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MacBook Air Refresh With Broadwell Processors and Intel HD 6000 Graphics Appears Imminent
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Seriously.
But we know this won't happen. Doing so means a higher starting price and Apple won't be able to pad their margins by charging us $100 for a lousy 4GB of RAM which costs them no more than $20.
I'd be curious to see how the HD6000 performs. It's funny, with everyone seemingly disinterested (which can only originate from Intel's marketing department itself) in Broadwell, there's been very little discussion on the GPU performance improvement in a non-low power form factor.
Early 2014 : MacBook Air 6 disappointment
New year, same company.
Why was I even hopeful?
Oh yes, rumor sites tricked me.
+1000
Youre correct my friend but don't forget:
2014: "Tim Cook CEO of the year"
2014: Apple: "we currently have the best product pipeline in 20 years."
Holy Hell!!!! 4GB of RAM Still!!!
Everyone seems to be happy with what Apple is doing except me. Yes OS X is the best OS out there... K, check, got it! But Apple is being total dingleberries when it comes to hardware. Still offering 4GB of RAM? and it's soldered in so you can't upgrade you have to buy a whole new laptop?!?!?! 4GB of RAM on Yosemite? That might get you through a couple updates before things start slowing down. Also once you start installing non-Apple apps.... say goodbye to your memory! This is ridiculous!
Everyone seems to be happy with what Apple is doing except me. Yes OS X is the best OS out there... K, check, got it! But Apple is being total dingleberries when it comes to hardware. Still offering 4GB of RAM? and it's soldered in so you can't upgrade you have to buy a whole new laptop?!?!?! 4GB of RAM on Yosemite? That might get you through a couple updates before things start slowing down. Also once you start installing non-Apple apps.... say goodbye to your memory! This is ridiculous!
Lessee... on my mid-2011 MBA, 256GB SSD, 4GB RAM, running 10.10.2:
Crossover
XQuartz
Opera
VRC (ATC Simulation client, built for Windows)
1Password
SublimeText
And those are quickly off the top of my head, and no slowdown at all, nor hogging of memory. You may want to do some research on this before stating something as outlandish as this.
BL.
Four years later, and 4GB is still the standard RAM (other than the base 2011 MBA). See everyone's point?
Or perhaps you are missing the point that OS X is so bloody good at memory management that it doesn't need more to be thrown at it to perform as well as it does.
BL.
Why the hell should be priced higer the rMBA, now that retina displays have became a "standard" on MBP's and are cheaper to produce? They even reduced $100 and doubled RAM on 15"'s.
Moreover, if rMBA comes with Core M (less performance and even less GPU power than this "announced" Broadwell Airs), less ports, and priced higher than actual Airs, then I'd say: GL early adopters, you got tricked only for a better display.
Actual Airs are little beasts and they shouldn't be downgraded for a -2mm form factor or a throttling fanless design, but upgraded with better display and similar or better battery life, nothing else.
Dude, Air is almost same performing as a 13" Pro with 1lb less, $300 less at cost and +various hours of battery. The only pro of the MBP is the display and 1+ thunderbolt, nothing else.
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Lasted me through 4 versions of OS X, and actually performs faster now on Yosemite than it did when I walked out of the Apple Store with it, with Lion.
Now, that doesn't mean that I wouldn't accept a bump in memory, but for those that are complaining that they won't buy because it only has 4GB of memory aren't understanding how well the OS is at managing memory.
BL.
Its so sad to see that the classic MacBook Pro got abandoned. I have one and I can upgrade the memory and hard drive so easily. Dual booting on that machine has never been easier. No complaints on storage, nor memory. Apple even killed upgradability on the Mac Mini. It's sad to see that go away but taking those features away gives Apple more money.
Ivy Bridge is a tick of the tick tock. Sandy Bridge (32nm) was a tock. Ivy bridge was a die shrink (22nm) and a slight improvement of the architecture. Then came Haswell (Tock) which is on the same 22nm process that made bigger changes to the architecture, then Broadwell (14nm Tick) then skylake (14nm Tock) etc...
I ran a patch that enabled AirDrop and Continuity on my 2011 MBA. The hardware can do it; Apple were just being jerks.
I run Windows 7 most of the time on my MBA anyway.
The difference is $200 if they have the same storage and memory, though it's possible to configure an air with lower specs than is possible on a pro, resulting in the $300 gap you mention.
Processor and graphics are also meaningfully superior on the pro. That may or may not matter for a given person's uses, but the display and a port are not the only pros of the pro.
I know, really. If I needed a laptop I'd buy apple, but their offerings are pretty bland and underpowered compared to other laptops, in similar form factors. Lineup is really unimpressive.
Would love to see an ultra thin MacBook line, and then true portable workstations with top GPU's. Their flagship $2500 MBP is pretty lame with a 750m. Seems like they could do better all around.
this. when you make ram non upgradeable at least make the minimum 8gb. i bought a used 11" and it was a huge pita to find 1 with 8gb.
Exactly, why discontinue and lose some sales when you can still make money on those who don't care about a retina display, a new design to get attention at Starbucks, see that extra 100 or 200 dollars/euros as breaking their "budget", etc.
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Since I can't remember. Apple definitely likes to see how far they can go and with that Apple logo, they can go pretty far.
I would never consider any laptop today with less than 8gb of ram. I would also never consider a smartphone/tablet with only 1gb of ram in 2015 so I'm hoping the next iPhone has 2gb. Based on the 2gb of ram Apple gave to the iPad Air 2, even Apple is coming to terms with this. After iOS 8, the "iOS is optimized for 1gb" argument is running out of steam.
No, regretfully, NO!...
Given that Apple doesn't change the battery (capacity) in the 13" MBA refresh and only replaces the Haswells with the new Broadwell equivalents, the battery life will improve to 13-14 hrs.
24 hrs. is a mere impossibility, as there should be no substantial headroom to increase the battery capacity in the currently used MBA casing.
My prophecies:
1) A 12" rMBAwith Broadwell in mid 12015 and will upgrade to Skylake in mid 2016.
2) Current 11" & 13" MBA will be refreshed with Broadwell (just increasing battery life)
3) Current 13" & 15" rMBA's will be refreshed with Broadwells, by mid 2015 or early 2nd half.
4) A totally new 14" rMBA will evolve (similar case as with the 12" rMBA) by mid 2016. The 11"/13" MBAs with Broadwells will be discontinued.
5) Mid 2016 (or early 2nd half) all 13" & 15" rMBAs with Broadwells will be discontinued and replaced by totally re-designed (case + CPU) 15" & 17" rMBP with Skylake. So that "Pro" designation really will be associate with "Pro footprints". For common, daily work use 12" and/or 14" rMBA with Skylake but still benefit from the virtues of the retina screen (though, the retina screen plus the new sleek & sexy casing may force the battery capacity to be chopped down a bit and these new 2016 Skylake rMBAs may only manage 9 hrs. and 10-11 hrs. respectively as compared with 10 hrs. for Broadwell 11" MBA and 13-14 hrs. for Broadwell 13" MBA refreshes...)
Maybe they're leaking the low-specs/low-cost machine Apple always keep in offer just to blow us harder with the Retina Airs with new form factor!