New MacBook Air Announced With Magic Keyboard, Up to 2x Faster Performance, and Lower $999 Starting Price

[ingambe]

Yes, it's a good plus
But if people are short on money even the I3 would be enough

 

[chucker23n1]

Yes, it's a good plus
But if people are short on money even the I3 would be enough

Agreed. The $999 base config is not a bad computer at all.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

why? You don’t know people’s use cases. What if they just use it to write documents, watch Netflix, and don’t have a zillion apps open at a time.

Even then, those $100 increase longevity.

It’s not an absolute must, obviously. But it’s a good bang for the buck.

I tell people to stay clear from any i3 processors. They are junk IMO. i5 should be the minimum and the price we pay for Apple stuff, they should be the base also.

 

[chucker23n1]

I tell people to stay clear from any i3 processors. They are junk IMO. i5 should be the minimum and the price we pay for Apple stuff, they should be the base also.

The $999 Air with i3 isn't a bad deal by Apple standards. The $1,099 i5 is a much better one, but you'll do fine with the i3.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

The $999 Air with i3 isn't a bad deal by Apple standards. The $1,099 i5 is a much better one, but you'll do fine with the i3.

You open one excel sheet and good luck. i3’s are junk.

 

[Seanm87]

You open one excel sheet and good luck. i3’s are junk.

I'm sure its not that bad.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

I'm sure its not that bad.

It is. My old work computer couldn’t deal with a simple spreadsheet. I got an i5 and it was fine. Again we are paying for a premium product, and i3‘s have no place for a premium product.

 

[chucker23n1]

It is. My old work computer couldn’t deal with a simple spreadsheet. I got an i5 and it was fine. Again we are paying for a premium product, and i3‘s have no place for a premium product.

i3 just means "the low tier of a current generation". (And even then, there are lower tiers that Apple wouldn't touch: Pentium, and below that Celeron.)

Ice Lake is good enough that even i3 is OK.

 

[KPOM]

why? You don’t know people’s use cases. What if they just use it to write documents, watch Netflix, and don’t have a zillion apps open at a time.

It’s good future proofing. Operating systems become more complex over time.

 

[high heaven]

The cooling system is worse than the previous-gen MBA which has a proper CPU cooler. You disappointed me Apple.

 

[GalileoSeven]

lol leaving the i3 in is a pure penny-pinching move by Apple - though given how long it took them to standardize SSDs (and at a respectable size no less), this isn't at all unexpected from them.

The brand new Dell Latitude work gave me has a Whiskey Lake CPU (8365U) which makes multitasking a *dream* (comes with a 256GB SSD standard. IT installed an absurd RAM upgrade though after the fact - from 8 to 24GB)

 

[PickUrPoison]

where is my SDXC card slot ?!

Who cares, where’s my CFast slot?

 

[Yebubbleman]

With the MBA on gen 10 8W and the MBP 13" two port on 8th gen it would look to be "not enough to make difference". if moved up to 10th/11th gen at the 15-20W budget ( at higher clocks and/or more cores ) there would be more of a difference. (likewise if the MBP moved to AMD Ryzen 4000 mobile. There would be a gap. ).

I'm not saying that there wouldn't be a difference. I'm saying that any customer that would find a current Air insufficient, but would find a 13" Pro sufficient from the standpoint of performance is likely doing stuff with their computer that would be much better suited for a 16" MacBook Pro. I'm saying that the use case of a 13" MacBook Pro at this point is likely diminished given that most people don't buy personal computers anymore. Thereby making it so that the use cases for the computers still being sold need to have more contrast with each other in order to sell well.

From the moment switch to ARM doesn't' get you more ports. Or even Thunderbolt. With Apple ARM at the moment gets you a one port wonder MacBook like system.

There is little to nothing to point to that indicates going to get something different that would be effective be a "hand me down' A--X ( or A--Z ) ARM system at this point. Apple trotting out the A12Z isn't super prowlness on highly divergent SoC development.

I think that's overly cynical. Apple would be foolish to go back to a one-port Mac after the one they sold flopped so badly. If they change nothing of the exterior of the MacBook Air and baked it in with an A13X or A13Z or a T3 or whatever, gave us the same everything else, but sold us on it being twice as fast and with 16GB or 32GB of RAM standard (as built into the SoC), that'd be all they had to do. Similar with the 16" MacBook Pro. You only need two models. Plus, with USB4 seeking to replace Thunderbolt 3, it'd be easily doable.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Yes - if only it had been released last year. My Retina Macbook is due to retire soon and I have many apps that won't run under Catalina. I am not hopeful but I will wait until someone comes up with a way to "downgrade" to Mojave. Major obstacles are graphics drivers and the T2 chip.
see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mojave-on-2019-mac-pro.2216641/

It's usually more than just the T2 chip and graphics drivers. It's drivers for the system chipset and all integrated devices as well.

 

[Jury]

The cooling system is worse than the previous-gen MBA which has a proper CPU cooler. You disappointed me Apple.

Agreed. APPLE screw up more than improving on newer MBAir.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Why did several outlets report that Apple has a 128GB version of the 2020 Air available for $799? I don't see it via the Educational website.

 

[llllllllll]

Sounds like a discounted 2019 Air rather than a 2020..

 

[motm95]

Why did several outlets report that Apple has a 128GB version of the 2020 Air available for $799? I don't see it via the Educational website.

I don't see it either - besides, I don't think the 2020 Air comes in 128GB. Base is 256GB.

 

[chucker23n1]

Why did several outlets report that Apple has a 128GB version of the 2020 Air available for $799? I don't see it via the Educational website.

Might be a configuration that's exclusive to high-volume deals.
[automerge]1585743391[/automerge]

I don't see it either - besides, I don't think the 2020 Air comes in 128GB. Base is 256GB.

9to5Mac says:

Apple has also doubled the base storage, so the MacBook Air now starts at 256 GB. You can spec the machine up to 2 TB. Exclusively for education, Apple is offering a 128 GB MacBook Air configuration that is priced at $799.

So it's a special model below the base.

 

[nicho]

Might be a configuration that's exclusive to high-volume deals.

I would also think this to be the case. Unfortunately they haven't updated the volume price list since february, so there's no way to confirm it right now.

 

[chucker23n1]

I would also think this to be the case. Unfortunately they haven't updated the volume price list since february, so there's no way to confirm it right now.

I would assume 9to5Mac would have updated the article by now if it's wrong, so I'd suggest calling your business rep…