28 ms·

New MacBook Air

• saagarjha 7y ago
  Perhaps a better link: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/03/new-macbook-air-has-more-to-love-and-is-now-just-999/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/03/new-macbook-air-has-m...
• rvanmil 7y ago
  Anyone here who has experience working with JS/TS development tools (vscode, yarn, webpack, Node.js etc.) on a recent MacBook Air? I wonder if the performance is noticeably worse than a 13” MacBook Pro for this type of work.
  • technotarek 7y ago
    Up until late 2018, my MBA 2013 was doing ok with a stack transitioning to full js/ts. Now it’s close to unusable as our projects build multiple containers, load hundreds of node packages etc. Unfortunately, the 2019 MBA isn’t much better. I’m still wondering whether to hold until a new MBP 13/14”, or give this a try.
    • ehutch79 7y ago
      A typical JS developer is not building/rebuilding docker containers constantly.
      • kasey_junk 7y ago
        It seems pretty typical for js backend systems to be heavily containerized such that I’d say it’s approaching the default deployment mechanism.
        • ehutch79 7y ago
          Why would you keep rebuilding the container constantly though?
          • kasey_junk 7y ago
            Typically build flows don’t mount the js with volumes they embed it in the image. I’m not cognizant enough of the trade offs to know why.
            • bpicolo 7y ago
              Optimizing your local workflows is worth the effort at every team size. I think the attempts to make local workflows mirror production 1:1 (local k8s, for example) are misguided. They miss too hard on the productivity story. Especially once you start having to swap out local debugging for remote debugging (which only a handful of languages support effectively). This is the biggest miss for many companies striving for microservice architecture. The local development story is terrible, and it stays terrible, without a lot of opinionated decisions around what your dev workflow needs to look like past the ~3-5 services mark. At a past gig I had to change 5 different repositories (5 separate PRs, all needing approval) to send an email. In a rails app that would have been a trivial task.
              • inapis 7y ago
                > At a past gig I had to change 5 different repositories (5 separate PRs, all needing approval) to send an email. In a rails app that would have been a trivial task. That sounds like no thought was put in the system before development. Well thought out scopes & contracts between services should not create a situation like that. Reminds me of a commenter on HN who were rolling back changes to all microservices if one service needed a rollback. These kinds of issues are dead giveaways that devs are paying lip-service to "microservices." Also, devs need to understand that they don't need to be on microservices or on the latest fad. Use what works for the team. A 10-team of devs cannot necessarily adopt workflows of a FAANG.
                • 7y ago
      • solat 7y ago
        Not really but when you try new config/Dockerfiles/docker-compose setups it's nice to have power + bandwidth. Thus, I develop on a remote server.
      • technotarek 7y ago
        That's correct. Not building/re-building the containers constantly. However, the initial build takes forever and some containers tend to crash (e.g., Prisma). Plus, in our case where we're using Angular, the recompiling of the app on change sends the fan into overdrive and I get noticeable lag on application switching. Again, this is on a 2013 MBA, which is almost ridiculous, but I'm that type of person. Still proudly sporting my iPhone SE. My development partner is on the 2019 MBA and has noticed improvement, but albeit rather underwhelming. As an aside, I haven't taken the time to pin point the exact problem, but as much I prefer to use Firefox, it doesn't seem to do a great job of managing resources for the SPAs we're building.
        • ricketycricket 7y ago
          Make sure your node_modules directory is mapped to a local volume inside docker (not synced to your Mac). This dramatically improves build performance in Docker for Mac. If using docker compose, try this out https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29181032/add-a-volume-to-docker-but-exclude-a-sub-folder/38601156#38601156 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29181032/add-a-volume-to...
        • ehutch79 7y ago
          This is a dumb question, but you're talking about using docker, right? Doesn't docker spin up an entire vm for containers? That does seem pretty heavy for a MBA of any generation?
          • hobofan 7y ago
            > Doesn't docker spin up an entire vm for containers? (It generally does not. Instead it uses more lightweight isolation primtives. That has always been one of its main selling points.) EDIT: see reply > That does seem pretty heavy for a MBA of any generation? It very much depends on what you are running inside the containers. I regularly have a dev environment with ~8 relatively lightweight containers running on my Early 2014 MBA without any problems.
            • mikewhy 7y ago
  • twsted 7y ago
    It's perfect from a performance point of view. I own the last generation (so no scissor keyboard) and I work the whole day in VSCode with JS/TS, Python, Go, Rust, etc.
    • christiansakai 7y ago
      how's your Rust compile time in this?
      • shirshak55 7y ago
        i don't know how is he able to compile rust. I have 2 core MBP 13inch 2017 macbook pro. Rust compilation takes like 15 seconds for small changes in actix project. For amethyst game library i wouldn't even try.
        • twsted 7y ago
          Yeah.. given my age, perhaps I'm quite relaxed about compilation times...
  • bluedino 7y ago
    The current 13" Pro is a beast compared to the Air. It's as fast as the older 15" Pro, while the Air is a bit slower than the current 13" Pro.
    • abrowne 7y ago
      Keep in mind the MBP 13 with 4 ports has a 28 W chip, while the one with 2 ports has a 15 W chip (IIRC).
  • solat 7y ago
    While this MBA turned out really well, current Windows featuring WSL2 is quite impressive though. Having a full Ubuntu or Debian on your machine is priceless. Or you develop on a remote server, then you just need a good terminal. So currently both macOS and Windows are good for JS dev. It's a matter of taste and price.
    • snemvalts 7y ago
      i think most people prefer to not sell their souls for advertising when it comes to their desktop environments.
      • api 7y ago
        Yeah, the presence of ads on anything I've paid for instantly classifies it as "junk." Windows is now junk.
        • kaibee 7y ago
          https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
        • abacadaba 7y ago
          Shame, really. Not even a viable option for personal use.
        • FpUser 7y ago
          I am curious where do you people see ads. I do not have any on my windows computers. All hold latest official updates.
          • api 7y ago
            Last fresh Windows install I did came pre-loaded with a bunch of loot box style gaming crap, Candy Crush, Xbox stuff, Netflix, Amazon Prime, loads of other foistware that should not exist on a fresh install. A new Windows install requires at least an hour of de-cluttering and shit removal, while for a new Mac full setup to my liking takes about 5-10 minutes and I generally don't have to uninstall much of anything. The only thing I sometimes remove are apps I never personally use like Garage Band to save a bit of disk space, and that takes like ten seconds. Then there's the almost Android level of obviously spyware telemetry going on. Yes I know Apple has telemetry but I trust them quite a bit more than Microsoft both not to do anything deliberately sketchy with my data and to be competent with their security. They also do a lot less and a lot less invasive telemetry. Redirecting local search, sending file list dumps, etc. to the mothership is unforgivable unless I have explicitly opted into that kind of behavior e.g. for tech support or debugging. That's the kind of stuff I associate with borderline malware, not an OS by a supposedly reputable company that I paid for. Microsoft's recent behavior is pegging them in the low end of the market and ceding the high end of the market to Apple. Then of course there's Linux. If Apple did something barking stupid that forced me to ditch the platform that's where I'd go. I'd miss the Apple degree of trouble-free operation but at least I'd keep my privacy and security and lack of foistware.
  • leetrout 7y ago
    Yes. It’s miserable with any substantial JS project. Those extra cores should help with the new model.
    • fastball 7y ago
      I thought NodeJS was single-threaded?
      • qayxc 7y ago
        NodeJS is, but neither modules nor backends have to be. It's quite common to spin up a bunch of docker containers that provide databases and backends locally. This is the point at which the MBA stops being a productive environment. I'm not saying this has to be the case for every project, but if your team uses local dev environments, it's quasi standard procedure at this point.
        • fastball 7y ago
          Right, but the GC was talking about developing JS applications on their computer, so presumably they were referring to compiling frontend JS projects, which multiple cores would not help, I think.
      • leetrout 7y ago
        It is but running a single threaded build process with resource contention from chrome, vs code, slack, etc etc will improve with more cores. If you are using make to call Babel or other JS build tools you can use the jobs flag to parallelize it and again the cores will help.
  • davedx 7y ago
    I have a 2017 Macbook Pro and the main project I work on brings it to its knees. This is a front end project with a nodejs graphql server, TypeScript, eslint, VS.Code, webpack. I think actually the linting is the worst CPU drain, but all in all with the graphql server and front end tooling running at once, it makes my laptop slower than running the .NET core back end it connects to. Kind of annoying. Working with a simple create-react-app project with TypeScript is fine though.
    • ehutch79 7y ago
      There's something wrong with your setup &| stack. I've run a full stack locally, a build setup with a watcher, a django/gunicorn setup with file watching, mysql/redis/rabbitmq, and i barely nudge the cpu. I'm betting your if you cpu is hot constantly while developing, it's file watching that's the issue. I had to do some work to get things to use proper file system events in macos and not just polling with my legacy gulp project. try installing fsevents if it's not already?
    • revscat 7y ago
      There is something wrong. I’m running two separate Rails apps, MySQL, Oracle, RabbitMQ as a broker between the two apps, Redis, and both have Angular FEs that I use VSC with. Same year MBP, and my CPU load rarely reaches 5%.
    • AgloeDreams 7y ago
      Check your package updates! We had the SAME issue in serving the app on macOS and no issue on windows. Updating node and updating to latest packages produced a 80% cpu drop. When I had this issue I couldn't serve the project while running VS code on my Air, the lag from input was way too bad, now it's snappy.
  • AgloeDreams 7y ago
    Webpack, very very large Angular project with over 2500 jasmine tests. I'm using a 2017 Air i5 8GB (First gen of new design, Came from a 2016 Macbook Pro 15 i7 (so other end of the spectrum) Node performance has gotten a lot better since some updates, there was a period where CPU use and performance was just bad. I think it was a webpack bug. But now things are pretty good! Runs Sketch and other graphics apps not too bad. As a comparison, It seems to be much faster at compile and test running than running the project on Chrome OS Crostini on my ChromeBook Pixel LS (higher wattage, older, i7 + 16GB ram) I imagine the Quad core in this would smoke the LS.
• londons_explore 7y ago
  So the question is, will these fail when an eyelash falls into them and cost $1000 to repair?
  • eugeniub 7y ago
    Well they replaced the butterfly keyboard with the traditional scissor switch keyboard so the answer should be no finally.
  • tomcam 7y ago
    That’s offensive and unnecessary. It will only be $800.
    • stevespang 7y ago
      :)
  • robin_reala 7y ago
    To be fair to Apple, it’s $0: https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-notebooks https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-n... Although it would have been better for them to be more solid in the first place for you.
• leetrout 7y ago
  I wish they would offer customers of the previous gen a coupon. Mine has been serviced and given a new keyboard and it still double types. No chance I’m buying another one any time soon.
  • latenightcoding 7y ago
    Same thoughts, I have the MBA 2018 and the keyboard is a deal breaker, I regret buying it and this is probably the last laptop from apple I will every buy
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    • cced 7y ago
      I bought the 2018 MBP and also agree. The keyboard has been a disaster. I’ve had it replaced 4 times now and won’t be looking back at their laptops anytime soon. The resale value has completely gone away for a 3500 purchase. Shame.
  • jtreminio 7y ago
    You can trade-in for a new machine. Or do you mean partial refund when you say coupon?
    • leetrout 7y ago
      The trade in value is $640. I paid $1599. I do not mean partial refund I mean a coupon for a significant discount so I can try to sell this one on eBay or similar.
      • jtreminio 7y ago
        Your trade-in would cover over 1/3 of the price of a brand new machine. That's a fairly significant discount. If you used it for a year would you say you got $959 of value out of it in that time? If I purchase a new car, I can either trade it in for lower Kelly Blue Book value to dealership and avoid having to interact with eBay or Craigslist lurkers, or put up with strangers haggling and try to get more from selling it to private strangers. Same applies to a laptop.
• rnernento 7y ago
  It's a shame there isn't a way to try the keyboard in person due to all the retail shutdowns.
  • OakNinja 7y ago
    I love the one on the 16”. It’s like the old 15” retina but a bit less spongy/mooshy.
  • geerlingguy 7y ago
    If you have an external 'magic keyboard' the feel is similar. Less mushy than the old 'chicklet' keys on the 2015-and-earlier laptops, but less stiff/unmoving than the butterfly keys on the 2016-2018 laptops.
• baybal2 7y ago
  I like it how they have to almost shout "no butterfly switch keyboard there" now Thank you Louis Rossmann!
  • ryanlol 7y ago
    What does the weird conspiracy theorist dude have to do with this decision by Apple?
    • saagarjha 7y ago
      He has his faults, but calling him a “conspiracy theorist” is uncharitable.
      • ryanlol 7y ago
        https://youtube.com/watch?v=tw3-j_RaX74 https://youtube.com/watch?v=tw3-j_RaX74 I think this video speaks for itself. It’s not like his regular allegations of planned obsolescence tend to be much better, https://youtube.com/watch?v=wgeh7ZJRhZU https://youtube.com/watch?v=wgeh7ZJRhZU
        • fredsted 7y ago
          lol, he confused gigabits with gigabytes
    • simion314 7y ago
      I am not familiar with such conspiracies, from what I seen he is accusing Apple of incompetence a lot and the keyboard case confirms that Apple can do sometimes stupid designs and he is accusing Apple of anti-repair shit and this is also true see the right of repair laws that are debated in US states and EU. We do not have any emails or other internal Apple materials to know for sure why Apple kept hidden the fact they crippled your iPhone CPU (again for the fanboys the issue was the HIDDEN part) but for now presuming Apple is hidden things for your own good is let's say naive.
• neogodless 7y ago
  More comments here on somewhat duplicate thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22615803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22615803
  • xenonite 7y ago
    The other one was submitted later according to the ID. Could one move the comments from there to here?
• nishnik 7y ago
  I wonder how it compares to the MacBook Pro, 13" - weight wise and performance wise?
• userbinator 7y ago
  The inverted-T arrow keys help you fly through lines of code, spreadsheets, or game environments. That sentence made me check again... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macbook_white_redjar_20060603.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macbook_white_redjar_2006... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MacBook_Air_1b.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MacBook_Air_1b.jpg ...and yes, it's the same layout of the arrow keys that was there 14 years ago. If they were advertising new full size arrow keys that would definitely be worth mentioning, but I'm not sure why they had to draw attention to that particular aspect... especially given that half-height arrow keys are one of the more annoying things about laptop keyboards in general.
  • chapium 7y ago
    Anyone have experience with A) their keyboard holding back their performance, and B) their keyboard was also not a mac?
    • closetohome 7y ago
      My new Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard comes with an "emoji" key in place of the right-hand Windows key that I can't remap.
  • D13Fd 7y ago
    Apple recently converted all laptops to an annoying non-inverted-T arrow key layout that users generally didn't like. They are advertising the switch back to the old style that people actually liked.
    • geerlingguy 7y ago
      I still mis-hit one of the arrow keys about 20% of the time with the annoying 'full size left and right' arrow key arrangement. Going back to inverted-T makes perfect sense. It was an experiment that failed.
      • zarmin 7y ago
• shirshak55 7y ago
  bought macbook pro in 2017. Due to the issue with double typing keyboard I always regret everyday. And there is screen issue also. Probably they will charge $300. Looks like I did the worst investment in my life.
  • gxx 7y ago
    I bought a 13 inch Macbook Pro in 2017 and within six months of normal use the spacebar and other other key were intermittent. I was fortunately able to get it fixed under warranty. However I've been using since then with no need for servicing and the keys are at this moment perfect. Various keys have become intermittent since then but I found a trick that so far has fixed it every time. The key mechanism seems to be VERY robust and can take a lot of pounding. Usually the particles jamming the mechanism (e.g. food crumbs) can be broken up by repeatedly banging hard on the offending key. I've had keys that were intermittent or even not come all the way up and this has always fixed them to be literally as good as new. It seems that once the particles are broken small enough they either remain in place but are harmless or maybe they are small enough to fall out by themselves.
    • redler 7y ago
      > The key mechanism seems to be VERY robust and can take a lot of pounding. Usually the particles jamming the mechanism (e.g. food crumbs) can be broken up by repeatedly banging hard on the offending key. I've done something similar by holding the base of an electric toothbrush against a misbehaving key that couldn't be cleared by some other technique. The high-frequency vibrations seem to do a decent job of breaking up or dislodging whatever's stuck.
    • climb_stealth 7y ago
      This has worked for me as well. Whenever keys got stuck I could press them quite hard and seemingly crunch whatever is causing the issue. For example the tab key would only react intermittently. Press it, and almost massage it with lots of force and it works fine again.
  • pea 7y ago
• mrpopo 7y ago
  > Total greenhouse gas emissions of 176 kg CO2e based on Life Cycle Assessment. This is definitely lower than the real number. Is there any more info on how this carbon accounting is done?
  • rimliu 7y ago
    Well, you claim it is "definitely lower" so you must know how it is calculated, no?
    • mrpopo 7y ago
      Yes, I do, and I cannot believe they took every step of the life cycle into account, else the number would be 3-4 times higher. That's why I was hoping for more details. But obviously this is not something we like to talk about, and it's so easy to sweep it under the carpet, so why bother?
• antidaily 7y ago
  Im in. 16GB RAM max is my only gripe. But thats whats in my ‘16 MBP anyway.
• cytzol 7y ago
  The refined scissor mechanism with 1 mm of travel delivers a responsive, comfortable, and quiet typing experience. The inverted-T arrow keys help you fly through lines of code, spreadsheets, or game environments. This isn't progress. This is the baseline. Apple have gone from bad to OK, and they're celebrating as though they've achieved something amazing.
  • dev_tty01 7y ago
    We all (most of us anyway) wanted them to go back to the scissor design. Are we going to now complain that they did what the community has been begging them to do? Was butterfly a mistake? Yes. Were they slow to correct the issue? Yes. Now that they fixed it we should be happy about it. As far as talking about it being amazing, its called marketing spin. This is how it works. However, those two sentences do not say anything about it being amazing. It simply focuses on the positive features of the keyboard. The two sentences above clearly communicate to mac users that the company has fixed the problems that people wanted fixed. Did you really expect a bunch of public self-flaggelation? They are telling us clearly that they did what we asked for. Perfect.
    • sunir 7y ago
      They deserve flak and they are getting it. It doesn’t have to be logical. It is emotional. They also created an emotional brand. Somehow I think Apple can handle it. Anyone wasting energy complaining is only doing so because they are waiting to buy again. It makes as much sense defending them as it does yelling at them about a keyboard.
      • squiggleblaz 7y ago
        I dunno, I used to buy Apples because they had great hardware for a fair price (premium, sure, but if you're in the market for a premium machine...), but my last two machines have been a Dell and a Surface. It's different trade offs, but '\_o_/` I was never wedded to their operating system anyway.
      • rapind 7y ago
• ndonnellan 7y ago
  Still puttering along with my 2012 Air, only replaced the battery once. I've definitely been waiting to upgrade and this looks promising, but I also have a company laptop again, so the pressure is lower to get my old Air replaced.
  • dopamean 7y ago
    I have a 2012 air as well (i7, 8gb) that still runs quite well. I dont do much development on it anymore but I'm still impressed with how well it has held up.
• allovernow 7y ago
  Is anyone going to buy Apple in a major downturn? It was one of the first stocks I attempted to buy puts for. It seems to be a high end luxury good, even for many professionals. Of course I'm not just talking about MacBooks, it's the whole (imo overpriced) product line, phone to earbuds.
• chx 7y ago
  Apple got some custom chips from Intel again. https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs/ https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs/ ==== 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i3, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, with 4MB L3 cache Configurable to 1.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz, with 6MB L3 cache; or 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz, with 8MB L3 cache 8GB of 3733MHz LPDDR4X onboard memory Intel Iris Plus Graphics ==== https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/codename/186968/amber-lake-y.html https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/codenam... this matches the frequency cadence but it's LPDDR3 and Intel GT graphics. https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/codename/74979/ice-lake.html https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/codenam... the fourth digit is the power tier and the fastest https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/197120/intel-core-i7-1060g7-processor-8m-cache-up-to-3-80-ghz.html https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/197120/... is only 1GHz. So if this theory were true, Intel would need to take the cream of the by and large broken 10nm process Ice Lake Y CPUs on the i5 Y and i7 Y tiers and give them to Apple. The previous one ran an i5-8210Y which was also Apple specific 23% higher clocked version vs the more common i5-8200Y but that was only one, this time it would need two, both the i5 and i7 CPUs are special but the i3 seems to be the run-of-the-mill version. Note how weird the cadence is because usually the frequency drops with the number of cores. However, the Turbo Boost is the same 3.8 GHz which is way too low for the 10th gen Amber Lake Y CPUs. Also, at first I thought the video resolutions weird but what's going on here is that there is a single USB C output and even with Thunderbolt, that's only a 40Gbps bus. So the ICL-Y DP 1.4 support is somewhat less useful here. If there would be two USB C outputs, two 5K monitors could be driven easily, for example. Which the previous generation Intel CPUs couldn't because to drive an 5K from DP 1.2 the monitor eats up two display outputs even if physically that's delivered on a single Thunderbolt cable.
  • hmottestad 7y ago
    LPDDR4X is one of the key features here.
  • anentropic 7y ago
    anyone know which model of Iris Plus graphics it has?
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• mtm7 7y ago
  What's it like to develop on a MacBook Air these days? I have a 2016 13" MacBook Pro and am thinking of upgrading, but I don't know how it'll handle JS/Docker/Rails.
• solat 7y ago
  re 'doubled perf': AMD Ryzen 4000 Notebooks are coming these days, not sure if the Macbook is then again old tech.
  • skohan 7y ago
    How long would it realistically take for Apple to pivot to AMD? If things continue as they have been, it's hard to imagine the "premium brand" sticking with Intel. Of course they might just shift everything to A series chips instead.
  • bluedino 7y ago
    You wouldn't get the 11-hour battery life then.
• gigatexal 7y ago
  Now give me a 14.1 inch MacBook Pro with this keyboard, 32 or 64GB of ram and 8 real cores. ... I think though this new MacBook Air is going to be my next portable
  • parsimo2010 7y ago
    This announcement should mean that the current 13" Pro will soon be replaced by a 14" Pro with magic keyboard and higher power processor options, otherwise there will be too much overlap between product lines. But Apple has been content in the past to have overlapping product lines, so they might not.
    • gigatexal 7y ago
      True -- the next few months should be really interesting in this space. I was thinking of ditching OS X entirely for a linux box but I can't get over how great the Mac hardware is -- it just doesn't run Linux all that well and costs an arm-and-a-leg such that buying one to nuke OS X just seems like a waste
      • thomassharoon 7y ago
        Tried ditching OSX and moving to Ubuntu a 2020 Thinkpad X1 carbon G7. Gave up after I had to first update WiFi driver only to have sound break. loved the hardware, but returned the box.
        • gigatexal 7y ago
          That sucks to hear. I was eyeing the T480s
        • gigatexal 7y ago
          Speaking of which -- how does one go about buying an QWERTY layout XPS 13 dev edition with ubuntu in Germany? Navigating teh dell website is impossible to find it -- I just find the windows based units.
    • 7y ago
• hahamrfunnyguy 7y ago
  Apple makes nice laptops, but I am not interested until the come out with a convertible option. I bought a HP Spectre a couple of years ago and I am very happy with it. The convertible option is very nice for traveling in coach.
  • read_if_gay_ 7y ago
    What I dislike about my convertible is that you can never use it as both a tablet and a laptop at the same time. I know it’s obvious but I didn’t realize it when I switched from a laptop + tablet to a convertible in the hopes of simplifying my setup. For example, it’s annoying when you’re taking notes and need to look something up on the web: either put up with poorly optimized interfaces or convert the device to a laptop. So I’d much prefer a tablet plus laptop for my particular usage as a student but am too broke to buy another new setup. What makes convertibles so desirable to you?
• jamesrcole 7y ago
  I wish they provided an easy way to compare it to older MacBook Air models. I have a 2018 model - I’d like to be able to easily compare them and see the exact differences and where they’re the same.
  • lonelappde 7y ago
    Everymac com will be updated soon https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-comparison-chart/?compare=all-intel-macs&highlight=0&prod1=MacBookAir036&prod2=MacBookAir035&prod3=iMacIntel006 https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-comparison-chart/?compare=...
• mentos 7y ago
  Can anyone here recommend a similarly spec’d pc laptop?
  • ysleepy 7y ago
    Acer swift 3? Screen and speakers will be quite a bit worse though. But for 500€ it is a very reasonable deal.
• dangus 7y ago
  Perhaps we can finally stop jumping down Apple's throats for daring to sell a computer this time around. There is legitimately nothing wrong with this computer. All of its previous shortcomings have been rectified - It has an agreeable keyboard - It's cheaper - It has a quad-core processor, finally
  • xenonite 7y ago
    I still miss the MagSafe magnetic charging cable that pops off when tripping on the cable, though.
  • appleflaxen 7y ago
    > There is legitimately nothing wrong with this computer now /that/ is a powerful pitch! Seriously though, a quad core processor at this clock speed in 2020 is incredibly underwhelming.
    • weystrom 7y ago
      You're still limited by thermals, especially in such a thin machine
• highace 7y ago
  - Quad core processor - Scissor keys - No touch bar MacBook Air, the new MacBook for Pros.
  • wyclif 7y ago
    Exactly what I was thinking when I read the spec sheet: 'I wonder how many developers will go for the maxed out version.'
    • gcoguiec 7y ago
      I am.
    • tvararu 7y ago
      Seriously considering trading my maxed out 2018 13" for this, but in the end probably not going to do it.
    • flanbiscuit 7y ago
      My personal laptop is an 11" Air mid-2013 and I still use and love it. I especially love the keyboard on it because the keys have height, feel closer to a mechanical keyboard, and don't capture as much dust and dirt as the flat keys on my newer touchbar 2016 pro work laptop This is good news from Apple as I was not into any of their more recent laptops but I'll probably upgrade to this one I only wish they had a 11" version but not a deal breaker
      • robin_reala 7y ago
        Same for me, although it’s a 2012 11". The 13" model here is actually somewhere in between the old 11" and 13" for size.
    • lonelappde 7y ago
      I don't love coding on a tiny screen when I'm not using my laptop keyboard to awkwardly type with an external monitor.
    • fastball 7y ago
• lonelappde 7y ago
  Still using solder to monopolize RAM/SSD and charge $200 for each $40 worth of capacity increase.
• StreamBright 7y ago
  I hope there will be a 14" MBP as well with a working keyboard.
• speedgoose 7y ago
  Still no touchscreen.
  • inscionent 7y ago
    I think you are looking for an iPad?
    • speedgoose 7y ago
      Not really, the operating system is not very advanced.
• rsynnott 7y ago
  ... Huh. If you'd asked me to guess where Apple would first deploy Ice Lake/equiv gen, the Air would not have been in my first few guesses.
• okareaman 7y ago
  My least favorite thing about HN is that it upvotes trivial Apple hardware news to the top link. Literally no one in the world cares about Apple keyboards except Apple fans.
  • otachack 7y ago
    Not true. Apple's redesigned keyboard where keys bricked when a small crumb got wedged in impacted not just keyboard fans.
    • okareaman 7y ago
      I said Apple fans, not just keyboard fans. There are plenty of great development machines, but somehow Apple machines are the only ones that make it to the top link.
• acd 7y ago
  Why not use AMD chips instead.
• thefounder 7y ago
  Is this any different than the previous version(except the keyboard)?
  • chipotle_coyote 7y ago
    I believe it's updated to the latest generation of Intel's low-power 10nm processors.
• par 7y ago
  and no touchbar!! omg thank god.
• WillPostForFood 7y ago
  What’s missing from Apple’s lineup now is an a lightweight option. This is almost a pound heavier than the discontinued 12” MacBook.
  • Engineering-MD 7y ago
    I think the new iPad Pro with trackpad is filling this gap.
    • 72deluxe 7y ago
      For weight but not functionality.
    • WillPostForFood 7y ago
      I travel a lot and use a MacBook 12 for development. I like to keep it light, so the Air and MacBook Pro are too heavy, and the iPad pro doesn't work yet as a development platform.
  • asdff 7y ago
    Is almost a pound noticeable?
• climb_stealth 7y ago
  After using the latest Macbook Pro 13" for over a year I have recently had my 2015 Macbook Pro 13" repaired. Both are max specs. It was a $600 bill, but it has been so worth it. The keyboard just works, it doesn't run hot and the fan doesn't blast under the slightest load, the performance is much better, the battery lasts longer and the external screen + keyboard and mouse are detected every single time without having to re-plug the USB-C or open and close the computer lid. Also, no dongles required to connect USB-A or SD cards. Yes, it does look a bit clunky and not as elegant as the newer one, but seriously it actually just works. I almost can't believe how much shit I put up with on a daily basis for over a year. If you replaced a dying 2015 Macbook Pro with a new one, I very much urge you to reconsider getting it fixed at pretty much any price. It is so very worth it.
  • save_ferris 7y ago
    I'm still rocking my 2015 MBP as well, and having the luxury of working on newer models through various jobs, I'm still not convinced to upgrade 5 years later. That said, the new 16" MBP has been the best Apple laptop experience I've had in a while.
    • climb_stealth 7y ago
      The 16" looks great! But I really don't want to lug it around every day. I'm hoping some of it will carry over to the smaller form factors.
  • Traster 7y ago
    I'm in a similar position, bought a 2019 13" Pro. I've got to say, I'm really happy with my 2020 Thinkpad Carbon X1 and won't be looking to upgrade again for a long time.
  • GrumpyNl 7y ago
    For that price i buy a descent laptop.
    • hombre_fatal 7y ago
• acidburnNSA 7y ago
  Good. I'm hoping this will hurry along Dell's new XPS 13 Developer Edition configs with 32 GB of mem, 1080 display (I prefer battery over 4K) and linux. I have been itching to throw money at Dell since that was announced in January and here we are. Granted, the pandemic obviously hit their supply chain so I can understand.
  • nfoz 7y ago
    If you like the XPS 13, I also recommend to look out for their "business laptop" Latitude 7xxx series (12", 13", 14"). They tend to have more ports, physical buttons on the touchpad, and slightly better keyboards. YMMV
    • acidburnNSA 7y ago
      Nice. Thanks. I do indeed want more ports than the current new XPS 13s. Looks like they come at a premium. 8th-Gen CPUs (vs. 10th in new XPS) with a few more ports for an extra few hundred bucks? I will keep looking though for their latest model. Thanks again.
      • nfoz 7y ago
        No prob. Another option for ultraportable with good ports, 10gen cpu and touchpad buttons (my personal obsession lol) is the Vaio: https://us.vaio.com https://us.vaio.com It's pricey but their SX14 is almost surely my next laptop. I'd buy one but they don't sell directly to Canada, and -- as of the border closure this morning -- I couldn't even go to the US to get one if I wanted to! Crazy times indeed.
        • ohitsdom 7y ago
          Good tip, the latest Vaios do look nice. But it's very weird to see a VGA port on a modern laptop!
        • acidburnNSA 7y ago
          I'm trying to upgrade from a 2013 VAIO which I totally love so that's also a good tip. Crazy times indeed.
• iDemonix 7y ago
  I'm still using a 2015 MacBook Pro that I'm clinging to, despite the screen having developed an annoying flicker every few minutes. I know 4 others in my office with Apple laptops, and they're all 2015 MBPs because until now, nothing else has been acceptable. This seems to be like an answer to the "Can we just have the 2015 MBP with updated hardware?" question. Pending benchmarks, this could be the light at the end of the tunnel for a lot of users that don't need more than 16GB RAM (I'm still scraping by with Docker on my 8GB Mac and a lot of SWAP).
  • _bxg1 7y ago
    I love my 16" MBP, aside from the dongles situation (though I rarely need peripherals at all). It has the same keyboard mentioned here; feels great to me. The Touch Bar doesn't really bother me.
    • gregkerzhner 7y ago
      Recently upgraded from my 2015 15 inch MBP to the new 16 inch MBP (32 gigs of ram). Overall it big upgrade - the higher resolution and bigger screen are awesome, and my XCode builds are compiling faster. That being said, I hate the touchbar for a few reasons - Having to look at the keyboard to change volume is not an upgrade in user experience - The touchbar freezes for me once a week or so and I have to go to the command line to kill the process - The icons don't make any sense - (xcode dustcan anyone)? Also, maybe its because I am a rock climber and my skin gets roughed up, but the finger print sensor has never worked for me on any apple products and its a waste of space. All and all though, the faster computer and bigger screen is worth it for me.
      • _bxg1 7y ago
        > Recently upgraded from my 2015 15 inch MBP to the new 16 inch MBP (32 gigs of ram) Hah, that's exactly the upgrade I made except from a 2013 > Having to look at the keyboard to change volume is not an upgrade in user experience Agreed; I wouldn't call the touch bar an upgrade, just a very tiny downgrade that doesn't matter much with the Escape key now separated back out > The touchbar freezes for me once a week or so and I have to go to the command line to kill the process Yikes, can't say I've had that happen :/ > The icons don't make any sense - (xcode dustcan anyone)? You can turn off the application-specific touch bar buttons in your preferences and also customize what buttons appear. I have mine configured almost exactly like the old button top-row, except with an optional volume slider and a dedicated sleep button (which is nifty). But yes, just having the physical buttons instead would still be slightly preferable. > the finger print sensor has never worked for me on any apple products and its a waste of space It's just part of the normal power button, though? It doesn't take up any extra space
• hypewatch 7y ago
  Looking forward to trying out the keyboard. The fact that there is NOT a Touch Bar on this is a big plus. I’ve used a Mac book with a Touch Bar for work and it’s so awful.
• bbrizzi 7y ago
  Is that a new product ?
• madoublet 7y ago
  I remember when I bought my last Air I skipped Apple Care b/c I knew Apple made quality products. Things have certainly changed. Might as well add another $200 to that price, b/c you know something is going to go wrong.
  • randomsearch 7y ago
    They replaced my Air keyboard for free and it’s been great ever since. I love it. Best machine I’ve ever had.
• throwaway123x2 7y ago
  Anybody know what's the cheapest setup you could get away with for iOS/xcode development? Would it be a (used) Macbook Air, or can you not really run xcode effectively on them?
  • janekm 7y ago
    Mac mini with at least a 2K external display.
  • shadytrees 7y ago
    It would definitely be painful to run XCode and iOS Simulator on a used MacBook Air, but not impossible. Price-wise, however, it's hard to beat a Hackintosh. Here, for example, is a $300 build: https://hackintosher.com/builds/cheap-hackinosh-2020-300-catalina-desktop-pc-gigabyte-b365m-ds3h/ https://hackintosher.com/builds/cheap-hackinosh-2020-300-cat... I remember being broke out of college and setting one up out of necessity. It's still going! I'm typing on it now. It needs a motherboard/processor upgrade, _maybe_, these days. Still one of the best cost-saving decisions I've made in my life. And it just plain feels good to not have to throw out / recycle a laptop every five years. They're terrible for the environment. There are shops that will build the hardware for you. Setting up the bootloader is still the hardest part, but it gets easier with each iteration of the Hackintosh software ecosystem.
  • gregkerzhner 7y ago
    I developed my first few iOS apps on a 2013 MacBook Air with 4 gigs of ram. On larger projects (especially Swift) the builds could be a bit slow and the syntax highlighting would be delayed, but overall it was totally manageable. When I upgraded to a 16gig Mac book pro, I thought it would be a game changer to speed up the builds. To my surprise, they weren't really that much faster. It seems like the slowness of XCode and Swift isn't constrained by resources - its just slow no matter how much power you throw at it. So I would say for getting into iOS and Xcode development these new Macbook Airs would be more than enough and a used older Air would suffice.
  • Tepix 7y ago
    A hackintosh... if you can live with being a dirty criminal /s
• ZeroCool2u 7y ago
  > 720p FaceTime HD camera > 8GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X memory I know cost usually isn't the top priority for people buying Apple products, but both of these starting specs seem pretty disappointing considering the price and for 2020. Perhaps someone realized keeping the cam resolution down is an effective method of capping FaceTime call costs. I will say, I am happy to see the transition to LPDDR4.
  • terramex 7y ago
    When Macbook Pro 16 premiered last year (using 720p camera too), I've read comment here on HN, saying that nobody produces higher resolution sensors that can fit into such a slim form factor (as notebook cover is slimmer than even thinnest smartphones). Their competition like Dell XPS 13 2020 also seems to still use 720p camera.
    • pfranz 7y ago
      > nobody produces higher resolution sensors that can fit into such a slim form factor That seems like a very flimsy excuse. These seem to be the exact same cameras they've been shipping since 2011 and nobody would excuse them for using 2011 era cameras in their phones (I remember being disappointed in the quality back in 2011). Apple has added bigger and multiple camera bumps to their phones to accommodate space. That seems like it would work even better in a laptop since it doesn't have to lay flat on a table. > Dell XPS 13 2020 also seems to still use 720p camera It's not the resolution, the quality and low-light performance hasn't changed in Mac laptops at all. I don't think the XPS is a great comparison since they've had the camera below the screen for years (I think they moved it in 2020). Having the camera positioned so low you literally see fingers on the keyboard and get a very unflattering angle. So in my search it was eliminated very early. I'm guessing it's just not a high priority for most purchasers even as remote working increases. The Dell XPS 13 reviews barely mention the camera and I couldn't easily find a sample from the camera. I've been working remotely, so it has been a huge priority for me. I've also been FaceTiming and find using a laptop is easier than holding a phone.
      • ksec 7y ago
• abledon 7y ago
  1 mm key length is not enough. they should have 2011 style keyboards still.
  • chipotle_coyote 7y ago
    1mm of key travel (not "length") is what they have in the external keyboards they've been selling since 2015, and it's just fine. While this is obviously subjective, I'd argue it's the best keyboard Apple has made since the days of the Apple Extended keyboards. The 2011 laptop keyboards are the same keyboards they used up until the butterfly switches, they don't have as nice a "feel" as the Magic Keyboards, and it's not as if they have a lot more key travel, anyway -- only about 1.3mm.
    • abledon 7y ago
      "30 %" seems like a good amount more. also https://twitter.com/variety/status/1226710675554091008 https://twitter.com/variety/status/1226710675554091008 every year they get worse
      • chipotle_coyote 7y ago
        I mean, okay, percentage-wise you're absolutely correct, and if you subjectively feel that the difference between 1.3mm and 1.0mm key travel is the difference between typing bliss and "might as well not be moving at all," who am I to tell you otherwise. For me, subjectively, the Magic Keyboard is the nicest-feeling "low travel" keyboard I've ever used, and as a technical writer and a novelist on the side who has a closet full of mechanical keyboards I'm pretty picky about my keys. Do I think the Matias Tactile Pro keyboard that I'm typing on at this very moment and the Vortex Race 3 with Cherry MX Clears that's usually my office keyboard are better? Yes. Do I want a laptop with them? No, in fact, I do not. Do I want a laptop with what I consider to be the nicest-feeling "low travel" keyboard I've ever used? Yeah, that sounds kinda nice. As always, your mileage may vary, and if you're willing to go back to having inch and a half thick laptops so you can get in that awesome mechanical clicky monster, more power to you. > every year they get worse So you are saying that the Magic Keyboard, with its 1mm travel, has too low key travel, but it is also worse than last year's butterfly keyboard with 0.7mm key travel? The keyboard you prefer may be subjective, but math is not.
• jdironman 7y ago
  > Starting at $899 In the top banner. > Starting at $999 Under 'lightspeed' info image. Typo on the page.
  • bigdict 7y ago
    It says $899 in the education store.
  • Whatarethese 7y ago
    $899 is the education pricing. Thats probably what you're seeing.
    • jdironman 7y ago
      Ah, yes, I glossed over the education part in the 899 one. Thank you.
• alexellisuk 7y ago
  Good comparison of changes - https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/macbook-air-2020-vs-macbook-air-2019-4017394 https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/macbook-air-2020-vs-macb... More CPU cores - 4 up from 2 More storage on base model - 256GB up from 120GB, odd that the rMBA ever launched with 120GB when the 12" rMP shipped with 256GB as standard.
• johnmarcus 7y ago
  I just switched to Linux on an lightly used LG gram after being on Mac for 10 years. $1300, 1TB nvme, 24gb ram, 15" edgeless screen, weighs less than 3lbs, and charger is lighter. Also has a full touch screen. Do I miss retina display? Yes, although I get just as much on screen since it's 15". Would I go back for 2x the price? No way.
  • wayneftw 7y ago
    What distribution and desktop environment are you running? I switched to Manjaro with XFCE almost 2 years ago and it's been a joy to setup and use coming from Mac/Windows. As a matter of fact - setting up a Manjaro workstation is actually way less hassle than I've ever had with Mac or Windows. I don't have to fight against the OS to do what I need to.
• werber 7y ago
  My 2012 air just died (from liquid not age), look forward to having this one till 2030
• pyrophane 7y ago
  Keep in mind that probably the most important spec when considering a new laptop is one that is often not directly stated: the processor series. I'm not talking about i3/i5/i7, but rather U/Y/H. This letter determines the TDP (thermal design power/point) them machine is designed to run at. The TDP will govern the setting for the base clock speed, and, just as importantly, the throttling behabior under load. Processor series TDPs are Y: 4.5W, U: 15W, H: 45W. The new MacBook Air appears to have a Y series processor, like the MacBook, which means it will be aggressively throttled to keep power consumption and heat generation low. Practically, that means that the new Air will not be capable of running sustained workloads much above its base clock speed, which makes it unsuitable for many programming-related tasks. The Pro is still a much better choice for programmers. The 13 is suitable for many things, but the 16, with the H series processor, is really preferred for computationally intensive work. You can get away with this machine if your workflow primary involves a text editor and remote servers, but otherwise I would still opt for the pro.
  • gerardnll 7y ago
    Well I'm on a 2016 macbook air, 8gb RAM and doing web programming everyday. 3 phpstorm windows, sometimes Photoshop open, more than 20 tabs in Chrome, iterm, figma, paw... Honestly it runs pretty well and I was waiting for this update.
    • Kamshak 7y ago
      Assuming PHP you just described "a text editor and remote servers"
      • mekster 7y ago
        Apparently PHPStorm and Photoshop aren't "text editors" one would imagine.
      • jbeales 7y ago
        PhpStorm = Big, Java-based IDE. It's not some simple text editor. PHP Dev often means some sort of local server running too.
• EGreg 7y ago
  No touchbar? Woot!
• dimitar 7y ago
  So I got a 2019 Air just before the COVID-19 emergency in my area. I was looking for a small and light machine to carry around, with a little bit of coding and browsing mostly. I would have probably picked the most basic retina model with the dual-core processor (not like my 15m load average is ever bigger than 2.5) - I don't know about the keyboard and the graphics though, they seem ok so far. Did I screw up? I don't live in a country with a Apple store it usually takes months for these to reach our market. I'm consoling myself that I got a good deal and I got a new machine that I needed before a long stint working from home.
  • dijit 7y ago
    if you contact them, they will likely upgrade it, Apple tends to let you bring a machine back if one has been released 3 months after you bought yours.
    • dimitar 7y ago
      Does it work with resellers as well?
      • dijit 7y ago
        I genuinely don't know, I tend to avoid resellers. :\
• perseusprime11 7y ago
  Is the webcam any better on this new Air?
• jordache 7y ago
  guaranteed this will be somewhere in between subpar to garbage
• manishsharan 7y ago
  why does apple not publish the Intel CPU generation information. ? Dell , Lenovo etc. publish information like "8th gen Intel Core i7" for all their laptops. With Apple , its a information is not that obvious.
• pooya13 7y ago
  Maybe it works for some but 256GB of storage is just insulting to me. I also don’t appreciate this focus Apple has had over the past decade to make it easier for me to shop or to identify my fingerprints, voice or face while they screw the usability. That said I like the new thunderbolt 3 port.
  • gnicholas 7y ago
    256 definitely isn’t enough for anyone who backs up their phone to the computer. They’re pushing folks to the cloud. I am pretty insistent on having a local phone backup, but have to use a symbolic link to an external hard drive to accomplish this. Seems like a pretty extreme step to have to take just to back up to an external drive.
• eruci 7y ago
  My MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) works better than any of the current iterations. I bought and returned a 2019 model within a week for a full refund.
• antirez 7y ago
  I've a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) with an i7 at 3.3 Ghz. Is the new Air with a quadcore i7 going to be a decent CPU upgrade compared to what I got in practical terms, or should I wait for the next Macbook Pro? Consider that I don't want to go > 13" screen size. Thanks. Relayed story: when I run the Redis test in my Macbook, it is able to stop everything, like if the kernel scheduler was not able to balance between the test and the other tasks, even if I've the Chorome window open and using it. If I open Virtual Box and run the test into a virtualized Linux system, the test runs in a similar time without any usability problem for the other Mac apps. This is how bad scheduling can go, but also how much more efficient the Linux implementation of certain system related stuff can be.
• blt 7y ago
  I'm waiting for Apple to release an ARM laptop before I consider upgrading my 2013 rMBP.
• JyB 7y ago
  Did Apple announced those new products through some kind of conference that I missed?
• DeepYogurt 7y ago
  Anyone know if these are ice lake chips or more generally does anyone know which uarch is in use?
• vladgur 7y ago
  just got a 2019 16in Macbook Pro with i7 & 16GB Ram at work and this thing flies. It is definitely faster than my personal 2013 i5 macbook pro with 8gb of ram, but im going to make it last through this recession for as long as i can. I am salivating over forthcoming 14in macbook pro though
• nunodonato 7y ago
  "48% more colors!" lol you could take this out of context and I would 99% guess it's from Apple's website.
• nkkollaw 7y ago
  The fact that Apple insists on both having only 2 USB-C port and still using USB3 to charge their phones, mice, and keyboards is ridiculous. I hate both going all USB-C and having to carry a dongle or adapters everywhere, and the idiotic touchbar. Basically, anything that Apple has done since Steve Jobs died is complete shit--even if you ignore the butterfly keyboards complete fiasco.
• x3n0ph3n3 7y ago
  How turn this thing on and off without the power button?
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
• rajnathani 7y ago
  The use of LPDDR4X memory with the memory clock rate at 3733MHz is pretty cool, this is enabled by the 10th gen Intel processor [1] that's in it. Not that memory speeds matter too much when it comes to perceivable differences in most user based compute workloads, however IMO this almost 2x jump in clock rate makes it noteworthy. Edit: I just noticed that the processors are of Intel’s new Ice Lake line (currently only for ‘mobile’ processors as Intel is seemingly having scaling issues with their 10nm node yields) which is from Intel’s 10nm node. [1] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/375083/when-will-we-have-lpddr4x-memory-in-mbs-mbps https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/375083/when-will-w...
• PHGamer 7y ago
  hows the disk on the air? I thought I heard somewhere the disk was was a weaker one, maybe that was the normal macbooks? Also how bad or good would the performance be on an air to develop ipod/iphone style apps?
• hijp 7y ago
  Damn, this leaves a bitter taste in my mouth because I bought a Macbook Air in September for $1,800 and it's performed terribly. I can barely compile Gatsby sites and it struggles on displaying Apple's own marketing pages (that run fine on my ipad and iphone). Even more, you can only trade in up to the 2018 Macbook Air, which means I'm stuck with this lemon.
• blhack 7y ago
  Are there worries about actually being able to get these with all of the supply chain disruptions?
• oat_bravo_nap 7y ago
  I wonder if Apple will bring Face ID to Macbooks.
• audeyisaacs 7y ago
  So it's a MacBook Air, and yet I can't see the most important spec -- weight -- on this page?
• quxbar 7y ago
  I bought one, maxed out everything but storage -can anybody really justify the 2TB option? Fingers crossed it will work for lighter web dev work. I figure I'll know well within the 14 day return period. As a consultant, I work with a pretty diverse set of tools, but I figure I can at least do frontend work and throw together the odd lambda here and there. Also running a mac mini currently with a couple 4k screens as a main environment. Can anybody recommend a way to take both of these screens and switch their inputs easily between the mini and a macbook?
  • Eric_WVGG 7y ago
    hm, yeah. I work with a lot of graphic designers, they'll be working on multiple 20+mb Photoshop files that save over the course of the day as "SomeClient_2020_03_18_rev13.psd" etc. That stuff adds up fast. Adobe could help out a lot of their user base by making some kind of built-in Git-for-graphics tool… If you're looking for a USB-C KVM, you're not going to find it. I would look into some kind of cloud sync for the Air's data to the Mini, and then just put the Air to sleep when you're at the home base or something.
  • tqkxzugoaupvwqr 7y ago
    I want to replace my aging 15" MBP (2014) with possibly a Mac mini but am scared of its seemingly underpowered graphics. What Mac mini do you have and does it handle two 4K screens well?
• rooam-dev 7y ago
  How future proof is it? Even if it's quad core, it's still 1.1GHz I mean, will a browser need multiple cores to scroll smoothly through pages in 2-3 years from now?
• dippersauce 7y ago
  I am so glad it doesn't have a Touch Bar. Nothing turned me away from the newer Pro models quite like the lack of physical keys. Sure the Touch Bar is nifty for timeline scrubbing and slider adjustment, but those are such small aspects when compared to how often the function keys are used.
• kristianp 7y ago
  Almost $2k Australian for the quad-core model. Pretty steep for a machine that still needs an upgrade of 16g of ram for my use, then the Y-series processor is still too low performance.
• hinkley 7y ago
  So I guess that ARM processor theory is pushed out for another year or two...
• ameixaseca 7y ago
  I've been buying Asus for some time and have nothing to complain: very good laptops, twice the specs of a Macbook for half of the price and with the choice of AMD processors. Apple has a strong name in North America, but I find that to be mostly based on a perceived image, rooted more in a distant past (or on pure marketing) than in reality. I understand when this happens with the general public but it puzzles me when technical people buy into this.