Well... I hope Apple won't be releasing a 14" rMB anytime soon, coz I still haven't saved up enough money!
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Redesigned Macbook Air 13" = rMB killer?
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Yeah, as far as perception of speed goes, an SSD does a hell of a lot more than a processor bump. A non-computer literate user would be able to tell the difference of a SSD vs. a HDD but likely wouldn't be able to tell the difference in speed between an m3 and m7.
Given that SSDs have come down so dramatically in price, and the continually increasing speeds (PCIe, for example), I'll likely never buy another HDD product. I plan on getting a 1TB Samsung T3 soon for external use, and I can't think of another reason I'll ever buy a HDD again. It's just inferior tech at this point.
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The build quality of the MacBook Air, which was once best in class, feels fairly substandard compared to the MacBook. Apple has gotten a lot better at refining their notebook design over the past few years.
The biggest issue I have with the Air's design are those massive silver colour plastic bezels that don't integrate with the coverglass of the display at all. That looks so cheap. Not a fan of the Air's mushy keyboard, trackpad or the plastic hinge cover either.
Gotta disagree there; IMO the Air boasts superior build quality and better durability than the rMB. The only exception to this I agree with you on is the hinge; it's much improved in the rMB.
After looking at the rMB forum pretty frequently in recent months, I see a lot more issues as far as quality control, etc. from the rMB than I can remember seeing from another Apple laptop. I personally had two 2015 models that had defective keys that I ended up returning; just do a quick search on the forum for how many have had the same issue with just the keyboards alone. While you note the Air keyboard was 'mushy' , plenty of users absolutely loved that keyboard and had no complaints, including myself.
The MBA is also proven. It's been around in its current design for 5 years I believe and they've hardly changed a thing as far as design/build quality. That tells you they're doing something right. The same can't be said for the rMB. While I'll agree the rMB has better overall design than the Air, I gotta disagree that "build quality" is improved in this model. IMO it's a step backwards, however I fully expect to have little to no issues with my rMB for years to come.
Totally disagree. The rMB is better built for sure. The quality feel in your hand, the attention to small details and no huge border around the screen stick out for sure. Im not sure the silly colours coatings will be durable.
I cant see how you could come to the conclusion the MBA is better built
I cant see how you could come to the conclusion the MBA is better built
Yep got to agree with this, although the MBA has been around about 3 years to long IMO as they never got a retina upgrade, they are extremely robust.
I just sold my last one off a 2012 11" top spec that my son had use exclusively for Uni , All my boys played quite hard with their MBA's and would use them for hours on WOW etc, the in-laws have some of the even older ones still going strong for what they use them for.
I have never bought AppleCare or needed it on any MBA or rMBP or Imac that I have bought for my family or any other OEM electrical goods for that matter, but the rMB we have for one of them and just considering if we should for the other as I still remain sceptical on the KB and those skinny tiered batteries.
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Totally disagree. The rMB is better built for sure. The quality feel in your hand, the attention to small details and no huge border around the screen stick out for sure. Im not sure the silly colours coatings will be durable.
I cant see how you could come to the conclusion the MBA is better built
"Quality feel in your hand": Well they're built of the exact same material, aluminum, and you can't tell me the MBA felt any 'less solid' in your hand. That doesn't make sense.
As to the huge border around the screen, I'm in total agreement that it's better designed on the rMB. But I don't liken a slicker screen to build quality, I liken it to design.
I felt like I could drop my MBA and it would've survived (in fact I did drop it pretty hard once). I don't feel the same about the rMB.
You contradict yourself... "they're built of the exact same material, aluminium" and "I felt like I could drop my MBA and it would've survived" so which is it?
What you are talking about is not quality, or build quality... A classic volvo was built from the material as a Yogo GV too..
What you are talking about is not quality, or build quality... A classic volvo was built from the material as a Yogo GV too..
As I recall the first year or two of the MacBook air we're not exactly stellar.
Mostly due to bad choices on the part of Apple, and not listening to their customers.
Overall the retina MacBook was a much more solid release than the MacBook air. Although there are issues with rmb in terms of not really offering all the bells and whistles that customers need or want.
Mostly due to bad choices on the part of Apple, and not listening to their customers.
Overall the retina MacBook was a much more solid release than the MacBook air. Although there are issues with rmb in terms of not really offering all the bells and whistles that customers need or want.
The only way a 13" retina MBA would tempt me away from the 12" rMB is if it was as thin/bezel-less and only marginally heavier. My old 3lb 13" MBA feels like a boat anchor compared to the 2lb rMB. I'm sort of agnostic on the extra screen size of the 13". On the one hand I don't travel with my MB's much so the extra weight wouldn't be a big burden. But I also feel like most of the extra screen is wasted on the 13" off on the sides of web pages like this (you just get wider margins, with no real benefit.)
So should the rMB release be better they have had 8 years feedback on the other MAC's etc
However that does not distract from opinions on build quality. We all agree the rMB has upgraded and bettered some design aspects (eg screen bezels etc) however the MBA has a proven track record and it's component parts are largely used by all OEMs then and now.
Outside this Apple chose to CNC the cases out of solids at the time where other OEM's had previously cast magnesium alloys and CNC them or opted for composites Carbon Fibre and or Aluminum/plastic etc
Many of the components in the rMB are relatively new by comparison to the MBA and/or are thinner lighter whilst none of us have any real evidence to the contra if the rMB quality is better or worse I certainly remain sceptical both of the new parts used and the tighter margins in materials to achieve the rMB footprint and fan-less designs.
Only time will tell
So should the rMB release be better they have had 8 years feedback on the other MAC's etc
However that does not distract from opinions on build quality. We all agree the rMB has upgraded and bettered some design aspects (eg screen bezels etc) however the MBA has a proven track record and it's component parts are largely used by all OEMs then and now.
Outside this Apple chose to CNC the cases out of solids at the time where other OEM's had previously cast magnesium alloys and CNC them or opted for composites Carbon Fibre and or Aluminum/plastic etc
Many of the components in the rMB are relatively new by comparison to the MBA and/or are thinner lighter whilst none of us have any real evidence to the contra if the rMB quality is better or worse I certainly remain sceptical both of the new parts used and the tighter margins in materials to achieve the rMB footprint and fan-less designs.
Only time will tell
Well written post. Exactly, the MBA has 8 years of proven durability where the rMB has just over 1. And given the small sample size we've had (a little over a year) of the rMB product, definitely hard to gauge how it will fare in the long run. Just given the well-known defective key issue, however, I also remain skeptical this won't become an issue in the years to come for some of the earlier models.
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I think you're right about TB3/USB-C x2 on the rMBP, but I don't know where you guys are getting this 14" rMBP fantasy from. Leaks say new rMBP 13" and 15" in the new form factor of the 12" rMB. I don't even know anybody who bought 14" laptops back in the early 2000s and 90s! Maybe people who bought those ungodly ugly IBM think pads? lol
Just seems to make a lot of sense. I don't think everyone needs the power of a pro notebook, and I definitely don't think the 12" form factor is for everybody.
Who cares what screen sizes have been bought historically by consumers. If Apple were to release a 14"rMB in the form factor of the current 13" Air, it would be a top seller.
I do still have two external spinners hooked up to my iMac; one is for backups, the other holds all my media. For backups, I just need cheap, high-volume storage, so the spinner (which is actually the original HD that was in the iMac) is fine. For the media, I don't notice the spinner too much; the OS and iTunes are on the SSD, so other than some slight pausing on opening iTunes to find the music library on the spinner, it's not bad. But like you say, since prices are so low for SSD's now, I'll look forward to just getting an SSD that's big enough to put all of my data on in the future. I'll probably still use a spinner for backups, but I don't care about speed at all for that.
if anything, a new mbp or mb will be an MbAir "killer." I doubt they would try and do a redesign to an older product to cannibalize a new product.
It's all just forum members' speculation as far as the 14" is concerned, including mine. But it's not far fetched. It does appear the MacBook Air, in both sizes, is being put to pasture; Apple should have got a Retina screen in it by now if they were going to keep it around. But then a 13" MacBook Air with a Retina screen would require a bigger battery and be the same physical size as the 13" Pro to keep the same stellar battery life. So reason dictates that Apple will release a non-Pro laptop around 13 inches. Since they did release a 12" and 13" is only marginally larger, the speculation is Apple will maintain the 2 inch screen size difference and release a 14" MacBook with obviously a larger chassis, bigger battery, and at least one more USB-C port.
Time will tell.
Totally agree. The only scenario I could see myself buying more HDDs is a RAID setup. However, I really don't work with the amount of data to warrant such a setup so no HDDs for me. But totally agree; for backups and such, HDDs are totally fine. Only advantage of SSD in that scenario is the reliability factor. However, I currently use an external 7200RPM HDD for the backups of one of my machines, that's why I'm looking to get either a 1 or 2 TB Samsung T3.
Only reason the MBA 13 is cheap is it is old technology. If Apple revamped (which I doubt they will do), it will not seem cheap anymore. I liked it alot!
The MBA looks pretty bad now.
I used to have one; but since I have used exclusively retina display machines in the last 3 years, I cannot even look at an MBA or non-retina iMac for an extended period of time; it's just too jarring.
The MBA also looks very chunky now, even more so now that rMB has become the new standard of how thin and portable laptops should be. It is large in some perspective even compared to the rMBP 13", mainly due to the amount of wasted space around the KB and in the screen bezel. It was great once upon a time, but time has long past the point where this should be solely a budget netbook solution these days.
You really can't call it a netbook. How is it at all?
It's a great laptop with a more than powerful processor for literally 97% of the population's actually needs. It has the better laptop battery life available than any similar competitor. With the exception the screen alone (and its bezels), there's nothing about the device that's really inferior in any way with the exception of the Skylake platform. It's a ridiculously good value if you can get over the screen in 2016.
You can keep you retina screen.
For me getting work done mean having Windows loaded up via Bootcamp and the scaling on fonts and other items sucks on retina screens. I just bought a new MBPRo 13 NON-retina and love it. It had ports, SD slot and Optical drive which all are a plus for me and getting my work done.
They are great - bought one last year (didn't have to pay for it so that was enough justification) I put an SSD in and it is excellent. Wish Apple would put a Skylate processor + fusion drives as standard.
I see what you are saying; but I really don't think 99+% of the people have used an optical drive in the last 5 years; and usb flash drives are being phased out as well. SD cards could matter for people whose phone can take one, but outside of that, it's rarely used by anyone except professional photographers.
Ethernet, firewire, display-port, etc are all connectivity for a by-gone era; USB-A/B are gradually being eliminated from most of the industry as well. I literally have not used any of the first three in a few years, and USB probably only to charge some other device. Each to his/her own, but it just isn't needed by vast majority of the population any more. I can see a rMB with zero ports pretty soon, when wireless charging matures enough to charge with very high reliability and efficiency.
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I don't mean it as a netbook in the sense of it being underpowered. It is a relatively decently performing machine for the product category of ultra-portables.
But it is netbook like in its outdated design, quality of construction (far below what a rMB is right now), and how chunky and unwieldy it is. Value is not very good, if you spec out the same MBA 13" as rMB, there is hardly any difference in price. I would probably drop the MBA 11" to 699 to act as an entry level machine; I simply cannot justify such an out-moded design and how thick and heavy and full of bezel it is for $1000 or above, considering what the rMB is like.
Just as soon as technologo gets where you are predicting, I will take another look. In the mean time I have found a device that suits all of my needs in one package and I do not need to pack any doggles except one!