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I think Apple should keep the 13.3 Air and focus on reducing its footprint similar to the Dell XPS 13. I also don't think the Air needs to be any thinner than it already is. At some point the keyboard is going to suffer. Key travel is important to some of us more than a paper thin machine.
 
My wishlist:

1) current 13.3inch air form factor
2) 14inch screen in above form factor (small bezel)
3) same body shape
4) better screen
5) more grunt
 
Small screens on laptops doesn't make sense anymore. To differ from our smartphones and tablets, they need to provide a better experience and that especially comes with a bigger screen. I need a bag for my MacBook air anyway. Would gladly take a thin 17 inch MacBook air. 12 inch would be a huge downgrade to my 13 inch, retina or not.
 
To be honest, these types of threads don't really make sense. People generally say they won't buy an apple product, prior to it being officially announced. Once announced it's the best thing ever and a revolutionary must have. On a larger, obviously some don't buy it.

I for one wouldn't buy it. I'd still buy a 17-inch laptop if they made it. It all depends on what you use it for though. As with what I'd like to see for the iPhones. I'd be more interested in seeing a bezel reduction, than size change.
 
I completely agree. In the past I thought it was just a Steve Jobs obsession, but evidently it is more deeply rooted. Will be interesting to see how this works out on the new model, especially if it is fanless (which I also thought was a Steve Jobs obsession :) ).

I believe the wide bezel on the current 11.6" MBA exists solely so that they could taper the edge down to almost nothing, which makes it appear thinner… another questionable design decision IMO.

All the same, I love my 11" MBA and will not be replacing it next year, no matter what new model Apple releases. :)


I think the wide bezel exists to accomodate the full-sized keyboard.
 
If that was the case why would they not have made the screen bigger? Can't follow your logic.

As somebody said in this thread, 11-inch screens with 1366x768 resolutions were commodities back in 2010. In order to allow the MacBook Air, which sported a then very expensive SSD drive, to be sold at a much lower price than its predecessor, then Apple might have used this screen instead of a personalized one.
 
I'm not quite so worried about a 12.x inch screen.

However, I suspect there could be some cooling/performance trade-offs needed to allow the small size, light weight and good battery life, together with the rumoured fanless design.

Plus there might be additional trade-offs with keyboard and trackpad design and performance to achieve the desired thinness. Those things would be more of a concern than a reduction from 13.3 inch to 12.x inch screen.
 
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