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Redesigned MBA in 2012?

A

austinguy23

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 8, 2008
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

We all know the Air line will be updated with Ivy Bridge in 2012 with a possible introduction of a 15" Air, but does anyone know if there have been reports that the Air line will be redesigned (e.g. lighter, thinner, possibly updated aesthetics) in 2012 as well? Just curious.

Also, how often do they revamp? Very 2 years? 3 years? Any pattern?
 
I don't think we can expect a radical redesign for the air. I reckon the MBP will have an overhaul design and spec wise, making it look like the Air, if not merging the two lines to make a 'macbook'. It is possible that the current air form factor will be compromised slightly to fit into this new macbook line, but overall it will probably remain unchanged as it was only updated late 2010.
But who knows? Apple may have something revolutionary up their sleeve.. :)
 
The Air is quite well designed at the moment. I think perhaps they could keep the form, but narrow the bezel and try and shoehorn in a slightly bigger screen? It would make it out of sync with other manufacturers though, and might be difficult to source.

Then again, this is Apple we are talking about :p
 
I don't think so. The current form factor is perfect and there's not much they could improve besides internals.

Maybe the screen but it would cost more to manufacture and I think that at this point Apple is trying to keep the price low to make it be the "default MacBook" and would rather up the base storage which is a common complain right now.

The old MacBook was a fine 999$ computer for most basic users at its time. Now the baseline 999$ MBA only has 64GB of storage which is limiting even to basic users if it's their primary computer.

Upgraded models are more expensive and Apple currently doesn't have a moderately affordable laptop that is sufficient for most users as a primary computer. It's more important for them to fix that at this time than care about the screen bezel thickness.
 
austinguy23 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

We all know the Air line will be updated with Ivy Bridge in 2012 with a possible introduction of a 15" Air, but does anyone know if there have been reports that the Air line will be redesigned (e.g. lighter, thinner, possibly updated aesthetics) in 2012 as well? Just curious.

Also, how often do they revamp? Very 2 years? 3 years? Any pattern?
Click to expand...

However it turns out, I'm sure it won't live up to the insanely high expectations people seem to have nowadays prior to any Apple product update. It is amazing to see how people have become so acclimated to Apple's history of great innovation that it's impossible now to make all the tech reviewers happy.
 
Ultraportables are a relatively new market. My guess is we see:

1. Higher res options
2. Ivy bridge
3. Hd webcam
4. Dedicated graphics.

I can't see what they would do to the aluminum body...unless they swtich to the iPhone glass
 
I don't think it's likely. Just look at how long they've kept the Aluminum Unibody MBP design. The MBA redesign is only 14 months old, so I think it's safe to assume that Apple will continue to milk the current design's momentumm. It's an amazing design that I doubt they're eager to dismiss so soon.

Besides, I'd be devastated, considering I just got mine three days ago. ;)
 
I like the existing design of 2011 MBA...hope that the new 2012 refresh will have
6GB of memory RAM and if :apple: can make this in 15"... " APPLE TAKE MY MONEY NOW ":D
 
Last edited:
Only one thing is important to me... 8GB RAM OPTION!

Of course, I would like better graphics in the 13 or a 15 air, something other than the Intel HD 3000. But 8GB RAM would be nice.
 
A SATA 6 GB/s SSD drive instead of the old SATA 3 drive would be nice, too. Seems silly that we have to purchase a third party drive to fully leverage the capability of the built in SATA 6 controller of the MBA...
 
austinguy23 said:
A SATA 6 GB/s SSD drive instead of the old SATA 3 drive would be nice, too. Seems silly that we have to purchase a third party drive to fully leverage the capability of the built in SATA 6 controller of the MBA...
Click to expand...

The SATA 6 GB/s that you refer to is SATA 3 or SATA III or SATA 6 Gb/s. There is no such thing as SATA 6 GB/s since it's not capable of 6 Giga bytes per second - it is capable of 6 Giga bits per second. There is a world of difference between bytes and bits. GB = giga bytes. Gb = giga bits. I am sorry to be pedantic but a lot of confusion results from posts like these.

The SSD in the MBA is a SATA II (2) drive. SATA II is 3 Gigabits per second max bandwidth. When you refer to SATA you should either call it by the revision number or the transfer capability. When you leave out the Gigabits per second and simply call it SATA 3, you're no longer referring to what you were thinking of.
 
Typically, Apple seems to revise a computer three or four times before a major redesign, so I expect it to look the same just better specs.

My wish list is better battery life and better graphics. It would be nice to play Starcraft on it without feeling like I'm abusing the thing. At 5 hours real world usage, the 13 inch models battery leaves a bit to be desired. It would be nice to get 7-9 hours of proper usage (not just typing a document or having one safari window open, that should be 11-12 hours!)

RAM boost to 8Gb would be nice too, but then it would blur the line between this and the MBP, so not sure that's coming yet. Also, storage depends on cost of SSDs and as far as I know the prices are not plummeting so fast that we'll see any major improvement that quickly.
 
VMMan said:
However it turns out, I'm sure it won't live up to the insanely high expectations people seem to have nowadays prior to any Apple product update. It is amazing to see how people have become so acclimated to Apple's history of great innovation that it's impossible now to make all the tech reviewers happy.
Click to expand...

Not only design but internals; it seems that everyone is saying that Ivy Bridge will be a huge huge change that will transform things. I don't see Ivy making that much of a change.
 
What are the chances of them bumping the SSDs? In theory its not that big of a deal as it is the sole upgradable component, but it would be nice to have a 512. 256 is pushing it. I wish they would make the RAM upgradable, but if they bump it to 8 gigs I would imagine it would last quite a while in terms of performance.
 
I'm hoping for 8GB in the next revision or two. I like to keep my computers for around 5 years. My 2007 Macbook will be 5 years next summer so I would like to replace it with this next revision or the one following it. 8GB ram would make me feel better about being able to keep the MBA for 5 years.
 
Fazzy said:
I don't think we can expect a radical redesign for the air. I reckon the MBP will have an overhaul design and spec wise, making it look like the Air, if not merging the two lines to make a 'macbook'. It is possible that the current air form factor will be compromised slightly to fit into this new macbook line, but overall it will probably remain unchanged as it was only updated late 2010.
But who knows? Apple may have something revolutionary up their sleeve.. :)
Click to expand...

If the MBP is going in for a spec redesign, making it look more like an Air, then would;t this also mean, it would't be quad core anymore then? being an (now) ultra-thin macbook pro.

I mean how can a macbook be as thin as the air, while still keeping heat/ issues down and also being a quad core of the current mbp?

Maybe Intel know something, we don't. Suppose, it COULD happen.
 
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