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

yanksrock100 said:
My wishlist by the end of 2012

-higher screen resolution
-better battery life
-256 gb base for the 13 inch

Think it can happen?
Click to expand...

better battery life comes with Ivy bridge.

High res screen, yes I think it could be possible.

256gb, could be on the high end version ... money can make that one happen.

Don't you want quad core?....how about discrete GPU?
 
mcman77 said:
better battery life comes with Ivy bridge.

High res screen, yes I think it could be possible.

256gb, could be on the high end version ... money can make that one happen.

Don't you want quad core?....how about discrete GPU?
Click to expand...

Yes I do want a quad core...but mostly the others :)

Hoping byt he end of the year because I'm buying some apple laptop this year :)
 
I love my Air, but I must say, the creaking on this machine is ridiculous. Every little thing sets it off, a slight shift in weight, a slight repositioning on my desk, or especially when I either lay or take off my hand for typing on the keyboard and palm rests area (especially the right side).

It's so audible and loud and fragile feeling. My pentalobe screw is on its way and I hope to resolve it by tightening it (and if I have to, by adding locktite), but this is truly poorly put together by Apple standards. When Ive uses his Air, does he not hear the same thing? He cannot be happy with it.

I love the unibody, but with such a thin device that is susceptible to flexing and movement, they may have to rethink how they implement the bottom plate and whatnot.

Not premium feeling, at all. For those who care to know, it's been brought twice to Apple already, and both times they tightened it, and said that's all they could do. THe issue persists.
 
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yanksrock100 said:
Yes I do want a quad core...but mostly the others :)

Hoping byt he end of the year because I'm buying some apple laptop this year :)
Click to expand...

Quad core is more important than 256gb SSD. You can always have an external at home IMO

Me too, i'd like to get something new this year. Trying to save up for one. Not sure between MBP or maybe just get an iMac + iPad. :eek:

descisions!
 
I'd like a faster SSD. The current gen MBA uses an controller that is a few gens old. Any rumors to this effect?
 
Actually, I'm quite happy with my 2011 MBA, but what would be great is a better battery life, especially on the 11''
 
My old netbook just died on me, so I'm going for an 11" MBA real soon. Still in doubt if I should wait for the update or not, but that's a different matter. What do I expect in the update ? I think there's a whole bunch of dreamers in this forum and that the update will be fairly limited:

  • most likely 4GB RAM in the base model, I would hope 8GB optionally
  • 128GB base SSD, but I don't expect a 512GB option, probably not SATA3
  • no HiDPI screen

Why ? Because I don't see Apple making their entire Pro line obsolete. We know more or less for certain that the Pro will be much thinner and will drop the optical drive. If the Air has specs that go into high range Pro territory, then Apple has too much overlap. Now, the difference is clear: if you require an optical drive or dual SSD/hard drives, or more than 4GB RAM, or more than 256GB storage, then the Pro is your choice. If not, you can also pick the Air.

Except, of course, if Apple would drop the Pro/Air boundary and have one single 11-13-15-17" line. But then I see a hole in the high end line-up: would the 15 and 17" versions still allow dual drives (fast boot SSD + large 2.5" for storage), or more and user upgradeable RAM than the lower ones ? This route does not seem probable as it would be more confusing than two separate line-ups.

But if you ask me what I would want, then it would be an 11" with a 1920x1080 HiDPI IPS non-glare screen, a SATA3 256GB SSD and 8GB of 1600MHz RAM with the Ivy Bridge i7 for about the same price as the current 11" i7-4GB-128GB set-up :)

Something I would also like very much is that Java would support full screen so that I don't have to see or auto-hide the dock. But then I haven't got a Mac at the moment to try out stuff, so I might be missing something.


Peter.
 
I've had my amazing MacBook Air 13" since the Black Friday sale and I love it. But living with it has shown me what more I really want..

Now, I came from a MacBook Pro with a C2D so the speed was still much faster. I had an SSD in my Pro too and unfortunately the Air I got had the older SSD's with the same speed as the drive in my Pro. But even with that, the speed is so much faster so I'm grateful. I don't miss the Optical Drive in the slightest. Especially its extra weight. I also got the 128 model of my Air which I find constricting every day. (Especially after the numerous Steam sales and Humble Bundles that filled up 40GB of space for games that I had to off-load to a slower USB2 HDD to make room. As well as the huge Windows VM's for Parallels.)

I want to see: (Aside from the speed improvements Ivy Bridge will bring)
HD FaceTime camera. (Even though I never use it, it's just sad it doesn't have at least the one in the iPad.)
256GB in a cheaper option. (It's $300 extra for the 128GB more right now)
8GB RAM as an option at least. (I had 8 on my Pro and never had page outs much. Now I end up with 7GB of Swap a lot.)
High Res display would be nice. (But I expect that to still be a year away according to Intel. Plus Apple needs to finalize HiDPI scaling for OS X. Also, I'd want it to be a slider so I could adjust the scaling finely and not just on whole number multiples. Personally I can't really see the pixels on my Air as it is. I'd just want the resolution bump and fractional scaling. At the very least I'd settle for a 13" model with a 1680x1050 resolution, or a 16:9 13" Air with a 1080p resolution.)

But really, Ivy Bridge will be enough for me to upgrade this soon. The rest would be a bonus.

SSD really needs to drop in price. $300 to upgrade to 256 is horrible still. SSD prices should have been halved by now what with how much Apple pushes them. And what about Flash storage in iOS devices? Is that the same thing? Or is it different?

That said, I love my current Air, and if I could change one thing it would be replacing the SSD with 256. If only I could walk into an Apple Store and throw $300 at them to upgrade it. (I know I could buy a third-party one for a little more, but I'd rather have the ease of not having to worry.)
 
Here's my list:

- 15" model
- A chassi that doesn't squeek
- More ram (8GB ram, at least as an option)
- Ivy Bridge (We already know it's coming)
- USB 3.0 (included w/ IB)
- Intel HD4000 (-ıı-)
- Cheaper storage upgrades (256GB should be cheaper)

Personally, I doubt we will see Retina-displays as of yet.
 
I'd like a core i7 quad
Retina Display
512 GB SSD
16 GB ram
11.6"
2.3 lbs

Willing to pay $2,199 for it.
 
I am not too bothered about the "retina display" business, but I would like to see improved panels in general. I think it's the only part of my 2011 MBA that is a bit disappointing in terms of contrast and viewing angles.

Back to the retina display stuff... Frankly, I am trying to figure out how this will actually work in Lion/Mountain Lion from a technical perspective since it's not as simple to implement as it is on iStuff.
 
A better screen. Most important is better colors. Second is higher resolution.

Oh yeah, and an announcement of an Apple branded external thunderbolt GPU enclosure. Apple could mass produce something nice here and get a good price on the GPUs from ATI/Nvidia.
 
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My Opinion (I have a late 2010 MBA 13" ultimate)

More storage - I'll be happy for 360 GB
Better battery life
Ivy Bridge
New design
Glass display
Smaller bezel with higher resolution (230 ppi?)

That's about it.
 
App Downloader said:
More storage - I'll be happy for 360 GB
Better battery life
Ivy Bridge
New design
Glass display
Smaller bezel with higher resolution (230 ppi?)

That's about it.
Click to expand...

What exactly is wrong with MBA's current design? seriously, other than the large bezel (which you also point out), I believe that the MBA design is perfect as it is....
 
KohPhiPhi said:
What exactly is wrong with MBA's current design? seriously, other than the large bezel (which you also point out), I believe that the MBA design is perfect as it is....
Click to expand...

No kidding. Some designs are just...timeless. Like the Shelby Cobra, the Eames Lounge Chair, the Macbook Air.
 
PeterJP said:
But if you ask me what I would want, then it would be an 11" with a 1920x1080 HiDPI IPS non-glare screen
Click to expand...

This would be equivalent to a 960x540 pixel display after applying the HiDPI setting. I don't think many people would like such a small resolution - even with HiDPI.

This is assuming they keep it in line with the iPhone/iPad and double resolution in each dimension for HiDPI LCDs. Then realistically it would require something like a 2720 x 1536 display for a 1366 x 768 HiDPI view.

----------
BeachChair said:
Oh yeah, and an announcement of an Apple branded external thunderbolt GPU enclosure. Apple could mass produce something nice here and get a good price on the GPUs from ATI/Nvidia.
Click to expand...

One that supports running the internal LCD off the eGPU like you can do with the modified Optimus drivers that Nando supplies for the current eGPU crowd.
 
coldmack said:
The models with the nvidia gpu are around 1.5mm thicker, than the other UX models, which are already thicker than the MBA.


What I want to see from the MBA is a variant that is 12in Powerbook like. A nice non-Intel cpu, non-wide screen display, matte as an option, and USB 3.0, since it looks like firewire is dead.
Click to expand...

Whoa.. non-Intel? AMD or ARM? Personally I'm a fan of the Intel Macs and I think it's the best decision they've ever done. I didn't know the nVIDIA GPU Zenbooks are going to be thicker -- it makes sense, I just haven't read anything about it. I think i might go 15" MBP though -- which is looking to be a LV Intel CPU version than the newer nVIDIA GPU Zenbooks.
 
I'm going to talk about what I'd like to see, rather than what I expect to see.

First of all, I owned a 2011 MacBook air, and there were definitely some issues I had with it. I got rid of it a few days ago and replaced it with an iPad 3, and couldn't be happier. For the MacBook air to become appealing, this is what I'd have to see:

More-so up to intel at the moment:
- cooler running processor & graphics solution
- faster graphics and processing power

Up to apple:
- improved screen quality so the iPad doesn't shadow the air too much in that area -- currently there's a big difference between even the iPad 2 and the air -- I'm not talking about ppi
- improved battery life by an hour, anything more would be nice but unexpected
- improved wifi performance, mine was atrocious even after testing it at dozens of locations
- slightly improved speakers so they don't have distortion with basic sounds at medium sound levels
- i would like to see a harder glass go over the screen, but that's personal preference and likely won't happen since it would add to the weight... Not sure by how much though

Incremental changes:
- 8gb ram option, 4gb standard ... No gouging with a 2gb starter model
- 512mb SSD option, 256gb option, 128gb standard
 
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