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

Skoopman said:
Speaking of the 800$ MBA rumour DIGITIMES now reports, that AMD will launch the Trinity APUs in May. What about AMD processors in the new MBA? I doubt it, but would be interesting. What about a 800$ budget MBA with AMD CPU and 1.000$+ MBAs with Ivy Bridge?
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Eew...AMD?!? I have had horrible experiences with them and clunky laptops that kept freezing! :mad:

It depends on what they decide to take out of the MBA to make it fit in such a low price range.

We know they intentionally gave the basic 11" MBA just 2gb of ram so they could market it at $999 and still turn a decent profit. Now they want to shave off another $200?

I am guessing a smaller SSD + HDD combination (perhaps just enough SSD for the OS and some other critical programs?). I doubt they will lower the RAM any more. Apple might also be willing to take on a smaller profit just to corner more market share?
 
They might switch SSD suppliers. They have come down a lot in the past year. Hopefully something with TRIM support.

AMD Trinity is a distinct possibility, right now it' fairly favourable stacked against Ivy Bridge, especially in terms of GPU performance
 
Aegelward said:
They might switch SSD suppliers. They have come down a lot in the past year. Hopefully something with TRIM support.

AMD Trinity is a distinct possibility, right now it' fairly favourable stacked against Ivy Bridge, especially in terms of GPU performance
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A heavier GPU would be interesting. What would the CPU hit be though, any Trinity Vs Ivy Bridge benches?
 
1) Matte display option;
2) More RAM;
3) Default with a better SSD controller (ie: SandForce or alternative good SATA 6G drive like the Samsung 830);
4) Better battery life.

I am most likely to upgrade with the first two, and very unlikely with the latter two.

Also USB 3.0 is to included with Ivy Bridge, it's sort of given.

Jobsian said:
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.
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You can already purchase a much better 480GB SSD (512GB Apple SSD will only yield 480GB as well) in the form of the OWC Mercury Aura 6G.
 
I'm increasingly thinking that I'd like a 15", if it wouldn't be much heavier than the current version of the 13". I'd love a bit more screen while at the same time keeping it portable.
 
I can see Apple switching to AMD for a low-cost CPU supplier as the PC Ultrabooks finally become competitive with the Air at lower price points. This is a threat to Apples huge margins on the Air and MBP. Oddly, Apple and Intel are becoming competitors as Intel pumps out more ULV chips to the Ultrabook vendors.

It's looking more like I will wait till Haswell to upgrade my 2010 MBA, and instead buy an Ivy Mini when they come out.
 
I want:

-3G/4G SIM-Slot. With Apple moving everything into the clouds, I can see this making sense. Plus I´d love it for work.

-matte screen option

-8GB of RAM (BTO if necessary)

-higher resolution, retina if possible

-same or better battery life

-brighter display (kinda collides with the retina option but hey)

-same or lower price

Out of that, the SIM Slot and the matte screen would be the most welcome features for me.
 
To make it simple, I think a new MBA should combine the power of a current MBP 15-inch with an SSD, longer battery life and lower weight compared to the current MBA.

The MBP should combine greater power and higher resolution than the current MBP in roughly the same size and weight of the current MBA, while retaining (at least) battery life.

Given that NEC has announced a 13-inch ultrabook that weighs 350 g less than an MBA, I don't see this as at all unachievable.
 
-better cpu - quad core would be awesome
-better display - retina?
-more ram - 4 / 8 gig options
-bigger SSD - 256 base / 512 max


any three of those 4 and I'm buying.... don't NEED a new laptop, but i want an air....
 
Good news about USB 3

https://www.macrumors.com/2012/05/1...k-pro-coming-with-retina-display-and-usb-3-0/

A fresh report from Digitimes also claims that Genesys Logic has won a contract to supply USB 3.0 chips for a forthcoming MacBook Air revision, and it seems likely that such compatibility would also be coming to the MacBook Pro.

----------
Abazigal said:
Eew...AMD?!? I have had horrible experiences with them and clunky laptops that kept freezing! :mad:
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Your personal experience and anecdotal evidence does not equate to the absolute truth since many millions of computers manage to run with AMD just fine. However, the AMD APU is not likely to be seen in the 2012 MBA.
 
A cheaper Macbook Air could be an experiment by Apple. One Jobs would never have considered, but it could be in line with Tim Cook's way of doing things...

Subsidise the system cost a little, take a marginal hit to profits. And see if they could make it up via other means such as the app store.

Would be nice if the base model went 4Gb/128 though.
 
Aegelward said:
A cheaper Macbook Air could be an experiment by Apple. One Jobs would never have considered, but it could be in line with Tim Cook's way of doing things...

Subsidise the system cost a little, take a marginal hit to profits. And see if they could make it up via other means such as the app store.

Would be nice if the base model went 4Gb/128 though.
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Like a $799 model that was 2gb/128gb? I would rather see 4gb/128gb for a base model, but at the price of $799 to start, it would be a killer deal for a MacBook.
 
Zudeo said:
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.
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ARM is fine, so is AMD, pending they are not that dead as a dog architecture referred to x86.
 
Hi,

NewbieCanada said:
To make it simple, I think a new MBA should combine the power of a current MBP 15-inch with an SSD, longer battery life and lower weight compared to the current MBA.
Click to expand...

Either you are being very ironic (which I hope you are), or you are completely unrealistic. A 45W TDP chip instead of a 17W one + a GPU will not only shorten the battery life dramatically, it will also make your Air go up in smoke as the chassis can't cope with the heat :D


theSeb said:
A fresh report from Digitimes also claims that Genesys Logic has won a contract to supply USB 3.0 chips for a forthcoming MacBook Air revision
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I thought USB3 came with Ivy Bridge as a standard feature of the chipset ? Why add extra chips from another vendor ? :)


chillywilly said:
Like a $799 model that was 2gb/128gb? I would rather see 4gb/128gb for a base model, but at the price of $799 to start, it would be a killer deal for a MacBook.
Click to expand...

That $799 for 2/128 would be good because then a 4/128 could be about $899. If that's the 11" you're talking about, it's $300 below the current price point AND with an upgrade to Ivy Bridge (and Retina?) ! Bring it on :)


Peter.
 
PeterJP said:
Hi,
That $799 for 2/128 would be good because then a 4/128 could be about $899. If that's the 11" you're talking about, it's $300 below the current price point AND with an upgrade to Ivy Bridge (and Retina?) ! Bring it on :)

Peter.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the 11" I was talking about. Would be nice to see that.
 
Realistic Hopes:
8GB Ram
256GB Standard/at least a cheaper option
Higher Res/Brighter Screen
Upgraded CPU (Ivy Bridge)

-
Pipedream list
14-15" Model
Discrete GPU
512 SSD
User-upgradable Ram
-

On another note, in terms of pure speculation, what is a realistic launch period for an upgraded MBA? With Ivy Bridge processors being released now-Juneish, and the advent of the Back to School promotion, I'm assuming we'll see at least a spec bump before the end of the summer?
 
JMS803 said:
On another note, in terms of pure speculation, what is a realistic launch period for an upgraded MBA? With Ivy Bridge processors being released now-Juneish, and the advent of the Back to School promotion, I'm assuming we'll see at least a spec bump before the end of the summer?
Click to expand...
2011's came out July 20th I think, so I'd imagine around that same time frame, give or take a week. But correlation does not mean causation, meaning their release last year really has nothing to do with their release this year... but it's a fair guess, I'd say.
 
16 GB RAM and something between 512GB and 1TB of SSD. That is about what I am running on my MacBook Pro. I can’t believe how often I use over 8GB RAM according to Activity Monitor, and my 512GB HD is starting to get more full than I like.
 
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