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The Macbook Air would be the perfect laptop had they put Retina in the Air.

brdeveloper said:
A classic 2012 MBP provides noticeable better viewing angles and colors than the 2014/2015 (maybe 2013 too) Air.
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Interestingly, I have both. I'm not sure I'd characterize the 2012 MBP display as "noticeably better." As I've noted, I find the display roughly equal to that on a 13" MBA.

You folks cavalierly ignore the UI lag and decreased battery life that will inevitably result from trying to add a retina display to the MBA. Are you really more concerned with the display than with overall performance?
 
jmoore5196 said:
Interestingly, I have both. I'm not sure I'd characterize the 2012 MBP display as "noticeably better." As I've noted, I find the display roughly equal to that on a 13" MBA.

You folks cavalierly ignore the UI lag and decreased battery life that will inevitably result from trying to add a retina display to the MBA. Are you really more concerned with the display than with overall performance?
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Yes, when in essence we're only talking about a couple of stuttery animations. It's an easy decision.

I'm no gamer, so couldn't care less about fps in shoot 'em ups and pro apps would be handled best by MBPs, so no issue there either.
 
I bought air 2015 because it isn't retina. Hate retina UI lag and how not everything is optimized for retina. So happy for TN panel black levels. Hate ips backlight bleeding. And don't get me started on battery life too :). Will keep this thing till it dies.
 
jmoore5196 said:
Interestingly, I have both. I'm not sure I'd characterize the 2012 MBP display as "noticeably better." As I've noted, I find the display roughly equal to that on a 13" MBA.

You folks cavalierly ignore the UI lag and decreased battery life that will inevitably result from trying to add a retina display to the MBA. Are you really more concerned with the display than with overall performance?
Click to expand...

Anyone who does color-critical work is.
 
newellj said:
Anyone who does color-critical work is.
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Well, I wouldn't describe what I do as color-critical, since I use CC apps. I was under the impression that folks doing color-critical work would gravitate toward MBPs anyway.

Some of the work I do is latency-critical. That's what drove me nuts with the 13" rMBP. Interestingly, the latency is missing altogether in my high-spec 11" MBA.

Just how much thinner and lighter than the 13" MBP would you think a 13" MBA might be with a retina display?

There are now three 'tiers' of laptops ... MBP, MBA and MB. If your livelihood depends heavily on the display, as yours obviously does, the MBP or new MB is likely the machine of choice. I value portability and processor effectiveness; that's why I own an 11" MBA. For those of us who aren't okay with UI lag and other tradeoffs, upgrading the display would defeat the purpose of the MBA.
 
jmoore5196 said:
Well, I wouldn't describe what I do as color-critical, since I use CC apps. I was under the impression that folks doing color-critical work would gravitate toward MBPs anyway.

Some of the work I do is latency-critical. That's what drove me nuts with the 13" rMBP. Interestingly, the latency is missing altogether in my high-spec 11" MBA.

Just how much thinner and lighter than the 13" MBP would you think a 13" MBA might be with a retina display?

There are now three 'tiers' of laptops ... MBP, MBA and MB. If your livelihood depends heavily on the display, as yours obviously does, the MBP or new MB is likely the machine of choice. I value portability and processor effectiveness; that's why I own an 11" MBA. For those of us who aren't okay with UI lag and other tradeoffs, upgrading the display would defeat the purpose of the MBA.
Click to expand...

For accurate colors, you'll always need a professional grade display, which is not the case in anything provided by Apple. Uneven tinting happens in all Mac lineup. It's a design issue which both Apple and suppliers are aware. It's different of buying a screen like this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1038829-REG/eizo_cg277_bk_27_wide_screen_color_gamut.html

Uniformity from Corner to Corner
Fluctuations in brightness and chromaticity on different parts of the screen are a common trait of LCD monitors. To counteract this, the monitor incorporates EIZO's patented digital uniformity equalizer (DUE) technology to ensure a Delta-E difference of 3 or less across the screen when the monitor leaves the factory. DUE also counterbalances the influences that a fluctuating ambient temperature may have on color temperatures and brightness to ensure stable image display.

Individually Adjusted at the Factory
The gamma level for each ColorEdge monitor is adjusted at the factory. This is accomplished by measuring the R, G, and B gamma values from 0 to 255, then using the monitor's 16-bit look-up table (LUT) to select the 256 most appropriate tones to achieve the desired value.
 
jmoore5196 said:
Well, I wouldn't describe what I do as color-critical, since I use CC apps. I was under the impression that folks doing color-critical work would gravitate toward MBPs anyway.

Some of the work I do is latency-critical. That's what drove me nuts with the 13" rMBP. Interestingly, the latency is missing altogether in my high-spec 11" MBA.

Just how much thinner and lighter than the 13" MBP would you think a 13" MBA might be with a retina display?

There are now three 'tiers' of laptops ... MBP, MBA and MB. If your livelihood depends heavily on the display, as yours obviously does, the MBP or new MB is likely the machine of choice. I value portability and processor effectiveness; that's why I own an 11" MBA. For those of us who aren't okay with UI lag and other tradeoffs, upgrading the display would defeat the purpose of the MBA.
Click to expand...

I don't work in the Apple C suite, but I don't think there will be a retina MBA, nor even an MBA with an IPS display, which is the real issue.
 
Only if you leave it at default settings

Daud said:
This is what I would like. Or Retina for the price of some hours of battery life off. Or, a 14" MBA with IPS (my eyes getting older). One reason I stay w MBA is that 13" Retina has SMALLER real estate.
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you can set it to 900p or 1050p as well and get more real estate....
 
bnmcj1 said:
I bought air 2015 because it isn't retina. Hate retina UI lag and how not everything is optimized for retina. So happy for TN panel black levels. Hate ips backlight bleeding. And don't get me started on battery life too :). Will keep this thing till it dies.
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Since I've never used a Retina screen on a Mac, I don't know the UI lag. I do know that one of the main things that steered me away from an MBA is the silver bezel. And the lack of Retina, which is a major upgrade option I'd like.

Is the UI lag that bad where it slows things down to a crawl? or just a minor annoyance?
 
brdeveloper said:
For accurate colors, you'll always need a professional grade display, which is not the case in anything provided by Apple. Uneven tinting happens in all Mac lineup. It's a design issue which both Apple and suppliers are aware. It's different of buying a screen like this:
...
Click to expand...

There are different degrees of accuracy. It's not a case of, "if you aren't using a $2400 self-calibrating monitor, you might as well be using a black and white display." The colors on Apple's retina displays are more accurate than almost all other laptops:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6409/13inch-retina-macbook-pro-review/4

I'm sure this is valuable to many people.
 
chillywilly said:
Since I've never used a Retina screen on a Mac, I don't know the UI lag. I do know that one of the main things that steered me away from an MBA is the silver bezel. ...
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Surely the color of the bezel can't possibly prevent you from doing whatever it is you do with a computer?
 
motrek said:
Surely the color of the bezel can't possibly prevent you from doing whatever it is you do with a computer?
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No, it can't. I prefer black to silver for a bezel color. The silver, at least to my eyes, is more distracting. Never would prevent me from doing whatever I needed. Just not as preferable.
 
I agree, however I really love my new 2015 MBA. The screen isn't as great as it could have been, there's no doubt about that but you have to take the good with the bad.
 
Jacoblee23 said:
I dont understand this decision making. The footprint left plenty of your room for the wrists, it was very light, had a nice amount of ports, and they could have kept magsafe. The only reason I ever got rid of my air was the screen. I think people would have been plenty happy had they just released an Air with Retina. Thoughts?
Click to expand...


It's coming,fall 2015
 
I have a 2014 13 in MBA, and I really like it. For future updates, I would like to see; smaller bezel, IPS display, evolutionary updates to the internals. I don't want to sacrifice battery life or cost, and I would not trade these for a retina display. The MBA is Apple's everyday consumer laptop that fits most people's needs for school, home, and business. Therefore, the entry level price should stay below the magical $1,000 mark.
 
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Cheffy Dave said:
Um,no,
12" RMB
13" RMB
15" RMBP
ALL with the NEW Track Pad and keyboard
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Whatever it is called, my guess is that the 13" model will be a fusion of the 13" Air and the 13" Pro.

Processors aren't getting much faster - they're mainly delivering more bang-per-Watt - and it looks like we're going all USB-C which, along with Apple's battery-layering trick probably means that they could get MacBook Pro-level connectivity into an Air-like case.

The distinction between the 13" Air and the 13" MBP is already small: there's only a $200 price difference once you upgrade the Air to 8GB RAM and the Pro already has a smaller bezel and footprint. The current Pro is slightly thicker and half-a-pound heavier - any next-gen Pro will surely close that gap.

Whatever the screen sizes and names, I think a 3-model lineup now makes sense and, yes, the MAcBook "design language" is likely to apply across the range. What they will actually be called is pretty irrelevant: it might even make sense to keep the 'Air' name for the 13" - then you've got a unique name for each size.

The big question is what the processor types and connectivity options are going to be.
 
theluggage said:
...
Processors aren't getting much faster - they're mainly delivering more bang-per-Watt - and it looks like we're going all USB-C which, along with Apple's battery-layering trick probably means that they could get MacBook Pro-level connectivity into an Air-like case. ...
Click to expand...

The limitation of ports on the MBA is because of the taper of the case. The MBP can have more ports simply because its case isn't tapered.

The limitation of ports in the new rMB is due to the lack of bezel at the sides of the keyboard. So it can't have any ports alongside the keyboard, because there'd be no space for the connectors inside the chassis. They'd bang against the keys. So there's not much hope for a rMB with more ports.
 
I agree even though I absolutely love the MacBook Air. 12 hours of battery life is still an amazing feat. What I was originally going to say was that they may not have the same battery life if they put in a retina display in but they got 9 hours with the impossibly thin inclosure of the rMB so why not fit more battery into the 13.3 inch MBA.
 
I agree. But I don't think there will be a retina air, instead I can see them trimming down the Pro a bit more and making it lighter, maybe so it hit's the 1.35KG mark that the 13 Air currently sits at (that's around 190g shaved off)
 
not too concerned abt retina screen. but it will be my perfect laptop if they

1) stick to the exact same size
2) make the screen 14" by slimming the bezel
3) give me the same colour options that 12" rMB have
4) add an extra USB-C port (or replace the mDP with USB-C)
 
motrek said:
The limitation of ports on the MBA is because of the taper of the case. The MBP can have more ports simply because its case isn't tapered.
Click to expand...

The next MBP will probably be replacing both MiniDP/TB2 ports and one or both of the USB-A ports with the much smaller USB-C/TB3 ports. They may even drop MagSafe (although the outcry will break MacRumors). You could probably fit 2xUSB-C on each side of an Air-style tapered case.

Apple might even decide that we only need 1 on each side (the outcry will break the whole internet) - since they can both be USB, power, display or Thunderbolt - which would take up less space than the current ports on an Air.
 
theluggage said:
The next MBP will probably be replacing both MiniDP/TB2 ports and one or both of the USB-A ports with the much smaller USB-C/TB3 ports. They may even drop MagSafe (although the outcry will break MacRumors). You could probably fit 2xUSB-C on each side of an Air-style tapered case.
...
Click to expand...

Yeah, since the 13" MBA already has 3 "ports" on its right side (TB, USB, SD) it should be no problem for Apple to make a tapered 13" MBP with 3 USB-C ports on either/both sides.

I like MagSafe, but I like the idea of being able to charge my laptop with USB chargers even more. :)
 
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