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Apple Predicted to Release Ultra-Slim 12-Inch MacBook with Retina Display in Mid-2014

ValSalva said:
By eliminating the current 11" and 13" MacBook Airs and replacing them with this 12" MacBook (Air or whatever it's called) Apple can offer a thin and light sub-Pro laptop at a lower price point because they only have to make one size.
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I just hope they can somehow manage that the price doesn't go up to the sky, because for my wallet the MBA is a barely an affordable option, but no way I could buy such an expensive machine like the rMBP.

I am planning to use my 13" MBA 2011 for at least another 2 years, so it doesn't really concern me right now, but I'm still curious.
 
The current MBAs are 11.6" and 13.3" so 12" would not be a great change from the smaller model. It might be just enough to make 4:3 practical with Apple's standard keyboard. In that case, I would buy one, but I definitely won't buy a 16:10 laptop.
 
The 11' is perfectly capable to become 12' without even changing the current formfactor.

I sure hope they change the current MBA screens because today the screen is the reason I'm not buying a macbook. And the mbp is overkill in so many ways
 
To all those who didn't get suckered into buying all the filler-hardware this year like the 5S et al. Well done for your self discipline. There was no need to "upgrade" incrementally.

Moral of the tale. 2014 could be the year Apple finally returns to what people want. Big screen iPHONE. Super light notebooks with keyboards. Real keyboards. NOTtt resized iPads. And to top it off. Affordable iMacs.

Apple. There still hope yet! Roll on next year when I can start spending my money again. Excellent! And not a day too soon. Whew!:)
 
No Way

Really, Macrumors? How is it even physically possible to make something thinner than the MacBook Air (with a smaller battery) and have a Retina display (increasing power needs) while still maintaining a great battery life?
 
Santabean2000 said:
[Don't get me wrong, I would also welcome a return of the 17" too, but 'Power Users' need to understand they are by far and away the minority.]
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I think that Apple's woeful treatment (if not utter neglect) of their professional clientele over the last 3+ years has hit that point home quite well enough, thank you. :(
 
Scarpad said:
I hate to say it but between the iMac and now the macbook, apple is turning me off with all this need to be the thinnist out there, it gets to the point where it starts hampering performance, it does'nt always have to be the thinnist
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Yeah, Apple's laptops are very thin...I'd prefer they work to make the components thinner but keep the laptops themselves the same thickness and use the difference to accommodate more battery.
 
something new is always coming out from apple, and then you have to keep waiting just because a new rumour says something new and better.

This guys are the ones who kill the market when everyone keeps waiting for the best next thing
 
Ryth said:
Um...you know this is the Mac Book AIR, not Mac Book PRO Retina.

Haswell MBPR's will probably be out in in the next month whenever the new MacPro hits. BTW, don't be surprised to possible see the Mac Book Pros show up in black also like the new Mac Pro.
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Been waiting over 6 months to trade my iMac for a laptop, but not interested in the 11", 12", 13" Air or whatever ..... just want the 15" Haswell rMBP to be released !! Black would be cool, but Space Grey would be cooler. Here's hoping for next week.
 
The 12" seems like a good option, especially if it runs on an Apple branded processor and replies mainly on iCloud as the OS. Apple would be wise to bring a new product to market that competes directly with chrome books.
 
mrbyu said:
A 2304 x 1440 retina display would mean a usable screen estate equivalent of a 1152 x 720 normal resolution only... It's even smaller than the one on the current 11" MBA. Yes I know that you have the options to scale differently, but it wouldn't be perfect as OS X is still not completely resolution independent (controls and other system elements would be incredibly small on the screen).
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You're funny, the current UI displayed at 720 vertical pixels doesn't leave you enough space but if you scaled it to let's say 900 vertical pixels everything would be incredibly small. Which is it, do you want more screen estate by having smaller UI elements or do you want to keep the same physical size of the UI elements?
 
amccullough said:
Really, Macrumors? How is it even physically possible to make something thinner than the MacBook Air (with a smaller battery) and have a Retina display (increasing power needs) while still maintaining a great battery life?
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Simple - chop of the gentle curvature of the bottom while adjusting the wedge shape to be a little thicker throughout (Still thinner than before.

Or just ditch the wedge shape entirely and make it the thickness of a USB port.

This could be the laptop to bring me back to the Air - the 11" was just too small vertically (Because it is 16:9) and the 13" had too large of a footprint being the same size as the 13" non-retina MBP.


Though I would miss all the ports on my current retina MBP, so maybe not.
 
SmoMo said:
Talking of ports, I really don't like USB any more, it is too big and only goes in one way, and I often seem to scratch the macbook around the port because it is also so sharp on the edges.

Now, lightning can obviously be used for USB, and you could fit 3 or 4 side by side if they were vertical in the space of a regular USB port.

I know that would mean you'd need USB/Lightning adaptors to start with, but if Sir Jonny Ive could design an awesome little adaptor that maybe sat over the top of the USB plug and offered a little wriggly lightning connector on the end then I'd be happy.

----------

[/COLOR]

I definitely don't want an optical drive in any macbook again, I have an ultra slim USB3 drive that gets used about twice a year.
Obviously your needs must be different than mine, but why can't you just carry an external drive and be happy? That seems fairer than me having to lug around an optical drive taking up batter space in my macbook when I don't use it.
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The Lightning port is an interesting idea but it would create another huge outcry of Apple being non-standard, insisting on doing their own thing, always needing adaptors etc., this forum here would boil over with hatred. The other thing is that USB cables always have different plugs at both ends to illustrate that USB is always a master-slave situations, ie, you cannot connect two computers via USB (which would be possible mechanically if there were cables with two USB-A plugs) or connect two hard drives to each other (via a two USB mini plugs cable). Using Lightning would break that convention.

And regarding the optical drive, I fully agree with you, for almost anybody it means carrying around something they need very rarely but I'd still hate to be limited to 768 GB (current 15" rMBP), at a very high price on top, compared to my current setup of 1.5 TB (which I could up to 2.5 TB by combining a 1 TB SSD with a 1.5 TB HDD).
 
manu chao said:
You're funny, the current UI displayed at 720 vertical pixels doesn't leave you enough space but if you scaled it to let's say 900 vertical pixels everything would be incredibly small. Which is it, do you want more screen estate by having smaller UI elements or do you want to keep the same physical size of the UI elements?
Click to expand...

Compare it to the experience of the old MBP that offered an optional "high res" display at 1680 x 1050. It looked ridiculous compared to 1440 x 900
 
SactoGuy18 said:
While it sounds plausible, here's why it might NOT happen: the GPU provided by Intel with its CPU chipset may not be powerful enough to drive a high-resolution Retina Display.
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Last year's Intel GPU is powerful enough to power a 13" retina screen plus two 27" externals:

Intel HD Graphics 4000

Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display (2560 x 1600) and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colors.
 
This is exactly the kind of MacBook I am waiting for.

I hope it has options for 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. Then it will be exactly the machine I want. Extra points if it can Geekbench over 8000.

Edit: Doesn't need to be thinner than the current MBA. If they could get the weight somewhere in the ballpark of the 11" MBA, that would be awesome. I'm currently typing this on a Samsung ARM Chromebook which weighs about the same as the 11" MBA, and the portability of it fantastic.
 
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The "THIN-AIR Book?" Is this a replacement for the air book? Or is it the new MacBook Pro? Me confused. With it being even thinner than the current MacBook Air tho...I highly doubt its a MacBook Pro replacement. Hard to imagine App,e being able to cram the power of a pro into something so thin.
 
Am I the only one that does NOT want to see Apple getting rid of the Classic MacBook Pro?? I like the ability to upgrade the RAM and Internal drives, as well as the matte display option, internal gigabit ethernet, FW800, and optical bay. These are all things lacking on the Retina MacBook Pros.

The Retina displays are actually not that great yet. They are lacking in some regards, viewing angles, brightness, etc....the quality is not perfect yet. And the OS and Apps do not all support the Retina display yet....some major apps still look very grainy on the Retina display. The Retina MacBook Pro still seems like an experimental/hobbyist machine to me and is much more prone to crashes as is right now.

I know, because I had one. I sold it on eBay....now I have a Classic model and like it much, much better.
 
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