2018 MacBook Air and Mac mini Hands-On: Long-Awaited Updates Don't Disappoint

[happyslayer]

I'm pretty sure the fact that the new Mac mini uses the T2 chip (which among other things is the SSD controller with 256bit encryption) that the SSD has to be one of Apple's and most likely soldered on the board like the MacBook, MacBook Pro and the new Air...

Although the Mac Pro (trashcan) does also have a T2 and it might have upgradeable drives. (Sorry, too lazy to go look right now.)

 

[Alphazoid]

Does that mean it will share the power of the CPU or it just gives you more space for the desk with multiple monitors?

Stackable for server racks

 

[kemal]

Seem to me the Air is to "replace" the non-TB MBP.

 

[Tastannin]

Although the Mac Pro (trashcan) does also have a T2 and it might have upgradeable drives. (Sorry, too lazy to go look right now.)

iMac Pro does have the T2. The current (trashcan) Mac Pro doesn't.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

What's the purpose of stacking multiple Mac Mini together?

Like they showed in the presentation, for intensive video production workflows where each Mac Mini can handle a share of the processing.

Too, for server racks.

 

[DragonRider]

Just one day I still believe that iPad pro will kill off MacBook Air/Pro.

Not until I can run virtualized machines....

 

[CarlJ]

Does that mean it will share the power of the CPU or it just gives you more space for the desk with multiple monitors?

If you don't know offhand why one might want a stack of them, you don't need a stack of them. (Generally it'd be for a render farm or compile farm - high-end stuff where the cost of the time saved outweighs the cost of the hardware.)

 

[Yr Blues]

The MacBook line is confusing AF now.

 

[Robert McNewbie]

The fact of the matter is, they won't admit to the 12" MacBook being a complete flop

My daughter loves her MB. She choose it over the MBP nTB

 

[iReality85]

So... where does this leave the MacBook?

The MacBook is now, oddly enough, the smallest laptop (in terms of screen size), has the least ports (just the single USB-C), and has less resolution than the Air.

The Air's feature set is attractive, but there really is no point anymore in Apple trying to distinguish between what is a MacBook and what is a MacBook Air. They're even the same wedge shape!

The new MacBook Air is basically MacBook 2017 v2, which, if you look at it that way, doesn't make the $1,199 starting price seem that bad, since MacBooks start $100 higher...

 

[CarlJ]

With the new T2 "security" chip I wonder if the Mac Mini will boot if you upgrade the memory yourself?

Given that they made a point of calling out the SO-DIMM slots, and suggesting that that would make some customers especially happy, I'd have a hard time believing you can't upgrade the RAM yourself.

 

[ElZamo92]

Those MacBooks are WAY overpriced. In my opinion, a laptop that costs more than $1000 in 2018 should at least have four cores.
As for the Mac Minis, they look good enough, too bad they have laptop CPUs in them. At least having these lower power CPUs will help them maintain consistent turbo boost speeds.

 

[AFITgrad86]

Because it looks cool?

Cluster computing? Especially with the 10GB ethernet to support intertask communications from the cluster controller ... Did I mention using Thunderbolt to connect external video cards .. would be a seriously fast render machine.

 

[newdeal]

lets not forget though, the iMac comes with a nice 21.5" display, a keyboard that is sold for $130 and a mouse that is sold for $100 (canadian) and the unit is only $400 more than the mac mini. I won't consider 1TB hard drive vs 128gb SSD one way or the other but for a desktop 128gb does seem pretty small and you would likely need to add an external hard drive to the price for photos etc

 

[EugW]

The pricing suggest that they are anything but replacements. If I was a first-time Mac buyer, I'd be more than a little put out (and confused) that the 'Air' is larger and heavier than the regular MacBook, yet is priced very close to the infinitely better value MacBook Pro 13".

The fact of the matter is, they won't admit to the 12" MacBook being a complete flop - which again, will have partly been due to it's high entry price. All they had to do was introduce a tapered 13" notebook, set it sub-£1000 and you're in business.

And as for the Mac Mini... Have they forgotten already that we need to buy a mouse, keyboard and display on top of the £800?

I love my 12", but there are a few big problems with it:

1) No second USB-C port
2) No Thunderbolt
3) Price

 

[cppguy]

It sucks that the storage is not user upgradeable. This is not an ultra book. The Intel NUC is significantly smaller than the Mac Mini, and yet the storage is user upgradeable.

 

[zooland]

So... where does this leave the MacBook?

The only reason I can think of it will be the first Arm Macbook next year, tiptoeing the water and get the debs an idea of what to come the next years.

 

[lostngone]

Given that they made a point of calling out the SO-DIMM slots, and suggesting that that would make some customers especially happy, I'd have a hard time believing you can't upgrade the RAM yourself.

Agreed but with the latest Macbook Pro self repair/3rd-party repair debacle I could see Apple pulling something like that.

 

[Yr Blues]

Those MacBooks are WAY overpriced. In my opinion, a laptop that costs more than $1000 in 2018 should at least have four cores.
As for the Mac Minis, they look good enough, too bad they have laptop CPUs in them. At least having these lower power CPUs will help them maintain consistent turbo boost speeds.

I wish everyone would buy a mini and let Apple know the MacBook line is unacceptable. Yikes, that mini price hike!

 

[BreuerEditor]

Looks like I'll be picking up a mini with the 6-core 128GB with 8GB of RAM to run as a Plex server. MASSIVE improvement over my current Synology setup (1817+ vs 4-core mini vs 6-core mini) as it proves I can do SEVEN 1080p transcodes compared to ONE!

 

[nebo1ss]

This is not a replacement for the old MacBook Air, it's a new 13" MacBook
The old Air had an i5-5350U 15W CPU, where as the new Air has a Core i5-8200Y 7W CPU


MacBook Air (128GB) - i5-5350U 15W CPU - 999$
MacBook (256GB) - Core m3-7Y32 7W CPU - 1299$
MacBook Air Touch (128GB) - Core i5-8200Y 7W CPU - 1199$
MacBook Pro nTB (128GB) - Core i5-7360U 15W CPU - 1299$

That means that the current MacBook Pro nTB is really the new Air if you looking only at performance (better cpu, gpu and screen). It's not worth it to buy the new Macbook Air Touch, when you get an MacBook Pro nTB for only 100$ more. The only things you will be missing is 3. gen keyboard and Touch ID.

You don't seem to be that familiar with the specs variations on the old MacBook air. My 2015 Air has a 2.2Ghz intel core I7 cpu.

 

[el-John-o]

I believe they are incorrect about not being able to change the CPU.

The CPU was clearly socketed in the keynote, so guys like me can remove the logic board and upgrade ourselves.

Maybe. They didn't look socketed to me, but if they were; there's the issue of thermal performance. They've likely just built enough cooling to support the current chip. Usually, Mac products struggle to even stay turbo'ed up very long.

What's the purpose of stacking multiple Mac Mini together?

During the keynote they mentioned support for things like render farms, touting it's 10GbE interface. If it's actually price competitive, then it could be a pretty compelling render farm setup. We may even see a resurgence of rack mounts for Mac Minis. A few dozen (or more) Mac Minis on a rack handling rendering tasks in Premiere for example.

 

[cmwade77]

Huh? Only being able to upgrade any desktop system to 64 GB of RAM is not a compromise? Really, this should be upgradable to at least 128 GB, if not more.

 

[Macalope]

I was incredibly disappointed by the Mini. I was looking for an updated, current-spec $500 or maybe $550 way to replace my 2012 Mini and let me stay in the Mac ecosystem. The old machines were supposed to be affordable ways to have a Mac. That's gone now. Most people's incomes have not risen 60% over the last 6 years to match these price increases. In fact, the middle class in the USA has probably seen real income go up only, what, 5% or something? Going up to $800 is an awful leap, at least to people who saw the Mini as I did -- and on top of that you'd have to get external storage to compensate for this ridiculous 120GB storage. So I don't think I will be replacing my old Mini with a new one, after all, which is a massive disappointment. Nor do I think I will be replacing my $600 iPad Pro with a $1000 one -- something else I'd been excited for. It's sad times. And of course the new MBA is so expensive, too. I've got a longstanding connection to the Mac platform dating back to the 80s and I'm pretty sad to have to leave it. My income level is just not what Apple is targeting anymore. It's pretty amazing to me that these tech journalists don't get what has happened here with these prices.

 

[Dorje Sylas]

With the new T2 "security" chip I wonder if the Mac Mini will boot if you upgrade the memory yourself?

This is a very valid question. Also the T2 'security' chip is likely the SSD controller, and I didn't see a bypass port to access the SSD if the logic board goes toast.

Kinda makes the 128 SSD the only side you'll ever want, since you shouldn't store anything important on it. Which again seems make the whole security point of the T2 pointless. If Apple expects us hang all kinds of insecure backup and external drives off the device to actually make it useful. At least a desktop is better in this than a Laptop since hopefully the location you're using the desktop will remain secure.

 

[lostngone]

Cluster computing? Especially with the 10GB ethernet to support intertask communications from the cluster controller ... Did I mention using Thunderbolt to connect external video cards .. would be a seriously fast render machine.

It might uplink/negotiate to a switch at 10 Gigabit but I want to see if it can sustain over 1 gigabyte per second transfer rates before I agree with that.