MacBook Air Supplies Constrained Ahead of Refresh?

MacRumors · May 30, 2011

Both CNet and Digitimes have pinpointed the 2011 Macbook Air refreshes for the June-July timeframe. So, it should be no surprise that according to retail sources of 9to5mac, Apple's MacBook Air supplies are becoming constrained around the world.

The 2011 MacBook Air is believed to adopt the latest Sandy Bridge processors which come with Intel's embedded graphics chipset. This is a decision that Apple has already made for the latest low-end MacBook Pros, so we expect they will make the same decision in the new MacBook Airs. The new Airs should also adopt the Thunderbolt high speed connector that was introduced earlier this year.

Article Link: MacBook Air Supplies Constrained Ahead of Refresh?

lostngone · May 30, 2011

It is time!!!

Come on Apple how about you show the Mac Pro some love!

appleguy123 · May 30, 2011

Mac Mini and MacBook are also in desperate need of upgrades.

42streetsdown · May 30, 2011

sooo exciting! i've been waiting for this

asdf542 · May 30, 2011

lostngone said:
Come on Apple how about you show the Mac Pro some love!

Intel's Xeon processors slated for the Mac Pro won't be out until Q4 2011.

TMar · May 30, 2011

Can't wait for all the incoming complaints about Intel graphics and how they won't be able to game on their airs.

kjjnk · May 30, 2011

TMar said:
Can't wait for all the incoming complaints about Intel graphics and how they won't be able to game on their airs.

It will outperform the 9400M which is good enough for the majority of people. The 9400M makes up 30% of Valve's Steam Mac users.

powtail · May 30, 2011

backlit

The new ones better come with back-lit keyboards, otherwise they will be a big disappointment. I know for a fact, I'm not the only one that thinks that way.

appleguy123 · May 30, 2011

kjjnk said:
It will outperform the 9400M which is good enough for the majority of people. The 9400M makes up 30% of Valve's Steam Mac users.

I don't think that this is true. The intel graphics are worse than the Nvidia ones.

ikir · May 30, 2011

With good drivers (probably in Lion GMA HD will have full OpenGL 3.0 support) and if software company support it, GMA HD 3000 on MacBook Pro 13" is quite good for a little notebook, it should perform little better than 320M. Some recent mac games show you can play the same or better compared to 320M.

As you can see in this graph which was made at new MBP launch, GMA HD 3000 can defend itself, now drivers are better and will be much more better with 10.7. The real problem is software houses support, but in these weekes many games that were incompatible with GMA are now supporting it.

Full of Win · May 30, 2011

powtail said:
The new ones better come with back-lit keyboards, otherwise they will be a big disappointment. I know for a fact, I'm not the only one that thinks that way.

Yeah, no matter how fast they are, how much better they benchmark, ect.... the one factor that will make or break them will be backlit keyboards. Not saying I don't want a backlit keyboard, I just don't think its presence is that critical of an issue.

dawnrazor · May 30, 2011

Awesome....

My wife's getting my 11" MBA and I'm getting a maxed out top of the line 13" MBA when they come out, the addition of the Thunderbolt is very welcome indeed as doing backups via USB2 is so slow....

kjjnk · May 30, 2011

appleguy123 said:
I don't think that this is true. The intel graphics are worse than the Nvidia ones.

Based on what? Want me to link you to some benchmarks? Don't go by brand names. The HD 3000 outperforms the 9400M.

appleguy123 · May 30, 2011

kjjnk said:
Based on what? Want me to link you to some benchmarks? Don't go by brand names. The HD 3000 outperforms the 9400M.

That's odd. I said that because it said in the article that graphics would likely be a "step down."
The article has now been edited, so maybe you're right.

Reach9 · May 30, 2011

Who said there won't be any hardware upgrades in this year's WWDC?

Icaras · May 30, 2011

dawnrazor said:
Awesome....

My wife's getting my 11" MBA and I'm getting a maxed out top of the line 13" MBA when they come out, the addition of the Thunderbolt is very welcome indeed as doing backups via USB2 is so slow....

I was thinking of doing the same, except I will get the maxed out 11" for 2011.

kjjnk · May 30, 2011

appleguy123 said:
That's odd. I said that because it said in the article that graphics would likely be a "step down."
The article has now been edited, so maybe you're right.

The HD 3000 outperforms the 9400M. The HD 3000 included in the MacBook Pro occasionally outperforms the 320M under OS X (although not all the time). The HD 3000 included in the next generation MacBook Air will be weaker than the one included in the 13" MacBook Pro but will still outperform the 9400M. It will perform worse than the 320M and HD Graphics 3000 in the MBP.

So the GPU chart goes as follow:
9400M < HD 3000 (MBA) < HD 3000 (MBP) <=> 320M

TMar · May 30, 2011

kjjnk said:
It will outperform the 9400M which is good enough for the majority of people. The 9400M makes up 30% of Valve's Steam Mac users.

Never said it wasn't good enough. Being "good enough" never stops the GMA complaints though.

Caliber26 · May 30, 2011

Full of Win said:
Yeah, no matter how fast they are, how much better they benchmark, ect.... the one factor that will make or break them will be backlit keyboards. Not saying I don't want a backlit keyboard, I just don't think its presence is that critical of an issue.

Although I am dying to see a backlit keyboard featured on the next MBA, I have to agree. Ultimately, its absence does not disrupt my ability to view or use my keyboard, while using it in the dark.

JesterJJZ · May 30, 2011

lostngone said:
Come on Apple how about you show the Mac Pro some love!

Why would someone rate this comment a negative. Bumped it back to 0 for ya!

Crixus · May 30, 2011

Backlit keyboard, I'll buy one as soon as possible.

No backlit keyboard, I'll go for an entry level 13" Macbook Pro.

caspersoong · May 30, 2011

Nice. About time. Hope they follow the speedy shipping of the iPad 2 and get it here within a month.

PurpleLogix · May 30, 2011

yay. Been waiting for this.

kjjnk · May 30, 2011

TMar said:
Never said it wasn't good enough. Being "good enough" never stops the GMA complaints though.

Only difference is this time Intel's GPU performance is acceptable.

tsadi · May 30, 2011

powtail said:
The new ones better come with back-lit keyboards, otherwise they will be a big disappointment. I know for a fact, I'm not the only one that thinks that way.

I almost purchased the present generation Air when it was released, then held back when I learned that they removed the back-lit keyboard.

It will be the same story for me for the next-gen Air. No back-lit keyboard = no upgrade.

MacBook Air Supplies Constrained Ahead of Refresh?

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