Let's talk 2012 MacBook Air - what would you like to see?

beyondthesmile said:
Are you guys expecting to see a significant physical redesign or will it be more about the "guts" of the machine?
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I'm assuming we'll get a Retina display, better camera, better battery life, and new processor / graphics. Doubt there will be anything else... maybe more options for RAM and SSD sizes
 
  • 8gb RAM

  • Thinner bezel around the screen, which would either reduce the laptop's overall size, or would increase the screen size (and perhaps resolution to 1440x900 on the 11" and 1600x1050 on the 13")

  • USB 3.0 to speed up external hard-drives

  • Better battery life on the 11" model. I'm happy with the 6 hours I'm currently getting on the 13" model

  • 8gb RAM

That's pretty much it. Other than that, the MBA is already a fantastic machine that doesn't require much more than the expected Ivy Bridge + H4000 upgrade.
 
KohPhiPhi said:
  • 8gb RAM

  • Thinner bezel around the screen, which would either reduce the laptop's overall size, or would increase the screen size (and perhaps resolution to 1440x900 on the 11" and 1600x1050 on the 13")

  • USB 3.0 to speed up external hard-drives

  • Better battery life on the 11" model. I'm happy with the 6 hours I'm currently getting on the 13" model

  • 8gb RAM

That's pretty much it. Other than that, the MBA is already a fantastic machine that doesn't require much more than the expected Ivy Bridge + H4000 upgrade.
Click to expand...

This, for real. "Retina Display" too.
 
Designers Dreambook

I Would want it to have options for quad core processors, dedicated GPUs, 8GB ram option and Bigger SSD.....HD res would be good to...to cut things short, I would like to see a macbook pro 17" config in MacBook Air 13" ;)
 
Ordered in level of importance (to me):
1. Larger storage options
2. 8GB RAM
3. Discreet graphics

I can live without discreet graphics card, and I'd prefer more RAM, but I can't buy a MBA until I can have a minimum of 400GB worth of storage (preferably 500GB +). My iTunes library is big (losless).
 
AlexH said:
Ordered in level of importance (to me):
1. Larger storage options
2. 8GB RAM
3. Discreet graphics

I can live without discreet graphics card, and I'd prefer more RAM, but I can't buy a MBA until I can have a minimum of 400GB worth of storage (preferably 500GB +). My iTunes library is big (losless).
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512GB SSD's start at like $800 so your not going to see that unless your willing to double the price of your air
 
rogan said:
512GB SSD's start at like $800 so your not going to see that unless your willing to double the price of your air
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There are 480GB SSDs in the 500-600 range. I'm willing to pay for that. I'm on the go a lot, portability is key, and it is an impossibility to use a MBA without at least 400GB of storage. I need the space.
 
Jobsian said:
What a notebook this has been. Utterly mesmerising. Functionality beyond expectation. Steve Jobs, the MBA being one of his labor of loves, totally knocked it out of the park with this.

Now we've had this design a while, what, if any, bottlenecks are you coming up against that might be lifted with a new model? What else do you want to see, within 'reason' (you define that).


CPU
I'm not pushing the CPU much. A drop in the time it takes to convert movie or music files would be a bonus. As would elimination of the odd skip on youtube 1080p. Heat and noise? Genuinely, having one of the lower voltage CPUs, I have none. Any CPU upgrade, presumably Ivy Bridge, will be more than sufficient for me.

Ivy Bridge's practically guaranteed, the lower powerdraw and tdp will be awesome :) But since it is a culv chip (17w vs 35w), it's still not as fast. Dunno if Apple's implemented quicksync yet, but once that is enabled, there shouldn't be any more skipping.

RAM
Even with Win XP on VM, I'm not pushing the RAM on mine at all (4GB). I'd be happy with the same, but if 8GB were there, I'd go for it to run beefier programs/games.

I'd want to see 4gb ram, even on the lowest configuration. And option for 8gb at the top end.

SSD
I'm regularly hitting the SSD limit leaving me to juggle constantly with Time Capsule, so a bigger SSD if available would be great. I'd love 512GB.

Same :)

GPU
Not gaming much (except some emulator action), this isn't get pushed. I'll be happy with whatever Ivy Bridge gives me.

Agreed, this machine isn't made for gaming. Though the option for a discrete Nvidia GPU w/ Optimus would be welcomed.

Screen
No concerns, would be happy with the same. OLED or IPS? If implemented well, it'd be nice.

I'd go for IPS out of the two because OLED is too saturated, but probably won't see any changes here.

Battery
Probably the upgrade I want to see. I'm constantly zeroing the current one as I take it around the house/work/travel. Hoping Ivy Bridge helps with this. Not aware of any new advances in battery technology. Toshiba promised something along these lines last year, including super fast recharge, claiming zero to 90% battery in 10 minutes! link

I think the Thinkpad X1 already has a really quick recharging battery. Don't think we'll see any big bumps in capacity, but a quick charging one would be nice.

Integrated LTE/3G
I'd be all over this in principle, but can't imagine it not significantly impacting battery and slightly adding weight with inefficient Sim-bays.

Could be useful for business people, but I don't really need it.

TB/USB3
The former's a given, I imagine almost certainly for the latter too given Ivy Bridge support. This would also be great to have and is another bottleneck for me, mainly because I'm transferring to and from Time Capsule and flash disks to free up my SSD.

Would be nice to have USB 3 as well.

Design
Even though I'd still be very happy with the same design and upgraded internals, wouldn't it be great to see this thing in black? There was some rumor of Apple looking into this a year or two ago.

OMG YES PLEASE.

Siri
:)

Meh :p

_
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Overall I think it'll be an evolutionary increase. CPU upgrade, maybe RAM bump, but not much else.
 
I'm really interested in buying a Mac book air, but don't need any dramatic improvements. So my wish list is pretty simple:

- 8Gb RAM
- Faster processors
- Matte screen
- 5 to 7 hours battery life

But above all, I hope we get the same quality finish as on the current models. I've looked at some of the offerings from the competition and I must say that a few of them look pretty sad.
 
up to 8 hrs battery life
up to 8gb of RAM
256gb standard with 512gg option for SSD.

keep the backlit keyboard of the 2011 model. 11" model is preferred, but adding a 15" model would be nice.
 
10 hour battery life is all I want. If that became reality I would go out into the streets and kiss the first person I saw.

That would be sweet! (not the kiss - the battery!)
 
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If it doesn't have a Retina Display it will be a disappointment. Being thin & light is old news at this point and Apple no longer has the market cornered for that form factor. Time to push the envelope again and a Retina Display is the way to do it.
 
Well...
  • 15" screen
  • smaller bezel
That's basically all I want in addition to the current Air. Also, Samsung brings out a 15" inch ultra-thin laptop at the end of April, their Series 9...
 
austinguy23 said:
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If it doesn't have a Retina Display it will be a disappointment. Being thin & light is old news at this point and Apple no longer has the market cornered for that form factor. Time to push the envelope again and a Retina Display is the way to do it.
Click to expand...

i believe sony currently holds the crown as far as max res. on the 13" at 1080p. 1440p plus discrete graphics that either fits into mba chassis or through dock with decent muscle (if internal 6750m level, external 6970m). If it doesn't hit at least one of those it wouldn't be pushing the envelope.
 
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