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Why does the Air brand still exist? The author notes that he fully expects Apple to give the MacBook Air a processor upgrade, but not a re-design. Who is still

Why does the Air brand still exist? The author notes that he fully expects Apple to give the MacBook Air a processor upgrade, but not a re-design. Who is still buying the Air over the MacBook?

J0-onas 11y ago
- People who like having a USB+Video port - Don't want to buy expensive adapters (at least the less expensive ones)? - Performance (CPU wise) - Price I would rather ask why are people buying a macbook over a macbook air? The macbook air has a better price/performance ratio. And the form factor cannot be a logical argument... The macbook air compact enough to fit in everyones bag.
- zwily 11y ago
  I have a hard time living without the Retina display now.
- profmonocle 11y ago
  The cost of the adapters is only part of it. Adapters are inconvenient, and IMO the reduced thickness isn't a good tradeoff for that extra inconvenience. (It has been in the past - losing the optical drive and ethernet port was absolutely worth it to me for a lighter & thinner machine.) Not to mention you only have one port, so even if all your USB devices use type C, you'll still need an adapter just to charge your laptop and use a USB device at the same time.
- fpoling 11y ago
  I got MacBook due to its screen resolution and because it is silent. Owning fanless Dell Latitude X1 decade ago spoiled me as even rather silent quality notebook fans had started to bother me.
grecy 11y ago
I have a 2012 Air and it's the best computer I've ever owned. Coding, testing, Lightroom, Photoshop and some FCP, with >10 hours battery light and extremely light for carrying around every day.
- cloudjacker 11y ago
  Ditto I had hoped they would have released a 16gb RAM version sometime over the last 4 years, but alas no, here we are debating if it has been abandoned or not. There are no compromises with this machine. Even the integrated graphics chip has seen improvements in both drivers and how newer frameworks use it. Its a beast. More RAM would future proof it for another four years.
  - superuser2 11y ago
    >There are no compromises with this machine. Once you get used to Retina, that is unfortunately not true anymore.
- raarts 11y ago
  Same here. I 'my just waiting for the new Air. Slanted keyboard and battery life. Not interested at all in anything else. But I really want 16Gigs. Running Chrome and a few VM'S needs more RAM.
- skrause 11y ago
  Are you sure it's a 2012 Air? Because I have one and with a brand new battery and light use you maybe get 7-8 hours battery life out of it. The 2013 Air with the Haswell CPU is the one which gives you far more than 10 hours of battery life.
  - grecy 11y ago
    Mine's a 2012, when it was new if I used it lightly it was getting 10 hours, it's a bit lower than that now.
achompas 11y ago
I mean, it's clearly available as a cheaper + faster alternative to the rMB. Buying the Air isn't a dumb choice by any stretch, a similarly-specced 11" Air (8GB RAM is the only difference) is $200 cheaper and more powerful than the corresponding rMB.
spike021 11y ago
The Air is really an amazing computer. Sure it's not going to win any benchmark or resolution competitions, but it's extremely reliable. It also has amazing battery life.
mmanfrin 11y ago
The Macbook is still on its first generation. It's nice, but there is room for improvement. The Air has had time to refine and is a spectacular little computer. It is light, has capable internals, has all the ports you need, and can go up to 13".
IkmoIkmo 11y ago
I'd for sure buy the air over the Macbook. Hell my gf just did. You couldn't convince her to drop hours of battery, an inch of screen space, a few ports, a few hundred bucks, better performance, in return for a marginal portability value that approaches 0 in her daily bag, default storage she doesn't use (she's approaching 30gb of use!), default ram she doesn't use, and pixel density she can't see. (she's likely an exception here, I definitely notice the density myself like most would, although I wouldn't pay a few hundred extra for it, but she can't even notice it.) There's just nothing the Macbook offers her that's worth it. I expect this to change within 1-2 years though.

Why does the Air brand still exist? The author notes that he fully expects Apple to give the MacBook Air a processor upgrade, but not a re-design. Who is still buying the Air over the MacBook?

J0-onas 11y ago

- People who like having a USB+Video port - Don't want to buy expensive adapters (at least the less expensive ones)? - Performance (CPU wise) - Price I would rather ask why are people buying a macbook over a macbook air? The macbook air has a better price/performance ratio. And the form factor cannot be a logical argument... The macbook air compact enough to fit in everyones bag.

zwily 11y ago
I have a hard time living without the Retina display now.
profmonocle 11y ago
The cost of the adapters is only part of it. Adapters are inconvenient, and IMO the reduced thickness isn't a good tradeoff for that extra inconvenience. (It has been in the past - losing the optical drive and ethernet port was absolutely worth it to me for a lighter & thinner machine.) Not to mention you only have one port, so even if all your USB devices use type C, you'll still need an adapter just to charge your laptop and use a USB device at the same time.
fpoling 11y ago
I got MacBook due to its screen resolution and because it is silent. Owning fanless Dell Latitude X1 decade ago spoiled me as even rather silent quality notebook fans had started to bother me.

grecy 11y ago

I have a 2012 Air and it's the best computer I've ever owned. Coding, testing, Lightroom, Photoshop and some FCP, with >10 hours battery light and extremely light for carrying around every day.

cloudjacker 11y ago
Ditto I had hoped they would have released a 16gb RAM version sometime over the last 4 years, but alas no, here we are debating if it has been abandoned or not. There are no compromises with this machine. Even the integrated graphics chip has seen improvements in both drivers and how newer frameworks use it. Its a beast. More RAM would future proof it for another four years.
- superuser2 11y ago
  >There are no compromises with this machine. Once you get used to Retina, that is unfortunately not true anymore.
raarts 11y ago
Same here. I 'my just waiting for the new Air. Slanted keyboard and battery life. Not interested at all in anything else. But I really want 16Gigs. Running Chrome and a few VM'S needs more RAM.
skrause 11y ago
Are you sure it's a 2012 Air? Because I have one and with a brand new battery and light use you maybe get 7-8 hours battery life out of it. The 2013 Air with the Haswell CPU is the one which gives you far more than 10 hours of battery life.
- grecy 11y ago
  Mine's a 2012, when it was new if I used it lightly it was getting 10 hours, it's a bit lower than that now.

achompas 11y ago

I mean, it's clearly available as a cheaper + faster alternative to the rMB. Buying the Air isn't a dumb choice by any stretch, a similarly-specced 11" Air (8GB RAM is the only difference) is $200 cheaper and more powerful than the corresponding rMB.

spike021 11y ago

The Air is really an amazing computer. Sure it's not going to win any benchmark or resolution competitions, but it's extremely reliable. It also has amazing battery life.

mmanfrin 11y ago

The Macbook is still on its first generation. It's nice, but there is room for improvement. The Air has had time to refine and is a spectacular little computer. It is light, has capable internals, has all the ports you need, and can go up to 13".

IkmoIkmo 11y ago

I'd for sure buy the air over the Macbook. Hell my gf just did. You couldn't convince her to drop hours of battery, an inch of screen space, a few ports, a few hundred bucks, better performance, in return for a marginal portability value that approaches 0 in her daily bag, default storage she doesn't use (she's approaching 30gb of use!), default ram she doesn't use, and pixel density she can't see. (she's likely an exception here, I definitely notice the density myself like most would, although I wouldn't pay a few hundred extra for it, but she can't even notice it.) There's just nothing the Macbook offers her that's worth it. I expect this to change within 1-2 years though.