MBA vs MBP 2012

hmmm...the end of the 13 inch air? I dont think so.

MAYBE a merging of the 13 inch air and pro..........but if not that, I personally think that there will be a 13 inch air and 13 inch pro.

I know that the 13 inch pro will get better specs, but they arent leaving the macbook air at the same specs as right now!!

I can tell you that there will be a significant jump in specs with both models this year. Maybe more the pro, maybe more with the airs, but who knows?

I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Quite frankly, I would not be surprised if they merged the 13" models (MBP and MBA) now that it seems that Apple will remove the DVD drive from the MBP family and will be probably moving to SSD over traditional HD, which will allow them to thin out the MBP case.

Assuming they do indeed remove the DVD and the HD... well, it would be kind of difficult to justify marketing two different 13" models that overlap each other so closely.

I can see a merging happening and just getting rid of the 13in pro, but IDK what they are going to do yet.

Personally I feel the Air is more likely to be pro-i-ied. It will get a little thicker etc.

I can see the 13" Pro fading away for the Air to take its place. But, the 15 and 17 MBP will remain as the heavyweights.

mcman77 said:

Personally I feel the Air is more likely to be pro-i-ied. It will get a little thicker etc.

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I think the pro will change more than the air this year. They will keep the superthin air form factor, people like that.

I've been thinking for almost a year the MBP 13 was going to be retired, but now I'm really hoping they keep it around.

I don't think the Pro will necessarily get better specs if they make the body form thinner. The thinness with its accompanying heat issues has been what has caused the gap in hardware between the Air and Pro up til now. It would make sense for Apple to merge the line and with the new improved cpu's coming out the Air will be a strong candidate.

stockscalper said:

I don't think the Pro will necessarily get better specs if they make the body form thinner. The thinness with its accompanying heat issues has been what has caused the gap in hardware between the Air and Pro up til now. It would make sense for Apple to merge the line and with the new improved cpu's coming out the Air will be a strong candidate.

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They need to improve the resolution of the screen if they keep the 13" Pro around.

The 13" Pro in its current form is ridiculous. 1280x800 in 2011? Pro? Come on.

Can't believe people buy that model. It needs to go or match the 13" Air in resolution, why it doesn't already is a bit weird.

Yggbert said:

The 13" Pro in its current form is ridiculous. 1280x800 in 2011? Pro? Come on.

Can't believe people buy that model. It needs to go or match the 13" Air in resolution, why it doesn't already is a bit weird.

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There's speculation about 2880x1800 in the next 13" Pro, if that was the case, I'd jump all over it.

charlieegan3 said:

I think the pro will change more than the air this year. They will keep the superthin air form factor, people like that.

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True but there is more than looks. I'm talking about ultra low voltage cpus (basically slow arse CPU) I reckon they won't be in the pros or at least the high end will be true mobile CPUs.

Yggbert said:

The 13" Pro in its current form is ridiculous. 1280x800 in 2011? Pro? Come on.

Can't believe people buy that model. It needs to go or match the 13" Air in resolution, why it doesn't already is a bit weird.

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I totally agree. Does anyone have a clue as of why Apple decided to bump the resolution on the Air is 2010, but the Pro is still kept at the same old ultra-outdated resolution nearly 2 years later?!?? Any official info on this move? It makes no sense whatsoever!!!

christophermdia said:

HAvent been on the MBA forums in a while, so sorry if this is a repeat Q....would the release of a 13" MBP slim spell the end for a 13" MBA? I mean, if specs are better and thin-ness is somewhat but not quite comparable, who would get the MBA? Would apple consider a 10" and 12" MBA? with 13 & 15 being MBP?

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I would. And no, as things stand, the release of a thinner 13" MBP would not, spell the end of the MBA; the reverse, if anything.

At present, it has three features which make it hugely attractive to someone such as myself. Firstly, it is exceedingly portable - and, as I travel a lot, this matters. Secondly, there is the excellent screen resolution - much better at present than that offered by the 13" MBP. And thirdly, there is the gratifyingly fast SSD (I used to have a 15" MBP and it lagged when compared to the MBA).

rockyroad55 said:

I can see the 13" Pro fading away for the Air to take its place. But, the 15 and 17 MBP will remain as the heavyweights.

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I agree with you. This is what I would envisage happening, as well.

In a far far place a long time ago, the 13 inch laptops were called MacBooks and the 15inch and 17inch were called MacbookPros. I could see them going back to that and make the 11 inch and 13 inch just MacBooks and the 17 and 15 MacbookPros.

Maybe I could hold out hope that they release a thin 13inch with a retina screen in a black case, so I can replace my current blackbook with the new one.

If the new MBA 11" has 6 hours of battery and an option for 8GB of memory, I'm going to have a very tough decision to make.

yano729 said:

In a far far place a long time ago, the 13 inch laptops were called MacBooks and the 15inch and 17inch were called MacbookPros. I could see them going back to that and make the 11 inch and 13 inch just MacBooks and the 17 and 15 MacbookPros.

Maybe I could hold out hope that they release a thin 13inch with a retina screen in a black case, so I can replace my current blackbook with the new one.

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I can see something like this happening too!

Just not sure if the ipad will be the 'macbook' of back then and the rest will be just macbook 'pros'

Risasi said:

If the new MBA 11" has 6 hours of battery and an option for 8GB of memory, I'm going to have a very tough decision to make.

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there are laptops with 10+ hours batter life (netbooks)

mcman77 said:

I can see something like this happening too!

Just not sure if the ipad will be the 'macbook' of back then and the rest will be just macbook 'pros'



there are laptops with 10+ hours batter life (netbooks)

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Generally speaking, netbooks are a piece of garbage. Sub-standard CPU, leftover parts, they're slow, cheap chassis build. For their size they can still be pretty heavy. I've literally seen some of the HP's fall apart (the last batch of 10 for one company had a 40% failure rate). I only have one client left where I will deal with netbooks, and they are right on the bubble of me saying no.
You see, they end up costing ME money. Why should I have to fiddle around for hours trying to get HP, or ASUS, etc. to give me an RMA on yet another failed computer that costs all of $85 to make? Yet the vendors still can't make any money on them, which is evidenced by the fact that some have stopped making them (and more will follow). They are throwaway computers.

For crying out loud, Verizon has been GIVING them away. That should tell you something. I would rather buy used X60, X61 or X200's off of ebay and use them. Probably get longer life and a better user experience.

Risasi said:

If the new MBA 11" has 6 hours of battery and an option for 8GB of memory, I'm going to have a very tough decision to make.

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I've used the 2011 MBA 13" Ultimate for almost 5mths solid as my primary machine.

it's benefits: ultra light portability, decent cpu power (excitedly unexpected), and the 1440x900 resolution.

I recently switched to the 13" MBP - and UNLESS these features come down to a MBA type body it'll STILL survive even with lacklustre internal resolution:

2.8Ghz Core i7 Dual-Core CPU: Hyper up to 3.6Ghz!! (it starts where MBA tops)
Expandable RAM: 16GB is supported! (So Pro: Audio/Visual Pro apps)
Reasonable price on expandable HDD! ($450-700CAN for 450-500GB SSD SATA3) - MBA: internal SSDs capable of moving data at up to 200MB/s only)
Higher external resolution
Faster Thunderbolt port (full 10Gb/s Quad channel; Air has only dual channel 10Gb/s); I won't see this using the low end LaCie TB HD but on a TB-RAID setup I would.

pricing for SSD ugprade, and ability to upgrade RAM alone made this a no brainer at $50 before taxes (CAN) and I get a 750GB 5200RPM HDD to begin with. (BTW, that hard drive blows chunks; with SSD the MBA only has resolution beating the MBP).

Risasi said:

If the new MBA 11" has 6 hours of battery and an option for 8GB of memory, I'm going to have a very tough decision to make.

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My main grip with the MBA 11" was the battery life and the low resolution. They really need to work on those two elements for 2012.

Prom1 said:

I've used the 2011 MBA 13" Ultimate for almost 5mths solid as my primary machine.

it's benefits: ultra light portability, decent cpu power (excitedly unexpected), and the 1440x900 resolution.

I recently switched to the 13" MBP - and UNLESS these features come down to a MBA type body it'll STILL survive even with lacklustre internal resolution:

2.8Ghz Core i7 Dual-Core CPU: Hyper up to 3.6Ghz!! (it starts where MBA tops)
Expandable RAM: 16GB is supported! (So Pro: Audio/Visual Pro apps)
Reasonable price on expandable HDD! ($450-700CAN for 450-500GB SSD SATA3) - MBA: internal SSDs capable of moving data at up to 200MB/s only)
Higher external resolution
Faster Thunderbolt port (full 10Gb/s Quad channel; Air has only dual channel 10Gb/s); I won't see this using the low end LaCie TB HD but on a TB-RAID setup I would.

pricing for SSD ugprade, and ability to upgrade RAM alone made this a no brainer at $50 before taxes (CAN) and I get a 750GB 5200RPM HDD to begin with. (BTW, that hard drive blows chunks; with SSD the MBA only has resolution beating the MBP).

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I currently have the base model early 2011 13" MBP w/ 120GB SSD. And I really do like it, but I also have it sold. Transfer of ownership by August. They are buying it with the original HDD for $1050, warranty through March 2014. I can obtain too much money from my current rig it seems silly not to upgrade one more time before being content for the next 2-4 years.
This is the reason I'm looking, and the reason this topic interests me.

With that being said, if I still get the same feature set of the MBP 13" as the 2011 models (disk upgradeability, running SSD+HDD, memory upgradeability), then I will probably get the 2012 model and load it up with my current SSD+HDD and 8GB of memory.

Toying with my wife's 13" MBA a little this weekend, I'll take the Pro every time. But then, I reviewed the 11" MBA again. If it had a little more power/battery, and an option for more memory I'll have a hard time talking myself out of it.
For work I might be at 6-15 different locations in a typical week. This is where the 11" has it's appeal.

So right now it's down to an 11" MBA (with 6-8GB of memory) or the new 13" Pro (assuming there is one).

KohPhiPhi said:

My main grip with the MBA 11" was the battery life and the low resolution. They really need to work on those two elements for 2012.

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From my reading on the matter I think with Ivy Bridge the CPU will be about 20% more efficient in power usage. That is why I anticipate about 6 hours of battery for the 11" MBA and 8.5+ for the 13" MBA, and the Pro models.

That leaves screen. For me a 13" MBP screen is already a concession. Almost every work day I'm connected to servers and user workstations, some of them running dual 1080p monitors. I realized the 11" isn't much worse, and I intend to plop a 22" or larger monitor at the key offices where I frequently find myself. Thus the appeal of the 11" MBA. For digging through code and scripts, etc. I've come from the X series of Thinkpads. I'm used to working on that kind of stuff on a 12" screen for the past decade. A 2 1/4lb with that much power is hard to ignore.
We'll see. I'm afraid I will have to until at least June before the models I'm interested in will be available.

I see:
11" and 13" Airs with Intel 4000 HD integrated graphics.
14" and/or 15" plus the 17" MBPro - all with hi-res display standard, dedicated graphics card, and with more grunt than the Airs.

Hmm, I wonder. What about a 13" 16:9 screen, stuffed into the current 11" MBA chassis?

- 11" MBA w/ 1600x900 13" screen
- 5.5 - 6.5 hours battery life
- option for 6GB or 8GB of memory
- HD 4000 graphics on a 1.7ghz dual core Ivy Bridge chip.
- just make sure TB and USB 3.0 are on there
- wireless air card ready
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$1300 - $1500


Feasable? And would you buy?

P.S. I'm guessing this might be a little difficult to achieve an extra hour of battery life, trying to drive a 13" screen off of an 11" MBA's current battery.

Risasi said:

Hmm, I wonder. What about a 13" 16:9 screen, stuffed into the current 11" MBA chassis?

- 11" MBA w/ 1600x900 13" screen
- 5.5 - 6.5 hours battery life
- option for 6GB or 8GB of memory
- HD 4000 graphics on a 1.7ghz dual core Ivy Bridge chip.
- just make sure TB and USB 3.0 are on there
- wireless air card ready
---------
$1300 - $1500


Feasable? And would you buy?

P.S. I'm guessing this might be a little difficult to achieve an extra hour of battery life, trying to drive a 13" screen off of an 11" MBA's current battery.

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You know the 13" display would draw a lot more power than a 11"? I don't see the 5+ hours battery life happening that way unless Apple did some magic with the new batteries.