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Anyone wish the MBA had a retina display?

81Tiger04

81Tiger04

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 11, 2009
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I made the decision to buy my wife a MBA and have been reading threads for the past month. It would be replacing her 6 year-old MacBook (of the white plastic variety). A couple questions linger ...

- I've got a mid 2010 MBP with 15-inch (1680 x 1050) display. I'm looking for frame of reference, how does the MBA compare? All of the retina talk has confused me more than anything to the point that I wonder if it's blurry.

- Am I justified in worrying that I buy the MBA now, only to see an significant upgrade soon thereafter?

Thanks for your help!
 
I think the MBA is position as a reliable, portable, long battery life, and on the cheap side (Apple speaking) laptop. I can't imagine a retina display in the next year or two. But hey, prove me wrong Apple...
 
For someone that is in need of something predominately for MS Office and iTunes purposes, will a 128GB 8GB RAM be fine? Her internet usage is generally done on her iPad (although she will obviously use the MBA too).
 
It isn't blurry by any means. The ppi is almost the same as your 15 inch Macbook Pro, both around 130-ish. I don't think the Macbook Air will get retina until about 2014...the technology isn't there yet. I consider the 13 inch Macbook Pro with Retina to be underspec'd and overpriced. I would imagine that if Apple gave the Macbook Air retina too soon, it would have the same flaws.

Overall, I think now is one of the best times to buy a Macbook Air. Its Apple's best laptop in my opinion.
 
yanksrock100 said:
It isn't blurry by any means. The ppi is almost the same as your 15 inch Macbook Pro, both around 130-ish. I don't think the Macbook Air will get retina until about 2014...the technology isn't there yet. I consider the 13 inch Macbook Pro with Retina to be underspec'd and overpriced. I would imagine that if Apple gave the Macbook Air retina too soon, it would have the same flaws.

Overall, I think now is one of the best times to buy a Macbook Air. Its Apple's best laptop in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I agree. :p

I do not think we will see a Retina Macbook Air before 2015. Apple is making the macbook air is the cheapest notebook, however, extremely fast for the average user, who wants to experience greater productivity than it is on the iPad. It's just that you see the notebook that sells more, unless the mistake, is the macbook air because you have a good price, but could be better :D. And honestly, as much as 230ppi is good, not far from "true retina." I think Apple was quick to show us the Retina Macbook Pro, and left them overpriced and low power graphics not handle these run very high resolutions.
 
yanksrock100 said:
It isn't blurry by any means. The ppi is almost the same as your 15 inch Macbook Pro, both around 130-ish. I don't think the Macbook Air will get retina until about 2014...the technology isn't there yet. I consider the 13 inch Macbook Pro with Retina to be underspec'd and overpriced. I would imagine that if Apple gave the Macbook Air retina too soon, it would have the same flaws.

Overall, I think now is one of the best times to buy a Macbook Air. Its Apple's best laptop in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. A retina display would be nice but not at the expense of battery life.
 
Yes, just for the purpose that it pushes the regular AIR still further down and me getting yet a better deal.
 
I picked up a 15" Retina MBP form the Apple store for my father in law and spent all Sunday afternoon setting it up for him. I have to say, that I didn't really notice the "retina" advantage in any discernible way, I thought i'd notice it more and actually I can't see any advantage in putting one in the Air now. Sure it's a bit sharper with certain apps, but by how much is the question, I sure didn't come back to my Air thinking it looked any different.
 
As a photographer, no

I use a MBP quad-core i7, max RAM, and Mercury SSD; geekbench runs 10,300.

My 13" MBA, also i7, also maxed but with Apple components, runs 7,500.

I put the MBA side-by-side with a rMBP, and the only difference I could see (looking at images from a photographer's site) was that the blacks were very slightly blacker. The tech I was looking with couldn't see any difference.

No to Retina display, for me.
 
Thanks, guys. I ordered my wife's MBA and feel great about it. Being someone that always wants the best, i can't help but always second-guess myself when making decisions. You guys have helped tremendously.
 
In terms of pixels I'm happy with my 13" MBA. I'm able to switch between my 1080p monitor and MBA screen without seeing a big difference unless I'm doing something specific like Photoshop editing.
 
iAppl3Fan said:
An MBA with a retina screen is branded as 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display!
Click to expand...

They're not nearly as similar as you think. I've spent a lot of time handling and comparing them in the store. The 13" rMBP is thicker (even thicker than the 15" rMBP), heavier, different (better) port selection, larger power supply (60W vs. 45W), smaller footprint (due to the smaller screen bevel), etc.
 
MTD's Mac said:
They're not nearly as similar as you think. I've spent a lot of time handling and comparing them in the store. The 13" rMBP is thicker (even thicker than the 15" rMBP), heavier, different (better) port selection, larger power supply (60W vs. 45W), smaller footprint (due to the smaller screen bevel), etc.
Click to expand...

You are correct. However, the retina screen drain so much battery that the casing needs to be bigger. Hence, a block rather then tapered. It's the same way with the iPad 2 vs iPad 3. The iPad 3 gain retina at a cost of a slightly thicker body heavier all to accommodate more battery. If apple put a retina on the current MBA, we probably get 2-3 hour battery life, increasing cost and creeping into RMBP territory.
 
iAppl3Fan said:
You are correct. However, the retina screen drain so much battery that the casing needs to be bigger. Hence, a block rather then tapered. It's the same way with the iPad 2 vs iPad 3. The iPad 3 gain retina at a cost of a slightly thicker body heavier all to accommodate more battery. If apple put a retina on the current MBA, we probably get 2-3 hour battery life, increasing cost and creeping into RMBP territory.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this seems to be the case. Of course, what magic Apple can work with battery life using Intel's Haswell chips next summer remains to be seen.

Personally I'd love to see the next MBA get a 1920 x 1200 screen - that's 170 DPI, good enough for "retina" at 20 inches viewing distance.
 
I just don't see the MacBook Air going Retina anytime soon. As noted, the heavier battery drain of the display and backlight impacts battery life and with the smaller physical volume in the MacBook Air case, less battery capacity means less usable life and yet the MBA is designed to be an "all day portable" due to it's lightness.

Eventually the display power draw will come down to what non-retina displays currently need, but I see that more as the 2014 release, not 2013.
 
An 11" MBAir with Retina would be nice but the battery life on my 11" MBAir is already short. So until battery life improves on these little machines I'd have to pass on Retina.
 
I wished that my MacBook Air had a retina display.

I wouldn't pay a hefty price difference for one though. More than anything, I wished the Air had an IPS display instead of the TN panel and two Thunderbolt ports so I could hook it up to dual displays without a Cinema Display (or I could settle if someone made a Thunderbolt hub).
 
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