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KGI: Apple to Launch Cheaper MacBook Air in 2Q 2018
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Architecture transitions don’t happen overnight. MacBook Air (and Mac mini) are slower, smaller computers typically used for light consumer-oriented tasks. Think browsing and photo organization and other things mainly handled by Apple’s own apps, plus some light third-party stuff easily emulated.
Makes those systems the perfect place to signal to larger devs that a re-compile is on the horizon.
Most likely action here is a price cut on the same hardware - but Intel could have given them a discontinuation notice on the Broadwell CPU prompting action by Apple - it's entirely likely that the generation before (Haswell) is being phased out sooner necessitating the end of the Mac Mini too.
Adding Thunderbolt 3 ports, updating the CPU to Kaby Lake (or even the quad core Kaby Lake Refresh) would be a logical approach to the MBA if it sells in such numbers - if Apple wanted buyers to be able to connect to the new Apple Displays coming this year. I'd still suggest a dual core CPU is the intended target CPU for an MBA though with potential competition with the non touch bar MacBook Pros becoming a factor going forward unless they're all going quad core but the fate of Iris Graphics becomes a serious factor.
Crucially, there might be a side deal for the Mac Mini is Apple strike up a supply of the i5-8250U and intend to use it in a revised Mini which could also connect to the aforementioned display.
I'd suspect that the MacBook Air keeps the non-retina display to avoid stepping on the toes of the 13" MBP but at least it should retain the classic 2015 keyboard, and perhaps keep actual USB ports as well.
Would be very interesting to see how that gets on.
Adding Thunderbolt 3 ports, updating the CPU to Kaby Lake (or even the quad core Kaby Lake Refresh) would be a logical approach to the MBA if it sells in such numbers - if Apple wanted buyers to be able to connect to the new Apple Displays coming this year. I'd still suggest a dual core CPU is the intended target CPU for an MBA though with potential competition with the non touch bar MacBook Pros becoming a factor going forward unless they're all going quad core but the fate of Iris Graphics becomes a serious factor.
Crucially, there might be a side deal for the Mac Mini is Apple strike up a supply of the i5-8250U and intend to use it in a revised Mini which could also connect to the aforementioned display.
I'd suspect that the MacBook Air keeps the non-retina display to avoid stepping on the toes of the 13" MBP but at least it should retain the classic 2015 keyboard, and perhaps keep actual USB ports as well.
Would be very interesting to see how that gets on.
Do You really think a cheaper MacBook Air is going to be able to compete against a $200 Chromebook at the middle/highschool level? I highly doubt that. I’m sure Apple would start The rumored cheaper MacBook somewhere around $700, Which isn’t even competing against the Chromebook in price range. Remember schools have budgets, and they are going to utilize what’s most affordable. There Are some schools that even have contracts strictly with purchasing Chromebooks in my area.
Magsafe, the old keyboard, more ports and better speed - the MBA beats the MB silly .
Put the MBA on a diet - while keeping all of the above ! - bring the 11" model back , add a better screen , and kill the stupid MB .
Then call it MacBook 2.0 or Kevin or Rumpelstilzchen, for all I care , just get rid of what is now the abomination called the MacBook .
I thought the macbook replaced both the macbook air and the older macbook....
Surely this can't be true?
Surely this can't be true?
If they are lowering the price of the Air, one would hope they would lower the price of the MacBook and MacBook Pro too.
In any care, here is my prediction for the lineup in 2018 and 2019:
2018:
13" MacBook Air 8 GB (older tech, no Retina)
12" MacBook dual-core 16 GB
13" MacBook Pro quad-core non-Touch Bar 16 GB
13" MacBook Pro quad-core Touch Bar 16 GB
15" MacBook Pro hex-core Touch Bar 16 GB, with Core i9 option
2019:
13" MacBook Air 8 GB (older tech, no Retina) <-- Or maybe they'll just discontinue it.
12" MacBook quad-core 16 GB, with Thunderbolt
13" MacBook Pro quad-core non-Touch Bar 32 GB
13" MacBook Pro quad-core Touch Bar 32 GB
15" MacBook Pro hex-core Touch Bar 32 GB, with Core i9 option
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I very much doubt retina on the cards because they may as well kill off the non touch bar 13" Pro if they do.
The existing MBA has 1 Thunderbolt 2 port, so logically a refresh that adds Thunderbolt 3 adds just one of those ports. The rest of the spare PCIe lanes would give 2xUSB3, Magsafe 2, and an SDXC port.
You then have MacBook = 1 USB-C port (looking very poverty spec now, at least 1 Thunderbolt 3 and a USB3 on the other side should be bare minimum.
MBA = 1TB3 (plus 2xUSB3, Magsafe 2 power, SXDC card slot)
MBP non touch bar = 2TB3
MBP touch bar 13" = 4TB3 (with 2 at half speed)
MBP touch bar 15" = 4TB3
If the bottom of the range of that starts at $899 you could see a fair few college buyers.
While the MacBook seems like a successor to the MacBook Air, it doesn’t have the same charm. The Air is still an integral part of Apple’s lineup. That people still buy it over the MacBook despite the non-Retina display making it look obviously dated speaks volumes to the popularity of the Air branding and design, neither of which have totally transitioned over to the MacBook.
Since 2008 I’ve imagined my MacBook Pro being replaced by a high-end Air sometime in the next decade; unfortunately, the performance has yet to catch up. Mac OS on an A11X Bionic would serve Apple better than Intel’s latest.
Since 2008 I’ve imagined my MacBook Pro being replaced by a high-end Air sometime in the next decade; unfortunately, the performance has yet to catch up. Mac OS on an A11X Bionic would serve Apple better than Intel’s latest.
Yes! But then might as well have only one MBP13. Apple has not killed 2015 Air or 2015 MBP for reason. Yet another brainless prediction from Kuo that anyone on MR could write.
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OMG please, don't leak this out as Joni will start amputating the last remaining essentials for thermal purposes
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They just need something to hit a price point at the lower end. Unless sales of the non touch bar MacBook Pro are problematic and Apple are retrenching by quietly ditching it and allowing a redesigned MBA to breathe with its good keyboard and more useful ports?
Agreed! Although its very sad that we are looking forward to a light weight laptop with a usable keyboard.
I like the idea. Outside of being thinner, I really don't see the need for or draw to the MBA, given that the MBP 13" can do all that and more.
I too thought it was swelling well. Just out of curiosity, which presets do you think would improve its sound quality?
Not quite. While it's true the MacBook Air will be faster in some tests, the difference is marginal, and in other tests the 12" MacBook is actually faster now. For example:
MacBook Air Core i7: 7500
MacBook Core i7: 8525
With about half an hour of sustained load, the MacBook Core i7 will lose about 6% of performance, which in Geekbench 4 still puts it about 500 points ahead of the MacBook Air.
Furthermore, the 12" MacBook can do full hardware decode of 10-bit HDR 4K HEVC h.265 with 25% CPU load, whereas the MacBook Air can't decode that cleanly at all even with 100% CPU, since it's all decoded in software.
And in 2019 (not 2018), the 12" MacBook will go quad-core if the leaked info on Ice Lake Y is accurate.
Agreed. High ups at Apple should embrace the "NO" way more instead of releasing one thing after another. This just clutters things up and creates confusion.
Still remember the oldies when Steve came back to Apple and simplified the Mac line, standard and Pro, 4 products. Simple and clear.
Cheaper? What is needed is a Macbook equivalent to the LG Gram (15 inch at 1kg). The 15 inch MBP is a bad compromise (neither light, nor powerful, at roughly twice the weight of the LG at about similar performance -yes, it has a GPU, but AMD and only 4GB... not interesting enough for jumping from 1kg to almost 2kg)
The Macbook line should have:
12 inch MB (fanless, no GPU, below 1kg)
15 inch MB (fanless, no GPU, 1kg)
15 inch MBP (8GB NVIDIA GPU, 1.8 kg)
17 inch MBP (16GB NVIDIA GPU, 2.5 kg)
The Macbook line should have:
12 inch MB (fanless, no GPU, below 1kg)
15 inch MB (fanless, no GPU, 1kg)
15 inch MBP (8GB NVIDIA GPU, 1.8 kg)
17 inch MBP (16GB NVIDIA GPU, 2.5 kg)
I would love to see an entry-level "Air" in the 12" form factor with a 13" hi-res display with thin bezels (a la Dell XPS 13), same ports as current MBA but TB 2 updated to TB 3. I'll probably be disappointed....
Can you share some links please?
For all the people who are advocating reducing the MacBook price:
No, people aren't buying the MacBook Air for its price alone. There are number of issues that plague the MacBook that don't touch the Air. Here are eleven reasons people prefer the MacBook Air (11"):
1. Battery Life — The MacBook Air gets better battery life, especially if you're programming a lot on Xcode; coupled with the fact that the MacBook doesn't unambiguously shut off (there seems to be a low-power sleep mode that it likes staying in when charging, as well as turning on during charges), the MacBook Air more efficiently uses its battery and keeps its charge from day to day
2. Weight — The MacBook is heavier when you factor in all the dongles you have to carry for multiple port access (one port isn't enough for power supply + mouse + USB connector to device for programming). The MacBook Air 11" is much lighter weight, all supplies included.
3. Size - The 11" is far more portable. It has more ports, its screen is wide enough for side-by-side comparison without being tall enough to become a hindrance on airplane and train tray tables; the 12" screen is a hindrance because the taller footprint requires a more acute angle of screen bend to stay open, especially when the seat in front of yours reclines. The MacBook's extra screen size also makes it a poor fit for tray tables on airplanes and trains, while the 11" MacBook Air opens perfectly on those same tables, even if the seat in front of yours reclines. (Keep in mind people in Japan are on trains all the time, so being able to work from a traytable is a major win. In fact, all the Japanese people that I know on Apple laptops opt for the 11" for this very reason alone.)
4. Arrow Keys — The new keyboard's arrow keys are harder to move up-and-down quickly due to half-size, unresponsiveness. Tabbing up and down on the MacBook keyboard is a nightmare because it's easy to slip and hit the wrong arrow, which throws off line edits in prose and code. It also doesn't respond as crisply to fast arrow strokes up and down, since they occupy two halves of the same square "key."
5. Trackpad — The MacBook's trackpad has too many levels of depression, highlight & drag too error-prone, can get sticky and stuck in depressed state. Many people prefer the simpler one-click type in MacBook Airs. It has fewer levels of state and depression.
6. USB-C Only — no support for old-style USBs, non-Apple mice that many people use with receivers.
7. USB-C Power — The non-magnetic port is too difficult to connect, easy to pull laptop on a trip. I have to carry multiple MacBooks due to battery life constraints, and now have to carry two AC adapters (heavy bricks!), several USB converters, and Lightning cables to program on my devices. Weight increases about fourfold.
8. Blind Charging — no red/green light to differentiate full charge, like the MacBook Air's MagSafe 2 adapter. It's also hard to know if the MacBook stays off during charging. It makes a sound (that you can't mute), and sometimes when I open the lid despite having shut it down the night before, it's already turned on.
9. Charging Sound — Despite mute speakers, this beeps audibly & annoyingly on connection to power. Some people like students work in libraries or public transport and need to mute everything.
10. Keyboard — The MacBook keyboard sucks. It is loud & clicky, the keys are too close, unresponsive arrow-up, and is typo-prone if your fingers are flying fast and rely on key depression ("travel") for positive/negative feedback on correct keystrokes. The MacBook Air is the smallest, lightest machine with the old-style keyboard.
11. Power -- The MacBook, despite increasingly better chips, still cannot rival the Air for development tasks like building large Xcode projects and editing in Photoshop/Illustrator. Despite its age, the Air still has the better processor. I'm working on a fully upgraded 11" Air (2015), and it outperforms the fully-speced MacBook from 2016 on builds.
No, people aren't buying the MacBook Air for its price alone. There are number of issues that plague the MacBook that don't touch the Air. Here are eleven reasons people prefer the MacBook Air (11"):
1. Battery Life — The MacBook Air gets better battery life, especially if you're programming a lot on Xcode; coupled with the fact that the MacBook doesn't unambiguously shut off (there seems to be a low-power sleep mode that it likes staying in when charging, as well as turning on during charges), the MacBook Air more efficiently uses its battery and keeps its charge from day to day
2. Weight — The MacBook is heavier when you factor in all the dongles you have to carry for multiple port access (one port isn't enough for power supply + mouse + USB connector to device for programming). The MacBook Air 11" is much lighter weight, all supplies included.
3. Size - The 11" is far more portable. It has more ports, its screen is wide enough for side-by-side comparison without being tall enough to become a hindrance on airplane and train tray tables; the 12" screen is a hindrance because the taller footprint requires a more acute angle of screen bend to stay open, especially when the seat in front of yours reclines. The MacBook's extra screen size also makes it a poor fit for tray tables on airplanes and trains, while the 11" MacBook Air opens perfectly on those same tables, even if the seat in front of yours reclines. (Keep in mind people in Japan are on trains all the time, so being able to work from a traytable is a major win. In fact, all the Japanese people that I know on Apple laptops opt for the 11" for this very reason alone.)
4. Arrow Keys — The new keyboard's arrow keys are harder to move up-and-down quickly due to half-size, unresponsiveness. Tabbing up and down on the MacBook keyboard is a nightmare because it's easy to slip and hit the wrong arrow, which throws off line edits in prose and code. It also doesn't respond as crisply to fast arrow strokes up and down, since they occupy two halves of the same square "key."
5. Trackpad — The MacBook's trackpad has too many levels of depression, highlight & drag too error-prone, can get sticky and stuck in depressed state. Many people prefer the simpler one-click type in MacBook Airs. It has fewer levels of state and depression.
6. USB-C Only — no support for old-style USBs, non-Apple mice that many people use with receivers.
7. USB-C Power — The non-magnetic port is too difficult to connect, easy to pull laptop on a trip. I have to carry multiple MacBooks due to battery life constraints, and now have to carry two AC adapters (heavy bricks!), several USB converters, and Lightning cables to program on my devices. Weight increases about fourfold.
8. Blind Charging — no red/green light to differentiate full charge, like the MacBook Air's MagSafe 2 adapter. It's also hard to know if the MacBook stays off during charging. It makes a sound (that you can't mute), and sometimes when I open the lid despite having shut it down the night before, it's already turned on.
9. Charging Sound — Despite mute speakers, this beeps audibly & annoyingly on connection to power. Some people like students work in libraries or public transport and need to mute everything.
10. Keyboard — The MacBook keyboard sucks. It is loud & clicky, the keys are too close, unresponsive arrow-up, and is typo-prone if your fingers are flying fast and rely on key depression ("travel") for positive/negative feedback on correct keystrokes. The MacBook Air is the smallest, lightest machine with the old-style keyboard.
11. Power -- The MacBook, despite increasingly better chips, still cannot rival the Air for development tasks like building large Xcode projects and editing in Photoshop/Illustrator. Despite its age, the Air still has the better processor. I'm working on a fully upgraded 11" Air (2015), and it outperforms the fully-speced MacBook from 2016 on builds.
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