Why no MacBook Air 13" with Retina...???

[SmOgER]

Ehm.. Does the LCD connectors on the rMBP 13" and MBA 13" differ?

 

[mafaky]

If Apple attempted to replace the screen of the current 13" MBA with a retina counterpart, they cannot squeeze out that 12 hrs. battery life with the Broadwell CPU family. With the forthcoming Skylake family, (but a very faint) maybe???

But in any case, I still believe that either there will be no more 11"/13" non-retina MBA with Skylake family (but the Broadwell MBA will remain in sales maybe until end 2016 or so), or there will be one last upgrade of MBA with Skylake in 2016 and then the MBA family will finish for good!...

 

[throAU]

While only a half pound heavier, it makes a difference. Its smaller footprint is nice for space but when you consider it is heavier, with 4 less hours of battery life, is thicker and less comfortable on the wrist for typing, and runs much hotter than the MBA, it is hardly the same.

The rMBP is great for a pro laptop and the screen is beautiful, but it does not match the Air in design or comfort of use imo.

I've had 13 hours of battery life out of my 13" Pro, and regularly get 9-10 (50% brightness, 50% volume, playing video for most of that), unless your MBA is getting 14-17 hours of battery, the new Pros are not "4 hours less battery life"

 

[Cheffy Dave]

You need to check again. Higher resolution screens consume more power. No if's about it.

The new MacBook is no ultrabook. It has CPU performance on-par with the i5's from just a couple of years ago - in other words the type of computers that most of the world is working on.

Well said

 

[Cheffy Dave]

If Apple attempted to replace the screen of the current 13" MBA with a retina counterpart, they cannot squeeze out that 12 hrs. battery life with the Broadwell CPU family. With the forthcoming Skylake family, (but a very faint) maybe???

But in any case, I still believe that either there will be no more 11"/13" non-retina MBA with Skylake family (but the Broadwell MBA will remain in sales maybe until end 2016 or so), or there will be one last upgrade of MBA with Skylake in 2016 and then the MBA family will finish for good!...

I agree, also there are other screens available to Apple other than going Retina, which wouldn't take a battery hit, but would be much better than whats offered, how about SUPER AMOLD?

 

[mafaky]

I've had 13 hours of battery life out of my 13" Pro, and regularly get 9-10 (50% brightness, 50% volume, playing video for most of that), unless your MBA is getting 14-17 hours of battery, the new Pros are not "4 hours less battery life"

What are your usage parameters when you can squeeze out 13 hrs.?

 

[throAU]

What are your usage parameters when you can squeeze out 13 hrs.?

As posted.

The 2015 machines are pretty awesome on battery.

13 hours was a lot less video, just web browsing with no flash.

 

[macs4nw]

......I actually think that this comes down to the fact that the new MacBook is just the first of an entirely new lineup of Macbooks, so the overall strategy isn't clear right now. I think they are just riding out the existing MBA design until they are ready to release the next iteration.

I see the new MacBook more as a design statement, that'll appeal to a certain segment of potential buyers. Its aesthetics, size, weight and fan-less design will appeal to those buyers. It's alright for everyday light computing tasks, but most people will probably agree that it is underpowered for serious and more intensive computing tasks.

As you said, we'll have to see where they are going with this.