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Apple's New MacBook Air Uses MacBook-Class Amber Lake Chip [Updated]
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swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
I was upset it wasn't quadcore, then found out this.
Haven't Windows laptops around this size been shipping with 15 W quadcore for quite a while now? I could be wrong. I find it really confusing to keep up with Intel chips.
Haven't Windows laptops around this size been shipping with 15 W quadcore for quite a while now? I could be wrong. I find it really confusing to keep up with Intel chips.
It materialized - in them keeping the old model for $999, somebody heard something that was relatively correct and it got scattered on the way, can’t get everything right while playing telephone.
That was the Apple of Steve Jobs & co. The Apple of Tim Cook is focussed very differently. I'm not saying wrong, just different. There are things that Steve could do with Apple that Tim could never have dreamt of. But the same can be said in the reverse… the Apple of Steve would not be a trillion dollar company today. So what is "right" is dependent on your perspective.
You're only silly if you're spending money that could be better spent elsewhere. Apple for me has gone past that line where they are no longer of "good value". Just the same as going out and buying an Audi Q7 only to do your grocery shopping at the supermarket that's less than 3 miles away once every 10 days.
If it's Amber Lake at 5-7W that would explain the longer battery life. As mentioned elsewhere the Macbook lineup is a total mess now.
2017 Macbook Air 13" 128Gb storage, 15w CPU with non retina screen (the one everyone will buy): $999
2018 Macbook Air 13" 128Gb storage, 7w CPU with Retina Screen (the edge shaped one with 13 hour battery life and Touch ID): $1199
2017 Macbook 12" 256Gb storage 5w CPU with small Retina Screen (The ultraportable one with 12" screen): $1299
2017 Macbook Pro 13" non Touch Bar 128Gb storage, 15w CPU with Iris Graphics and Retina Screen (the one without the touch bar or Touch ID): $1299
2018 Macbook Pro 13" with touch bar and 3rd gen keyboard 28w CPU with Iris Graphics: $1799
2018 Macbook Pro 15" with touch bar and 3rd gen keyboard 45w CPU with discrete GPU: £2399
That's a lot of 13" laptops at similar prices don't you think? People buying on price will get confused too.
Disagree.
The Apple of Steve Jobs was the iPhones and services - the main reason why Apple is a Trillion dollar corporation. Tim did a lot of good and bad stuff, but the momentum was in place; plus, he was handpicked by Jobs to hold a line and add.
Accomplished.
Yeah don't hold your breath for that. It's going to be years before the ARM processors are anywhere close to being able to emulate an x86 proc without a massive hit to performance.
Anyone want to venture to guess how the 2018 MBA 8th Gen dual core 1.6GHz will benchmark against the 2017 nTB 13" MBP 7th Gen dual core 2.3GHz? I was about to go 2017 13" nTB MBP before this announcement.
It's Pricing Strategy. if you have noticed, the New iPhone X, New iPad Pro 11 were launched at a significantly higher sales price, while Apple kept the older iPhones and iPad at the same price point. For the business it captures the market, this is why these days car companies came up with as much sub-classes as they could possibly think of. Cook is simply as supply chain kind of person, all his focus is on the numbers instead of product which SJ was crazy about. Profit is more important to Cook than shaking up the world while making a great fortune. It comes down to the convicting personality of today's Apple CEO.
The Macbook Air compare to the already-eye-popping expensive Macbook Pro is seriously overpriced. For $1199 one only gets the shaming 128GB and a 5W CPU, which might only be capable for general tasks. Would be interesting to see how the new CPU stack up against Broadwell CPUs.
People are complaining about the new MacBook Air being only dual-core but the new Surface Laptop 2's are only dual-core and they benchmark well. I am wondering how this Amber Lake Chip compares to the Surface Laptop 2 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U processor?
Jason Snell thinks this wasn’t the plan for the Mac and the reason we have a new Air is because people were still buying the old one. That doesn’t make sense to me. Most likely the reasons people were still buying it were price, keyboard, ports and MagSafe. Yet the new Air is more expensive, uses the new butterfly keyboard, doesn’t have USB-A, SD Card or Mag Safe. Outside of the Retina display how is this satisfying those who were buying the Air over the rMB or rMBP?
Base model is CAD$1500 with 128GB non-replaceable (possibly non-recoverable) storage and 5W dual-core CPUs in 2018/2019. 
Well, I sure don't regret getting a 6-week old ThinkPad for CAD $375 with user-upgradable parts, 1080p IPS display, the ports I actually use, and a keyboard to write home about, to replace my 17" MBP. I do miss the glorious 17" 16:10 display but they don't even make that anymore, anyways.
Well, I sure don't regret getting a 6-week old ThinkPad for CAD $375 with user-upgradable parts, 1080p IPS display, the ports I actually use, and a keyboard to write home about, to replace my 17" MBP. I do miss the glorious 17" 16:10 display but they don't even make that anymore, anyways.
This is the summary that is missing in your article:
So the 12 inch Mac Book ‘Air’ has an older generation Intel processor, a smaller display , only one USB-C, and is $100-400 pricier than the 13.3 inch Mac Book Air
So the 12 inch Mac Book ‘Air’ has an older generation Intel processor, a smaller display , only one USB-C, and is $100-400 pricier than the 13.3 inch Mac Book Air
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When you don't have Steve to tell you what to do you need to hedge your bets and let the market decide. Apple does that and decides how to respond based on the market performance of the products. They don't have anybody who can tell them before they have the last quarters numbers to analyze. In truth, every company is like that as they don't have a Steve either.
I found it strange that Apple is bringing out new MacBook Air with Touch ID, while on the new iPad Pro Touch ID is being replaced by Face ID. If Face ID is better, why not use that on new MacBooks?
If is like the MacBook team are not working with the iPad team - and the former is one step behind in technology
If is like the MacBook team are not working with the iPad team - and the former is one step behind in technology
No thank you.
Posted from my MacBook Pro 2017 that keeps double typing spaces, b's and n's because of this godawful butterfly keyboard. Never again.
Posted from my MacBook Pro 2017 that keeps double typing spaces, b's and n's because of this godawful butterfly keyboard. Never again.
Nomenclature aside . . . and I am not absolving Apple of this. For whatever reason, they have done some weird things with regards to naming. And they are not consistent across much of their product line . . . not that many manufacturers are . . . I need to understand marketing better, no doubt . . .
That aside, there are really are some important differences between the 2017 Macbook and the just announced 2018 Macbook Air. If I quickly compare the two and look at the benefits:
Macbook:
-Cheaper (assuming you standardize storage at 256GB/512GB) by $100
-Noticeably and significantly, for me, smaller/thinner/lighter
-Silent (it is not 100% clear at this point, it seems, if the Macbook Air has fans . . .Apple is using a cpu that needs no fan, but it is unless if they chose to go fanless . . . maybe they need extra cooling for a TB3 controller, for example)
Macbook Air:
-More storage options (in addition to the two middle options above, you get 128GB, 1TB and 1.5TB)
-Two TB3 ports (Macbook does not even have one; it is stuck with only a USB 3.1/3.0 Gen1 port)
-Can drive a 5k external monitor
-More modern cpu likely allows for better hardware decoding support for the most modern codecs
I think they are just different . . . that it is hard to really say one is generally better than the other, unless one of these things is really important to you.
I would preferred that they had eliminated the 2017 Macbook Pro without TB (which they seem to have done), and introduce two new Macbooks . . . whatever they name:
-One 12" and one 13.3" or whatever
-Same internal options . . . just the screen and battery being different
-Included all the storage options of the new Air
-Included the modern dual core cpus, but definitely fanless
Basically, do the same thing they did for the iPhone Xs and Xs Max . . . the only different is the screen size and battery. That would give people two sizes for the Macbook and two for the Macbook Pro. Apple repeatedly said the Air was the most beloved Mac, so I guess the name and shape is really important to many people.
I would also have transitioned the whole Macbook (cheaper) line to A12 chips, but Apple really seems to be going with the iPad Pro with Keyboard instead.
That aside, there are really are some important differences between the 2017 Macbook and the just announced 2018 Macbook Air. If I quickly compare the two and look at the benefits:
Macbook:
-Cheaper (assuming you standardize storage at 256GB/512GB) by $100
-Noticeably and significantly, for me, smaller/thinner/lighter
-Silent (it is not 100% clear at this point, it seems, if the Macbook Air has fans . . .Apple is using a cpu that needs no fan, but it is unless if they chose to go fanless . . . maybe they need extra cooling for a TB3 controller, for example)
Macbook Air:
-More storage options (in addition to the two middle options above, you get 128GB, 1TB and 1.5TB)
-Two TB3 ports (Macbook does not even have one; it is stuck with only a USB 3.1/3.0 Gen1 port)
-Can drive a 5k external monitor
-More modern cpu likely allows for better hardware decoding support for the most modern codecs
I think they are just different . . . that it is hard to really say one is generally better than the other, unless one of these things is really important to you.
I would preferred that they had eliminated the 2017 Macbook Pro without TB (which they seem to have done), and introduce two new Macbooks . . . whatever they name:
-One 12" and one 13.3" or whatever
-Same internal options . . . just the screen and battery being different
-Included all the storage options of the new Air
-Included the modern dual core cpus, but definitely fanless
Basically, do the same thing they did for the iPhone Xs and Xs Max . . . the only different is the screen size and battery. That would give people two sizes for the Macbook and two for the Macbook Pro. Apple repeatedly said the Air was the most beloved Mac, so I guess the name and shape is really important to many people.
I would also have transitioned the whole Macbook (cheaper) line to A12 chips, but Apple really seems to be going with the iPad Pro with Keyboard instead.
I find it nice and easy to refer to my laptops as Air and Pro (we have both), leaving out the word "MacBook". Eventually that plain MacBook line of product itself will be gone.