Your perfect laptop?

[Splitbolt]

I was just thinking how much I like my MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014).

It's the base model, it's MSRP was $999 but I got it for $750 plus sales tax thru a couple of Best Buy discounts. You can't beat that price.

I am a pretty basic computer user so the stock RAM and hard drive are fine with me, I only use about 55 Gigs as it is, and external or cloud storage is cheap if the need arises.

The only change I would like is the display. It's pretty poor the way it is, the cheap ASUS external monitor I connect it to blows the MBA's display away as far as clarity.

So my perfect laptop would be the 13" MBA in the same size body but with a 14" retina display (smaller bezel to make up for it) while keeping the current awesome battery life.

 

[dmitrivich]

Pretty much with you. Current Air body with 14" Retina would be awesome. Only thing I could think of to change would be to make the edges slightly more rounded, which would make typing more comfortable (though this is less of an issue than on the Pro) and less prone to microdents.

 

[old-wiz]

A Macbook air with a retina display and keeping same ports as current MBA with same internal options would be my ideal. I have a regular MBA (2014) and a 13" MBP (2014) and the only issue on the MBA is screen, but it would work fine as it is. My wife uses the MBA and travels with it.



'

 

[Gav2k]

12" PowerBook was the best apple ever made! Simple as that.

Give me a 12" rmbp and I'll pay whatever silly fee they want to charge!

 

[motrek]

12" PowerBook was the best apple ever made! Simple as that.

Give me a 12" rmbp and I'll pay whatever silly fee they want to charge!

If they made the new MacBook without the taper towards the front, they could add more ports. That would make the laptop much more attractive to me (and others, judging by forum posts here).

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

If they could raise the keyboard a bit in the rMB, add a bit more battery, and add another USB-C (Thunderbolt 3 actually) on the right side, then I would be all over it!

 

[newellj]

Has not yet been built, though if you take me back to 1993 (for example) I'd give my left arm for anything in the Apple notebook line today..

 

[nightlong]

I loved everything about the Mackbook Air (2012) 13" except the screen. I love everything about my MBPr except the sharp edge front of the keyboard ... The tapered front of the Air was much more comfortable.

I'm sick of silver, never has been my favourite colour. Tempted by the gold MacBook, but nothing else about it just now. I wish they'd do funky colours ... I never use cases on laptops because I don't want plastic or adding to weight and bulk ... I would love a product red colour laptop.

I also loved my white G4 ... Was that an iBook, can't remember, 2003 model anyway... I still have it, or a friend does, everything still works.

My laptops last longer than some of my cats, such as the beautiful little British Blue (great colour) kitten in my avatar ... He took up Gaming with snakes. He didn't win.

 

[Splitbolt]

Since we're talking about odd stuff now, I'm going to throw another one out there. I would like a 17 inch MacBook Air with 1920 x 1200 resolution. A true desktop replacement with portability potential.

Right now there are a lot of things that I can't do in laptop mode on my 13" MBA because I need it connected to a large monitor with higher resolution. But with a high resolution 17", I would be able to do those things. Things such as working on the balcony or at the table in the backyard.

 

[JBat]

I really love my Air. The ongoing discussion about its current display is a little baffling to me because I think it's pretty good. If you're going to add a retina display, you're going to lose some of the things that make it desirable, namely battery life. May as well get a MBP at that point.

Some changes I think would 'modernize' it a bit would be a thinner bezel and maybe a couple of different color options. If Apple could add a retina retina screen without sacrificing battery life, I suppose that would be cool too, but it's not high on my list of priorities.

As a whole, though, I haven't seen anything since I bought this mid-2012 model that can match its form factor, keyboard and especially its outstanding track pad, which has to be the best in the industry.

As it stands right now, if Apple were to announce in the near future that they are bagging the Air line, I'd immediately purchase the latest fully stacked 13" MBA, just so I could keep using an up-to-date one. It scratches all my itches.

 

[zhenya]

Since we're talking about odd stuff now, I'm going to throw another one out there. I would like a 17 inch MacBook Air with 1920 x 1200 resolution. A true desktop replacement with portability potential.

Right now there are a lot of things that I can't do in laptop mode on my 13" MBA because I need it connected to a large monitor with higher resolution. But with a high resolution 17", I would be able to do those things. Things such as working on the balcony or at the table in the backyard.

It's worth noting that one of the advantages a retina display really has over the Air's display is the ability to do high resolutions in a sharp, readable manner. Even on my 12" MB I generally use 1680x1050, and can get by at 1920x1200. I would think you'd have no problem working with 1920x1200 on the 15" Pro.

 

[Splitbolt]

I really love my Air. The ongoing discussion about its current display is a little baffling to me because I think it's pretty good.

Have you compared it side by side with other displays?

 

[Splitbolt]

It's worth noting that one of the advantages a retina display really has over the Air's display is the ability to do high resolutions in a sharp, readable manner. Even on my 12" MB I generally use 1680x1050, and can get by at 1920x1200. I would think you'd have no problem working with 1920x1200 on the 15" Pro.

Hmmmm, I wonder if I would be able to comfortably use 1920x1200 on a 15"? It seems like it would be too high for that size, but I should give it a try.

 

[0007776]

I'd love a new 17" MBP plus an iPad mini. about 90% of what I need a computer to be portable for I can do on an iPad so having a 17" MBP as a semi-portable desktop for the times that I need something more than an iPad would be nice.

 

[zhenya]

Hmmmm, I wonder if I would be able to comfortably use 1920x1200 on a 15"? It seems like it would be too high for that size, but I should give it a try.

Obviously every one of us is different, but yes, now that I think about it, I just set up a 15" Pro a couple of weeks ago for someone at work, and 1920x1080 seemed the logical size to me.

 

[JBat]

Have you compared it side by side with other displays?

I've seen the retina displays and I did not say the retina isn't 'better' than the Air's. I said it's pretty good and it is. I don't dis any Apple laptop because they all have value for someone. I'm not even ruling out buying a retina machine at some point. I just think all of the constant griping about the MBA's display is ridiculous. My Air is coming up on three years old and still works great. Until such time as I find it doesn't meet my needs, I'm sticking with it.

 

[Splitbolt]

I've seen the retina displays and I did not say the retina isn't 'better' than the Air's. I said it's pretty good and it is.

I didn't ask about comparing it to a retina display, I asked if you compared it side by side with other displays?

For example, in the original post I mentioned how my low end Asus external monitor is MUCH better than the display on my MBA.

The display on the MBA is very, very poor. You say that you're baffled about this, but just sitting it next to any other computer will show you this.

I just think all of the constant griping about the MBA's display is ridiculous.

I haven't constantly griped about anything.

You seem to have a chip on your shoulder. Knowing that, it's probably best that you don't take part in threads like this.

 

[Melrose]

If they could raise the keyboard a bit in the rMB, add a bit more battery, and add another USB-C (Thunderbolt 3 actually) on the right side, then I would be all over it!

I'd even be more ready to consider it if they simply gave you a Thunderbolt, like they were pushing a year or two ago. I get that USB-C is where it's headed and Apple's always been ahead of the curve on memory and ports, but this single 99%-currently-unused port is prohibitive.

 

[JBat]

I didn't ask about comparing it to a retina display, I asked if you compared it side by side with other displays?

For example, in the original post I mentioned how my low end Asus external monitor is MUCH better than the display on my MBA.

The display on the MBA is very, very poor. You say that you're baffled about this, but just sitting it next to any other computer will show you this.

I haven't constantly griped about anything.

You seem to have a chip on your shoulder. Knowing that, it's probably best that you don't take part in threads like this.

I don't know who you are, but sorry, there's plenty of griping through out this forum about the MBA's screen. Pointing that out doesn't mean I have a chip on my shoulder, it's just the way it is. Try to relax. You'll give yourself a heart attack.

 

[Splitbolt]

I don't know who you are, but sorry, there's plenty of griping through out this forum about the MBA's screen. Pointing that out doesn't mean I have a chip on my shoulder, it's just the way it is. Try to relax. You'll give yourself a heart attack.

If there is that much griping on the forum, then it stands to reason that there is a problem. The fact that not only can't you see the problem, but you're completely baffled by it, tells me that either you never compared the MacBook Air to another display... Or you have a serious eyesight issue.

It's as plain as day, and hopefully it will be fixed. In the meantime, if people discussing the issue bothers you so much, you should avoid threads in which people are describing their opinions about the laptop.

 

[nightlong]

I have perfect short range vision, wear glasses only for distance. Retina and non retina screens are night and day for me, but I know some people with defective short vision can't see much difference and think it is no big deal. With non retina I'm always squinting slightly, trying to make the text sharper than it is. With retina I can work much longer, and never get eye strain.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I'd even be more ready to consider it if they simply gave you a Thunderbolt, like they were pushing a year or two ago. I get that USB-C is where it's headed and Apple's always been ahead of the curve on memory and ports, but this single 99%-currently-unused port is prohibitive.

Memory? Apple has ALWAYS been behind in that area. Always.

 

[anentropic]

Very happy with my mid-2012 MBA 13"

Retina screen would be nice, though most of the time I'm plugged in to a monitor anyway

I do some Final Cut on it so if there was a 13" MBP with quad-core CPU and GPU in future I'd be all over it.

Don't want to go to a 15" and not sure the current 13" MBP is enough of an upgrade since I already have a dual core i7

 

[MagicBoy]

The 2012 MBP with the HR-AG screen and an SSD upgrade. My 2011 was perfect when I bought it, shame it didn't last. So I'll plump for the year later version with a more reliable logic board.

 

[z31fanatic]

The 13" Air with the better screen would be my perfect laptop.
I bought a 13 " Air twice (an early 2014 and a mid 2013) but I didn't keep them longer than a month. The screen is a tragedy. My eyes would get tired when web browsing, especially when scrolling. And for some reason it was worse on OS X than Windows 8.1 or Linux (ran all 3 in triple boot). Maybe Yosemite is to blame more? I don't know but there is not way I'd accept such low quality display.
And I may be sounding a bit overly dramatic but I preferred the screen of a $180 Asus laptop over the Air. That's how tiring the Air screen was to me.

Anyway, if Apple ever makes an Air with a better display, I'd dump my mid 2014 15" rMBP for it.