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New MacBook Air Possible as Early as Next Week
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No, the thing is Intel promised, with the Core M branding (that was discontinued after a single revision) in Broadwell, that they would have 4.5W CPUs that would keep improving.
That's what the MacBook was based on.
Intel then screwed up hard, couldn't get performance up much, and eventually had to increase the TDP by 56% for Amber Lake. Then that still wasn't realistic, and they increased it another 29% for Ice Lake.
That one does exist in a four-core setup. But it does four years later than what you're claiming would have been possible, and it still isn't shipping in volume. So even today, four years later, and at twice the original promised TDP, Apple still doesn't actually have this option other than on paper.
The harsh truth is Intel overpromised and underdelivered. If you want to blame Tim Cook for something, it's trusting Intel's schedule.
No, actually, let's forget it, because it has nothing to do with this.
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If you put a 15W U in there, though, you basically have the base-model 13-inch MacBook Pro. The Air is thinner and lighter, and offers more battery life, but the Pro gives you the Touch Bar (yes yes I know), Bluetooth 5.0, better speakers, wide color, a brighter display, and of course a much better CPU and GPU.
It's… basically… if you want better performance than the Air? For $200, you really get your money's worth.
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Yup.
People can complain that the 2018-era Air is kind of underpowered compared to its predecessor, but… the Pro does exist, and it's not much more.
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They could give it Comet Lake-H, but that's not shipping until May. It also doesn't really offer that much of interest. Slightly higher clock speeds; that's about it.
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So Apple would probably not put the 10nm Ice Lake processors in this new Air? Interesting.
Then chances are they are going to use Comet Lake Y series. Whats the performance increase of that over the current Air?
So basically you are saying there ARE nothing wrong even if APPLE PRODUCTS COMPLETELY WENT TO THE WRONG DIRECTION! BRAVO!
If suitable 10th gen Comet Lake H processors (45 W) are available in time, that's a possibility. And even if, I think that's rather unlikely since the device has just been introduced in November. I could imagine a refresh at WWDC the earliest.
[EDIT] I see, others have answered that already. I should've refreshed the page before replying.
It still doesn't seem like Ice Lake-Y is shipping in any relevant volume at all, after half a year. So Apple might skip it altogether, which is a shame, because it would offer nicer battery life (though the Air's is arguably already good enough), much improved graphics (where the Air is quite lacking), and twice the cores.
Comet Lake-Y wouldn't offer much of a graphics improvement. It would also double the cores, and its CPU would be faster than Ice Lake's. (It's confusing.) Ice Lake's graphics would roughly be twice as fast as Comet Lake's.
Or they might skip those altogether and not upgrade the Air until Tiger Lake-Y later in the year. Which would once again give graphics a significant boost.
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Yes, that's totally exactly what I said.
It kind of doesn't matter. We'll probably see Rocket Lake about a year from now, and even that won't be exciting. It'll still be 14nm, and it'll still have most of the design from Skylake, from 2015. Six years later.
They might backport some changes (for example, Comet Lake-U gets the new Ice Lake memory controller, thus allowing LPDDR4 — which could mean that Apple offers 32GB on the 13-inch MacBook Pro soon). But the next ~2 years of 45W will probably be a bit of a bummer. Now, by 2022, that could change, with the 10nm Alder Lake-H. If Intel hasn't changed plans by then, anyway.
And I don't think that if ARM Macs are a thing that Apple would move the 16-inch MacBook Pro to them any time soon. There's just too many people using that with x86-specific software. So if they want an escape hatch, maybe it's AMD.
Guess what? My n key doesn't work 100% of the times... here we go. I just remembered somebody quoted me about that
I have an USB keyboard, I was thinking about buying the new Air and returning it before 14 days but it doesn't ship for 3 weeks. The 16 is really expensive so I don't feel like spending so much even if I eventually get them back.
I guess I'm going to wait for the quarantine to end, then I'll send it for repair, I still have AC and the keyboard is covered anyway. Looks like it finally broke once I started using it full time...
So, turns out I was pessimistic about that, and I guess Ice Lake-Y production is finally ramping up — today's MacBook Air is all Ice Lake.
We'll see about benchmarks (doubling the core sure won't hurt), but at the very least, it'll help with graphics performance. Which is basically what Apple is touting:
So there you have it: the first 10nm Mac, only about four years late.
That's honestly impressive. But that also means the quad core (i5 and i7) options have beefier graphics than the dual core (i3) base model, doesn't it?
Although Intel calls all of them "Iris Plus" now, there's G4 and G7 tiers with 48 and 64 EUs respectively. The base model probably has the former, looking at Intel's ARK. Both should be decent upgrades over the previous UHD 617 though.
Will also be interesting to see whether the base model retains the same (kind of semi-passive) cooling system as before. For the quad core options that probably won't suffice. Can't wait for iFixit to tear down all of them!
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I don't know where they got the info from but someone in the other thread seems to think the i5 and i7 might be running TDP up at 12W as well!
Guess what? My n key doesn't work 100% of the times... here we go. I just remembered somebody quoted me about that
I have an USB keyboard, I was thinking about buying the new Air and returning it before 14 days but it doesn't ship for 3 weeks. The 16 is really expensive so I don't feel like spending so much even if I eventually get them back.
I guess I'm going to wait for the quarantine to end, then I'll send it for repair, I still have AC and the keyboard is covered anyway. Looks like it finally broke once I started using it full time...
Uh oh, that's bad (corona) timing..
My MBP's keyboard (the 2016 version) held up well for almost 3 years of heavy usage, before, of all keys, the TAB key started to act up. So Apple replaced the whole top case with the 2017 version (yay, new battery for free!). Half a year since, and that keyboard's been fine.
I'm really sad to see the butterfly keyboard go away, now of all times, after reliability and noise have been fixed for good with the 2019 version.. I love the precise and stable feel of mine, the direct and clicky response, just not the noise.
I was disappointed when I tried the 16" MBP's Magic Keyboard, it just feels more clunky and ponderous compared to the butterfly. Not as swift to type on, at least for me. Oddly enough it felt worse to me than the external Magic Keyboard, even though the mechanism seems to be nearly identical.
I guess I'll hold on to my 2016 MBP with the 2017 keyboard for some more years.
CPU BTO options are usually a bad deal (expensive with little gain), but this $100 is a no-brainer. The base isn’t terrible, but the mid-range is such an improvement. Twice the cores. Twice the threads. Better Turbo Boost. More EUs.
And kudos to Apple for not offering the UHD on the base. They could’ve cheaped out there and did not.
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I just ordered a 4k display, so next week I'll be able to work with the MBP in clamshell mode or use it as a secondary display. I figured out it was cheaper than buying a brand new Mac, and I'll be able to use the display for years. It is even better for my body, using a laptop is bad in the long run.
I have time until October, once I'll be able to return to the office I'll have my MBP fixed. Hopefully I'll receive the 2017 version as well, but did they change the internals? CPU and GPU are slightly faster on that model.
I actually like the butterfly keyboard, I'm currently typing on an old Apple keyboard, I guess it was the first USB one, and is really mushy! Together with the display I ordered a Magic keyboard, way better than this one.
The 2016 keyboard is always replaced with the significantly more reliable 2017 version,
the 2018 keyboard is always replaced with the entirely unproblematic 2019 version.
No other internals changed, just the whole top case including keyboard, Touch Bar and battery (probably also the trackpad).
Besides the reliability improvements, the 2017 keyboard also feels just a bit different from the 2016 version, but most noticeable I found the difference in keyboard noise. I don't think its quieter, but to my ears it sounds much less harsh.
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