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Bloomberg: Apple Working on 'Thinner and Lighter' High-End MacBook Air With MagSafe, Could Launch in Second Half of 2021
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100x this
Apple won’t be poo-pooing on the shiny new July 2021 MBPs after 3-4 months with a Premium Air to steal the spotlight.
I would keep my day job if I were you.This is disgusting. I just bought an M1 and now Apple is going to make me upgrade again in less than a year? Apple should have sent out an email letting prospective buyers know ahead of time.
Now that I think about it, this M1 has been acting sluggish lately. If this M1 can’t handle watching cat videos on YouTube, what good is it?
This M1 isn’t even the pro model. How can I be expected to work on a standard M1? It doesn’t come with a GPU, Face ID, or a case of beer, not to mention the base model should come with no less than 16GB RAM and 512 SSD. I feel like Apple ripped me off. This M1 is worthless now.
Apple has really been letting us down on the hardware lately, especially with the M1. Every time you turn it on and or connect it to an external monitor it dies.
I see this new M Air will be thinner and lighter. The memory of Ives lives on. Apple is showing so much courage with this new Air. There is no innovation with Apple anymore. If Steve was still alive....
I just saw a video on YouTube saying how bad this new upcoming model is not worth it and the new Forbes article agrees.
Where is the best place to sell my M1? It looks like I will be upgrading to the new Air when it is released.
* These typical statements were picked at random from data submitted to Apple. No MacRumors members were outed in this data although the usual suspects are easily identified.
MacRumors has already received complaints about the cat comment and cat owners have vowed to boycott MacRumors.
I am looking forward to the new and improved M MacBook Air.
Premium Air just means more legroom and free Wifi. 😀
MiniLED is Apple's next high-end display technology so there is no reason or them to pursue OLED.
If they make it any lighter all you'll need to do is sneeze and the thing will go flying across the room... especially if it's only connected via magsafe 'cos that sucka's designed to come off.
Wouldn't a thinner MacBook Air be like the MacBook? If so, that keyboard IMO was terrible to type on. Lack of key travel.
A thinner and light MBA makes total sense. It's a laptop meant for mobility. However, I do not think the MBP, which many use as a desktop replacement, should necessarily follow that trend (at least not to the same degree). Maybe Apple will allow for more differentiation between the product lines which is a good thing in my mind -- more choices for the consumer.
It needs to be a thinner current natural evolution of its existing design.
Sure, but Apple is done with that keyboard design so an updated 12" rMB would have the new style.
I don't see Apple making a lower-cost “beautifully, unapologetically plastic” Macbook at a lower price point.
But you do bring up a good point - Apple's laptop marketing and product positioning is a mess! There isn't that much difference between the Air and the lower-end Pro in size, weight, and processor performance. What really defined the Air was its thinness and portability, while still making it powerful enough to be useful.
Apple's iPad line is much clearer in its message. The low-end iPad for entry-level and cost-conscience buyers. The Air for those that want some Pro features on a budget. And the Pro lineup for the top-of-the-line experience. Heck, they even have the Mini for those who want a smaller/lighter iPad without giving up performance.
I personally would like to see them go back to where they had it before this mess started in 2015 - Macbook Air (2 models), Macbook, Macbook Pro (2 models) ranging from thin/light for the Air to "oh my goodness" performance with the Pro. Every model should have its own unique design standards and goals, and it would make it a lot easier for people to know which one suits their needs.
I think the Air will stay 13" and the Pros will be 14" and 16" so even if the two small laptops get the same M2 there will be a distinct separation between them.
You're acting like that wouldn't be absolutely rad.
Anyway, I'm not too concerned about them making the Air even thinner after seeing what the M1 can do - they obviously have a ton of margin to slim down the design without effecting performance. In fact the next Macbook Air will almost certainly be even faster despite having a design that probably resembles the old 12" Macbook, if I were to guess.
The headroom the current Air has is what makes it great. Why do we want another overheating Air? I mean Apple silicon are efficient, but even iPhones can overheat and throttle.
I’ve been waiting for a 15-inch MacBook Air for a decade. Please please do it.
Screen Size doesn't make sense.
If MacBook Pro are moving to 14", 16", then it make more sense to have MacBook Air or Simply MacBook at 12" and 14".
If you have MacBook Air with 13" and a 15", you then have a whole line up of different screen size. Which is very unApple.
And then you could have the MacBook SE at 11", the same screen size of old MacBook Air.
MacBook Pro 14 - 16"
Macbook 12 - 14"
Macbook SE 11"
Basically mimicking the iPhone Lineup.
If MacBook Pro are moving to 14", 16", then it make more sense to have MacBook Air or Simply MacBook at 12" and 14".
If you have MacBook Air with 13" and a 15", you then have a whole line up of different screen size. Which is very unApple.
And then you could have the MacBook SE at 11", the same screen size of old MacBook Air.
MacBook Pro 14 - 16"
Macbook 12 - 14"
Macbook SE 11"
Basically mimicking the iPhone Lineup.
... and so much for the "Buy an M1 MBA because the M1 MBPs are gonna be redesigned" argument...
Hopefully not as mini-LED is inferior to OLED in pretty much every possible way besides peak brightness and the danger for image retention. μLED on the other hand is the next high-end display technology but we won't see it in consumer devices such as these for a few years.
Right. Just wait, Apple will announce a new version of the ghastly butterfly keyboard to go with it, won't they? Argh.
When it comes to MagSafe instead of USB-C for charing. I don’t see any problems with this as long as the notebooks will continue to feature USB Type-C ports, which they obviously will and those ports are still being capable of providing power to the system. And hopefully the power adapter itself will stay the same with a USB-C connector on the adapter making the only difference between using USB-C for charging and using MagSafe will be the cable you connect into the adapter.
Meaning the machines themselves stay universal, the adapter itself stays universal it’s just up to the user to decide if they are going to use the USB-C to MagSafe or the USB-C to USB-C cable for charging.
Meaning the machines themselves stay universal, the adapter itself stays universal it’s just up to the user to decide if they are going to use the USB-C to MagSafe or the USB-C to USB-C cable for charging.
The plastic unibody design isn't such a bad idea - I have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, 7th gen (2019), and it is very light compared to the MBA, because it's carbon fibre over a magnesium chassis. I'm not a fan of the non-metal finish, but it is LIGHT.
So maybe not plastic, but a carbon fibre construction might be the way to go - strong and light.
Carry around the discontinued MacBook 12" and you'll quickly think the MacBook Air is heavy.
Right. And compared to Windows ultrabooks - like my ThinkPad X1 Carbon - the MBA weighs a TONNE. Not sure what the old 12" Macbook was like, I never saw one.
I bought the MBP with the annoying TouchBar and terrible keyboard back in 2019.... Redesign with MagSafe and a better keyboard (basically going back to the older days) has me thinking I might trade in this laptop and purchase a redesign. I wish my 09' MBP was still useable it's by far the best Apple computer I have EVER owned. I read these redesign posts and think that Apple is just going back to what they use to do which is exactly what I am okay with haha