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How many of you would replace your rMBP for new Macbook Air?

S

senttoschool

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2017
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If Apple releases a Macbook Air with a faster CPU/GPU + Retina display, I'd sell my MBP immediately and get it.

The Air with Retina is, in my opinion, a far superior laptop to anything in Apple's lineup. Reliable keyboard with travel, best battery life, ports, light, small touchpad, no touch bar.

It's the best laptop for anyone who's not doing video/photo editing.

It's literally what I wanted the 2016 MBP to be.
 
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I used to love the air but not anymore. I like the new keyboard too much ... that and running MacOS on anything less than a quad core is painful nowadays.
 
Apple is very likely to cripple the upcoming Air to ensure it doesn't cut into the rMB & MBP sales that you can be assured of. Likely being yet another port constrained/limited lacklustre notebook, reliant on dongles to achieve basic connectivity. It will just be a cheap option to tie into education services that Apple is currently loosing ground to Google.

Want an Air? Buy one now before Tim & Co destroy yet another Mac. Only problem with the current Air is the TN display panel and lack of USB C...

Q-6
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BenTrovato said:
I used to love the air but not anymore. I like the new keyboard too much ... that and running MacOS on anything less than a quad core is painful nowadays.
Click to expand...

Sadly speaks volumes...

Q-6
 
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senttoschool said:
I coded on MacBook Air for 4 years for a tech startup in San Francisco. Never had problems with performance.

I think people overestimate the amount of power they need for "work" that is not photo/video editing.
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the air isn't meant for content creation. why would anyone who needs any sort of power processing ever buy a macbook air? they are 2 completely different markets

why would you want the macbook PRO to be a machine that could compete with an ultraportable computer who's main selling point is portability?

if you're fine on a macbook air you clearly aren't doing even low levels of multi-tasking.
 
impulse462 said:
the air isn't meant for content creation. why would anyone who needs any sort of power processing ever buy a macbook air? they are 2 completely different markets

why would you want the macbook PRO to be a machine that could compete with an ultraportable computer who's main selling point is portability?

if you're fine on a macbook air you clearly aren't doing even low levels of multi-tasking.
Click to expand...
Ok that's dumb. I've coding on my Air for a long time. Never ran into any issues with performance. I'm proof that the Air is not underpowered for work.

But of course, I'm typing on a 2015 Macbook Pro right now because the Air doesn't have retina and the 2016/2017 MBPs are complete garbage.

Like I said, people overestimate the amount of power they need for "work" unless it's heavy photo/video editing.
 
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impulse462 said:
the air isn't meant for content creation. why would anyone who needs any sort of power processing ever buy a macbook air? they are 2 completely different markets

why would you want the macbook PRO to be a machine that could compete with an ultraportable computer who's main selling point is portability?

if you're fine on a macbook air you clearly aren't doing even low levels of multi-tasking.
Click to expand...

Sadly that's exactly what Apple is selling today; thin, thinner & outdated...

Q-6
 
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senttoschool said:
I coded on MacBook Air for 4 years for a tech startup in San Francisco. Never had problems with performance.

I think people overestimate the amount of power they need for "work" that is not photo/video editing.
Click to expand...


The best reason to get the macbook air with retina display is so that you don't get as mad when something goes wrong. I find that the more expensive the laptop, the higher the expectations. Now little imperfections, less of a big deal. You constantly hear, this is a $2500 laptop and it has crumbs stuck, or keyboard marks on the screen, or screen variations, lack of ports, etc. The macbook air with retina display, even if they did literally nothing to it but add a retina display, would be totally fine with me. The newest macbooks are a regression in multiple ways.
 
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senttoschool said:
Ok that's dumb. I've coding on my Air for a long time. Never ran into any issues with performance. I'm proof that the Air is not underpowered for work.

But of course, I'm typing on a 2015 Macbook Pro right now because the Air doesn't have retina and the 2016/2017 MBPs are complete garbage.

Like I said, people overestimate the amount of power they need for "work" unless it's heavy photo/video editing.
Click to expand...
i used a macbook air for 6 years. i'm pretty familiar with its capabilities. its fine for coding. but any sort of heavy lifting it'll show its lack of hardware.

i agree in general people do overestimate what they need (see the 32gb ram people). i bet you haven't used the 2016/2017 models so your opinion really holds no weight
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Queen6 said:
Sadly that's exactly what Apple is selling today; thin, thinner & outdated...

Q-6
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yeah obsession with thinness is annoying. it is pretty nice to have a thin 15" but the hardware components aren't just there yet. i think in 3-5 years everyone will have the power they want in a thin package. but i wish they went the opposite way and focused on power and then make it thinner later
 
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impulse462 said:
yeah obsession with thinness is annoying. it is pretty nice to have a thin 15" but the hardware components aren't just there yet. i think in 3-5 years everyone will have the power they want in a thin package. but i wish they went the opposite way and focused on power and then make it thinner later
Click to expand...

Definitely agree and the way ahead, however in the interim it's creating chaos for many of us who need to get things done expediently here and now. To me Apple should have stuck with Ultraportable, mainstream and Pro/Prosumer notebooks, not make everything needlessly thinner solely for the aesthetic, kind of ridiculous really.

Apple want's professional's on board, evangelising the Mac yet Apple is pissing on us at every possible opportunity for the short-term gain with the base consumer. Maybe Apple has no interest in the professional users who need reliability, performance and scalability seems that way right now.

Once such matters impact revenue by De facto it's a one way decision...

Q-6
 
Queen6 said:
Definitely agree and the way ahead, however in the interim it's creating chaos for many of us who need to get things done expediently here and now. To me Apple should have stuck with Ultraportable, mainstream and Pro/Prosumer notebooks, not make everything needlessly thinner solely for the aesthetic, kind of ridiculous really.

Apple want's professional's on board, evangelising the Mac yet Apple is pissing on us at every possible opportunity for the short-term gain with the base consumer. Maybe Apple has no interest in the professional users who need reliability, performance and scalability seems that way right now.

Once such matters impact revenue by De facto it's a one way decision...

Q-6
Click to expand...
sometimes i think they overthink and try to do too much. like the mac pro for example. thats a workstation thats meant to be upgraded with off the shelf parts. not sure why they have do different designs with it. just upgrade the cheesegrater every 2 or 3 years. like where I work, we have a 2012 cMP and we just upgraded the graphics card (from the already powerful for its time 5870) and RAM. its mainly used for 3D graphics software and the thing screams now. we do have a 2013 trashcan MP which we use purely for CPU-intensive tasks. for that the CPU is pretty easily removable so it does its job pretty well.

kinda wish they had separate teams which were smaller and focused just on pros both for desktop and laptops. like 15" and 17" laptops had their own designs and own teams separate from the 13". i mean even on college campuses, the 13" macbook pro is the most abundant laptop. that can easily handle office apps, browsing etc. after they killed the 17" it seems like the 15" is being looped in with the 13". the 15" is a pretty expensive computer, and i'd expect most people buying it do so for serious work. it being an "older brother" to the 13" rather than its own animal entirely is sad really.

this being said, I am pretty happy with my 2017 15" MBP. but if 6 cores do come out this year, I might sell this and get that since I plan on using this computer to render in maya.
 
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impulse462 said:
i used a macbook air for 6 years. i'm pretty familiar with its capabilities. its fine for coding. but any sort of heavy lifting it'll show its lack of hardware.

i agree in general people do overestimate what they need (see the 32gb ram people). i bet you haven't used the 2016/2017 models so your opinion really holds no weight
[doublepost=1521513867][/doublepost]
yeah obsession with thinness is annoying. it is pretty nice to have a thin 15" but the hardware components aren't just there yet. i think in 3-5 years everyone will have the power they want in a thin package. but i wish they went the opposite way and focused on power and then make it thinner later
Click to expand...
False. I purchased a 2016 MBP when it was came out. Returned it 3 days later. I also had a fully loaded 15" 2015 MBP from work. I currently use a 2015 MBP 13".

I've used them all.

The Air is the best laptop Apple ever made. All it needs is a retina display and a modern CPU and it's automatically the best laptop for most people.
 
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Depending upon the offering, it might be a great supplemental machine for my Hack desktop.

I'm skeptical of "this Apple" going back on anything to the point of satisfying those of us who stopped liking the laptops at the 2015 era.
 
senttoschool said:
False. I purchased a 2016 MBP when it was came out. Returned it 3 days later. I also had a fully loaded 15" 2015 MBP from work. I currently use a 2015 MBP 13".

I've used them all.

The Air is the best laptop Apple ever made. All it needs is a retina display and a modern CPU and it's automatically the best laptop for most people.
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Lol you “used” it for 3 days. Better thermals, faster components, and no throttling. Better in every aspect for performance. The only problems are the keyboard for some and the jarring change of ports. You did say though that you don’t do any photo/video editing or graphic work so it would seem the same to you for normal work. The Air is just extremely underpowered compared though. Not sure how you’re arguing that. It’s an objective fact.
 
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impulse462 said:
Better in every aspect for performance.
Click to expand...

True

But sometimes you need a spoon, sometimes a shovel and sometimes a backhoe...
It just depends upon what type of hole we are digging.

The MBA is unquestionably the mainstream laptop of choice (or was and for some still is)
 
turbineseaplane said:
True

But sometimes you need a spoon, sometimes a shovel and sometimes a backhoe...
It just depends upon what type of hole we are digging.

The MBA is unquestionably the mainstream laptop of choice (or was and for some still is)
Click to expand...
I agree totally. But the whole premise of this thread is wrong. He’s asking who would replace their MBP for a MacBook Air when the Pro is a computer for content creation and the Air is an everyday mainstream laptop. Who would do that? I guess someone who bought something that was way too overkill for their needs.
 
impulse462 said:
I agree totally. But the whole premise of this thread is wrong. He’s asking who would replace their MBP for a MacBook Air when the Pro is a computer for content creation and the Air is an everyday mainstream laptop. Who would do that? I guess someone who bought something that was way too overkill for their needs.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm not sure which machine he had when he said "the 2016 MBP"

We have a 2016 nTB 13" MBP which effectively "is" a MacBook Air masquerading as a MBP.

The "Pro" part of MacBook Pro has been a moving target of meaningless jargon of late.

What he's really debating is staying with a current design philosophy MacBookProAir or a potentially Classic design but upgraded MacBook Air, which depending upon what they offer, could be really compelling for some.
 
Need power and a big display, so no air for me except as a travel system, maybe.

A bigger question is will there even be a new Air and if so how would it differ from a new MacBook? It is hard to imagine them keeping the current air keyboard and display. So now you have a keyboard and display the same as the MacBook. And the newer modern processors. And USB-C. And then soldered on drives and memory to make it slim. So the difference is?
 
I think this all moot anyhow.

They'll probably just shove a slightly better non-retina display in the Air and slightly bump the internals to keep it somewhat up to date and the price low.

The air is just low entry price bait for Apple at this point I think.

They should probably rename it the MacBook Old
 
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