Thanks find this interesting thread I have a 2012 MBP that is starting to give me some problems and considering a replacement - was going to get another MBP but then at the Apple store saw the latest MBA and was thinking - why pay so much more for pro- sounds as if screen resolution is the major issue since I keep very little data on my MBP
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
All these years later, the Macbook Air is still Apple's most popular laptop
- Thread starter Adelphos33
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Agree.
I see no need for TB3 over TB2 on the MBA, and there isn't much out there that that even challenges TB2. Apple still needs ways to differentiate their ranges, and frankly it's adding more cost that could be better spent on the MBA screen. Don't give Apple ideas for more useless updates
Also I have yet to to see any devices using USB-C in the wild. USB3 with dongles will cover for USB-C for a while longer. USB-C is definitely the way forward but the MBA doesn't need it yet.
USB-C also, in Apple's mind, means getting rid of the magnetic charger. Three times today alone my kids have tripped over the charger wire. I'd have three smashed laptops (or the same one smashed three times) if it wasn't for the magnetic charger.
I didn't think of that - in my silly mind, they would keep MagSafe and add USB-C/TB3 without this significantly impacting price (since I assume the biggest cost is probably TB licensing, which I assume they pay for TB of either generation.)
I sold my 2011 13", 4GB RAM/256 GB upgraded SSD MBA earlier this year and turned around and bought an early 2015 13" 8GB RAM/256GB SSD MBA. The reasons: much better battery life, more RAM and should be supported for another 5 years by OS updates. Got it through a BB Daily Deal - paid less than $1000. Very happy with the MBA and all its features - retina display and Touch Bar are not must-haves for me. I am a techie but I don't have to have the latest and greatest technology - I only get what I need. In fact, I'm about to trade my iPhone 6s+ for an 8+ - not an X! 
Update: I did end up trading for an iPhone X because my carrier bought my old phone and the net cost is actually lower than that of an iPhone 8+ which didn't have the same deal. The screen and FaceID are nice but not "must-haves" for me. However, for the deal price, I decided "Why not?"
Update: I did end up trading for an iPhone X because my carrier bought my old phone and the net cost is actually lower than that of an iPhone 8+ which didn't have the same deal. The screen and FaceID are nice but not "must-haves" for me. However, for the deal price, I decided "Why not?"
Last edited:
They could do worse than giving it a 1080p (well, 1200p) IPS screen and 7th or 8th gen chips to keep it relevant, make those two changes and you automatically have something that’s more than competitive with an XPS or Envy. If they really wanted to go to town they could also put in a force touch trackpad and TB3 rather than 2 port, but these seem more like nice to haves than necessities.
useless computer, you cant work on it, you cant store anything on it, you need external everything including a work computer if anything you can use a macbook air to store on a external devise if lucky a SD card, its basically a ipad with a old fashion keyboard that is committed to one language and region, you cant sell the junk outside the US and its the one computer Apple should drop!
[doublepost=1514675159][/doublepost]
seriously, you can buy a touch screen high res screen laptop for the same price as a macbook air and then run High Sierra on it, it will behave like a iMac i5 with 4-8GB of ram, but hey, its allot better then core two duo from 2009 which is what the macbook air feels like.
All my files are stored in our company server, so not really an issue.
It's a lot more useful than an iPad for work that's for sure.
Under that reasoning, shouldn't Apple also drop the retina MacBook and MacBook Pro as well?
It has the same options as it’s replacement ntb MBP in stock configs - 128 and 256
Which is why my last two MBAs were CTO with 8 GB RAM and came with 512 GB SSD.
Thus, there is no way I will be "getting caught out by the small SSD capacity" or shortage of memory.
The MBA is still the best laptop ever made by Apple, fast, reliable, portable, sturdy, with an excellent battery life.
If it is one's primary system, yeah, that can get tight. My 2014 4GB/128GB 11" MBA complements my iMac so that isn't too much of an issue... A 128GB Sandisk nano USB thumbdrive helps expand that storage in a pinch.
Perhaps these fantasies are true on planets you frequent, here on earth not so much. However thanks for the great laugh...
LOL well played sir, well played.
Well granted, if a user is used to storing their entire digital life on a 1TB hard drive, regardless of where they are, they will wonder "How will I cope?". But my mid-2011 11"/ 4 / 128 Air has a couple hundred documents, 37 videos, 1000 photos, and 1500 songs (none of which I access daily) on it, and it still has 28 GB free. For stuff I consider even less important, I have a pocketable external drive with that on it - all easy to access at any time.
It's a small notebook computer people, not a mainframe.
And for a number of years, the it has been possible to order 256GB or 512 GB SSD drives with an Air, so this is not really a credible complaint or grumble the way it was when the original (and stunning) Air was unveiled in 2008 when capacity was limited and there was no way of increasing it.
So if 128GB of storage is enough. Please tell me this is a frequent problem reported at Apple Genius bars. Tell me why companies like Transcend have brought out products to add extra storage to MBAs. Tell me why the internet is littered with users reporting error messages like "Start up disk full" upon booting their system. Are these people all living in a fantasy land too Burgman?
I'm a middle school robotics teacher, and I use a 2011 11" i5 2GB/128GB Air daily in my classroom. It works wonderfully for all of my needs, most of which revolve around light programming, design, and office productivity. Some day I'll probably get another one, but for now, this little machine does everything I ask of it.
It's 2018 and there are STILL people who are personally offended that Apple still sells the Macbook Air and personally insulted that others would buy and enjoy them.
I'm fascinated and curious to learn what makes people think like that.
I'm fascinated and curious to learn what makes people think like that.
It's 2018 and there are STILL people who are personally offended that Apple still sells the Macbook Air and personally insulted that others would buy and enjoy them.
I'm fascinated and curious to learn what makes people think like that.
(Putting flame suit on)
I think some simply want the newest, shiniest and latest tech just for the sake of it. Some simply want what works well for their needs. Neither group should be offended by the other. As the saying goes: "To each his own"...
It's a bit more than that. Look around at many of the posts in the Macbook Air sub-forum. There are more than a handful that are outraged that Apple dare continue to sell the Air. If it was simply a matter of wanting the newest and latest tech, Apple sells the Macbook Pro with touchbar. And if anyone is actually pleased and delighted by owning and using an MBA, those same people are critical of them. Couple that with the fact that they have to go out of their way into a Macbook Air-specific area of the forum, and it is something else.
I don't know of any Macbook Air owners who are offended that others prefer one of Apple's other notebooks.
It's 2018 and there are STILL people who are personally offended that Apple still sells the Macbook Air and personally insulted that others would buy and enjoy them.
I'm fascinated and curious to learn what makes people think like that.
I suspect it's because people recognize that it's a dismal product that's being sold to people who often don't know better. Apple spent ages earning people's trust with the mantra of don't worry about the technical details, we'll make sure it's the best for you.
It's like Apple still selling the now going on 4-year old Mac Mini as a "new" computer in 2018. A lot of people buying it probably don't know that it's so old, and it's absolutely pathetic that Apple let it get to that state.
It reminds me of Volkswagen still selling the 20-year-old 8-valve 2.0L i4 (known by many as the 'two-point-slow') in 2010+. Most buyers have no idea that it's old junk, they just think that it's "German Engineering" and must be superior.
At the end of the day, I don't care what people use... I don't like the idea of companies taking advantage of people who don't know any better, and this seems to be quickly becoming the norm. It affects all of us.
If you could, please provide some examples of such hoodwinking of the unwashed masses. Of all the people I know who own Macbook Airs, not one of them was confused about what they were buying. I'm not saying that such people don't exist, only that I have yet to run across one in my travels.
Hop over to the iPad sub-forum and you'll find more than a handful of people who bought Macbook Pro's and have discovered that all of their computing needs are satisfied by the iPad. Seems to me that if Apple took advantage of people, it took advantage of THOSE people.
Did you not read the two examples I gave in that post?
I'm only trying to explain why people think this way, since you were asking why.
People who know better often don't want companies selling inferior things to people who don't know better. Then there's also the people who just want old tech to die out rather than live on, again often to people who don't know anything about it.
You mentioned the Mac Mini and Volkswagen. Perhaps I was not specific enough. Do you know anyone who bought a Macbook Air and didn't know it was older hardware and had buyer's remorse?
I didn't say anything about buyer's remorse. That requires that they later learn about what they hadn't known -- maybe they do, maybe they don't. It isn't really the point.