though a minor bump would be welcome to cut down encoding times a bit (the few times I do them). The main thing I want to see here is reduced TDP CPUs for more battery. Heat and noise haven't been a problem AT ALL for my 11" i7. The Intel roadmap seems to put mobile Haswell for release in late 2013 so this cycle might be prolonged if Apple don't go to another architecture but I don't see that happening...

Battery:
True 8 hours for 11" and 12 hours for 13". This is THE upgrade I would like to see. As I've said I zero the battery very regularly. How can they achieve this? apart from shrinking everything else in the chassis, I don't know and am not aware of any new battery tech.

GPU: I don't tax this much as it's weak as it is. I may install more games with a Haswell bump as the GPU is said to be much stronger (I think at least twice as powerful).

RAM:
I'm happy with my current 8GB, not concerned about this.

SSD:
I'm having to juggle files with my TC so I want 512GB minimum but would consider higher if available/reasonably priced.

Display:
I'm happy with the current display but yes the retina displays I browse at the Apple store are pretty beautiful. If its inclusion doesn't kill battery that much I'm all for it, otherwise no big deal.

Connectivity:
Same I/O plus integrated LTE if feasible on power (new modules are dramatically less hungry). I'd also guess 802.11ac WiFi is likely.

Design:
These things would look spectacular in black. Lighter and thinner a bonus but not necessary. I would LOVE to see the bezel shaved right down and have for example a 12-13" panel on the current 11" chassis if possible. I want an L-shaped Magsafe or at least a more powerful T-shape. The current one dislodges WAY too easily and I have to dedicate a clear area around it when surfing on a sofa/cushion/bed.


Reviewing that, there's not actually that much that Apple could do to enhance their current MBAs for my use. The only thing that would absolutely guarantee I'd get a new one on release day would be if the battery was significantly better.

What would you like to see improved over your current MBA?
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
A 11" without that big aluminum bezel. More viewable screen, less bezel.

I go back and forth, but I would like a HD activity and a sleep/powerNap indicator. I realize the Zen simplicity of not having those extras but gosh I want to be re-assure that yes, the HD is being accessed, yes, the machine REALLY went to sleep!

U guys can talk about the specs.
 

macs4nw

macrumors 601
Battery life definitely sucks, but hasn't been much of a problem for me, as I use it about 60-70% of the time on my desk, while plugged-in.

My maxed-out 13" Air is a dream machine to use as it is, but if I had to come up with anything at all, my two wishes are Haswell and 802.11ac. If they could, with or without Retina, cram a 14" display in that 13" model, with a thinner bezel, without making it appreciably heavier, that would be icing on the cake!
 

bonskovsky

macrumors 6502
Dec 31, 2012
453
2
My mind could not get around the MacBook Air, it's so thin, yet so powerful. I literally fainted thinking about it. It doesn't make sense!

The only thing they need to add now is a retina display. Adding that alone would make it the most powerful laptop in the world.
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,454
21,841
Singapore
I doubt we will see touch screens on macbooks anytime soon. However, I would like to see some new feature that is not readily replicable on windows laptops, beyond straightforward spec bumps (which will likely be priced too much for me to consider them anyways), so as to give it a unique selling point beyond just "OSX vs Windows".

Say running both Intel and Arm processors (for whatever reason, I am sure Apple can think of something). The macbook could switch to arm for less intensive tasks like surfing the web, and back to intel chips for more resource-hungry tasks like imovie.

I am thinking about some emulation feature which will let OSX run IOS apps. Just imagine the utility of goodreader or tapatalk or simply the vast quantities of IOS games now available on macs. App developers are going to have a fit over pricing models though.
 

NutsNGum

macrumors 68030
Jul 30, 2010
2,856
367
Glasgow, Scotland
IPS screen minimum. Retina would be an added bonus, struggling to read from a laptop screen due to poor contrast is not how things should be in 2013.
 

Stetrain

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2009
3,550
20
A nice quality (IPS) display with the same low-glare glass and black bezel used in the retina MBPs, just without the extra resolution.
 

Miat

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2012
851
805
Top Priority: IPS screen (at same res as current model)

Plus

802.11ac WiFi
512 GB SSD
Haswell chipset

Price: $2000 (AUD)

:)
 

Saturn1217

macrumors 65816
Apr 28, 2008
1,263
832
Hmmm...I'm still in the honeymoon phase for my new 2012 MBA but if I had to improve anything...

1) better battery life. I get ~6.5hrs out of the battery now which is great but if I could really have all day battery life that I could use like a tablet (aka not worrying about using it on battery everyday and the battery life dying after a year) that would be fantastic.

2) less bezel for both 13" and 11" - they've already done this with the 13" rMBP and it looks great.

3) Better screen (IPS) but not any change in resolution. I personally am not ready from a software standpoint for retina and I'd appreciate Apple moving gradually with this new screen tech. Although I do have to say that after I finally found the right calibration profile my screen looks nearly as good as my 13" MBP. I have an LG screen btw.

4) not sure how they would fix this but I came to the unfortunate discovery the other day that even though the usb ports are on opposite sides of the computer which I though would be much better than being so close together on my MBP, they are so close to the power and thunderbolt ports than if you are using both ports (which I am at work) you cannot use ANY usb drives that are bulky without unplugging something whereas before I had at least one usb port available...
 

Frosties

macrumors 65816
Jun 12, 2009
1,079
209
Sweden
4) not sure how they would fix this but I came to the unfortunate discovery the other day that even though the usb ports are on opposite sides of the computer which I though would be much better than being so close together on my MBP, they are so close to the power and thunderbolt ports than if you are using both ports (which I am at work) you cannot use ANY usb drives that are bulky without unplugging something whereas before I had at least one usb port available...

For me the placement of usb ports on both sides is a good way to use my 3G-modem as it was too bulky to use together with the second usb-port right beside it on my 2010 macbook pro. Taking away the dvd-slot was for me a good thing here.
 

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
Better wifi

The wifi on my MBA only works properly if I am on the opposite side of my room closer to the door. If I use it where my desk is the signal is abysmal. So I had to move my desk to the other side just so I could use it :confused: I was very disgusted by that
 

robvas

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2009
3,240
629
USA
Edge to edge IPS screen. Retina would be nice but I just want more pixels, 1600x900 in the 11" form factor would be incredible.
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
Better wifi

The wifi on my MBA only works properly if I am on the opposite side of my room closer to the door. If I use it where my desk is the signal is abysmal. So I had to move my desk to the other side just so I could use it :confused: I was very disgusted by that

Perhaps the problem is not MBA. Perhaps it's your WIFI router and/or its placement.

----------

Say running both Intel and Arm processor

An HYBRID. That would be cool. Doesn't sound like Apple though. I bet Arm doesn't have a x86 instruction set, so this probly won happen. Intel is really missing the portable boat. I don't know why, AMD and now defunct Transmeta were beating Intel on power specs. Their Atom gone nowhere.
 

robvas

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2009
3,240
629
USA
Intel is really missing the portable boat. I don't know why, AMD and now defunct Transmeta were beating Intel on power specs. Their Atom gone nowhere.

Why do you think that? Ultrabooks have been a hit and they are coming out with phones/tablets that run Atoms.
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
Why do you think that? Ultrabooks have been a hit

Not from the news sources I read. They are trying to beat the Air, but the price point, ouch!

That's why I got the Air 3 months ago. I was intending to buy an Ultrabook but after seeing the stickers shock, and most designs not so hot...

and they are coming out with phones/tablets that run Atoms.

A little late don't you think? So these Atom tablets, do they run Win8 or Android?
 

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
Perhaps the problem is not MBA. Perhaps it's your WIFI router and/or its placement.

Doubt it. None of my other Windows laptops have this problem as the wifi works anywhere in the house. My desk used to be located in the corner of my room and for some reason that spot just gave me horrendous speeds with the MBA. Speedtest was giving me 4 mb/s download speeds but I moved to the opposite corner of my room closer to the door and now I get 28 mb/s. If I move into the hallway I get about 34 mb/s. Clearly the closer I am to the router the speeds increase. The MBA just has weak Wifi capabilities.
 

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,019
7,862
Why do you think that? Ultrabooks have been a hit and they are coming out with phones/tablets that run Atoms.

I wouldn't say Ultrabooks are a "hit." Intel was originally predicting they would be 40% of the market right now. They are nowhere near that. That said, they are starting to get more attention, and it's about time since notebooks should get smaller.
 

Cheffy Dave

macrumors 68030
I wouldn't say Ultrabooks are a "hit." Intel was originally predicting they would be 40% of the market right now. They are nowhere near that. That said, they are starting to get more attention, and it's about time since notebooks should get smaller.

I agree, no matter how it's copied, the 11" and 13" Airs, are THE Ultra books!
All screen,no bezel would be very nice,especially in the 11",16MB of RAM,delightful the cherry on the sundae would be a retina screen:p
 

kage207

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2008
971
56
I am thinking about some emulation feature which will let OSX run IOS apps. Just imagine the utility of goodreader or tapatalk or simply the vast quantities of IOS games now available on macs. App developers are going to have a fit over pricing models though.
Why? You can develop for the OS X platform? You can ask developers to develop there. It really isn't hard after developing for iOS to move to OS X. Differences in technologies need differences in implementations.

Also, those asking for 12 hour battery life it won't happen. We will see 10 hour (if you follow Intel at all).
 

Raggsokk

macrumors member
Sep 19, 2012
78
0
two things. Better fans. QUITER fans. Jesus, playing a game on the 2012 model, I might as well move in at the local airport. And the left side gets way too warm under load.

Also I'd like a dedicated GPU. Not that it will happen.

.... and higher resolution, similar to the ASUS Zenbook.
 

coldjeanzzz

macrumors 6502a
Nov 4, 2012
655
17
Agreed about the heat and fans. My MBA doesn't get hot at all and the fans can't even be heard...unless I'm playing a Steam game. Then the top left becomes so hot I can't even touch it and the fans go berserk. But I play very rarely so it's not a big deal to me.
 
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