5 ms·

Am I the only one, who is excited and considering buying this thing? I'm still on 2012 Air. It's good device, but showing it's age (slow CPU and only 4GB of Ram

Am I the only one, who is excited and considering buying this thing? I'm still on 2012 Air. It's good device, but showing it's age (slow CPU and only 4GB of Ram, the screen resolution is joke). But new Air seems very compelling to me. I'll miss the magsafe though. Also I would like to know if the SSD can be upgraded later (unofficially of course). 2012 Air SSD can be replaced, using cheap reduction (from proprietary apple to standard M2). Not sure about the newer models.

outside1234 8y ago
I thought I would miss the magsafe as well, but actually I like the USB-C charging better - you can charge from either side of the device, which is a lot more useful than I would have thought.
- ajay-d 8y ago
  Both ports are on the same side though...
RBerenguel 8y ago
2013 Air here, and I'm definitely getting one as soon as I can (8GB though).
danieldk 8y ago
I would wait about 6 more months to see how reliable the updated butterfly mechanism is. Having a failing keyboard is no fun, repair apparently takes ~1 week. The new Pro's (and probably the new Air) use a membrane to keep the dust out, but I'd wait and see if it works well enough.
BonesJustice 8y ago
Out of curiosity, what is the appeal of the new MacBook Air over a regular MacBook? Is it the 13" screen vs. the 12"? I'd just assumed that when Apple introduced that crazy-thin 12" MacBook a couple years ago, it was meant to replace both product lines. I don't understand why it's necessary to maintain a third discrete product line. Why not add a 13" variant to the standard MacBook line with i5 and i7 processor choices? That would be similar to what they do with the MacBook Pro line. Is there some other difference that I'm overlooking?
- finchisko 8y ago
  Yes that additional inch in screen. More ports (not significantly, but will please). And isn't the CPU in new Air actually faster than in Macbook? Also regarding, why they didn't ditched the Air in favour of Macbook. I believe that the Air is more recognisable (or even iconic) for some people (like me :)). Air was my first Apple product. Loving it.
- orhanhenrik 8y ago
  I imagine they are ditching the MacBook and just keeping the air and pro lines. It’s easier to distinguish the two, rather than “just MacBook” vs “MacBook Pro”. I also think air->new air is a better improvement to brag about than MacBook->new MacBook.
- sagichmal 8y ago
  Double the RAM, Thunderbolt instead of USB-C, and two ports instead of one. That's worth the price... decrease? ;)
- Infernal 8y ago
  A big difference - 12" MB only supports a single 4K external display, whereas MBA supports dual 4K or single 5K.
- wild_preference 8y ago
  The Macbook Air also has a fan. The base Macbook does not. The base Macbook therefor hits its thermal ceiling pretty much immediately and is suboptimal in hot environments. My girlfriend's overheats all the time. Frankly, I think the three product lines should be shaped like this: - Macbook: For price sensitive people. $800-900 to enter the Apple ecosystem. - Macbook Air: Basically the current MBP with its fixation on power capped by form-factor. (Note: The new Air is heavier than the MBP!) - Macbook Pro: A portable workstation that doesn't sacrifice everything for form factor. Apple doesn't have one of these right now. For example, prioritizes thermals so that it can sustain max performance instead of the bursty performance of the current MBPs.
  - chemmail 8y ago
cseelus 8y ago
The loss of MagSafe for me wasn‘t as bad as expeced, especially given that magnetic USB-C cables(1) are a thing now. 1) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Looyat-Magnetic-Cable-Macbook-Black/dp/B07F41TFFH https://www.amazon.co.uk/Looyat-Magnetic-Cable-Macbook-Black...
- cptskippy 8y ago
  Honestly I'm afraid to use uncertified cables and running an uncertified cable at 20v 4a just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
  - asdff 8y ago
    Don't think about the wiring in your neighborhood then
sgarman 8y ago
I think all of the recent macbooks have soldered ssds which are not replaceable. I doubt this one is going to buck that trend.
binoculars10 8y ago
Well don't be very excited. Have you heard of Louis Rossmann? He has some videos on Youtube regarding Apple's tactics to make its hardware hard to repair and ripoff people who get them repaired at the Apple Stores. Even CBC did a story on it.
- finchisko 8y ago
  Yes, I know this guy. I don't like the Apple repair (not) strategy. However I've also experience with several other laptop manufacturers. There are at least 5 laptops lying somewhere in my house. Most of them have broken hinges or broken plastic chassis so you can see inside them. Only exception is Toshiba with Pentium3 processor. Ancient but still rock solid, with no sign of wear (I could use it if it wasn't that slow). And the other one is this 6y old Macbook Air. What I'm trying to say, is that people bitch about the Apple, but there many other horrible brands (models) out there. But there is not enough buyers to point that out as loud as in Apple case. However the butterfly keyboard scares me a bit. They say it has been fixed, but personally don't have any feedback from Macbook Pro users and also this Air keyboard can be bit different.
- paulcole 8y ago
  My employer buys my computer. Doesn't matter to me how repairable it is.
- matt4077 8y ago
  This tired conspiracy theory neglects a few thing: - Consumers have aptly demonstrated that they prefer low weight and thinness over expandability and replaceability. That's one of many reasonable explanations that do not assume bad faith. - While repairs have gotten more difficult, reliability has increased at an even faster pace. Notebook components have failure rate far lower than a decade ago. The largest single change was the transition from mechanical, failure-prone HDDs to SSDs. The second largest change were improvements to batteries: these have an expected useable lifetime of 5 years+, whereas in the past it was maybe two years, and only you took specific care such as regular draining. - Material science and manufacturing have also improved, allowing tighter specification: If your washing machine survives two decades that is a major failure of engineering. That's because over-provisioning is wasteful, and ecologically harmful. Even in cases grow fond of such old machines, it is actually better to have them fail at some point, because improvements in power consumption more than compensate for shorter lifecycles.
simplify 8y ago
I have an old macbook air too. My biggest fear is the new keyboard will be a downgrade.
draw_down 8y ago
I think it looks great, and like you I'm still on a very old MacBook Air. This one has Touch ID and without the touch bar everyone here seems to hate. I am concerned about the keyboard, but only from what I've read, not firsthand experience. Don't think the SSD can be replaced, as far as I know they moved from it being one replaceable drive to multiple storage modules placed around the chassis.
Dunedan 8y ago
> Also I would like to know if the SSD can be upgraded later During the presentation they showed the inside as well, highlighting the locations of RAM and SSD and both seemed to be soldered. As they're nowadays soldered in every other mobile Mac, replaceable parts in the new MacBook Air would surprise surprise me (although it'd be a pleasant surprise).
flurrything 8y ago
Similar position as you (mid 2012 macbook air, 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5, 8Gb of RAM, 256Gb SSD + 256Gb SD Card). I've upgraded its battery twice, last time this year, for 60 EUR each time, and its hitting > 9h of battery life right now. What does seem compelling in the new Air to you? I only see a similarly spec'ed system (Geekbench says its 40% faster): dual-core, ~same RAM, ~same HDD if I go for the 2000 EUR 512Gb SSD version, ... Retina display (this is huge), no macsafe, new keyboards (people have mixed feelings about these), ... I find it hard to justify upgrading a system that's still working fine at such a high price tag (>2k EUR) just for a Retina display and ~30-40% faster CPU. A modern quad/six core could deliver 4-6x speed-ups in some workflows, and discreet nvidia graphics could allow me to develop for CUDA, 1Tb SSD would be nice, etc. I could justify paying 2000 EUR for all these upgrades on top of a Retina display. But just for a retina display? I'd rather go skiing in the Alps for two weeks this winter for 1600 EUR and just buy an apple watch with the remaining 400 EUR =/

outside1234 8y ago

I thought I would miss the magsafe as well, but actually I like the USB-C charging better - you can charge from either side of the device, which is a lot more useful than I would have thought.

ajay-d 8y ago
Both ports are on the same side though...

RBerenguel 8y ago

2013 Air here, and I'm definitely getting one as soon as I can (8GB though).

danieldk 8y ago

I would wait about 6 more months to see how reliable the updated butterfly mechanism is. Having a failing keyboard is no fun, repair apparently takes ~1 week. The new Pro's (and probably the new Air) use a membrane to keep the dust out, but I'd wait and see if it works well enough.

BonesJustice 8y ago

Out of curiosity, what is the appeal of the new MacBook Air over a regular MacBook? Is it the 13" screen vs. the 12"? I'd just assumed that when Apple introduced that crazy-thin 12" MacBook a couple years ago, it was meant to replace both product lines. I don't understand why it's necessary to maintain a third discrete product line. Why not add a 13" variant to the standard MacBook line with i5 and i7 processor choices? That would be similar to what they do with the MacBook Pro line. Is there some other difference that I'm overlooking?

finchisko 8y ago
Yes that additional inch in screen. More ports (not significantly, but will please). And isn't the CPU in new Air actually faster than in Macbook? Also regarding, why they didn't ditched the Air in favour of Macbook. I believe that the Air is more recognisable (or even iconic) for some people (like me :)). Air was my first Apple product. Loving it.
orhanhenrik 8y ago
I imagine they are ditching the MacBook and just keeping the air and pro lines. It’s easier to distinguish the two, rather than “just MacBook” vs “MacBook Pro”. I also think air->new air is a better improvement to brag about than MacBook->new MacBook.
sagichmal 8y ago
Double the RAM, Thunderbolt instead of USB-C, and two ports instead of one. That's worth the price... decrease? ;)
Infernal 8y ago
A big difference - 12" MB only supports a single 4K external display, whereas MBA supports dual 4K or single 5K.
wild_preference 8y ago
The Macbook Air also has a fan. The base Macbook does not. The base Macbook therefor hits its thermal ceiling pretty much immediately and is suboptimal in hot environments. My girlfriend's overheats all the time. Frankly, I think the three product lines should be shaped like this: - Macbook: For price sensitive people. $800-900 to enter the Apple ecosystem. - Macbook Air: Basically the current MBP with its fixation on power capped by form-factor. (Note: The new Air is heavier than the MBP!) - Macbook Pro: A portable workstation that doesn't sacrifice everything for form factor. Apple doesn't have one of these right now. For example, prioritizes thermals so that it can sustain max performance instead of the bursty performance of the current MBPs.
- chemmail 8y ago

cseelus 8y ago

The loss of MagSafe for me wasn‘t as bad as expeced, especially given that magnetic USB-C cables(1) are a thing now. 1) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Looyat-Magnetic-Cable-Macbook-Black/dp/B07F41TFFH https://www.amazon.co.uk/Looyat-Magnetic-Cable-Macbook-Black...

cptskippy 8y ago
Honestly I'm afraid to use uncertified cables and running an uncertified cable at 20v 4a just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
- asdff 8y ago
  Don't think about the wiring in your neighborhood then

sgarman 8y ago

I think all of the recent macbooks have soldered ssds which are not replaceable. I doubt this one is going to buck that trend.

binoculars10 8y ago

Well don't be very excited. Have you heard of Louis Rossmann? He has some videos on Youtube regarding Apple's tactics to make its hardware hard to repair and ripoff people who get them repaired at the Apple Stores. Even CBC did a story on it.

finchisko 8y ago
Yes, I know this guy. I don't like the Apple repair (not) strategy. However I've also experience with several other laptop manufacturers. There are at least 5 laptops lying somewhere in my house. Most of them have broken hinges or broken plastic chassis so you can see inside them. Only exception is Toshiba with Pentium3 processor. Ancient but still rock solid, with no sign of wear (I could use it if it wasn't that slow). And the other one is this 6y old Macbook Air. What I'm trying to say, is that people bitch about the Apple, but there many other horrible brands (models) out there. But there is not enough buyers to point that out as loud as in Apple case. However the butterfly keyboard scares me a bit. They say it has been fixed, but personally don't have any feedback from Macbook Pro users and also this Air keyboard can be bit different.
paulcole 8y ago
My employer buys my computer. Doesn't matter to me how repairable it is.
matt4077 8y ago
This tired conspiracy theory neglects a few thing: - Consumers have aptly demonstrated that they prefer low weight and thinness over expandability and replaceability. That's one of many reasonable explanations that do not assume bad faith. - While repairs have gotten more difficult, reliability has increased at an even faster pace. Notebook components have failure rate far lower than a decade ago. The largest single change was the transition from mechanical, failure-prone HDDs to SSDs. The second largest change were improvements to batteries: these have an expected useable lifetime of 5 years+, whereas in the past it was maybe two years, and only you took specific care such as regular draining. - Material science and manufacturing have also improved, allowing tighter specification: If your washing machine survives two decades that is a major failure of engineering. That's because over-provisioning is wasteful, and ecologically harmful. Even in cases grow fond of such old machines, it is actually better to have them fail at some point, because improvements in power consumption more than compensate for shorter lifecycles.

simplify 8y ago

I have an old macbook air too. My biggest fear is the new keyboard will be a downgrade.

draw_down 8y ago

I think it looks great, and like you I'm still on a very old MacBook Air. This one has Touch ID and without the touch bar everyone here seems to hate. I am concerned about the keyboard, but only from what I've read, not firsthand experience. Don't think the SSD can be replaced, as far as I know they moved from it being one replaceable drive to multiple storage modules placed around the chassis.

Dunedan 8y ago

> Also I would like to know if the SSD can be upgraded later During the presentation they showed the inside as well, highlighting the locations of RAM and SSD and both seemed to be soldered. As they're nowadays soldered in every other mobile Mac, replaceable parts in the new MacBook Air would surprise surprise me (although it'd be a pleasant surprise).

flurrything 8y ago

Similar position as you (mid 2012 macbook air, 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5, 8Gb of RAM, 256Gb SSD + 256Gb SD Card). I've upgraded its battery twice, last time this year, for 60 EUR each time, and its hitting > 9h of battery life right now. What does seem compelling in the new Air to you? I only see a similarly spec'ed system (Geekbench says its 40% faster): dual-core, ~same RAM, ~same HDD if I go for the 2000 EUR 512Gb SSD version, ... Retina display (this is huge), no macsafe, new keyboards (people have mixed feelings about these), ... I find it hard to justify upgrading a system that's still working fine at such a high price tag (>2k EUR) just for a Retina display and ~30-40% faster CPU. A modern quad/six core could deliver 4-6x speed-ups in some workflows, and discreet nvidia graphics could allow me to develop for CUDA, 1Tb SSD would be nice, etc. I could justify paying 2000 EUR for all these upgrades on top of a Retina display. But just for a retina display? I'd rather go skiing in the Alps for two weeks this winter for 1600 EUR and just buy an apple watch with the remaining 400 EUR =/