Microsoft: "Hold my beer"
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Base 13-Inch MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air
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Microsoft: "Hold my beer"
I was of the opinion the first ARM-powered Mac would be a revival of the 12" MacBook, but now I think it could be the MacBook Air. An ARM CPU should not need a fan (and could very well be faster than the Ice Lake-Y models in the Air) and with the larger battery pack of Air it could last for some time.
That's not a contradiction. The base processor is OK. The $100 option is a really good value, though, and I recommend most people get it.
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Nah. There's a small edge where it is slightly thicker, but most of it is thinner. Overall, it has less volume.
It's hard to compare when you don't even specify which product you mean.
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The averages that ended up in the Mac Benchmarks section are lower than your score.
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Sure they do.
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Not sure what "marketing claim" you're trying to attack here, or which "meme" is "tired" here, but… MacRumors agrees with you?
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Makes sense to me. Introducing the MacBook again would be weird. I didn't like the convoluted MacBook line-up of much of the late 2010s. Which entry-level Mac should someone get? The MacBook is small, but expensive and very slow; the Air didn't exist for several years, and even when it did, had the problematic keyboard; the "Escape" was pricey.
I like that much of this confusion has been removed by removing the 12-inch and by making the "Escape" more of a Pro again — slightly more expensive, but also with most of the features of the bigger Pros, rather than in its weird own slot. Meanwhile, thanks to Ice Lake, the Air also finally became a lot faster (albeit at more than twice the TDP as the original 12-inch MacBook).
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The Touch Bar is the single reason I won't get the MacBook Pro.
Sticking with Air for sure.
I have a 2014 Air that I use every day and it's been flawless and I'm very used to quickly be able to turn volume and brightness up and down at the touch of one button and no searching for it.
This whole Touch Bar thing should have been eliminated with the butterfly keyboards.
Or at least give us some options.
Sticking with Air for sure.
I have a 2014 Air that I use every day and it's been flawless and I'm very used to quickly be able to turn volume and brightness up and down at the touch of one button and no searching for it.
This whole Touch Bar thing should have been eliminated with the butterfly keyboards.
Or at least give us some options.
Dealing with the question myself and have concluded it’s an altogether better value option to spec up the svelte MBA (10th gen i5, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD) than go for the base spec MBP (8th Gen i5, 8GB RAM and 512GB) for exactly the same price.
The (lack of) Touch Bar just clinches it!
The (lack of) Touch Bar just clinches it!
Which one will still be working fine in 6 years time? I have a mid 2014 MBP i7 with 16GB Ram. It is still working fine but is no more supported by my company. So I need to upgrade soon. Would a maxed out MBA (i7, 16GB RAM) be better than a similar priced MBP (2GHz i5, 16GB RAM)?
Hmm - my 2015 MacBook Pro (i5) currently has a 720 single core, 1594 multi-core Geekbench score. The computer runs everything I current need very well - I don't do video editing or games. The MacBook Air scores suggest that I could be fine even with an i3 2020 MacBook Air for several years if I bump it up to 16G RAM - does that make sense?
Macbook Pro upsides: can actually dissipate heat
You could, although I would recommend the $100 i5 upgrade.
The thing to consider with the Air is that it will have less thermal headroom than your current Pro. Those speeds can only be hit for relatively short periods of time. It's hard to say how much this will matter for you, but if it does, you're probably better off with a $1799 Pro.
how do you explain that? if you don't want to use that Touch Bar, don't use it, and you still have a n option, options are good. You know you cn set the Touch Bar to basic configurarions, like fn keys, right?. No probably not, the would ruin. perfectly good complaint
Having a TouchBar doesn't make a computer "worse". The question is whether a TouchBar is better or worse than having physical function keys.
Like for like, in this case i5/16GB/526GB, the MBA is $100 less. Swap out the i5 in the MBA for an i7 in the MBA to help even up the multii-core Geekbench scores and the MBA comes out $50 more than the MBP.
Touch Bar is awesome!
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Good enough, in what sense? My 2014 MBP runs a 4k display exceptionally well. I'm not a gamer, but hey if you read gaming forums, you don't buy a Mac to game, so that can't be it. Movies, no sweat, as a second display, no sweat, playing different movies on both displays - no sweat, playing movies on one display and working on another display, no sweat. So I'm not saying you just made that up, but if you are forming a conclusion on a particular use case, it may not apply to other use cases.
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Adding or leaving out the "Air" is really just marketing.
But...
If such an ARM MacBook would consume less power it could be smaller (smaller battery) and lighter while being without any moving parts (fans) making it much closer to the last MacBook than the Air.
It would also make sense to keep the size of the MacBook (maybe with smaller bezels and a 12.5 - 13" display) and have the MBP slightly bigger (14" and 16"), but thats just guesswork.
Once again, lets add a disclaimer. Your results will actually be better than this article postulates because it uses the Geekbench average scores which are irrelevant. apparently anyone, especially those that don't know what they are doing, can run a Geekbench and get it added to the averages. Search on the CPU number and you can see the disparity. Typical scores seem to run at least 20% higher than the "averages", and you will see many non-sensical entries (too low to function). Why the pros at Geekbench can't account for CPU loads, or exclude cases that are non-sensical needs some 'splainin!
And this extends to all brands HP, DELL, Lenovo, so its a universal problem
And this extends to all brands HP, DELL, Lenovo, so its a universal problem
If the Touch Bar is so good why isn't it an option on the $50,000.00 Mac Pro?
Thats a curious statement, why would they not support it? I have a similar machine, run Catalina (public betas) and have 0 issues. So the computer works, it is still fast enough for everything I do, and runs all the latest software. I could see if you are in graphics, the graphics processing is getting old (still works great, but new graphics are way faster), the SSD interface speeds are slow (but still faster than a Dell XPS), and the ram is very slow compared to 10th generation intel chips, but still the fastest that the CPU supports
Touch bar is only reason I buy PRO.
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Yes, really.
The MacBook Air is thicker on the end that doesn't matter. Where it does matter is up front near the trackpad/armrest area, where it's noticeably thinner than that of the MBP.
I'm confused why the Touchbar would classed as an 'advantage'.
They both fit in the same skin tight sleeve, the form factor is nearly exact. The weight is less than a third of a pound. I just returned my new Air for the 13", totally worth it.
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In the very least, you have to know that the touchbar justifies a higher cost than a bunch of function keys.
I actually don't really understand it either. The argument was that they don't want to have legacy support hanging around and therefore do not support anything older than 5 years. But as you, I run Catalina without issues. I am not sure whether this was aimed at old PCs, or whether their migration software that makes our machines corporate compatible has issues with older specs.