Mac Keyboard Switch Guide
Scissor = Good
Butterfly = Bad
Scissor = Good
Butterfly = Bad
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New MacBook Air Possible as Early as Next Week
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Not to kick the can down the alley, but at this point, I assume it’s either a 14nm CPU as I have yet to hear about any 10nm Y-Series CPUs arriving imminently. Genuinely, I think we can throw a dart at a board and have a decent chance of being right.
My opinion is that if a MacBook Air is going to be worthwhile, the CPU needs 4c/8t and an Iris Plus GPU as the HD 617 GPU is just hot garbage.
Beyond this, I’m in the dark as to what Intel has up its sleeve.
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Tiger Lake is Q4 shipping at best, if not a 2021 product.
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Shhhh! It's "all just spec bumping"!
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Well, both Ice Lake-Y and Comet Lake-Y seem to exist (on paper) in 4c/8t variants. And in terms of the GPU, I guess Ice Lake wins.
But it's hard to find much real data on either line-up.
Yeah.
"Apple has announced new or refreshed products in March for the last five consecutive years, so there is precedence."
To the Editor: You have a usage error. The word you mean is precedent.
To the Editor: You have a usage error. The word you mean is precedent.
I love my 2019 MacBook Air, and the butterfly keyboard does not bother me. This is the best computer I have ever gotten.. love it more then my pro. Screen is great, lightweight, battery lasts forever, drives 2 4k monitors, keeps up with all of my work.
If this is true, and Apple releases a new MBA redesigned to accommodate the new scissor mechanism, then I would have been wrong in my numerous posts and others (you included) would have been right. Clearly, to make this big of a change on a relatively new MBA (18 months old) means there is a significant issue that needs to be corrected even after the 2019 version of the BF KB was released last summer. It would be an unusual move for Apple.
Nevertheless, I will sit down and eat crow as my just desserts! 🤢
It has the butterfly keyboard. They've finally seen the light and are phasing the ****ing things out. Thank god.
And yet it's covered by a special warranty for butterfly keyboards. That tells you all you need to know. It's a terrible design, full-stop.
Because Apple was using scissor switches in their laptops for years before this and they were rock solid. No special warranty program, no multiple revisions to try to get them right. Just a good, robust switch with a usable amount of key travel. The MacBook keyboards were so good, in fact, that every other laptop manufacturer copied the design soon after it came out. The Magic Keyboard is based on the same kind of mechanism -- and more specifically, one they've been using for some years on the external Bluetooth keyboard of the same name. I guess they could still screw this up, but I have a feeling they've put a premium on reliability this time.
Remember, before the butterfly keyboard, we weren't even having conversations about "keyboard reliability". It was a given. Keyboards were a solved engineering problem. We were free to gripe about battery life, displays, running temperatures, etc, but we didn't have to worry about Mac laptop keyboards because they just worked.
But then guess what happened? Apple decided that a laptop keyboard didn't need tactile feedback. It was fine if the keys felt like banging your fingers on a piece of solid plastic. They also decided it could be built with a very delicate mechanism that could be rendered useless by the smallest grain of dust. Good riddance.
Yeah, it’s really me. Ended up with bruised ribs too, which as odd as it sounds was even worse. The pain when I needed to sneeze was so excruciating that my body would shut it down. Sneezed for the first time since the accident yesterday...although given the current climate it is probably better if I wasn’t sneezing!
My main machine is the Mini at office, this is the first time I’ll be using the laptop each and every day for 9 hours to get work done. Hopefully it won’t let me down.
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Sure, I don’t have one but is cheaper than a new laptop. If remote work is going to be an option from now on I’ll buy a keyboard and a display, I miss my 27’’
cool. can Catalina 10.15.4 come out finished product next week too?
Please MAKE MACOS GREAT AGAIN!!
Please MAKE MACOS GREAT AGAIN!!
You can install the latest 10.15.4 beta to see if it's great again?
You'd have to be more specific on which changes you're hoping for.
Except it's an entirely new device...
You don't actually think it's just the 15" with a bigger screen bolted on, do you?
Pretty much the only thing it kept from the 2019 15" are the CPU options...
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And that makes it a "just fixed keyboard" update? 😂
Heck, it's got an entirely new chassis. Larger in every dimension, heavier too.
Pretty much everything about it is new...
No, that doesn't tell you anything – the decision to include it under that warranty program was probably dictated by marketing, rather than lack of confidence in the revised keyboard design.
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I guess this will just be a processor bump and scissor keyboard.
As some have said, this won’t be a good time to launch a new product, however if the above is true it’s simply a BAU spec update and reducing the time that Apple needs to repair faulty keyboards.
If this does happen it clears the way for the MacBook to come back as the first ARM Mac.
As some have said, this won’t be a good time to launch a new product, however if the above is true it’s simply a BAU spec update and reducing the time that Apple needs to repair faulty keyboards.
If this does happen it clears the way for the MacBook to come back as the first ARM Mac.
Oh come on. You can expect faster CPUs and GPUs every year or so, but not necessarily even that — Intel doesn't refresh all series each year.
RAM speed, SSD options, battery capacity, speaker system? Those are only gonna change every three to five years.
So it was a good update is what you're saying.
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I really don't hope they bring back to the confused mess of having both the 12-inch MacBook (which, let's face it, was really an Air by any other name) but also the 13-inch MacBook Air.
Exactly. The main problem with the current MBA is the display size (apart from lack of MagSafe, of course). When they made the MBA bezel thinner, the immersive experience suffered even if the display size was the same. The MBA calls for at least a 15-inch display size while keeping a really light weight (unlike the MBP, which can justify a heavier weight --and no, the 15-inch MBP is not light, and the 16-inch even less).
So every Apple Store is to close until the 27th outside of China. Are they really going to release updated products at this time?
Like I wrote Yesterday at 11:29 PM, minor changes can have a huge impact.
Scissor-type mechanisms don't guarantee reliability (see MS Surface). Butterfly doesn't guarantee the opposite.
If you simply don't like the butterfly-style keyboards (because little travel or whatever), that's fine.
But don't say the 2019 butterfly keyboards are unreliable if there's no facts to support that claim.
They've been out for almost a full year. I'd say they've pretty much proven themselves.
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So you're just assuming Apple has to repair lots of 2019 butterfly keyboards, when there's nothing to suggest that?