Apple Updates MacBook Air Line With Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt and Backlit Keyboards

[Ubuntu]

I knew this was going to happen. First people whine and whine about the lack of a backlit keyboard, and then when Apple listens to them and does what they ask for, they start whining about the extra power consumption it takes to give them the feature they were whining about.

You're simply regarding people as one entity. People do this, people do that? Of course they do! Chances are this guy didn't whine about the lack of a backlit keyboard - other people did. So of course you knew this was going to happen, silly.

 

[idunn]

Deflated

Appears one will have to become a student if desiring the white MacBook.


As for the new MacBook Air: disappointment.

About what I expected, but only a slight evolutionary step upwards, and not at all what Apple might have done.

To begin with, not even a black bezel on the thing. Some surely do not care, or even want anything but a sea of aluminum, but others will. Or at least one: me. If all else was thoroughly enticing then maybe I would be willing to get out my crayons and overlook this questionable oversight on Apple's part, but the remainder leaves me somewhat flat as well.

At a glance it appears the most highly coveted and praised aspect of this upgrade will be the return of the backlit keyboard. Good, but only bringing that aspect to parity with the MBP. Other than this, what? Thunderbolt. Good, but same thing, parity with MBP. The option of 256GB flash storage? A notable improvement in option, but again only somewhat less parity with the MBP.

If you think I'm only trying to sing the praises of the MacBook Pro, I'm not. All else equal I would still favor the Air for its lightness and elegant styling. If nice the MBP recently upgraded to Sandy Bridge, Apple still some explaining to do with their subsequent downgrading of the GPU. So unfortunately parity with the Air on a downsized GPU as well, but seemingly not much of an uptick in horsepower to compensate for it.

What am I missing? Oh, probably that every Apple fanboy will now have to run out and buy an Air because this is the latest iteration. Why else?

Well, not if one was expecting Apple to introduce a must-have Air. This seems only a modest new offering, with no reason to buy it unless one was really in the market for an Air anyway.

 

[myrtlebee]

I feel bad for those people who had just purchased a base model 11" a couple months ago.

Why? It'll still be a nice machine. Granted, they would have been better off purchasing the 4gb, but that has nothing to do with the refresh. I have an 11-inch with 4gb - switched to Lion this morning and I love it! Everything is as fast, if not faster than it was with SL. I LOVE 4 finger swipe between fullscreen apps and desktop and dashboard. Fast and convenient. I leave mail open fullscreen now and just swipe to take a quick look at incoming messages.

I also don't know where people were coming up with Lion taking up more space on the hard drive than SL. Not true at all- I have the same amount of space used and free as I did before SL. The only thing different that I've noticed is a rise in RAM consumption while running fullscreen apps in the background- but that's to be expected.

 

[myrtlebee]

Appears one will have to become a student if desiring the white MacBook.

Not true. It is not available in the education store- you must be an educational INSTITUTION to order them- not a student.

 

[RobQuads]

What am I missing? Oh, probably that every Apple fanboy will now have to run out and buy an Air because this is the latest iteration. Why else?

Well, not if one was expecting Apple to introduce a must-have Air. This seems only a modest new offering, with no reason to buy it unless one was really in the market for an Air anyway.

They are never going to make it blisteringly fast otherwise they would be killing the whole 13" MBP market. Higher res and they are stepping on the 15" MBP market,

To get a MBP with the same screen res and a fast SSD you need to spend signigicantly more on the MBP. If you don't need that top end speed then the MBA is a better offering for many. The top end MBA is already knocking on the door off the bottom MBP

 

[bigp9998]

Hey guys!

So...I need help.

I'm definitely getting a 13" macbook air. Ready to pull the trigger on an order now for the maxed out one, 13" with 256GB HD and i7 processor

Here's my issue:

I leave for a 3 month trip on the 28th. If I order online with the i7 processor in it, it says it'll arrive on the 26-28th. I'm around the states for the next week, so if it shows up on the 28th, it's not the end of the world, I can have it shipped to me before I head overseas.

Now, I know they'll be offering these MBA's in stores starting...tomorrow? But they won't be offering the maxed out model, right? Just the i5, not the i7 in stores, is that right?

Is the i7 going to be so much faster than the i5 that I'd be stupid not to hold out and get it? The extra $100 isn't the issue, it's the time issue that i'm dealing with here...

Or will I be able to walk into an Apple store tomorrow and buy a maxed out 13" MBA?

-Steve

Most indications are that the 100mHz bump is really not worth it. Obviously it depends on what you are doing, but most users will not notice a difference at all. You might want to read the following review from Laptop Magazine to help decide which options are worth it.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/apple-macbook-air-13-2011.aspx

 

[Sniv]

For me it's a good update. I'll definitely be buying the 13'' MBA

 

[wovel]

At a glance it appears the most highly coveted and praised aspect of this upgrade will be the return of the backlit keyboard. Good, but only bringing that aspect to parity with the MBP. Other than this, what? Thunderbolt. Good, but same thing, parity with MBP. The option of 256GB flash storage? A notable improvement in option, but again only somewhat less parity with the MBP.

If you think I'm only trying to sing the praises of the MacBook Pro, I'm not. All else equal I would still favor the Air for its lightness and elegant styling. If nice the MBP recently upgraded to Sandy Bridge, Apple still some explaining to do with their subsequent downgrading of the GPU. So unfortunately parity with the Air on a downsized GPU as well, but seemingly not much of an uptick in horsepower to compensate for it.

What am I missing? Oh, probably that every Apple fanboy will now have to run out and buy an Air because this is the latest iteration. Why else?

Well, not if one was expecting Apple to introduce a must-have Air. This seems only a modest new offering, with no reason to buy it unless one was really in the market for an Air anyway.

So you expected them to make the Air more powerful then the MBP and keep the same form factor?

You will never be happy.

 

[JAT]

That is really disappointing news.

Yes I wanted the backlit keyboard back, but couldn't they have improved the battery a little? Or at least kept its life expectancy the same?

An ultraportable computer with a flat battery is a hunk of junk.

Well over 4 hours is "flat"? The Dells my company buys get....well, nobody really knows because they are always plugged in.

You can turn the backlight off, presumably get that half hour back.

At a glance it appears the most highly coveted and praised aspect of this upgrade will be the return of the backlit keyboard. Good, but only bringing that aspect to parity with the MBP. Other than this, what? Thunderbolt. Good, but same thing, parity with MBP. The option of 256GB flash storage? A notable improvement in option, but again only somewhat less parity with the MBP.

So...you judge your hardware by how it compares to other hardware? Solely? Maybe you should figure out what you do, then buy hardware that does that. Quit worrying about whether my computer's keyboard is as bright as yours, or whether your friend's car drives faster than your laptop.

 

[thefourthpope]

The only thing keeping me from an Air is the port location. I hook my MacBook up to an Apple display and use a vertical stand. With the MagSafe and display (now thunderbolt) ports on opposite sides, I don't think the cords will reach... Bummer. It looks like a slick machine.

 

[EHLO]

Deal breakers in declining order of importance, but I'd overlook 2 and 3 if I could get 1;
1. No 8GB option.
2. No Hyper threading (2 core to 4 core).
3. No Turbo multipliers (1.8 GHz to 2.9 GHz).

 

[dawnrazor]

Win win win win win

Prices have come down in this part of the world - the previous 13" MBA maxed out would have cost me $3099NZ but the new maxed out 13", which is way better is going to cost me $2659 instead...... Now that's pricing I can live with, although it does devalue the previous generation on Airs quite badly as a result..oh well 13" 256 1.8 for me and my wife gets my 11" 128 1.6 4GIG, which is no slouch either........

 

[chrmjenkins]

Deal breakers in declining order of importance, but I'd overlook 2 and 3 if I could get 1;
1. No 8GB option.
2. No Hyper threading (2 core to 4 core).
3. No Turbo multipliers (1.8 GHz to 2.9 GHz).

1.Supercharger on a 4 cylinder.
2. Not possible. Intel doesn't offer HT in a chip that fits the Air TDP.
3. It's not clear if they've disabled it or elected to not advertise it. They do not advertise it prominently on the MBP, which offers it.

 

[tirerim]

They are never going to make it blisteringly fast otherwise they would be killing the whole 13" MBP market. Higher res and they are stepping on the 15" MBP market,

To get a MBP with the same screen res and a fast SSD you need to spend signigicantly more on the MBP. If you don't need that top end speed then the MBA is a better offering for many. The top end MBA is already knocking on the door off the bottom MBP

They're not going to make it blisteringly fast because if they did it would literally be blistering. There's only so much heat that form factor can dissipate. ;-)

 

[MacBookAir18]

Does anyone know if the Pad & Quill "The Cartella" for MacBook Air bookbindery case will suit the new MBA's?

Are the dimensions the same as the last MBA's?

I'd like to buy that case if it will fit snugly.

http://padandquill.com/the-cartella-for-macbook-air.html

Thanks!

update: i'm seeing size and weight as 0.3-1.7 cm thin/1.08 kg for 2010 & 2011. Sweet, guess i'm buying that case!

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

I knew this was going to happen. First people whine and whine about the lack of a backlit keyboard, and then when Apple listens to them and does what they ask for, they start whining about the extra power consumption it takes to give them the feature they were whining about.

The 11 inch MBA lost 30 minutes of battery life, and the 13 inch model lost only 11 minutes.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/apple-macbook-air-11-inch-2011.aspx
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/apple-macbook-air-13-2011.aspx

There's a design / engineering flaw in there somewhere.

 

[iExpensive]

The 11 inch MBA lost 30 minutes of battery life, and the 13 inch model lost only 11 minutes.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/apple-macbook-air-11-inch-2011.aspx
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/apple-macbook-air-13-2011.aspx

There's a design / engineering flaw in there somewhere.

Who said that is related to the backlit keyboard? Or is the CPU power consumption the same in both generations?

 

[FluJunkie]

8GB is overkill for people wanting pro machines. Is it taboo to close an application where your from?

1.Supercharger on a 4 cylinder.

Erm, not really, to either one of these.

It's not necessarily a matter of closing applications. In my line of work, there are several popular programs - and indeed, most of my own - that tend to hold data in memory. R is probably the most well known.

Honestly, outside of some very processor intensive tasks, the chip inside the MBA is more than enough. But punch up a single large dataset, apply a few modest transformations to it, and with OS overhead and maybe an email client, you're already making 4 GB of RAM whine at you.

 

[vandeetz]

has anyone heard if the new mac's shipping with lion will include a boot disk or thumb drive? or will we be capable of making our own boot/installation as your able to do when downloading from the app store?

or are they expecting purchasers to only use the internet recovery option?

sorry lot's of questions, just haven't heard any answer to them. I guess we'll know soon enough.

 

[SilianRail]

Is the main purpose of Bluetooth 4.0 to let batteries last longer? Do you need a Bluetooth 4.0 mouse to take advantage of this?

 

[BigKahuna]

I don't see the 13 inch 256GB available. Did they run out, or is it not available yet?

 

[jackc]

I don't see the 13 inch 256GB available. Did they run out, or is it not available yet?

That's weird, it was there earlier. Now it's just a blank space.

 

[df2gadgetman]

has anyone heard if the new mac's shipping with lion will include a boot disk or thumb drive? or will we be capable of making our own boot/installation as your able to do when downloading from the app store?

or are they expecting purchasers to only use the internet recovery option?

sorry lot's of questions, just haven't heard any answer to them. I guess we'll know soon enough.

When I had a 11" MBA, it came with a USB thumb drive where you can reinstall the OS therefore, it may be the same situation since there is no CD/DVD drive.

 

[terahz]

I don't see the 13 inch 256GB available. Did they run out, or is it not available yet?

That's weird, it was there earlier. Now it's just a blank space.

Gone here too, but had it open in a tab, and direct link seems to work:
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MC966LL/A?mco=MjMzOTQzNjM

 

[rcappo]

I like it.

I have a MacBook Pro that I am very happy with, but this was the computer I wish they had back in 2010 when I was deciding between the two. It would have made the decision much harder.