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Apple's Ultra-Slim 12-Inch MacBook Air Rumored to Enter Mass Production in Early 2015

I intrigued by how much thinner it can get, like the iPad air 2, it's soo thin.
 
i'm really not liking the idea of an even thinner/smaller macbook air. 13" is the lowest i'll go for a screen on a laptop. and the macbook air is already thin as it is.

the small size of the air is already compromising the quality of other parts. the body creaks and makes noises when you handle it. also the keys are cheap ass plastic that break after not even a week of using. macbook pros aren't as bad. they feel more solid and well build.
 
I hope Apple come out with a competitor to the Surface. There first 2 iteration of the surface were a rough product, which I would not recommend, Surface 3 is almost there, Surface 4 should be a good product.
 
kazmac said:
I just want Apple hardware and software that works. Not thinner, not a rush job and burning the candle at both ends: just a smooth working product as I had before Mavericks/iPhone 6/iOS 8.
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I would upvote this 1000 times if I could. I'm just glad Safari didn't crash while replying like it would in 8.1.1 nearly every time I tried typing into a web form.

Apple software has gone seriously downhill in the last year or two. Crashes. Bugs. Slowness. I'm not saying it's terrible, but relative to what I used to get from Apple, it is noticeably worse quality/stability.
 
TallManNY said:
The 11" is the one that doesn't make sense to me.
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Well, it makes sense to me, and also some other people as well. It all depends on your needs. It's just the right size for my international travel, and it's still big enough for me to do real work - either creating presentations on it directly, or connecting via VPN to my Linux work machine.
I would hate to have a bigger machine.
12" would be OK if it had almost zero bezel.
 
I loved my original 11" MBA. It just didn't have the storage I needed, so I moved to a 13" MBP. I would switch to a 12" Air if I could also get my 1TB of storage without it costing the equivalent to TWO MBPs!
 
AlecZ said:
Was 11" too small and 13" too big for some people?
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They could be keeping the 11" footprint but reducing the bezels.

Either way, off to Australia at the end of Jan and need a laptop for my photos - 32GB iPad won't come close to fitting two weeks worth of marsupials. Think end of Jan release might be optimistic though.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Until you look back in 10 years and say WOW! that 2014 MacBook Air seemed so thin but it was really quite thick.

The original iPhone was thin in its day too but by today's standards its a brick. I'd never buy the 2007 iPhone in 2014.

I would agree at some point a product can become too thin -- where it looses too much functionality for the sake of aesthetics. I'm not sure the Air is at that point yet, but also not sure how much thinner Apple can make it given the size of a regular USB port (goes back to my functionality point -- a thiner machine requiring dongles is a setback, not advancement IMHO). I think fast, reliable, secure wireless connectivity to peripherals is the key to making thinner computers. Then optional dongles on consumer devices like the Air become more acceptable.
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Do you really need a USB port without a dongle on a non-pro laptop?
 
I hope it's a hybrid laptop/tablet with detachable screen. A sort of bridge between the iPad and Macbook, maybe with an iOS/OSX dual boot option.

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CFreymarc said:
I expect the 11" and 13" Air's to be phased out by middle of year with this model.
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I doubt it, they're still selling the old non-Retina MBP from a few years ago. They'll probably keep the old 11/13" MBA's around for a while as cheaper entry level models. Seems to be the business model they've adopted for some time now.
 
krspkbl said:
i'm really not liking the idea of an even thinner/smaller macbook air. 13" is the lowest i'll go for a screen on a laptop. and the macbook air is already thin as it is.

the small size of the air is already compromising the quality of other parts. the body creaks and makes noises when you handle it. also the keys are cheap ass plastic that break after not even a week of using. macbook pros aren't as bad. they feel more solid and well build.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...in my experience the 11" MBA has been bulletproof. In the four years I've had my maxed model, I've dropped it multiple times from standing height, spilled half a 50cl bottle of Sprite on it, wiping out the wifi only for it to come back after a week with no problems since, running Yosemite perfectly fine, the only real lag found in Mail, and simply the best laptop I've ever owned. It has always just worked, nothing has ever broken, keys feel great, and it is my main work machine.

I find myself wondering what sort of machines you are comparing these to...certainly can't be any Windows OEM at a similar price...I've had plenty of those and they are worse in every category - from build quality to software and driver issues.
 
Can we please have 12" Air and maybe 14" and 16" Pro (with the Pro versions having footprints of previous 13" and 15" (through reduced screen bezels))? :)
 
Houdini528 said:
Yeah just what we need a thinner MacBook Air. Of course there will be no room for connecting peripherals…...you will have to use the Jedi mind trick in order to connect any USB device.:rolleyes:
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What's USB? It's all AirDrop and Cloud (box, dropbox, iCloud drive) ... :D

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mozumder said:
If it gets much thinner they're going to lose the USB ports..
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What USB ports? :D

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Rogifan said:
What does ultra thin mean? It can only be as thin as the I/O will allow.
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The electromagnetic spectrum gets pretty thin ... :eek:
 
TallManNY said:
The 11" is the one that doesn't make sense to me. Too large to cary around unless you have a bag. And once you have a bag, there is little point in not carrying a 13" and getting much more screen real estate. Also price difference between the two is trivial. .
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Right - if it doesn't make sense to YOU - it has no reason to exist.

I love my 11" Air - it's top specced and is my primary and only computer. The combination of portability and power cannot be beat. The screen real estate is only a tiny bit smaller than 13". And most of my heavy duty work is done white Air is docked to my 2 Thunderbolt displays, where 11" vs 13" size doesn't matter.

11" Air is a perfect computer and I can hardly wait to see what this 12" upgrade will bring.
 
While the iPad is great, it still isn't nearly as capable at traditional computing tasks as a Mac. If Apple can make an entry level Mac in the $799-$999 price point that carries over the familiarity of the iOS device look and feel for the masses (space gray, silver, gold) than they would probably sell like hotcakes.

Leave the MacBook Pro line for people who need more power and specs. Right now the difference between the 13" MacBook Air and the 13" Retina MacBook Pro is too small. It's almost silly to buy a 13" Air when you can get a much better machine for only a few hundred more with the Pro.
 
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