Will Macbook have a jump in performance like MacBook Air did?

[joshuadam]

I'm not in the market for a new laptop as my 15" 2012 RMBP still gets mistaken for a new machine and is running as well as when I first bought it, however it does sometimes give me neck problems due to its weight. This got me thinking about what I would choose if I needed something in the smaller size range.

The MacBook has an amazing design, however it is difficult to consider when reports show the 13" MacBook Pro has considerably more powerful hardware for a similar price. I remember the first gen MacBook Air being similarly underpowered, however the second gen onwards became known as an excellent balance of power, portability and price.

Just curious if anyone thinks the new MacBook will eventually see a significant boost in power, or if its lower performance is a deliberate part of Apple's strategy to up-sell customers to the MacBook Pro line?

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

The performance in Apple's laptops are dependent on Intel. Given that Intel has finally released 15 watt quad core CPUs, its extremely likely that the next 13" refresh will include quad core 28 watt CPUs, however the 15" line appear to stay at 4 cores 8 threads. There might be a possibility that Intel will include a 45 Watt 6 core CPU but there hasn't been any information regarding that.

 

[EugW]

There was a big jump in performance in the MacBook in 2017. Plus it got other significant upgrades too.

1. 2017 MacBook Core m3 got a 20-30% performance boost over 2016 MacBook Core m3.

2. The 2017 MacBook Core i5 competes favourably against 2017 MacBook Air Core i5.

3. The 2017 MacBook has full 10-bit HDR 4K HEVC decode support in hardware. Not even the 2016 MacBook Pro has that. Consequently the entry level 2017 MacBook Core m3 can decode videos with ease that the 2016 MacBook Pro Core i7 struggles... and fails... to decode cleanly. And the MacBook Air has no hardware HEVC decode support at all, not even 8-bit. This is a pretty deal, considering Apple is building its entire ecosystem around HEVC going forward.

4. The 2017 MacBook got a huge keyboard upgrade. The keyboard on the 2017 no longer sucks. It kinda sucks on the 2016.

5. The MacBook can now be configured with 16 GB RAM, as much as the 2017 MacBook Pro.

The time for the MacBook is already here. The writing is on the wall for the MacBook Air. I suspect the MacBook Air will be discontinued by 2019, with no more updates after this last minor 2017 update.

 

[ZapNZs]

That huge jump already came...