*Roll up!* It's 2013 MBA season: Show us a realistic spec that would make YOU buy it!

Scottsdale said:

so I think make it a little tiny bit smaller, and put a 14" LCD IPS 1920x1200 pixel display. And if it is Retina, it needs double that resolution. I want more desktop in the space available. I don't want it scaled.

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Apple has had 13.3" screens for a while. It would be surprising if they suddenly jumped into 14" and dumped 13". Other than that, I agree completely with your sentiment. Native 1080p is far more attractive than 1880x1800 running at 1440x900, IMO.

My wants (from another thread):
* 11" resolution to 1600 x 900 or greater, with accompanying increase to ~12" lcd and slight decrease in bezel size
* 13" to 1680 x 1050 or greater.
* Enlarged trackpad on 11" I like the footprint of the 11", but would not mind a 1/4" depth extension to make room for this and the LCD.
* Options for at least one 10W ULV Intel CPU and at least one Intel CPU with improved graphics (likely higher TDP and accompanying decrease in battery life)
* Improved screen tech to IPS (no more TN)

I'm perfectly happy with my 2011 13" MBA.

However, there is always room for improvement. I use my MBA mainly for note-taking in classes, research and writing assignments. For this, the MBA is perfect. It's easy to carry around, it's sleek looking, and it's got plenty of speed for me. Best of all, the battery life is out of this world. Without WiFi, backlight set to the lowest level, I've achieved over 10 hrs of battery.

My only two complaints are the screen, and the squeaking chassis.

If the new, 2013 Haswell MBA was to offer a significantly sharper screen (I do not find text sharp enough as of today, while reading/writing on my MBA) with better colors, with better resolution - I'd be happy to upgrade. I'd also love if Apple could, once and for all, fix that squeaking chassis. If Apple was to fix those two issues, I think I would have found my perfect laptop.

If the above mentioned does not happen - I could definitely see myself using a 13" rMBP in the future - but I would love a bit more "umph" out of that model (Quad Core Processor or dedicated graphics) in order to sacrifice the great MBA.

Jobsian said:

I woke up this morning suddenly excited at the thought of the next MBA. My current 2012 one is nigh on perfect but there are some changes that would certainly make me swap it for a 2013 model.

So what configuration would you need to see to take the plunge? You define what's realistic


Me: Battery battery battery. It's the only bottleneck I hit on a regular basis. According to Intel, Haswell is going to make the biggest "generation to generation" gain on battery life.


The spec that would make me buy the 2013 11 inch version:

• Intel Haswell CPU/GPU - whatever the fastest is, would speed up encodes that bit more
• 8GB RAM (I have no need for more)
• 512GB SSD (An upgrade from my current 256 would be welcomed, no need to juggle between external storage anymore)
• 7 Hour battery (upgraded from 5) - I ALWAYS zero the current battery and imagine I have the world record on cycle count for the 2012 model
• IPS Screen if possible, if not a bump in screen res - can't imagine Retina without a big battery hit
• Thinner bezel - would love to see this
• 802.11 ac wifi - faster, longer range
• Magsafe 3 - I don't like Magsafe 2's vertical plane flimsiness at all
• Bonus - Black Aluminium - would look very sleek imo

Seeing it written down, I can't see any huge improvement functionally over my current one. But if the battery were significantly increased, that alone would justify the upgrade to me.

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I didn't read the thread so pardon me if it's been noted... but a thinner bezel around the screen would result in either a larger screen (12.6 inches to fill in more of the bezel) or a smaller foot print resulting in a smaller keyboard and all around computer.

As I wouldn't want the the keyboard any smaller the only other way around would be to go to a 12.6 inch screen... but then it wouldn't be the 11-inch MBA.

Either way... Apple wouldn't do it.