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Apple Announces New MacBook Air With 13-Inch Retina Display and Touch ID

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.
 
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xitongzou said:
Seems like there’s way too much overlap between them. IPad Pro 12, macbook, MacBook Air retina and MacBook Pro 13 w/o tb all sit around the same price range
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and if you walk into the apple store, I bet most users get pushed to the iPad Pro..
 
xitongzou said:
Seems like there’s way too much overlap between them. IPad Pro 12, macbook, MacBook Air retina and MacBook Pro 13 w/o tb all sit around the same price range
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They should probably drop the 13” nTB. It is only slightly faster than the MacBook Air. MacBook vs. Air comes down to portability vs. Thunderbolt and a bigger screen.
 
chooyoshi said:
No USB A port and still having the butterfly keyboard? Why? I have the 2012 11.6 inch mba and might have considered this. Mac mini next!
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Really? You actually expected either of those things? They will not be coming back to Mac notebooks, ever, I'd presume. You are going to be waiting a long time my friend.
Still not sure if you are joking or not, though. Better hang on tightly to that 2012.
 
jgbr said:
and if you walk into the apple store, I bet most users get pushed to the iPad Pro..
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The base iPad starts at $329. It is likely the top seller. It’s a steep step up to $799 or even $649 for the 10.5” Pro.
 
KPOM said:
They should probably drop the 13” nTB. It is only slightly faster than the MacBook Air. MacBook vs. Air comes down to portability vs. Thunderbolt and a bigger screen.
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Keep in mind its 1 inch of screen difference , but a drop from 256GB storage on the MB to 128 GB on the base MBA........
 
joeswamp said:
No way am I buying one with this keyboard, it's borderline unusable to type on and people are still reporting tons of failures. They should never have put it into production, but Jobs wasn't there to kill it...

Only Apple makes good trackpads. The old Air was the last laptop made (by any manufacturer) with a good trackpad and a decent keyboard.
Click to expand...

You mean the keyboard that is on all Mac Notebooks? o_O You might have to look at another brand, my friend. These comments confuse me, of course they are using that keyboard. What else did you expect?
 
thadoggfather said:
Looks like non Touch Bar 13” is done now

Confused why people would opt for a 13” Touch Bar for that matter, price dependent of course
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The 13” nTB is sticking around for now, just like the old MacBook Air. Expect both to be quietly dropped in about a year. Apple is skipping Amber Lake for the 12” MacBook (since it’s using it for the 13.3” MacBook Air). Maybe next year with the long-delayed Cannon Lake they will have a proper refresh of the 12” MacBook and a quiet spec bump for the 13” Air.
 
dli2614 said:
You saying its a bad thing to have the best of both worlds?
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This comes down to when Jobs introduced iPad saying there was a market between devices. Yes there is and now we have so many things that sit on the bracket, filling the gap has now created its own problems.

Where do people turn MacBook Air, Pro, iPad? Portability and power is so easy nowadays.
 
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upandown said:
Bs. It’s fantastic to type on. Very satisfing with more than enough travel. You must not have a smart phone. Because if you did your finger bones absolutely would break when sending a text message.
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Wow, am I talking to Jony Ive here?

I get that it's a personal preference thing but I have yet to meet a real person (not online) that prefers the butterfly keyboard. My wife thought she got used to the new keyboard after using it for about nine months. At that point, keys started sticking so she had to turn the laptop in to get it fixed -- they gave her a MB Air as a temporary loaner. She said she was shocked at how much easier it was to type on the old keyboard vs the new one. Far fewer typing errors and much less fatigue.

For me, if I type on the butterfly keyboard for more than five minutes I want to throw the laptop out the window. Really it's one of the worst keyboards I've ever typed on. Not as bad as an Atari 400 membrane keyboard but that will probably be Apple's next step in thinning the machine.
 
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pbasmadj said:
Bit confused by this as well. Seems like they should phase out the retina Macbook now. As why would anyone buy that single port thing. Never liked those.
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Because iPad Pro still isn't as good as any Mac.
 
First up, highly disappointed.

thadoggfather said:
Looks like non Touch Bar 13” is done now

Confused why people would opt for a 13” Touch Bar for that matter, price dependent of course
Click to expand...

Wrong. The current nTB 13'' Pro Model is far superior in performance.

leftyMac said:
how does it compare to the 12" MacBook?
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Basically the same. There won't be much difference in processing performance compared to the 7th Gen i-series in the MacBook 12'' inch.

elhungarian said:
Is this the cpu in the new air?

It’s the only dual core 8th gen I could find
https://ark.intel.com/products/185280/Intel-Core-i5-8200Y-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3-90-GHz-
Click to expand...

It's an Apple specific Amber-Lake processor:

xFxn3hG.png


DanGoh said:
The still sell the nTB 2017 MBP 13" with 7th Gen Intel processors for $1300 is the new Air better or nah?
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From Benchmarks, the new Air is as good as a 2013 13inch MacBook Pro with 22nm Haswell processor...

calstanford said:
It's like the 13" Macbook Pro but even slower for more money. Huh?! It's not even really lighter or smaller either. Nor does it have a better screen or more ports or anything.

What am I missing?
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+1

Steve121178 said:
Very, very disappointing.
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+1

PatriotInvasion said:
256GB Gold model ordered to replace my 2015 12" MacBook. Aside from the higher than expected/hoped for price tag, this is the MacBook Air everyone has wanted for a long time. The weird thing though is why the 12" MacBook still exists. They updated the Gold color option of the 12" on the site to match this new hue, but nothing else is upgraded. Why would anyone choose a 12" that has last year's processor, lacks Thunderbolt 3, Touch ID, and has a smaller display? Just weird...but pumped for my new Air!
Click to expand...

This upgrade makes no sense. Your new MacBook Air will have a 10% performance boost...at best.

Matthew.H said:
Yeah I'll stick with my 2014 Macbook Pro thanks. Higher clock speed, same RAM, more reliable keyboard and the screen is still better. I was hoping to upgrade at some point but the pricing is getting silly. The base model Air costs £200 more than my Pro did yet has worse performance.
Click to expand...

True. This new MacBook Air has reached the performance level of 5-year old MacBook Pros. Hurray...

KPOM said:
Perhaps it’s a new Intel processor? Seems unlikely, but Intel has designed processors for Apple before. I notice it has UHD 617 graphics and not 615.
Click to expand...

See above.
 
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joeswamp said:
Wow, am I talking to Jony Ive here?

I get that it's a personal preference thing but I have yet to meet a real person (not online) that prefers the butterfly keyboard. My wife thought she got used to the new keyboard after using it for about nine months. At that point, keys started sticking so she had to turn the laptop in to get it fixed -- they gave her a MB Air as a temporary loaner. She said she was shocked at how much easier it was to type on the old keyboard vs the new one. Far fewer typing errors and much less fatigue.

For me, if I type on the butterfly keyboard for more than five minutes I want to throw the laptop out the window. Really it's one of the worst keyboards I've ever typed on. Not as bad as an Atari 400 membrane keyboard but that will probably be Apple's next step in thinning the machine.
Click to expand...
For me it is like typing on a cutting board, almost no tactile feel at all.

Now, I might be biased, I love the mechanical keyboards, but let's be honest, the pre butterfly keyboard was very pleasant to type on. This one is horrible. Each to their own, though.
 
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wiesel87 said:
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.
Click to expand...


I really hope the will update the 13inch MBP with no TouchBar to Whiskey-Lake processor.
 
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KPOM said:
Ian Cuttress at AnandTech says he thinks it’s a binned speed boost of the 8200Y.
Click to expand...
Just wondering will the new MBA become just such a noisy and overheated machine my previous 2011 MBA had become over some time (with dust in hardware and software)? Even with a setback of a power drop deadly quiet rMB was a game changer for me in that aspect.
 
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