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Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line of old. It's not like the original air which was so much thinner and lighter than eve

Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line of old. It's not like the original air which was so much thinner and lighter than everything else. Thickness of the 13" MacBook Air is 0.63" vs 0.59" of the 13" MacBook Pro and weight of the Air is 2.8lbs vs 3.0lbs for the Pro. The MacBook Air is the lower-end MacBook now.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
Hopefully they will make the MBP “pro” again and focus on features and power instead of thinness.
- prewett 7y ago
  I have a 2018 MBP, 2.9 GHz i9, 32 GB ram, Radeon Vega 20. The thing is like a portable server, I'm not sure what more features and power a laptop user would realistically neeed. (Obviously real servers are more powerful, but I worked at a company that ran MMO game servers written in Python [i.e. not that fastest] off of similarly spec'ed hardware a few years ago, it's certainly sufficiently for all of my development needs)
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    CPU power is fine. I wouldn’t mind having at least one USB-A port and HDMI port so I don’t constantly have dongle anxiety when I am traveling. I would also prefer a bigger battery even if it makes the laptop thicker.
    - silviogutierrez 7y ago
      As I understand it, the new 16 inch macbook has the biggest size battery you could have while still allowed on an airplane as a carry on. Security theatre, but... that's life.
pilsetnieks 7y ago
That has been the case for very long now. Only the very first Airs were the premium ultrathin ultralight laptop, and that was more than 10 years ago.
rsync 7y ago
"Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line ..." OK, I think that is correct. But then what is the MacBook Air now ? I am typing on a 2015 11" MBA that is, in my opinion, the high point of laptop design and execution ever. With this laptop, Apple solved the laptop - the same way that they solved the tower form factor with the original Mac Pro.
- seppin 7y ago
  I prefer the newer keyboard, but otherwise I agree. My 2014 11'' with 16GB RAM performs better than a 2018 MBP.
  - eiriklv 7y ago
    Are you sure it’s 16GB RAM? I maxed out mine and only have 8GB.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - undersuit 7y ago
      Some of the Core2Duo based books could do 16GB before the first gen Nehalem I5/I7 based books could, like the 2010 13" Macbook Pro I use at work.
- JohnTHaller 7y ago
  > But then what is the MacBook Air now ? There isn't one. There's the MacBook Pro, which is the higher end laptop line and the MacBook Air, which is the lower end. That said, both the current Pro and Air are thinner than the original MacBook Air and the same weight or slightly lighter.
  - rsync 7y ago
    "That said, both the current Pro and Air are thinner than the original MacBook Air and the same weight or slightly lighter." That may be, but there is no 11" model so it's a bigger thing to put in my briefcase/bag ... I knew I should have purchased three identical 2015 11" MBAs ... I bought two and I am on #2 now ... when it breaks there is nothing to replace it with.
enraged_camel 7y ago
>> Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line of old. If that's the case, I'd like it to become as light as — or even lighter than — the old MacBook, which weighed merely 2.03 pounds. At this point, I'd love to have a Macbook Air with a battery that lasts "only" 6 hours, but weighs around 1.5 pounds. Hell, I'd pay extra for the option.
- snazz 7y ago
  I think this is a decently unpopular opinion---6 hours of battery life is atrocious for the use case the Air is competing in.
  - andrekandre 7y ago
    maybe for the market of the air, but would definitely appreciate a lighter design option personally, so maybe there is probably a market for it, but maybe just not big enough for apple i guess <sad-face/>
    - snazz 7y ago
      Fair enough. What are you using yours for that requires it be so light? Apple is probably trying to market the iPad Air in that space.
      - andrekandre 7y ago
        i ride bike/take train to work, and have my personal phone, work phone, work laptop, some other things such as power adapter, and a drink to take along the way (all in the same bag) the other thing is, even though i mostly program, at work we are always up and about, going for meetings, or offsite etc etc so for me, being as light as possible helps a great deal... the last gen macbook w/dual core i7 (4 thread w/hyperthreading), 16GB ram and 512GB storage, retina display, and all being less than 1kg is a huge boon
- Zarel 7y ago
  JohnTHaller is talking about this MacBook line, which weighed 5 pounds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2006%E2%80%932012) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2006%E2%80%932012) Not this MacBook line, which is the one you're talking about, and took over the MacBook Air line of old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2015%E2%80%932019) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2015%E2%80%932019)
globular-toast 7y ago
That explains why I'm so confused to learn that the Air is the most popular Macbook. I distinctly remember the Air being about portability over everything. It was a niche product. So it's more true to say Macbook Air is their most popular brand because the product is not the same at all.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

Hopefully they will make the MBP “pro” again and focus on features and power instead of thinness.

prewett 7y ago
I have a 2018 MBP, 2.9 GHz i9, 32 GB ram, Radeon Vega 20. The thing is like a portable server, I'm not sure what more features and power a laptop user would realistically neeed. (Obviously real servers are more powerful, but I worked at a company that ran MMO game servers written in Python [i.e. not that fastest] off of similarly spec'ed hardware a few years ago, it's certainly sufficiently for all of my development needs)
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  CPU power is fine. I wouldn’t mind having at least one USB-A port and HDMI port so I don’t constantly have dongle anxiety when I am traveling. I would also prefer a bigger battery even if it makes the laptop thicker.
  - silviogutierrez 7y ago
    As I understand it, the new 16 inch macbook has the biggest size battery you could have while still allowed on an airplane as a carry on. Security theatre, but... that's life.

pilsetnieks 7y ago

That has been the case for very long now. Only the very first Airs were the premium ultrathin ultralight laptop, and that was more than 10 years ago.

rsync 7y ago

"Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line ..." OK, I think that is correct. But then what is the MacBook Air now ? I am typing on a 2015 11" MBA that is, in my opinion, the high point of laptop design and execution ever. With this laptop, Apple solved the laptop - the same way that they solved the tower form factor with the original Mac Pro.

seppin 7y ago
I prefer the newer keyboard, but otherwise I agree. My 2014 11'' with 16GB RAM performs better than a 2018 MBP.
- eiriklv 7y ago
  Are you sure it’s 16GB RAM? I maxed out mine and only have 8GB.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - undersuit 7y ago
    Some of the Core2Duo based books could do 16GB before the first gen Nehalem I5/I7 based books could, like the 2010 13" Macbook Pro I use at work.
JohnTHaller 7y ago
> But then what is the MacBook Air now ? There isn't one. There's the MacBook Pro, which is the higher end laptop line and the MacBook Air, which is the lower end. That said, both the current Pro and Air are thinner than the original MacBook Air and the same weight or slightly lighter.
- rsync 7y ago
  "That said, both the current Pro and Air are thinner than the original MacBook Air and the same weight or slightly lighter." That may be, but there is no 11" model so it's a bigger thing to put in my briefcase/bag ... I knew I should have purchased three identical 2015 11" MBAs ... I bought two and I am on #2 now ... when it breaks there is nothing to replace it with.

enraged_camel 7y ago

>> Pro Tip: The MacBook Air line of today has taken over for the MacBook line of old. If that's the case, I'd like it to become as light as — or even lighter than — the old MacBook, which weighed merely 2.03 pounds. At this point, I'd love to have a Macbook Air with a battery that lasts "only" 6 hours, but weighs around 1.5 pounds. Hell, I'd pay extra for the option.

snazz 7y ago
I think this is a decently unpopular opinion---6 hours of battery life is atrocious for the use case the Air is competing in.
- andrekandre 7y ago
  maybe for the market of the air, but would definitely appreciate a lighter design option personally, so maybe there is probably a market for it, but maybe just not big enough for apple i guess <sad-face/>
  - snazz 7y ago
    Fair enough. What are you using yours for that requires it be so light? Apple is probably trying to market the iPad Air in that space.
    - andrekandre 7y ago
      i ride bike/take train to work, and have my personal phone, work phone, work laptop, some other things such as power adapter, and a drink to take along the way (all in the same bag) the other thing is, even though i mostly program, at work we are always up and about, going for meetings, or offsite etc etc so for me, being as light as possible helps a great deal... the last gen macbook w/dual core i7 (4 thread w/hyperthreading), 16GB ram and 512GB storage, retina display, and all being less than 1kg is a huge boon
Zarel 7y ago
JohnTHaller is talking about this MacBook line, which weighed 5 pounds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2006%E2%80%932012) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2006%E2%80%932012) Not this MacBook line, which is the one you're talking about, and took over the MacBook Air line of old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2015%E2%80%932019) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_(2015%E2%80%932019)

globular-toast 7y ago

That explains why I'm so confused to learn that the Air is the most popular Macbook. I distinctly remember the Air being about portability over everything. It was a niche product. So it's more true to say Macbook Air is their most popular brand because the product is not the same at all.