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New MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Still Have 720p Camera, But Apple Promises Better Quality From M1

I wouldn't mind the lower bandwidth needs of a 720p camera provided it was a QUALITY 720p camera AND mic system. This is not stopping me from replacing my 2014 Mac Mini with a MBP 13" though. I've been wanting a mobile option for a while for a desktop but wanted iPad type battery life. We now have it, with all the latest ports and iPad app compatibility. This is pretty great.
 
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Don't let the magic blind you. It's a quad core cpu essentially. Sure it is fully optimized for iOS apps. Sure it has great battery life. But this thing is an ipad with a permanent keyboard. No 120hz display, thick bezels, no faceid with that thick bezel, 720p camera, NO TOUCHSCREEN/PENCIL support. You guys keep buying these rehashed machines (even if it comes with an ipad processor) but keep in mind apple is all in on their own ecosystem now which isn't a bad thing if you are apple only. But I gotta run my CAD software for business so there isn't anything that is feasible on these machines for me, personally. But for my wife who does emails and recipe surfing all day, these machines are great!

You still can't game on these machines, still can't do much a PC can do so sorry the marketing magic doesn't work on me. The pricing is meh at best and overall it is a test run for apple. Wait for more compelling hardware.
 
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I noticed during the presentation that they steered around this detail. What is the reason for not putting a 1080p camera in there? Especially on the Pro? With webcams now an essential wfh component, this just seems petty and miserly. I do understand that some/many don’t have reliable enough internet speeds to make 1080p smooth, ML could just default back to a lower resolution.
 
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JamieLannister said:
Don't let the magic blind you. It's a quad core cpu essentially. Sure it is fully optimized for iOS apps. Sure it has great battery life. But this thing is an ipad with a permanent keyboard. No 120hz display, thick bezels, no faceid with that thick bezel, 720p camera, NO TOUCHSCREEN/PENCIL support. You guys keep buying these rehashed machines (even if it comes with an ipad processor) but keep in mind apple is all in on their own ecosystem now which isn't a bad thing if you are apple only. But I gotta run my CAD software for business so there isn't anything that is feasible on these machines for me, personally. But for my wife who does emails and recipe surfing all day, these machines are great!

You still can't game on these machines, still can't do much a PC can do so sorry the marketing magic doesn't work on me. The pricing is meh at best and overall it is a test run for apple. Wait for more compelling hardware.
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So, it's an iPad, but no touch screen or pencil. Got it. :) Oh my, the comments here sometimes...
 
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There's honestly no room at all for a better camera I believe. No idea if one day they'll find a way to put faceid in such a thin display
 
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fromgophonetoiphone said:
The 720p webcam today is laughable, although the # of people who struggle with internet connectivity to reliably stream 720p video is also shockingly high.
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I picked up a new Lenovo Yoga C940 for my wife a week ago. It's a $1500 MSRP laptop (got for $1100) and it has a 720p camera.

It's also an awful laptop with many issues in windows and is going back. I think 720 is just what it is in these thin devices.
 
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Man, the hysteria in here is crazy. It's 720p because the camera and lens have to be basically paper thin to fit in the LCD housing. The iPhones have nearly 8mm of depth to play with for the camera module and the MacBook cameras have about ~1.5mm of depth to play with. There simply is not a better camera for that space and there's nowhere they can realistically relocate it to.
 
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jjdodders said:
Jeeesssssssssssuuuusssss christ. They're really going to phone it in for this first round, aren't they?
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It’s not all that different from the last transition. For the most part all the Macs were outwardly the same going from PowerPC to intel.
 
SpringKid said:
So, it's an iPad, but no touch screen or pencil. Got it. :) Oh my, the comments here sometimes...
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you get nothing. You have your own opinion don't go making mine look bad. I have professional work that requires professional software that doesn't run on a magic laptop from apple. I do use apple laptops for personal use because I love them, personally. Professionally they do not have enough power and compatible with the software I need for business. That's making money not playing apple tv games or editing youtube reaction videos all damn day. My wife would benefit for these and anybody who doesn't really make a real living off computers, yes.
 
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In my opinion I think they're waiting for a full hardware refresh to change the camera. At some point they'll release refreshed Air/Pro with thinner bezels, FaceID with upgraded webcam, mini-LED displays, and Magsafe back in some configuration. The processor stole the show for this update and they're okay with that.

I just think personally in 2020 given the circumstances and people's reliance on webcams, this should've been a priority, but my speculation is that they don't want to change the module yet without FaceID implementation.
 
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I don’t think the cameras will improve until Apple redesigns the lid. The lid is probably too narrow to fit a 1080p camera or Face ID cameras. Face ID is what I was hoping for, but it looks like we’ll have to wait for a redesign. iPhones are thicker than those MacBook lids, so unless Apple makes their laptop lids a bit thicker, we’re doomed to suffer potato cameras and no Face ID.
 
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Serious question, what possible reason or technological limitation could they have had for not improving the camera?
 
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