Microsoft Prepares for Launch of New MacBook Air by Updating Low-Cost Surface Laptop

[Mac Fly (film)]

Wishes: MBA with SD Card, headphone port, two USB4 and 14" display

Absolutely essential: Upside-down "T" arrangement

Welcomed and expected: MagSafe 3 (one of Apple's best inventions)

 

[Taz Mangus]

But does it have a fan? that would make it a winner

It sure does have a fan.

 

[Complex757]

Considering you can often get a Air for $849 or less, it's not really cheaper. Especially when you consider features like touch ID, but hey it has more key travel.

 

[alpi123]

They're going by rumors as well, they don't know if the Macbooks are coming on WWDC.

 

[Spock]

Actually looks better than many of the MBA Mockups. Proof you can make laptops in colors without ugly white/light grey bezels and keyboards.

Apple used white and grey keyboards and bezels and nobody complained. The entire PowerBook G4 line from 2001-2006 and the MacBook Pro from 2006 until 2008 not including the matte screen options on the unibody. Every single iBook from 1999-2006 and then the polycarbonate MacBook from 2006-2010. And the MacBook Air from 2008-2017. Not to mention the iMacs and Cinema Displays that all had white bezels for several years as well.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

View attachment 2012096
4GB of RAM is still a thing?

256GB is the most storage you can get? And where are the Ryzen options?

Oh well. At least it looks pretty. ?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I dont understand the power button being second to the right 🤔

That's because you're a Mac person. You think differrently. I don't understand why there is no Backspace key on Macs! See?

 

[mi7chy]

Considering you can often get a Air for $849 or less, it's not really cheaper. Especially when you consider features like touch ID, but hey it has more key travel.

It does have fingerprint reader and if it's like other Windows laptop it's one step to power on and authenticate vs two-steps on Macbooks. Air is a glorified ARM Chromebook with limited software availability so it's not even a direct comparison.

"Windows Hello through the fingerprint reader integrated into the power button"

 

[philosopherdog]

That's because you're a Mac person. You think differrently. I don't understand why there is no Backspace key on Macs! See?

you mean forward delete? fn + del? we can do this

 

[no_idea]

We have now devolved into product differentiation being on keyboard travel??? Really your marketing couldn’t come up with anything better?

 

[azentropy]

Apple used white and grey keyboards and bezels and nobody complained. The entire PowerBook G4 line from 2001-2006 and the MacBook Pro from 2006 until 2008 not including the matte screen options on the unibody. Every single iBook from 1999-2006 and then the polycarbonate MacBook from 2006-2010. And the MacBook Air from 2008-2017. Not to mention the iMacs and Cinema Displays that all had white bezels for several years as well.

Yes, people complained then. I was one of them and owned many of those products (I actually still have an iBook G4 and the original 2006 White MacBook in my closet) and in retrospect even more people realized how bad they were. I thanked god when they came to their senses and moved away from them. It is like I thought I looked pretty cool in the 80s/90s, but now look back and try to figure out what we were all thinking and cringe when some of those styles (especially hair) come back too.

 

[Moonlight]

They say the battery life is better...by 30 min.

The previous Surface go review from Gizmodo: "The original laptop was supposed to get 13 hours on a charge, but it died after just 6 hours and 32 minutes on our YouTube video playback test with the screen set to 200 nits."

 

[klasma]

I dont understand the power button being second to the right ?

I guess that’s because Mac users aren’t accustomed to a dedicated Delete key.

 

[mi7chy]

We have now devolved into product differentiation being on keyboard travel??? Really your marketing couldn’t come up with anything better?

There's a huge keyboard enthusiast market that's spilled over from PC to Macs. Marketing might work but Air keyboard isn't bad compared to craptastic shallow Macbook 12" which felt like finger tapping on a table.

 

[Moonjumper]

I really like the 3:2 aspect ratio screen. It creates a lot more screen area for the diagonal measurement. MacBooks are better than most with 16:10, but I would love a MacBook with a 3:2 screen (and a large monitor in that ratio as well).

 

[troublador]

Considering you can often get a Air for $849 or less, it's not really cheaper. Especially when you consider features like touch ID, but hey it has more key travel.

It has a touchscreen. Don't see any MacBooks with that.

 

[mi7chy]

View attachment 2012096
4GB of RAM is still a thing?

Think education market and web apps plus 4GB RAM is more usable on Windows than MacOS while priced closer to Chromebook.

 

[ZacKaffeine]

It does have fingerprint reader and if it's like other Windows laptop it's one step to power on and authenticate vs two-steps on Macbooks. Air is a glorified ARM Chromebook with limited software availability so it's not even a direct comparison.

"Windows Hello through the fingerprint reader integrated into the power button"

Unless the chromebooks have changed considerably from the ones I know of, I don’t understand how that is a reasonable comparison.

 

[theluggage]

Not at all filing a formal complaint - but it does look very Apple.

Since Apple released the PowerBook 100 in 1991 (a collaboration with Sony) every laptop has followed Apple's design lead. Apple didn't exactly invent the "notebook" laptop but they've always been the trendsetter in terms of design. When they released the Titanium powerbook, everybody copied the form-factor (often without the peeling paint!) The chiclet/island keyboard of the Unibody Mac? Within a year or two most laptops had followed suit. The original MacBook Air effectively created the "ultrabook" form factor. It only went a bit runny when Apple went with the butterfly keyboard and overnight all-USB-C...

The design of this one clearly owes something to Apple - but it's also very much in line with the 2016 Surface Book. I had one of those briefly and it was really nice - until it developed multiple issues, eventually bricked itself and I returned it. Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, it was the closest I'd seen to MacBook design quality/feel (the screen was beautiful) - it was also the closest I've seen to Apple pricing.

It’s a nice looking laptop, but specs suck. I would rather get a MacBook Air 2020 over this.

It's not really an Air equivalent - 12.4", 1024p screen (still, the 3:2 ratio is a plus), quad core processor - as the Verge article says it's really competing with Chromebooks (hence the modest storage - you're meant to use the cloud). Apple's leaving that market to the iPad.

Not sure what game Microsoft's been playing with the Surface range - they've always been lovely designs but so low-balled on specs as to make Apple look generous. Of course, MS make a shedload of money licensing Windows to 3rd party PC makers so they probably don't want to bite the hand that feeds them - I suspect that it's partly about trying to get the rest of the laptop industry to follow them instead of Apple and Google.

(The MS Surface Studio desktop is a thing of beauty and I'd love that screen on an (i)Mac - until you look at the price vs. specs and laugh your head off).

 

[mi7chy]

Not at all filing a formal complaint - but it does look very Apple.

Apple copied Sony's slim metal clamshell VAIO 505 laptops from late 1990s. Before that Apple laptops were thick, plastic and ugly like Compaqs (where Tim Cookie came from). So, Apple copied both Compaq then Sony.

1990s Apple

1990s Compaq

 

[Xenobius]

The Surface Laptop Go To Throttling.

 

[planteater]

Actually looks better than many of the MBA Mockups. Proof you can make laptops in colors without ugly white/light grey bezels and keyboards.

Ugly is subjective. I'll take a white keyboard and bezel on my new MacBook!

 

[StuBeck]

This isn't a Macbook air competitor.

 

[zarmanto]

In its press release, Microsoft directly draws a comparison between the Surface Laptop Go 2 and Apple's MacBook Air by saying the Surface offers "30% more key travel than a MacBook Air.”

Anyone who pays attention to Apple's public stance on their products will know that most of the time, Apple makes a very intentional practice of trying not to reference other companies by name. The philosophy behind this is pretty simple: bad-mouthing your competitor is actually good for them. If Microsoft is comparing their products to Apple's products, that means that we all know full well who MS is trying to beat. Who the real competition is. Often, people will look at a press release like this one, and something inside will click... and they'll find themselves wanting to know more -- but not the "more" that the press release wants them to focus on. Rather, it's more like this: "Why is a 30% greater key travel worth caring about? And is there something else compelling about that Apple product, that MS so desperately wants me to focus on key travel, of all things?"

To wit: Personally, I think Microsoft does themselves a disservice with that comparison.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

you mean forward delete? fn + del? we can do this

Yes you can, with two hands instead of one.