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Non-retina MBA with 12-hr or retina MBA with 6-hr battery life?

P

prism1212

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 29, 2013
23
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Suppose that Apple released two versions of a Haswell MBA, one with retina display (rMBA) and one without.

Suppose that both are identical in regards to weight, size, and dimension. However the rMBA will have only 6 hrs of battery life (due to the removal of some of the battery cells in order to keep the weight identical to a non-retina MBA, and also because the retina display consumes more power) whereas the non-retina MBA will have 12 hrs. Also to make it a little more realistic, the rMBA will cost an additional $300 more.

Now which would you rather buy?

I have a feeling that this hypothetical question may be more realistic than it appears. Suppose that Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's prediction that the Haswell rMBP will be slimmer than its current form turns out to be true, then this new slimmer rMBP will roughly be like a retina MBA but with less battery life than the current MBA.
 
MBA non retina :)

imo i own rMBP 15" and retina screen is overhyped only reason why i bought retina macbook pro its because it offers IPS display thats it. If Apple got rid of TN panels in their MacBooks i would go for non retina one any time :)
 
i imagine it they would both sell fairly well.

in terms of the 13" it seems to me that the 13" retina pro IS the 13" MBA... it's only .5lb heavier and has a smaller footprint. i know the shape is different, but honestly i could barely tell the difference between the two. in fact that's what threw a monkey wrench in my entire purchase as I was sure i wanted the 13 air.

ended up with the 11 air.
at no point did i ever suspect that we would see an air retina this time around.

in the future, obviously the displays will improve. retina is just a BS marketing term anyway - it can mean whatever the hell they want it to mean. If they had used it 5 years ago for their 5-years-ago-screen, today's "high res" screen would be called something else.

in fact - the exact same statement could be said for the term "high res" as it's all relative.


OH MY GOD - HAVE YOU SEEN THE MACBOOK LACRIMAL CARUNCLE!!!?? It's totally awesome...way better than the the macbook canaliculus...seriously - that thing sucked almost as bad as the iPhone iPunctum.
 
Memole said:
MBA non retina :)

imo i own rMBP 15" and retina screen is overhyped only reason why i bought retina macbook pro its because it offers IPS display thats it. If Apple got rid of TN panels in their MacBooks i would go for non retina one any time :)
Click to expand...

That's a good point. All of my laptop purchases since 2009 have been ones with IPS panels. I forgot how awesome the viewing angles are that I have taken it for granted.
 
So you assume that having a Retina display will push the Haswell Air to consume twice the power? That's really far-fetched.

Last year's Ivy Bridge 13" Retina has 7 hours battery life. The Haswell 13" rMBP will likely see 9-10 hours battery life based on battery %gain on the Air.

So, if the MBA had a retina display that would at max chip off 2 hours, not 6. And since you want to be realistic, the price bump would be $150 tops based on last year's pricing and not $300.
If anything, due to economies of scale - assuming no bottleneck in raw mat... It would be cheaper all arnd for Apple to switch all 13" screens to Retina.
 
This!

DisplacedMic said:
i imagine it they would both sell fairly well.

in terms of the 13" it seems to me that the 13" retina pro IS the 13" MBA... it's only .5lb heavier and has a smaller footprint. i know the shape is different, but honestly i could barely tell the difference between the two.
Click to expand...

The MBA Retina is already here. Not sure why folks don't really get that.

Computers Model Height Width Depth Weight Resolution
Apple MBA 13 0.3-1.7cm 32.5cm 22.7cm 1.32 kg 1440x900
Apple MBPr 13 1.9cm 31.4cm 21.9cm 1.62kg 2560x1600

The Air is your battery power machine, while the MBPr is your screen resolution machine. Pick your poison.

(edit: sorry, couldn't make a table for stink in this post)
 
AXs said:
So you assume that having a Retina display will push the Haswell Air to consume twice the power? That's really far-fetched.

Last year's Ivy Bridge 13" Retina has 7 hours battery life. The Haswell 13" rMBP will likely see 9-10 hours battery life based on battery %gain on the Air.

So, if the MBA had a retina display that would at max chip off 2 hours, not 6. And since you want to be realistic, the price bump would be $150 tops based on last year's pricing and not $300.
If anything, due to economies of scale - assuming no bottleneck in raw mat... It would be cheaper all arnd for Apple to switch all 13" screens to Retina.
Click to expand...

The 13" rMBP is also about 0.5 lbs heavier than the air. If that 0.5 lbs consist of battery cells, then it might be possible that it contribute a significant amount to keep the rMBP at a 7-hr battery life capacity. Hence why I'm guessing the battery life of a rMBA will lose more than 2 hrs compared to the current MBA in order to keep the weight the same (by removing some of the battery cells).
 
The more I think about the cons you get from any retina device that "Isn't ready" the more I think that the non-retina's are perfect.

By "non ready" I mean the con's as opposed to the pros. My iPad 3 for example, actually runs slower than my mates iPad 2 at times. It may look beautiful but there's a small difference in display.
And the Retina Macbook's may look beautiful, but at a certain distance I cannot tell the difference, aside from colour.

I'd personally stick to a 12 hour battery over retina at this point in time.
But thats just my view.
 
To me the retina screen really impressive. I just bought myself an air though. If there had been an option for a retina screen on it I would have taken it.
 
beautifulcoder said:
Long battery life wins for me. The implications of noiseless fan and superior efficiency are very appealing to me.

I personally think the days of clunky laptops like the (r)MBP are numbered.
Click to expand...

rMBP is not a clunky laptop it is a nice laptop also one of reasons why i didn't bought the MBA is because it doesn't offer a 15 inch screen :( also what i don't like about apple is that they are way too obsessed with thinness and thickness of a laptop in fact i wouldn't mind if apple made MBA on its thinnest part lil bit more thick to add more battery power :)

imo a perfect laptop would be MBA with IPS display non retina one :) having a 3 versions: 11 inch, 13 inch and 15 inch :)
 
The MBA's screen was acceptable in 2011. In 2013 the world has moved on. I am not too bothered about a retina screen (I have a 15" rMBP), but I won't be upgrading my 2011 MBA until they put in an IPS screen with higher resolutions. I would so love an 11" MBA, but I refuse to try and use 1024x768 resolution.
 
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