Is retina MBA coming next week?

[ultimatebob]

It's confusing if you don't think about future plans.

The MacBook is Apple's future device, it'll replace the Air, give it a generation, and it'll be a great all rounder laptop.

I think we'll see 2 laptop lines again in 1-2 years, the MBP and the MB.

I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready for a future where I can't plug something into my laptop and charge it at the same time without a dongle.

 

[Eug]

I do like the look and size of the MacBook, but low end dual core won't do it for me right now. It will be interesting to see how the larger market accepts it. I'll definitely be interested once they get a quad in there. I'm on a ivy-b MacBook Pro, so something a bit slimmer would be nice.

I was able to catch the press conference last night and I'm starting to see their vision a bit better now. I definitely agree that the Air's days are numbered.

Quad is unlikely to come any time soon IMO. But it won't matter to 95% looking at the MacBook. The ports are a much more important consideration. I suspect Apple will give in and add another port of some sort to the next gen.

 

[redheeler]

I do like the look and size of the MacBook, but low end dual core won't do it for me right now. It will be interesting to see how the larger market accepts it. I'll definitely be interested once they get a quad in there. I'm on a ivy-b MacBook Pro, so something a bit slimmer would be nice.

I was able to catch the press conference last night and I'm starting to see their vision a bit better now. I definitely agree that the Air's days are numbered.

A quad in a thin, fanless MacBook not even intended for those who need it? Don't count on it.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

The logic board

 

[Blackjack200]

I do like the look and size of the MacBook, but low end dual core won't do it for me right now. It will be interesting to see how the larger market accepts it. I'll definitely be interested once they get a quad in there. I'm on a ivy-b MacBook Pro, so something a bit slimmer would be nice.

I was able to catch the press conference last night and I'm starting to see their vision a bit better now. I definitely agree that the Air's days are numbered.

FWIW, The performance on the basic model is supposed to be pretty decent, benchmarks have it on par with a mid-2011 i7 MBA, which happens the be the very same MBA I use as my daily driver. I have no performance issues with my machine, though I admittedly don't ask it to do too much.

Some of the goons at SA Forums were talking about this and suggesting that Apple is getting the top binned Core-M chips from Intel, so performance is better than what you might expect based on specs alone. One of them tried one out at an Apple store and opened a bunch of apps and Safari windows and such and said it never really slowed down.

Also, the optioned model with the faster processor is supposed to give it a substantial (~10%) performance bump.

Quad is unlikely to come any time soon IMO. But it won't matter to 95% looking at the MacBook. The ports are a much more important consideration. I suspect Apple will give in and add another port of some sort to the next gen.

To 95%? I rarely plug anything into my MBA, use the cloud for most things. There really is nothing else like the MacBook on the market today. I'd get one except for the $1,300 price tag. But there are plenty of people out there not as poor as me so...

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

The logic board

That is just amazing. Thank God for engineers . . .

 

[cronos]

Quad is unlikely to come any time soon IMO. But it won't matter to 95% looking at the MacBook. The ports are a much more important consideration. I suspect Apple will give in and add another port of some sort to the next gen.

Apple is not going to give in into anything regarding ports. Even the MacBook Pros are getting less ports now (no ethernet anymore), and it's supposed to be their flagship machine.

 

[RampantAndroid]

The logic board

That is the logic board not of an MBA, but of the Macbook: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+Macbook+2015+Teardown/39841

 

[Subyman]

Quad is unlikely to come any time soon IMO. But it won't matter to 95% looking at the MacBook. The ports are a much more important consideration. I suspect Apple will give in and add another port of some sort to the next gen.

I did find it strange that nothing can be plugged in while it charges. Very, very strange decision. Two are needed so a thumb drive can be accessed while in clamshell mode (which requires the computer to be plugged in.) Even though most people probably do not use clamshell mode, I'd argue nearly everyone will try to use a thumb drive while the battery is low and they will be in an awkward position.

In reality, I probably don't need a quad any more as I have a Mac Pro now that I use for processor intensive tasks.

A quad in a thin, fanless MacBook not even intended for those who need it? Don't count on it.

I was speaking to myself not to the reality of the product. I probably do not need a quad anymore anyway.

 

[cronos]

I did find it strange that nothing can be plugged in while it charges.

Yeah you can, you just need to buy a dongle.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

That is the logic board not of an MBA, but of the Macbook: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+Macbook+2015+Teardown/39841

Right. I could've sworn this thread was being used for discussion of the new Macbook, though.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Right. I could've sworn this thread was being used for discussion of the new Macbook, though.

Coulda fooled me.

Is retina MBA coming next week?

 

[Blackjack200]

Coulda fooled me.

Yeah, and just so you know, a retina MBA is not coming next week, as has been known since early March. What is newly available from Apple is the MacBook, which discussion in this thread turned to in early March, when it was discovered that there is not a retina MBA coming next week, but the MacBook, which features a retina screen. Therefore DVC posting a picture of the MacBook's logic board did not need an explanation for anyone that was reading the thread.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Yeah, and just so you know, a retina MBA is not coming next week, as has been known since early March. What is newly available from Apple is the MacBook, which discussion in this thread turned to in early March, when it was discovered that there is not a retina MBA coming next week, but the MacBook, which features a retina screen. Therefore DVC posting a picture of the MacBook's logic board did not need an explanation for anyone that was reading the thread.

Ahh, there we go - for some reason I thought this was a new thread. There we go. I saw that it was horribly "off topic" and figured "Not bothering to read this."

Oops.

 

[Eug]

Well, well... Looky here:

Get all the essential ports you need.

2 USB-C ports
1 SDXC card reader
1 mini DisplayPort (mDP 1.2 video output, 4k displays at 60Hz refresh rate)
3 USB-A \ charging ports
Built-in lithium ion battery to charge ANY phone

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Well, well... Looky here:

Get all the essential ports you need.

2 USB-C ports
1 SDXC card reader
1 mini DisplayPort (mDP 1.2 video output, 4k displays at 60Hz refresh rate)
3 USB-A \ charging ports
Built-in lithium ion battery to charge ANY phone

Looks pretty nice, though it would still annoy me to effectively need something like this (not to mention that I have had mixed luck, to put it mildly, with getting Kickstarter stuff that is on time and as advertised.

 

[Rakehellion]

Well, well... Looky here:

Get all the essential ports you need.

2 USB-C ports
1 SDXC card reader
1 mini DisplayPort (mDP 1.2 video output, 4k displays at 60Hz refresh rate)
3 USB-A \ charging ports
Built-in lithium ion battery to charge ANY phone

Kickstarter? No thonx. There will be a million different companies making dongles like that in a few months.

 

[Eug]

I wouldn't order until it's actually out. Looks pretty nice though. And you can get a 24 k gold plated one for just $3999!

 

[stlc8tr]

I wouldn't order until it's actually out. Looks pretty nice though. And you can get a 24 k gold plated one for just $3999!

They've already sold nine of them so there's only one slot left for the $3999 gold unit. Better hurry!

 

[Eug]

Apple almost always gimps its first generation products, in various ways. I'll see what gen 2 has to offer, because the MBA isn't a good substitute.

If I HAD to buy today, I'd strongly consider the Pro. Luckily I can wait though. Even if I have to wait until the gen 3 12" Retina MacBook, so be it.

My biggest concern actually is the force touch touchpad. The performance will improve in subsequent models.

Interestingly, today Intel announced Thunderbolt 3 over USB C. We knew Thunderbolt was being integrated with Skylake, but we didn't know it would be via USB C. I suspect this is what Apple had in mind all along with the new MacBook.

Apple strikes again with its habit of gimping its 1st gen products.

That said, I still think Thunderbolt is a dying technology.

Now we can just hope that the Retina MacBook version 2 also gets:

1) A faster CPU
2) Two USB ports instead of one