What Are The Chances Of A Silent MacBook Refresh Following Education Keynote?

[donster28]

I know a lot of people were hopinng for a MacBook/Air refresh this morning and didn’t get it. But what if Apple does a silent refresh within a few days...price drop also acceptable.

Wouldn’t that be awesome (crossing fingers)!

 

[Yvan256]

Well, we did have a few stories about stores selling both the MacBook Air and the Mac mini at somewhat huge discounts. Maybe there really is something coming up soon?

 

[donster28]

Well, we did have a few stories about stores selling both the MacBook Air and the Mac mini at somewhat huge discounts. Maybe there really is something coming up soon?

I’m hoping and I have a gut feeling a press release/silent release will be happening anytime now.

 

[EugW]

The chance is zero.

 

[Conza]

The chance is zero.

Just curious, is this because they've never done that before?

That would be pretty cool to go to the Apple Website and suddenly it's $999 instead of $1299 for the MacBook. I think that would make it $1499 or $1399 AUD which would be fantastic.

Of course, the MacBook Air would need to disappear I imagine.

Probably though a 13/14 inch model, then a 128GB 12 inch would sort of all make sense... Maybe June now?

 

[EugW]

Just curious, is this because they've never done that before?

They've done it before. But it's not going to happen this time.

In fact, there is actually a chance the 12" MacBook won't get updated until 2019, although I would hope for a Q2/Q3 2018 update.

 

[Conza]

They've done it before. But it's not going to happen this time.

In fact, there is actually a chance the 12" MacBook won't get updated until 2019, although I would hope for a Q2/Q3 2018 update.

This is for the Y Cannonlake processor isn't it?

Really annoyed that there isn't a Coffee Lake...

Yeah guess I'll be waiting, but still hopeful for a late Q2 launch, they have done a new one every year so far, possibly they'd just up clock them, but it also makes sense to skip in a way too...

 

[sublunar]

We are only weeks away from this year's WWDC which is 12 months on from the last major update of Apple hardware.

If today was all about educational software, and Apple are aiming hard at getting iOS hardware into schools (as opposed to college), then it's no surprise that the new MBA wasn't going to appear today.

At this stage, the MBA looks likely to be updating at the same time as the other laptops, especially if they are all going quad core, at some point between May and WWDC.

 

[EugW]

This is for the Y Cannonlake processor isn't it?

Really annoyed that there isn't a Coffee Lake...

Yeah guess I'll be waiting, but still hopeful for a late Q2 launch, they have done a new one every year so far, possibly they'd just up clock them, but it also makes sense to skip in a way too...

Yes. I'm hoping for a Q2/Q3 update just because it would be a year, but unfortunately there have been no Y series chip update leaks, except for Cannon Lake for Q4 2018, meaning a 2019 MacBook release.

We are only weeks away from this year's WWDC which is 12 months on from the last major update of Apple hardware.

If today was all about educational software, and Apple are aiming hard at getting iOS hardware into schools (as opposed to college), then it's no surprise that the new MBA wasn't going to appear today.

At this stage, the MBA looks likely to be updating at the same time as the other laptops, especially if they are all going quad core, at some point between May and WWDC.

The MacBooks wouldn't go quad-core until 2019. IF the MacBooks get updated in 2018 (and there is no guarantee they will), they'd most likely be dual-core.

As for the MacBook Air, I don't know. Maybe it will just get deleted. There will be an updated 13" of some sort, but it could also be a 13" MacBook or a 13" Pro. Furthermore, some have wondered if the non-TB would simply remain dual-core while the TB Pros go quad-core. That would be a viable product line, addressing multiple price points:

12" MacBook dual-core
13" MacBook Pro (?) non-TB dual-core
13" MacBook Pro TB quad-core
15" MacBook Pro TB hex-core

 

[bill-p]

Just curious, is this because they've never done that before?

That would be pretty cool to go to the Apple Website and suddenly it's $999 instead of $1299 for the MacBook. I think that would make it $1499 or $1399 AUD which would be fantastic.

Of course, the MacBook Air would need to disappear I imagine.

Probably though a 13/14 inch model, then a 128GB 12 inch would sort of all make sense... Maybe June now?

No, really, even by June, the chance is zero as stated.

1. MacBook Y chips are still fairly expensive, and there is currently no information on an upgrade from the previous generation from last year. We're looking at end of this year for any information on that. Intel has dropped the ball.
2. Even without the cost of the Y chips, the display and some other components (speakers and battery, namely) still cost quite a bit
3. There's a reason Apple had to price the MacBook as high as they did. They made it too nice. Save for the single USB-C port and the keyboard.

MacBook Air will most likely persist until at least Apple figures out how to make Retina displays cheaper. If they made the machines $999, imagine the display assembly (+ labor) is almost half the cost of the machine. That's ridiculous.

 

[sublunar]

Yes. I'm hoping for a Q2/Q3 update just because it would be a year, but unfortunately there have been no Y series chip update leaks, except for Cannon Lake for Q4 2018, meaning a 2019 MacBook release.



The MacBooks wouldn't go quad-core until 2019. IF the MacBooks get updated in 2018 (and there is no guarantee they will), they'd most likely be dual-core.

As for the MacBook Air, I don't know. Maybe it will just get deleted. There will be an updated 13" of some sort, but it could also be a 13" MacBook or a 13" Pro. Furthermore, some have wondered if the non-TB would simply remain dual-core while the TB Pros go quad-core. That would be a viable product line, addressing multiple price points:

12" MacBook dual-core
13" MacBook Pro (?) non-TB dual-core
13" MacBook Pro TB quad-core
15" MacBook Pro TB hex-core

Well, I hadn't considered the Macbook as part of the quad core refreshes I mentioned but we can see that the Coffee Lake and Kaby Lake refreshes are going towards more cores for the 15w and higher TDP products thanks to the threat of the AMD Ryzen.

We're yet to see how many cores the Iris Graphics parts from KBLR or Coffee Lake will come with - they haven't broken cover yet. Considering how the 15w i5-8250U has 4 low speed cores compared to the two high speed cores in Kaby Lake CPUs I think we can assume at this point that there are quad core upgrades on the horizon with a per core speed decrease penalty.

The MBA has an updated 15w CPU ready and waiting for it. The rest of the range surely can't be far away.

 

[EugW]

Well, I hadn't considered the Macbook as part of the quad core refreshes I mentioned but we can see that the Coffee Lake and Kaby Lake refreshes are going towards more cores for the 15w and higher TDP products thanks to the threat of the AMD Ryzen.

We're yet to see how many cores the Iris Graphics parts from KBLR or Coffee Lake will come with - they haven't broken cover yet. Considering how the 15w i5-8250U has 4 low speed cores compared to the two high speed cores in Kaby Lake CPUs I think we can assume at this point that there are quad core upgrades on the horizon with a per core speed decrease penalty.

The MBA has an updated 15w CPU ready and waiting for it. The rest of the range surely can't be far away.

The problem with the 15 W i5-8250U is that it doesn't have Iris Plus graphics. The current non-TB Pros have Iris. However, I suppose it's always possible Apple could downgrade the non-TB's graphics.

 

[sublunar]

The problem with the 15 W i5-8250U is that it doesn't have Iris Plus graphics. The current non-TB Pros have Iris. However, I suppose it's always possible Apple could downgrade the non-TB's graphics.

The i5-8250U could only realistically power a lower cost MBA by Apple's standards as per the recent rumour.

The proper successor to the Iris Graphics powered 15w CPU in the non touch bar hasn't been announced yet but the TDP budget makes it a difficult call for Intel. To get 4 logical cores into the i5-8250U the CPU runs at 1.6GHz with relatively weak UHD620 graphics, down from the Iris Plus 640 Graphics.

It's not actually used by the MBA which is from 2015, but the 2017 i5-7200U runs at 2.5Ghz dual core with HD620 Graphics.

By comparison, the i5-7260U runs at 2.2Ghz to allow for the Iris Plus Graphics 640 iGPU.

A quad core Iris Graphics powered CPU would run at very low speeds within a 15w TDP if hyper threading were active despite potentially allowing for decent turbo mode, making it hard for a marketing explanation although PC laptop manufacturers appear to be embracing the i5-8250U for several of their models.

It's probably easier to fit Iris Plus Graphics 650 and 4 cores into the 28w budget of the 13" MacBook Pro with touchbar but again the top speed is likely to be reduced.