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Current MBA form factor with a Retina Display?

JoEw

JoEw

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 29, 2009
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Am I the only one who would enjoy just being able to get a current form factor 13" MBA with retina display for additional price? I am a huge fan of my current MBA with the clickable touchpad, and IO on board.

This new rumored 12" machine will be thinner and lighter no doubt, but will only have 1 IO port that lacks any devices that will work with the type-c shape... I also find the magsafe very nice and rumor is that is leaving as well. I suppose this is differentiate the rMBP from the rMBA even more so :confused:

Would you buy the current MBA with a retina display packed in it? The design seems so perfect as it is honestly.
 
I'm quite happy with the MBA just the way it is. I am not interested in retina, fanless, skinniness, or lack of ports. If I wanted a retina screen, I would have bought the MBP.
 
rMBA with current form factor would be too close to current rMBP, Apple won't do it
 
JoEw said:
Would you buy the current MBA with a retina display packed in it? The design seems so perfect as it is honestly.
Click to expand...

No, I would not. If no new models were coming I'd be upgrading my early 2011 13" Macbook Pro to a 13" rMBP whenever the next iteration comes out. I'm excited about the 12" rMBA and will be purchasing that to replace my MBP as soon as it comes out.
 
Boyd01 said:
I'm quite happy with the MBA just the way it is. I am not interested in retina, fanless, skinniness, or lack of ports. If I wanted a retina screen, I would have bought the MBP.
Click to expand...

Not trying to be a smart Alec, but why wouldn't you want a superior retina screen in the MBA? It doesn't make sense.
 
JoEw said:
Am I the only one who would enjoy just being able to get a current form factor 13" MBA with retina display for additional price? I am a huge fan of my current MBA with the clickable touchpad, and IO on board.

This new rumored 12" machine will be thinner and lighter no doubt, but will only have 1 IO port that lacks any devices that will work with the type-c shape... I also find the magsafe very nice and rumor is that is leaving as well. I suppose this is differentiate the rMBP from the rMBA even more so :confused:

Would you buy the current MBA with a retina display packed in it? The design seems so perfect as it is honestly.
Click to expand...

No you a aren't the only one. The current MBA is unmatched in design. Everything about is perfect in my opinion. I tried the rmbp and while the screen was beautiful, I missed everything about the MBA. Sure the rmbp is light weight and thin, but not compared to the wedge of the MBA. Once you use the MBA and see it's benefits such as thinness, battery life, and trackpad, it's hard to get used to anything else. The display in the Air is okay at best, but not compared to retina. So to answer your question, hell yes I would love a retina display in the current Air form factor. It would truly be the perfect notebook.
 
Cicatrix said:
Sounds good. I think more than just the screen will be updated though. What if it was only effecting battery life by an hour?
Click to expand...

that would be alright IMO, but when I was deciding between MBA and rMBP (late 2013 that was) i perceived the rMBP's performance to be somewhat behind the MBA in terms of ordinary activities (notwithstanding that the processor is beefier of course). The high-res display was just a tad too much for the processor/internal GPU to handle so that even swipes between desktops were a bit jagged.
If they can put a retina screen in an MBA without compromising on fluidity and smoothness (which to me makes up a lot of the joy of using the machine) , I'd be all for it.
 
Cicatrix said:
Not trying to be a smart Alec, but why wouldn't you want a superior retina screen in the MBA? It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

newellj has already given one very good reason. But aside from that, I think the pixel density is already quite high on my 11" MBA. I can't imagine that increasing it further would provide any real benefit at arm-length distance. If I need more pixels, I just connect an external monitor.

Based on all the threads here, I'm sure there's a market for a retina MBA. But it just doesn't interest me.
 
^ Cola brings up a good point about scrolling fluidity in the 13" rmbp. Hopefully that does not effect the 15" retina. I will be able to really see for my self tomorrow when my 15" rmbp arrives, and I'm able to work on it for a while. As far as pixel density, to me it is such a huge difference between the screen of the MBA and the rmbp. Huge. I have read some people think its not that big of a difference though.
 
Cicatrix said:
Not trying to be a smart Alec, but why wouldn't you want a superior retina screen in the MBA? It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...

There is another reason.
I like to play games on my Macbook. Not super light games. But not super heavy ones either. Starbound, Minecraft, HL2, Portal 2, etc.

The MBA does great as is, but can you imagine how crippled performance would be if it had to push twice or more the amount of pixels?

Then again, I'm sure they'd upgrade other specs, but if it's the Core M people are talking about (fan-less? ), then I don't suspect I'll be able to play the games, even if you take the Retina out of the equation.

Perhaps I'm mistaken..

Also, another reason, because not everyone cares about Retina. If it was the same price to get it, I might consider it, but it's not. It's a premium feature.
I don't feel entitled to it particularly. If anything, I think the current MBA should have a 1080p screen at best.
Save Retina for the Pros.
 
joshlalonde said:
There is another reason.
I like to play games on my Macbook. Not super light games. But not super heavy ones either. Starbound, Minecraft, HL2, Portal 2, etc.

The MBA does great as is, but can you imagine how crippled performance would be if it had to push twice or more the amount of pixels?

Then again, I'm sure they'd upgrade other specs, but if it's the Core M people are talking about (fan-less? ), then I don't suspect I'll be able to play the games, even if you take the Retina out of the equation.

Perhaps I'm mistaken..

Also, another reason, because not everyone cares about Retina. If it was the same price to get it, I might consider it, but it's not. It's a premium feature.
I don't feel entitled to it particularly. If anything, I think the current MBA should have a 1080p screen at best.
Save Retina for the Pros.
Click to expand...

Thanks for bringing those points up. I really hope that it is not the Core M processors that's for sure. I highly doubt they would do that though.
 
joshlalonde said:
There is another reason.
I like to play games on my Macbook. Not super light games. But not super heavy ones either. Starbound, Minecraft, HL2, Portal 2, etc.

The MBA does great as is, but can you imagine how crippled performance would be if it had to push twice or more the amount of pixels?
...
Click to expand...

I'm clearly dating myself but I remember "back in the day" (around 1997) when 3-D games and accelerators were first becoming popular... Voodoo cards and so forth. Even though many people had 17" monitors with native resolutions of 1024x768, it was understood that if you didn't have a 3-D accelerator you would have to play a 3-D game like Quake at 320x240. With a Voodoo you could run a 640x480. Still a small fraction of the resolution you used for day-to-day computing.

It took many years before 3-D accelerators were up to the task of playing games at a typical monitor's native resolution. Now it's what people expect and they're pissed off when they can't do it. :)

(Not to say that you're in this camp joshlalonde, just reminiscing. Maybe there's some reason why the rMBP is slow at playing 3-D games even at lower resolutions, maybe scaling overhead.)
 
Cicatrix said:
Not trying to be a smart Alec, but why wouldn't you want a superior retina screen in the MBA? It doesn't make sense.
Click to expand...
Because it will cost $300 more and have a shorter battery life.

If fan-less, you could get stuttering in performance if you start stressing the CPU.

motrek said:
I'm clearly dating myself but I remember "back in the day" (around 1997) when 3-D games and accelerators
Click to expand...

Dating yourself would be "I remember the Commodore 64 back when we didn't have any of those fancy 3D graphics accelerators (around 1982).

:D

But like Motrek said
1. dropping to other than native monitor resolution tends to make a lot of games look horrible
2. Most games won't support r12 native resolution
3. Games that did probably would play well without a discrete graphics controller.
 
Last edited:
To me the current Air is thin enough and light enough. A little thinner wouldn't hurt, but I wouldn't want to give up any ports or specifications. A retina screen would be awesome. No, a 14" retina screen, which would fit within the bezels of the current size would be awesome. I don't like the bezel-less designs - a proper bezel gives a dividing line between screen territory and surrounding space. But the bezel could be half the width it currently is and accomplish this function. Please no black bezel, and while we're at it, swap the black keys for grey ones.
 
I too think the Air is a great design, although the clicking touchpad to me is a complete waste of time (always the first thing I switch off on a Mac). And it would be a shame for the bezel to remain so big.

The 11" MBA is a lovely size, which is why it would be tremendous to get a 12" screen into something similar (by losing the bezel) to get just that bit more real estate. I really hope it does get announced on Monday even though I'm aware it might not be. I'll be stumping for a maxed-out one the moment they get released... just hope it's now and not June. I don't think I need it to be thinner than the current MBA, but I'm not going to complain if it is.
 
tmarks11 said:
Dating yourself would be "I remember the Commodore 64 back when we didn't have any of those fancy 3D graphics accelerators (around 1982).
Click to expand...

Sorry, not even close. I remember buying my Apple ][ in June 1978 (serial number 4546). The big choice was 4k vs. 16k RAM. No choice when it came to disk drives, because none existed. :D
 
tillsbury said:
I too think the Air is a great design, although the clicking touchpad to me is a complete waste of time (always the first thing I switch off on a Mac). And it would be a shame for the bezel to remain so big.

The 11" MBA is a lovely size, which is why it would be tremendous to get a 12" screen into something similar (by losing the bezel) to get just that bit more real estate. I really hope it does get announced on Monday even though I'm aware it might not be. I'll be stumping for a maxed-out one the moment they get released... just hope it's now and not June. I don't think I need it to be thinner than the current MBA, but I'm not going to complain if it is.
Click to expand...

I've got a MBA 11 and I'm in no rush to upgrade, but what you described would be my ideal computer.

MBA 11 body with a 12" retina display
Swap USB for USB type C and squeeze in a SD card reader if possible
 
Idarzoid said:
rMBA with current form factor would be too close to current rMBP, Apple won't do it
Click to expand...

This. They would have to discontinue or update the 13" rMBP in order to do that. Both of these devices, if we take base models, share almost exactly the same hardware, yet rMBP is much thicker.
 
tillsbury said:
I too think the Air is a great design, although the clicking touchpad to me is a complete waste of time (always the first thing I switch off on a Mac). And it would be a shame for the bezel to remain so big.

The 11" MBA is a lovely size, which is why it would be tremendous to get a 12" screen into something similar (by losing the bezel) to get just that bit more real estate. I really hope it does get announced on Monday even though I'm aware it might not be. I'll be stumping for a maxed-out one the moment they get released... just hope it's now and not June. I don't think I need it to be thinner than the current MBA, but I'm not going to complain if it is.
Click to expand...

I would upgrade in a heartbeat if all they did was to put a retina screen with the current design and lose the bezels. That's really all I've been waiting for - that and a better battery life, but the current one already has it.

Now if they want to make it even better, I'm not going to complain either :) - and I too disable the click first thing, but I get why other people might like it.
 
A retina display in the current design just will not happen. Apple will want to differentiate the rMBA from the MBA. A new design is guaranteed, even if it's almost the same but a lot thinner like the rMBP.
 
I love the Air screen but do think a retina in the current frame would be my ideal machine - but what would be the implications for power use, weight, battery life, heat, etc?
 
tillsbury said:
I too think the Air is a great design, although the clicking touchpad to me is a complete waste of time (always the first thing I switch off on a Mac). And it would be a shame for the bezel to remain so big.

The 11" MBA is a lovely size, which is why it would be tremendous to get a 12" screen into something similar (by losing the bezel) to get just that bit more real estate. I really hope it does get announced on Monday even though I'm aware it might not be. I'll be stumping for a maxed-out one the moment they get released... just hope it's now and not June. I don't think I need it to be thinner than the current MBA, but I'm not going to complain if it is.
Click to expand...

Well there you go. A 12" retina screen in an 11" body, with a non-clicky touchpad and good enough RAM and SSD specs (particularly in the higher version). As a super-lightweight mobile computing device used as an accessory to a main desktop computer it's exactly what I want. Just pissed I can't order it today. April 10th is in my calendar...
 
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