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Production of New Thunderbolt-Equipped MacBook Airs Set for Next Month?

cube said:
It should be a dual-core Llano, not Sandy Bridge.
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Yeah, but Im pretty sure Apple is gonna follow their MO of matching the MBA with the guts of the 13 MBP...just like we had a C2D and 320m.

Gosh dangit! If only they didnt handicap the 13 inch MBP with that horribly archaic display res. I dont know why people arent more "up in arms" about that. Why didnt they just give it the 1440x900 of the 13 MBA!!!!!!! Grrrrr!!!!! :mad:
 
cube said:
It doesn't happen because what they should really be putting is Blu-Ray.
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If Blu-Ray was going to happen it would've been in the refresh of 2011 MBP's. I can't imagine the optical drive being around much longer in anything other than the Mac Pro.
 
DJTJ said:
then why did apple cripple the 13" macbook pro's with ****** resolution then?
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Why did they cripple all MBPs having discrete graphics with Thunderbolt, instead of having a DisplayPort 1.2 port?
 
So true...

DJTJ said:
then why did apple cripple the 13" macbook pro's with ****** resolution then?
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I'd have pulled the trigger on a 13" MPB if screen resolution was higher... But now I'll likely be happier with an 11" Air with ThunderBolt. Maybe I can get a 500GB SSD in there by the time it's released, then I'll have all I want (for now).
 
asdf542 said:
If Blu-Ray was going to happen it would've been in the refresh of 2011 MBP's. I can't imagine the optical drive being around much longer in anything other than the Mac Pro.
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Now there's 100GB BDXL. There's plenty of time for Blu-Ray to keep on living on notebooks.
 
DJTJ said:
then why did apple cripple the 13" macbook pro's with ****** resolution then?
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Because they didn't redesign the MBP. It is the same 13" unibody MBP they have had since the first 13" unibody MBP. Because of that, everything is exactly the same as it was. It has nothing to do with the capabilities of the video chipset. Seriously the 13" MBP can run a 27" ACD.
 
I don't game, so I will look at this closely. While I'm happy with the 11" "Ultimate" that I have, here are some things that might make me take the plunge:
  • Thunderbolt - Apple seems to be making a huge push here
  • Battery life - Will the Sandy Bridge improve it noticeably?
  • Keyboard - Will Apple bring back the backlight?

OTOH, if they do any more "decontenting" along the way (e.g. downgrading the screen resolution), I might hold off.
 
cube said:
Now there's 100GB BDXL. There's plenty of time for Blu-Ray to keep on living on notebooks.
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Err... and how is that relevant? I'm sure Blu-Ray will live on in other notebooks, but Apple's? Unlikely.

There were 100GB BDXL when Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro's this year.
 
paulrbeers said:
Because they didn't redesign the MBP. It is the same 13" unibody MBP they have had since the first 13" unibody MBP. Because of that, everything is exactly the same as it was. It has nothing to do with the capabilities of the video chipset. Seriously the 13" MBP can run a 27" ACD.
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They could have still changed LCD panels without needing a redesign.

I may definitely be looking into an 11" MBA later this year if they do come out with SB and thunderbolt. As long as the battery life is the same or better.
 
i picked up a 13" air loaded about a month ago. I know the rumors about sandybridge would be out. But after the 13" pro's were screen neutered I sat down and decided that despite all the 'pro' level work I do an air would be fine. I was right and don't regret my purchase one bit. something new will always come out anyway.

I expect the new ones will be nice and the new airs will have the same battery life as now, just like the release of the pros. Hopefully, it will get backlit keys for those who want them.
 
Slix said:
Awesome. I want a current MBA, but they're a tad too much right now. This will lower those prices.
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I don't see why this will it make cheaper. Beside MBA price lowered drastically from the previous iteration and had good sales recently because of it - so, don't hope too much about it.



I'm happy for newcomers if they will get a SB MBA. I'm still set for an Ivy MBA :)
 
KPOM said:
The resolution stayed the same on the 13" Pro. The 13" Air has a higher resolution, but perhaps that's to preserve a selling point. I don't think the Sandy Bridge IGP would have any difficulty driving the 1440x900 display.
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You don't think ? Seriously people, we had 1440x900 displays 10 years ago, on GPUs that had about 1% the graphics processing power of today and about a tenth of the RAM.

Heck, the 9400M could power external 30" monitors at their native resolution of 2560x1600 at the same time it powered in the laptop's internal display of 1280x800 without breaking a sweet.

What's so hard to grasp that the MBP's resolution staying at 1280x800 has nothing to do with the GPU in SB ? :confused:

Have you guys never used computers 10 years ago ? CRT monitors at 1600x1200 ring a bell to anyone but me here ?
 
asdf542 said:
Err... and how is that relevant? I'm sure Blu-Ray will live on in other notebooks, but Apple's? Unlikely.

There were 100GB BDXL when Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro's this year.
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There are no BDXL notebook drives yet.

Just preempting any claim that there's no place for optical drives because "BD is obsolete".

Even DVDs and CDs are not obsolete. They are mainstream distribution media.

Optical drives at not at all at "floppy time".
 
DJTJ said:
then why did apple cripple the 13" macbook pro's with ****** resolution then?
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I'd take the 13" MBP screen over the 13 MBA screen every day of the week, much better quality in every way apart from the small resolution increase. The MBA screen is cheap and nasty (yes I owned both, sold the 2010 Air to buy the 2011 13 MBP)
 
Fraaaa said:
I don't see why this will it make cheaper. Beside MBA price lowered drastically from the previous iteration and had good sales recently because of it - so, don't hope too much about it.
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True. I'm guessing that Apple has found the right price point. Now that the 13" Pro has been updated, it is probably cannibalizing sales of the 13" Air, which may be why the sales have reportedly dropped so much. At the same time, Samsung and others have competing designs with the Core i5.

I don't game, so I'd definitely consider putting the 11" up for sale and getting the 11" Sandy Bridge model. Perhaps I'll wait for them to appear as refurbs. If history is any guide, that would be the October timeframe, assuming these do come out in June.
 
cube said:
There are no BDXL notebook drives yet.

Just preempting any claim that there's no place for optical drives because "BD is obsolete".

Even DVDs and CDs are not obsolete. They are mainstream distribution media.

Optical drives at not at all at "floppy time".
Click to expand...
Regardless of whether or not there are BDXL notebook drives, do you really think Apple's issue with Blu-Ray is the size the discs can hold? :rolleyes:

I'm not about to sit here and list off reasons why an internal optical drive is useless today. It's pretty clear that if Apple were to keep the optical drive in their machines they would've upgraded to Blu-Ray a long time ago but they haven't so it's quite clear that they have the intentions of removing it in all of their notebooks in the not so distant future.
 
Al Coholic said:
Make sure your homeowner's polices are up to date. I predict this new MBA will burst into flames when Turbo Boost kicks in.
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The TDPs are around the same as with previous gen, or possibly even less (the TDP of 320M is unknown). Also, Turbo Boost will only be activated if the thermals allow that. If your CPU is already running at 90°C, then Turbo most likely won't kick in.

I doubt SB will make MBA run noticeably hotter.
 
asdf542 said:
Regardless of whether or not there are BDXL notebook drives, do you really think Apple's issue with Blu-Ray is the size the discs can hold? :rolleyes:

I'm not about to sit here and list off reasons why an internal optical drive is useless today. It's pretty clear that if Apple were to keep the optical drive in their machines they would've upgraded to Blu-Ray a long time ago but they haven't so it's quite clear that they have the intentions of removing it in all of their notebooks in the not so distant future.
Click to expand...

If it were OK to remove the optical drives they would have already done so.

They are fighting against Blu-Ray. But that's where the notebook market has already moved into.
 
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