Updated MacBook Air Line with New 15-Inch Model Coming in 1Q 2012?

[$MacUser$]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest ivy bridge won't be coming until may-june 2012, maybe a bit later. With the fairly significant bump plus backlight the air got last refresh, I'm sure Apple would be content with a speed bump (and maybe a 15"), followed by ivy bridge some months later.

It just doesn't seem too likely to me Apple would make the leap from core 2 duo (after stagnating there far too long) to the i5/7, then six or seven months later make another fairly significant CPU shift. If anything, apple has always been one to milk a given architecture/die size for as long as they can get away with.

If past is prologue (and I've been following mac rumors a long time) expect a fairly minor speed bump followed by something more substaintial next summer. A 15" sandy bridge air I'd say is still in the cards for q1. And either way I don't think ivy is enough of a boost to cancel orders and the like.

 

[jvmxtra]

From what I am gathering, IB won't be much of a CPU upgrade nor runs that much cooler.

Where you will see most difference is the graphic power and ability to drive 2 external monitor.

8 gig limit for memory, I think is just design and room issue of specific hardware and not by IB limit. (I hope for 8 gig as well although 4 gig is good enough. If i need to work on something more serious, I would go to my imac in my case).

 

[thekev]

Bleh I'm still waiting for something based on Sandy Bridge E

Also Ivy Bridge is a die shrink year so I wouldn't expect too much of it. If the gpu performance is significantly boosted, that may work out quite well for laptops.

 

[Terabit]

Only thing holding me back from not buying an air is the ability to play sims 3 properly.

Hopefully the refresh/new models will be able to run it decently and then i'll drop the money on one

 

[CorvetteZR1]

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For those saying you can't believe students buy the 13" pro vs the air. You guys are seriously un informed. As a senior in college, I can tell you that I've seen 1, count them 1, 11" MacBook air being used, and I could count on one hand how many 13" airs I've seen. Almost everyone uses a 13" or 15" MacBook pro at my school. The air is missing a lot of things that I personally need as a student. Professors still hand out disks to use for online work, the pro has more storage, and wait for it.... wait for it... IT'S UPGRADEABLE! And it's cheaper. AND, the 13" macbook pro screen is WAY WAY BETTER than the mba screen. I hate the mba screens on both the 11" and the 13". The viewing angles suck, the colors are washed out, its barely better than the old white MacBook screen, BARELY. Plus, maybe 100-200 dollars doesn't matter to you but for a student who gets paid every quarter like I do, it matters. The pros are the best choice for students at my school. I don't see them dropping their best selling line of laptops. I mean really, who thinks this crap up? You guys need to get out of your small bubble and discover that there are other people out there who probably have different needs than your own.

Wrote this with my iPhone on a moving bus with a hangover so grammar nazis can seriously ****.

 

[neilpryde23]

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For those saying you can't believe students buy the 13" pro vs the air. You guys are seriously un informed. As a senior in college, I can tell you that I've seen 1, count them 1, 11" MacBook air being used, and I could count on one hand how many 13" airs I've seen. Almost everyone uses a 13" or 15" MacBook pro at my school. The air is missing a lot of things that I personally need as a student. Professors still hand out disks to use for online work, the pro has more storage, and wait for it.... wait for it... IT'S UPGRADEABLE! And it's cheaper. AND, the 13" macbook pro screen is WAY WAY BETTER than the mba screen. I hate the mba screens on both the 11" and the 13". The viewing angles suck, the colors are washe out, its barely better than the old white MacBook screen, BARELY. Plus, maybe 100-200 dollars doesn't matter to you but for a student who gets paid every quarter like I do, it matters. The pros are the best choice for students at my school. I don't see them dropping their best selling line of laptops. I mean really, who thinks this crap up? You guys need to get out of your small bubble and discover that there are other people out there who probably have different needs than your own.

Wasn't so sure why you sounded to angry at first but after seeing the hangover explanation, it makes sense. I'd be like that too if I was typing on my iphone, hungover at 1pm on a Thursday stuck on a bus. ANYWAYS...

I'm in college too (junior - Biology major and about to apply to med school) but I feel like this year, many more freshman opted for the MBA than previous years while almost none of the juniors or seniors have one. While more still use the pro, i think that is going to change in the next several years. Most students also still have the preconceived notion in their minds that the MBA is only capable of basically browsing the web and just a play toy, even though now it can do almost everything the average college student does. But when just even a few students opt for the air and tell their friends then i'm sure many more are going to be aware of the benefits and eventually switch over. Also, with a possible 15" MBA on the way, I suspect more students will take a second look at it since many people find the 13" screen too small, such as myself

I agree that not having a CD drive could potentially be a problem for some classes but none of my classes thus far have required me to use my disk drive. Also, any advanced programs (usually bio or chem programs) we need to use are usually licensed to the school's computers only so we need to use the desktops they have anyways. Also you could just purchase a superdrive, if that is economically feasible.

Not really sure what you mean by the MBA screens "suck" especially since it has a higher resolution for it's size compared to the MBP. I don't have a MBA or MBP but when I tested them out at the apple store, there was nothing that I noticed that would bring me to that conclusion, but again, I don't own either at this point so elaborating would be actually helpful, especially from other people.

Also, if the next MBA's can have 6-8 GB of RAM option, I don't see why an average college student would need to upgrade beyond that because for normal work, that seems plenty. None of my friends with MBPs opted for the 8 GB of RAM and they still love it and it runs fine. As for the HD space, if they have 512GB option, that should be good enough for most people. If not, they can always have an external storage drive or just not get the AIR, it's not for everyone. I know 512GB would definitely be enough for me as I'm only taking up about 240GB right now on this computer (HP dv6 pavilion) and I have plenty of music, pictures, and movies stored on this right now.


BUT while I argue against several of your points, I think you're correct in that Apple WON'T get rid of the 13" MBP, nor will they merge the two lines together because the needs of the average consumer and someone who uses this laptop as their primary work station with more intense applications are different and shouldn't be packaged into 1 single line of laptops. Instead, they'll beef it up a bit, set it apart from the AIR and make it truly "Pro" grade, example being the rumored "retina" display for the MBP's