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Apple's New MacBook Air Uses MacBook-Class Amber Lake Chip [Updated]
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Not really excited by this. It's not a good value like the Airs of old. Those 15w U chips are built for Air-like machines...
It's really weird that there are no cpu upgrade options either.
I think I'd rather have a MacBook than this Air. At least the compromises make sense in that laptop... These compromises are just to make the Pro look great at $1799.
Benchmarks will be interesting, especially under sustained loads. Maybe the 5w cpu is great when it doesn't have to throttle.
It's really weird that there are no cpu upgrade options either.
I think I'd rather have a MacBook than this Air. At least the compromises make sense in that laptop... These compromises are just to make the Pro look great at $1799.
Benchmarks will be interesting, especially under sustained loads. Maybe the 5w cpu is great when it doesn't have to throttle.
Cannonlake is built on Intel's 10nm process. Processors based on that node won't be available in volume until 2nd-half 2019, most likely Fall 2019. Intel has been having a lot of manufacturing issues with their 10nm process.
I know. That’s when I think the MacBook will be upgraded. Amber Lake Y isn’t a compelling upgrade over Kaby Lake Y. So Apple is just going to sell the 2017 MacBook until then.
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Does the Air have a fan? I have heard different reports. If it does, it likely won’t throttle as much and so it could have a more noticeable impact on sustained performance than what it looks like on paper. I run Windows 10 in a VM on the 12” MacBook. It is fine for what I need it for.
um...as a regular MacBook user of over 3 years I can safely say you are wrong.
The only thing that bogs down the MacBook is continuous CPU loading. Its pretty terrible running plugins in Logic for example.
But for mobile Indesign and even general photoshop work its pretty great with its turbo boost abilities.
So much negativity. The 2017 Macbook with a m5 at 1,3 Gh is only 2% slower than a 2015 Macbook pro 13 on Geekbench 3 (single and multi core). This babe as what looks like a much more powerfull 8th gen at 1.6 Gh. Performance won’t be an issue for me if i buy one but i am not doing 4k edit all day.
The extra 2hours of battery life are important to me, my 2011 air was the only laptop i owned that came close to giving me a real full day. Oh and the Air brand brings back found memories. It earned its stripes, that might be a reason to keep it.
The extra 2hours of battery life are important to me, my 2011 air was the only laptop i owned that came close to giving me a real full day. Oh and the Air brand brings back found memories. It earned its stripes, that might be a reason to keep it.
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I am trying to figure out the main difference between.
i5-8200 and i5-8210,
I realize the i5-8210 is 7w, so must have more power.
UHD 615 vs UHD 617,
They look the same, except Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency is up 100Mhz on the 617,
that can't be the only difference? Whats the point of making an all new sku custom for apple, if thats the only change.
How can MB be the thinnest, lightest machine when the MBA is touted as that same thing?
I would venture to say that the typical buyer (student, office worker, home consumer, etc..) will not know, notice, or care that the MBA uses a low power processor. They will care about battery life. They will care about the display. They will care about Touch ID. They will care about the speakers. And......they will definitely care about the keyboard, so if the butterfly mechanism has serious problems ......this MBA will be a bust.
The keyboard is my primary concern. We will have to wait a few months to know how that played out.
The keyboard is my primary concern. We will have to wait a few months to know how that played out.
Honoring Steve's manilla folder is all I can think of at this point. I too thought we were done with the word "Air".
But apparently it has a good following, and you probably know at-least two dozen people who still have big-bezel Air.
For me it seems to be clear why they branded it as new „Air“ instead of just calling them a new MacBook - because everyone, including in these forums, was crying for a new MacBook Air upgrade. Now you got it, if it makes sense or not. They did what everyone asked for.
MB is toast. They wouldn't be rolling this out if the MB had successfully supplanted the MBA line.
And these are recycled aluminum from the MB line.
Doubtful. You can only get the Air with the 5W i5. With MacBook you can get m3, i5, or i7. Not to mention MB's base price includes 256 SSD.
Considering the m3 series was refreshed by Intel in August, we'll probably see that line get some flat upgrades later.
I remember paying about the same for an 8GB/256 MBA in 2013.
So price by itself isn’t that much of an issue, but with the non-TB MBP at around the same price and the TB MBP with 4 ports and faster processor (and graphics together with it) for a few hundred more, I want to see how the real world tests and the differences are like before getting an upgrade to that 2013 MBA.
So price by itself isn’t that much of an issue, but with the non-TB MBP at around the same price and the TB MBP with 4 ports and faster processor (and graphics together with it) for a few hundred more, I want to see how the real world tests and the differences are like before getting an upgrade to that 2013 MBA.
Soooo do we know any more details about that 7W chip?
Or we have to wait for benchmarks when Macbook air gets out on 7th November?
Or we have to wait for benchmarks when Macbook air gets out on 7th November?
They should have put the a12x in it.. pretty funny that for the iPad they claimed it was faster than over 90% of mobile computers sold today... guess they included their new macbook air!
It's basically the macbook all over again, looks great until you see what's under the hood...
Might I add that the AIR is THICKER than the 13" pro and "plain" macbook.... apple's macbook lineup is probably even more messed up because of this...
macbook 1299
macbook air 1199 (oooh "budget"!!!)
macbook pro 1299
11" ipad pro 799
12.9" ipad pro 999
iphone xr 749
iphone xs 999
iphone xs-max 1099
welp.. guess this 2013 macbook pro and iphone 6 are going to be the last apple products I own. Whatever used to draw me to this company cannot compel me to do the same anymore. I hate to say it but it happened around the time Steve left and I never really followed him. Not a huge fan really, but the direction and choices the company makes, and the resulting products that are designed and release and oh so very different.
I can't be the only one that has noticed everything has stagnated to "incrementalism" since then? The jump from iphone 4 to 5 was huge, as was 6... then it just kinda slightly shape shifted. There just aren't massive leaps anymore, nothing new and different enough to get excited about.
It's basically the macbook all over again, looks great until you see what's under the hood...
Might I add that the AIR is THICKER than the 13" pro and "plain" macbook.... apple's macbook lineup is probably even more messed up because of this...
macbook 1299
macbook air 1199 (oooh "budget"!!!)
macbook pro 1299
11" ipad pro 799
12.9" ipad pro 999
iphone xr 749
iphone xs 999
iphone xs-max 1099
welp.. guess this 2013 macbook pro and iphone 6 are going to be the last apple products I own. Whatever used to draw me to this company cannot compel me to do the same anymore. I hate to say it but it happened around the time Steve left and I never really followed him. Not a huge fan really, but the direction and choices the company makes, and the resulting products that are designed and release and oh so very different.
I can't be the only one that has noticed everything has stagnated to "incrementalism" since then? The jump from iphone 4 to 5 was huge, as was 6... then it just kinda slightly shape shifted. There just aren't massive leaps anymore, nothing new and different enough to get excited about.
I wonder how long it will take for Apple to go "A processor" on the Macs. After hearing the announcement of the new iPad Pro it seems that the A processor line is not superior to the i5 offering by Intel...
The "Air" is a legacy name. Just because a lighter portable laptop came along and progress happened, the Air is not defined anew. It will continue to exist and the " ... come lately" will probably cease to exist soon. The dubious TB will exist in the "Pro" model, which might soon just be the 15" model. So, the Apple laptops will just have the simplified names Air and Pro (previously mentioned). Not scientific, more convenient; and why lose a cool name like Air to semantics!
Then why not name the thinnest MacBook 12” the Air, and launch the current device as the MacBook with an i7 processor - instead of crippling that in favor of the 12” ???
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Hmmm, I support your petition, but would reserve him for the mere miracles.
Two random MR readers could get this straight
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The surface Go uses a Pentium processor with a 10.6 inch screen.
It compares to an iPad not to a MBA.
No reason why they needed to go bleeding edge on the CPU, especially since Intel is stumbling right now on optimizations. Y is just an optimized U-series CPU that tend to preform like a can of worms with a year's worth of usage on them. I think the Y/U stands for underbuilt.