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Apple's Rumored MacBook Air Successor Said to Use Intel's Kaby Lake Refresh Processors
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Still a while to go is my guess, they might go to AMD although I doubt it.
The A series are powerful nowadays but don't you think it will be on par with Intels high end offerings like in the MBP.
Quite curious to see how this new laptop will fit in the lineup as the pro models are already incredibly thin and the “regular “ MacBook cover already the ultraportable segment ....
It would make sense to have :
-MacBook as replacement for the air, with a price drop to make it fall in line with the competition
- this new laptop to be called just MacBook , the actual 13” no touch bar Pro would be already perfect for this category
- the actual MacBook Pro to be slightly thicker, with a better keyboard design ( more travel), better thermals to accomodate the faster components and maybe a couple of extra ports ( sd card slot ).
Of course that’s not going to happen as the pro is just being refreshed and Apple seems committed not to drop the new design....i bet this new rumored laptop will just be a castrated, cheaper version of the actual no touch bar pro..
It would make sense to have :
-MacBook as replacement for the air, with a price drop to make it fall in line with the competition
- this new laptop to be called just MacBook , the actual 13” no touch bar Pro would be already perfect for this category
- the actual MacBook Pro to be slightly thicker, with a better keyboard design ( more travel), better thermals to accomodate the faster components and maybe a couple of extra ports ( sd card slot ).
Of course that’s not going to happen as the pro is just being refreshed and Apple seems committed not to drop the new design....i bet this new rumored laptop will just be a castrated, cheaper version of the actual no touch bar pro..
You did not understand what I stated. Apple just released the new touchbar MacBook Pro which uses the 8th gen i5 processor. There is no reason to not release the exact same MacBook Pro but without the touchbar at the same time unless they have plans to use a less powerful processor on the non-touchbar version of the MacBook Pro. The other alternative, which would be pretty pathetic, is that both the touchbar and non-touchbar version will end up with the same processor but wanted to release the touchbar version first to force Pro users to use the touchbar.
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I don’t see Apple use Kaby Lake Refresh CPUs.
Intel is just in this estimated timeframe releasing Whiskey Lake (U), which are Kaby Lake Refresh quadcores with lpddr4 Ram Controller -> this 15watt cpu would be ideal for the new 13“ entry model whatever it might be called
And there is a new 5watt cpu called Amber Lake (Y)-> also with lpddr4 controller
Both are steps in between and Intel just confirmed their release for Q3 2018
Intel is just in this estimated timeframe releasing Whiskey Lake (U), which are Kaby Lake Refresh quadcores with lpddr4 Ram Controller -> this 15watt cpu would be ideal for the new 13“ entry model whatever it might be called
And there is a new 5watt cpu called Amber Lake (Y)-> also with lpddr4 controller
Both are steps in between and Intel just confirmed their release for Q3 2018
I still think this is a dumb idea. Three laptop lines is just spreading it too thin and confusing things. Keep it simple. Discontinue the MacBook Air & let the MacBook become the new low end Apple laptop. Just add some more ports.
Will you cover it with an Orange Sticker?/s
Yes there is. The MacBook Pro without Touch Bar uses a 15W part, not a 28W part.
They have always used different CPUs.
Yes! My dream mac, a bit different from yours, is something like the current 15” Macbook Pro, same screen and general size, but using a 15W cpu and no discrete gpu. 16gb ram, 512gb ssd. And fill all the extra available space with battery to get a true 10hr battery life.
My suspicion (and I know I'm not alone) is that the MBA branding dies and we get a 12" and a 14" macbook to complement the 13" and 15" macbook pros, with the touchbar (and maybe thunderbolt 3 instead of just USBC) among other things being exclusive to the MBPs. It would bring them back to a similar lineup that they had with the iBooks/Powerbooks a long time ago.
Thinking out loud....
1) Apple shocks the world by moving the MacBook to an ARM-based CPU which the fanless chassis is suited for. Lower price, too. Can't happen until Mojave is released.
2) MacBook Air successor becomes the entry-level Intel-based Mac portable. Basically a light version of the MBP.
3) MBP goes exclusively to quad-core and Touch Bar.
1) Apple shocks the world by moving the MacBook to an ARM-based CPU which the fanless chassis is suited for. Lower price, too. Can't happen until Mojave is released.
2) MacBook Air successor becomes the entry-level Intel-based Mac portable. Basically a light version of the MBP.
3) MBP goes exclusively to quad-core and Touch Bar.
I screenshot your comment - curious to see which scenario comes up, if any...
While I wouldn't rule that out completely I'd be willing to bet that if Apple does switch to ARM on notebooks they'll do it all at once
Oh and please, dont give it that crappy touchbar used in macboom 12 - never ever apple computer had such a terrible
Touchbar...
Actualiy, as a formar mb air user and currwnt mb user, i hipe for updated air (better display, new cpu, usbc port added and keep wverythung else unchanged) - I know, this wont happen... so I am probably done with apple macbooks for now
Touchbar...
Actualiy, as a formar mb air user and currwnt mb user, i hipe for updated air (better display, new cpu, usbc port added and keep wverythung else unchanged) - I know, this wont happen... so I am probably done with apple macbooks for now
Regarding ports, I think 802.11ad with its 60 GHz is a possible replacement.
With up to 4.6 Gbps throughput, it could be a viable alternative for devices within a close range. At 6-7 feet range, it can deliver about real 800 Mbps throughput in the real world. That's nowhere near the real world performance of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, but it's probably fast enough for the typical users of MacBook, who may value the convenience of cable free connection more.
If Apple offers a 802.11ad hub with USB connections that works reliably enough, I can see myself preferring to connect few external disks and other USB devices into it rather than directly into MacBook.
With up to 4.6 Gbps throughput, it could be a viable alternative for devices within a close range. At 6-7 feet range, it can deliver about real 800 Mbps throughput in the real world. That's nowhere near the real world performance of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, but it's probably fast enough for the typical users of MacBook, who may value the convenience of cable free connection more.
If Apple offers a 802.11ad hub with USB connections that works reliably enough, I can see myself preferring to connect few external disks and other USB devices into it rather than directly into MacBook.
I think we are closer than we think. Intel has been failing in recent years and I am sure this is something Apple has been planning for some time. I agree on your last point though, I think they will start with the MacBook and keep Intel for Pro machines.
This makes a lot of sense. right now the computer line is a bit jumbled on what is what.
MacBook... thin and light..
MacBook Air ... Thin and light.... but out of date
MacBook pro 13" non-TB.. thin and light, but... a Pro device?
13" TouchBar and 15" touchbar are "thin and light pro devices"...
this doesn't even include the confusion over what price is what.
MacBook and 13" MacBook pro are the same price.
MacBook Air is much cheaper, but... also very out of date.
MacBook Pro with touchbar also a big price jump.
They'd do well with a good "cleanup" of the product line. The devices should be in 3 categories. "Air" should only refer to the ultra-thin and portables. the smallest / lightest.
MacBook should be the standard mid-range.
the Pro should be the high end / performance / enterprise
clean up the product lines. remove confusion and get a clear and concise lineup.
There should be:
12" MacBook Air (Current MacBook) - Ultra portable starting at $999
13 and 15" MacBook (Current MacBook Pro lineup) - Moderately thin and light with some nice fancy bells and whistles, but a focus on the trade off of performance and portability.
15" and 17" MacBook Pro (Nothing currently in lineup) - Expandible, slightly bigger, but devices that can run 100% without thermal limits, also include some limited servicability such as hard drive and memory replacement. fo those who absolutely rely on performance over extreme thin and light devices.
this would easily remove a lot of confusion, overlap and questionable pricing from the lineup
as for their desktop computers? iMac lineup is mostly fine.
Mac Mini gets refreshed with mid level parts.
The Mac (current Mac Pro) become the "New Mac" and gets consumer grade parts and a price cut, and aims at people looking for a SFF gaming computer, but not reliant on it for real production.
Mac Pro (Currently nothing) is a fully modular, upgradable computer that focuses first on performance and service-ability for those who rely on it for performance.
Vaya con dios! The MacBook will definitely have the third-gen keyboard and NO MagSafe.
If you're comfortable with Linux in your daily driver, more power to you. Ubuntu seems very nice these days!
Personally I think it would make perfect sense to introduce a single ARM product first, and then update the other machines later.
Apple has stopped developing WiFi routers completely.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-discontinues-airport-wifi-router/
And it doesn't matter since we're talking about a low-cost MacBook Air successor. The question you should be asking yourself is: can Apple's A-series CPUs compete with Intel's low-power CPUs? Because Intel's processors are not cheap and a good way for Apple to lower their costs would be to switch to their own ARM CPUs. It would mean ordering even more ARM CPUs from the fabs, lowering their cost-per-unit even more.
If they give it a Retina Display, a 13 inch display, two thunderbolt ports and a sorta-powerful processor, it sort of kills the nTB MBP - and I highly doubt they would replace a $1299 laptop with a $899 equivalent.
its really hard to know since there's no real software feature parity between programs on ARM and x86-64 right now. for us to know, we'd need some actual software that can test the two platforms identically. Like FCPX on both that are both completely full featured and do the exact same things.
It's something we really don't have. So far most arm based programs, (regardless if iOS, UWP or android) really do not offer feature parity with their desktop replacements.
if we could compare identical workloads in identical software we'd have a decent measurement. but without that we have artificial benchmarks which do not truly reflect reality.