Just thought I would leave some comments on the 2014 Macbook Air that I bought on eBay last week and my thoughts regarding retina vs. the standard PPI Macbook Air screen.
I have to say that while you don't get that amazing crispness of the next like you get with retina, the text is perfectly legible and is far crisper than say my 24" Dell u2410 connected to my Hackintosh.
The one thing that did take some time for my eyes to adjust to was the resolution.
Up until a year a go I had a 17-inch MBP with a resolution of 1920x1200. I had 7 years with that laptop. Then when I got my 15-inch rMBP, running at a resolution of 1440x900, everything seemed massive. Text was larger, menus, cursors... all were rendered on screen larger (I am sure there is a technical name for what I am talking about). Having spent a year with my rMBP and then using the Macbook Air @ 1366x768... everything seems so small and cramped.
After using the Macbook Air for half an hour or so, you do soon forget about it and your eyes adapt. And I am sure my eyes will get used to bouncing between the different screens.
So my verdict on the Macbook Air screen after being spoiled with retina screens:
The Macbook Air screen is a perfectly acceptable screen, rendering text that is easily legible without the need to increase font size. The brightness is more than acceptable also. From what I had read both in reviews and from forum posts about the screen I was expecting something of a train wreck. But I was pleasantly surprised.
It is a real shame that the MacBook Air line up is unlikely to ever get the retina screens, and I can understand Apples reasoning behind this if the new MacBook is to be the replacement for that range of products.
Firstly and most obviously, the high PPI retina screen in the new MacBook will look great, but maybe something that has been overlooked is the aspect ratio of the new MacBook.
On the 11-inch MacBook Air, unless you either make the dock very tiny or set it to not display at all unless hovered on, you lose a substantial percentage of your usable vertical screen estate. The new MacBook, with its 16:10 aspect ratio will give the user that extra bit of vertical screen estate, something that would make the 11-inch Macbook Air tons better.
I would love to hope that Apple next year would keep the Macbook Air family but update them to use the same screens as the new MacBook. They can be thicker with extra ports, extra performance power, but with all the benefits of the updated screens. I doubt it will happen, but we can dream.
I love the idea of the new retina MacBook. There is no denying that it looks great. I think the new keyboard will become standard across all of Apples notebooks. People may have reservations about key travel and the size and spacing of the keys, but I believe Apple will have spent considerable resources ensuring that the new keyboard is one that can be used for even the fastest of touch typists given some period of adjustment.
I also love the new trackpad and again I believe that to be something that will be standard on all notebooks. One less moving part is always a good thing (provided the haptic motor stands up).
When I think about the size and weight of the new MacBook and then I pick up the Macbook Air 11-inch, I don't really see why they needed to make it any thinner. I think Apple has an unhealthy obsession with making things thinner just because they can. Regarding the weight; I don't personally carry a laptop around all day and I may be totally wrong, but I fail to see how the weight that has been shed would really make any difference. I am sure there will be those who disagree. In my eyes though Apple have stripped a notebook of ports in favour of making it unnecessarily smaller and lighter.
Then there is the performance. The Core-M might well be a capable CPU, but again I feel like they have sacrificed performance just so they can spout off about how thin and light it is.
The new MacBook starts at £1049... If I could have picked either a free new Macbook Air or the new MacBook, without doubt I would have the new MacBook. But I just paid £520 for a brand new base config 2014 MacBook Air. Less than half the price. I do not believe for one second that the extra to buy the MacBook is remotely worth it.
Apple are obviously targeting this first revision at fan boys and what I would imagine to be a very unique, small niche group of users. It is a notebook that is jack of all trades, but the master of none; a glorified iPad with a keyboard.
I do though believe that in 2-3 years time when the new MacBook has matured, it is going to be one hell of a product.
