I know its not for me, but to be honest I really don't get who this is for:
Power Users/Media Pros:
+ Retina Screen
- Less Power (Intel M)
- No SD Slot
- One Port (Many Dongles)
Students:
+ More Portable
- Much more Expensive than MBA options
Travellers:
+ Thin and Light
- 480p FaceTime Camera
- Despite all the battery hype, its still the same 9hrs as the Air
- One Port (Many Dongles) means more bulk to carry and lose
It definitely looks good and the color options are nice. But the lack of MagSafe, Downgraded keyboard, Less Power and expensive Dongles doesn't really make it clear what the target user is.
Because we don't all fit nicely in one neat category, and our + and - are not necessarily the same as yours. I totally agree with the "My Mom" argument above (and in general, casual users). Mine is a Windows girl, but she has an iPad, which she loves and which replaced her Samsung tablet, and still uses my dad's (15" bulky plastic) laptop to run her rental house business. And every time she has to, she moans at it and hates it. She always said she would love my Air if she didn't have to learn OSX.
And then you have me. I'm what you would call a "power user" with an iMac and a MBA. The MBA is my secondary computer and really doesn't do any heavy lifting. I was also going to upgrade it anyway.
+ Retina screen
+ Thinner and Lighter
+ Battery life (compared to my current MBA)
+ New trackpad
+ Form factor (16:10 instead of 16:9)
All of these are what makes the price difference with a 2015 MBA worth it - I would have gotten a 11" with 8Gb and 256Gb disk, so we're talking $100 here.
Only potential negative :
- The processor - I may or may not upgrade to the 1.3, depending on the price and, most importantly, the reviews.
What doesn't matter to me :
. One port. I'm one of those rare persons who never use them.
. No SD slot. What's that thing again ? I already don't have one. Nobody with a 11" have one.
. The price.
Because it's only $100 more and I already had the money saved up for a new one.
. The camera. I never use it either, not on the MBA.
One thing I had to think about :
. Screen real estate. I tend to run my retina screens scaled anyway.
So while I agree it IS probably wise to wait for Gen2, and that it's probably not for most people yet, it's not that bad, for people, like me, who value (some of) its advantages more than its drawbacks.
But it irks me to see everybody conveniently compare it with the base models of the Air (4Gb RAM and 128Gb SSD). Use the same config when you can (RAM and SSD) and you get a very different results. If you want to compare it with another base model, the rMBP is fair game, not so much the Airs.
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Also, my vote : It's cool. It's certainely amazing from an engineering point of view, but some choices they had to make cost it its last star. It's an amzing glimpse into the future of Apple's computers, and the direction they're going.
Give it a couple years, and I bet it will really be amazing. Looks to me like it's on the same path as the MBA was.