Upcoming Ultra-Thin 12-Inch MacBook Air Design Imagined in New Renderings

[ArtOfWarfare]

I think the arrow keys are the one thing I like least about Apple keyboards. They're great for saving space, but feel way too cramped because of that. It's too easy to accidentally hit the down key when you're going for the up.

It's an entirely subjective thing, of course, but I prefer keyboards where the arrow keys are as large as everything else.

That's a fair point, but I'm not suggesting other laptops get the up/down arrow keys wrong. It's the fact that every non-Apple laptop keyboard that I know of fails to leave empty space to the left/right of the up key. In the case of this mockup, the issue is that the left/right keys are each as big as the up/down keys combined. Most laptops from other companies put random keys to the left and right of the up arrow, IE, page up and down, or home and end. The issue with that is it makes it difficult to find the arrow keys by feel alone - you have to actually look down at the keys to make sure your fingers are on the proper ones.

 

[brendu]

Is Esc even doing anything nowadays? I don't think I've ever pressed it on my rMBP now that I think about it lol

I use it all the time to exit full screen mode on videos.

 

[michelg1970]

Edit: and I realize that matte black is just a dirty shade of grey.

Just one out of 50.....

 

[576316]

Should of got rid of that ugly bezel while they were at it.

That's probably the one thing which really puts meet off the MacBook Air. It just seems so unnecessary.

 

[flottenheimer]

Damn, I'm looking forward to some new Apple laptop designs.
Both for the Air and the Pro lines.

 

[576316]

So how the hell are you supposed to charge it?

USB Type-C is capable of passing power in both directions. It's quite possibly the future of mobile connections and could introduce a universal standard which, particularly the EU, are pushing for to reduce wastage of useless chargers which don't fit new/other devices.

 

[antonis]

A quick—and honest—question: what on earth is the benefit of moving the power button to the position where the Esc key has occupied since the dawn of the PC keyboard?

Indeed. And on top of that, where is the Esc key ?

Is Esc even doing anything nowadays? I don't think I've ever pressed it on my rMBP now that I think about it lol

Yup, lots and lots of apps still love it. I don't think it's going anywhere, anytime soon.

 

[oliversl]

"Will it bend?" Sorry, could not resist. Meanwhile I will eagerly wait for the bend test video.

 

[kingofwale]

trust me, the iphone 6 or 6+ it is rigid. try an aluminium object that has 7mm and see how it bends..

did anyone here ask for 7mm aluminum??

Give me 7mm titanium/steel or 10mm aluminum with bigger battery.

 

[AlecZ]

Is Esc even doing anything nowadays? I don't think I've ever pressed it on my rMBP now that I think about it lol

You need it for vim, the Force Quit menu, and computer games.

 

[kingofwale]

USB Type-C is capable of passing power in both directions. It's quite possibly the future of mobile connections and could introduce a universal standard which, particularly the EU, are pushing for to reduce wastage of useless chargers which don't fit new/other devices.

so the future of mobile connection is you either choose to charge your laptop.. or connect your computer to any accessory.

I will pass

 

[Larry-K]

Should of got rid of that ugly bezel while they were at it.

Yeah. I wish they'd quit worrying about how thin it is, and get rid of that.

 

[Olivier Giround]

Yay!

A slightly thinner laptop, with fewer connectivity options!

 

[Larry-K]

did anyone here ask for 7mm aluminum??

Give me 7mm titanium/steel or 10mm aluminum with bigger battery.

Let's go with magnesium.

 

[AlecZ]

A quick—and honest—question: what on earth is the benefit of moving the power button to the position where the Esc key has occupied since the dawn of the PC keyboard?

Yeah... I was also fine with having a power button that's not on the keyboard. I'm using a rMBP temporarily, and I never have any use for the power button except to turn it on. There's already a menu item for sleep/restart/shutdown.

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so the future of mobile connection is you either choose to charge your laptop.. or connect your computer to any accessory.

I will pass

It's easily avoidable if there's more than one port, only Apple is rumored to only put one in. Apple has always hated ports and continues to hate them more and more. I don't get it.

 

[MacMadHatter]

The USB Type C will be able to charge the laptop. I'm sorry but Apple should at least put two on these one on each end would be a good start or 3 two one one and one with the headphone.

Having one jack will just result in people being forced to choose between charging and using a usb key or having to purchase an expensive docking solution that's a good chunk of the device cost already.

Apple could *gasp* put them all on the same side and make a docking solution for it themselves. We do like to hook our laptops up to large external displays on occasion.

 

[AlecZ]

Through the USB-C port. There is a "Power Delivery" spec that allows for 100 watts of power, which is more than enough to charge a laptop. So with USB-C / USB 3.1, you could have a single cable for everything: power, display, networking, drives, PCIe devices, etc. It's only disadvantage over ThunderBolt 2 appears to be less bandwidth (10 gigabit/s vs 20 gigabit/s), but it's still quite adequate.

But then you've got to use some kind of hub if you want charging plus anything else simultaneously. There should at the very least be two of them, but I'd also want a Thunderbolt/DisplayPort output on top of that.

 

[KdParker]

Looks stunning, but those arrow keys are desisting though.

It is just to thick for me....They really need to make this thinner

 

[diipii]

Has no one noticed the number of sheep getting in a tizz because Apple is making something that looks almost completely identical to two things it already makes.

 

[truettray]

To me it seems like the Retina Macbook and the iPad Pro are conflicting products. It's almost like Apple is trying to get as close to making the Surface Pro without actually doing it.

 

[topmounter]

Why is Apple releasing renders of unannounced products?!?... wait, what? These renders didn't come from Apple? LOL, ok. Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[IbisDoc]

These look nice, but we all know that the graphics will be seriously underpowered, like all first generation Apple products.

 

[sneakyllama]

MacPad

So if you are going to create a 12 inch laptop without ports and a 12 inch iPad, why not just make a MacPad...tablet that runs OSX.

 

[MacGod]

So how the hell are you supposed to charge it?

USB-C port - I imagine the AC Adapter will have 'ports' built into it like the Yoga USB/AC adapter

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The USB Type C will be able to charge the laptop. I'm sorry but Apple should at least put two on these one on each end would be a good start or 3 two one one and one with the headphone.

Having one jack will just result in people being forced to choose between charging and using a usb key or having to purchase an expensive docking solution that's a good chunk of the device cost already.

Apple could *gasp* put them all on the same side and make a docking solution for it themselves. We do like to hook our laptops up to large external displays on occasion.

It would be cool if their AC Adapter that charges, also has expansion slots within it - 2 USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt at minimum.

 

[tresmith]

Why 12" and not 13"?

rumor has it that it's going to be 12.9 inches so it's essentially a 13 inch screen.