TB is overkill for flash drives, wich is where USB 3.0 will come in handy. That said, we also need shorter and less expensive Thunderbolt cables.
My "Deal maker" would be nothing to do with the Air itself, but for someone to offer an affordable thunderbolt "dock" with Ethernet, FW800, loadsa USB (USB 3 for prefs), sound out, monitor out/TB through... maybe ESATA for good measure...
This would make up for the lack of connectivity on the Air itself.
The Thunderbolt display is one solution, and probably a great (if pricey) one for some people, but a dock would be something that you *could* carry around - or buy additional ones - if needed. For me, the dealbreakers for the TB display are that it only works with TB Macs and that (AFAIK) you can't daisy-chain a second, cheaper display off it (even if your mac model supports 3 screens).
I do like the combination of a 13" laptop with a large screen & full-sized keyboard on the main desk.
I don't know that I would call thunderbolt dead....if it is, its still born...since it came out very premature.
Exactly my point.
$549 HP Pavilion laptop with 6GB of RAM has two USB 3.0 ports, but no Thunderbolt and never will.
WD and Seagate will never tool up a factory to produce Thunderbolt drives without that kind of mass market adoption. Maybe in five years LaCie will produce 1 TB Thunderbolt portables for $300 a pop because there is by then a small Mac market out there in the wild. USB 3.0 drives will sell for $59 each at that time, if not less.
Ram? Battery? Come on, why are people so hyped up about ram? And the battery is already pprrrreetttyy good.
1. I would say SSD right away! The 13" Macbook Air has had a smal 128GB drive for two years and you can't upgrade it.
2. OR I would say the GPU, like most people I know it sucks, you can't even play video games correctly.
3. CPU, it has to be a powerful enough Ivy Bridge, and I fear they will just update to the same if not weaker equivalent of the Sandy Bridge.
4. I do agree that last generation RAM 1600Mhz don't cost much, and it should now be a standard to have 8gb
5. I think it also goes without saying that all computer should now be equiped with USB 3 as well as Thunderbolt
6. Facetime HD is obviously important to me, we've had the same crappy front camera for years now and it's time to upgrade
The rest, like battery or higher screen resolution are bonuses.
Hopefully a faster SSD, more RAM and a matte screen option(most important)
Uh?
I can see your point on the RAM, but the current SSD is already super fast and the MBAs already have matte screens.
I would have chosen both SSD and RAM....My MBA is new so I won't be buying this year, but what I really want?
8GB Ram
500GB SSD
15" Screen
Better GPU.
I can dream...![]()
The current SSDs are fast but there is faster stuff in the market, also they are SATA 2 not SATA 3. By faster i meant SATA 3. Also pretty sure MacBook Airs have glossy screens, they are not as glossy as the glossy screens on the Pros but they still are glossy
This is the airs screen -
Same 11" MBA shell, new 12" Screen.
I'm no surprised that people want RAM. It's a good future proofing choice.
This is my 2011 Air with a handful of apps open. It runs very well with 4GB's of RAM.
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