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New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

142 points by privacyguru 15y ago

lemming 15y ago
While I'm sure this is nice, I don't have a compelling reason to upgrade from my existing MBA (and I really wanted to!). I'd have loved to have seen 8GB RAM as an option.
- macavity23 15y ago
  I have a current MBA, and I find 2GB very limiting when running eclipse, tomcat, photoshop and firefox. 4GB will be very nice. Also, a second USB port! Oh, the luxury!
  - bretthoerner 15y ago
    You must have the original? I have the Air that was available yesterday and it has 2 USB ports and 4GB RAM.
    - cubicle67 15y ago
      pretty sure 2GB was std, but 4 was available as a bto option
    - macavity23 15y ago
      It was a second gen, not 'current', you're right. :) I could possibly have gotten 4GB with it, but my aging brain still couldn't conceive of anyone ever needing more than 2GB. Now I know better, haha.
- ot 15y ago
  Sandy Bridge is way faster than Core 2. If you are doing any computationally intensive stuff, it may be worth the upgrade (I had postponed the purchase of a MBA for this reason, and I am definitely going to buy this one).
  - kelnos 15y ago
    Yeah, I have a 2010 11" MBA, and I'm thinking about the upgrade. I really wish they'd bumped the max RAM up to 8GB; Eclipse for Android development is cramped in 4GB with other stuff running. I'm a little worried about the Intel graphics as well. The upgrade is also a little more expensive, too. I think I paid $1500 for the maxed-out 11" last year, but maxing out the new 11" costs $1650. But the Core i7 and 256GB SSD are very tempting. I dual-boot OSX and Linux, and 128GB is starting to feel a bit cramped. I was looking around at aftermarket SSD upgrades for my existing Air, and an off-the-shelf upgrade to 240GB would cost me $520, which is a third of the cost of the laptop! I could probably sell my current one for $800-$1k, and get the new one for $1650 without breaking the bank.
jason_tko 15y ago
HD video cameras, backlit keyboard, i5 upgradable to i7 - pretty decent upgrade. Curses, 3 month old MacBook Air.
- snorkel 15y ago
  But the max screen is still only 13" max and not a significant price drop on existing models so I'm glad I didn't wait for this release before buying.
  - micheljansen 15y ago
    Apple never does price drops. They have a fixed product line and while the hardware changes over time, the price stays the same.
    - macavity23 15y ago
      Rarely, but not never. My 2nd gen top-of-the-line macbook air was £1850, top of the line now is £1450. That's a fair difference.
      - kelnos 15y ago
        Really? My 2nd gen top of the line (11") MBA was $1400 (I think), and now the top is $1650. Maybe it's different for the 13"...
    - sjs 15y ago
      Sometimes they bump the price up and down here and there, but rarely enough to cause even a stir. For the most part it is pretty constant though.
  - crazygringo 15y ago
    Totally agree, I was all set to have new-product envy... and then discovered they barely changed anything.
- randito 15y ago
_Fil_ 15y ago
Still no Gigabit Ethernet adapter ?!? Even with the thunderbolt port ? Come on Apple, you can do better .... Apart from that slight pet peeve of mine, those looks like really great replacement for my now aging MacBook unibody.
- jolan 15y ago
  You can buy a third party one based on this chip: http://www.asix.com.tw/products.php?op=pItemdetail&PItemID=84;71;100&PLine=71 http://www.asix.com.tw/products.php?op=pItemdetail&PItem...
- joeminkie 15y ago
  They want you to get the new Thunderbolt LED Display which has a gigabit ethernet adapter built in.
- CWIZO 15y ago
  You mean this: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC704ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC704ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY ?
  - _Fil_ 15y ago
    This is still the same 10/100 adapter. Not a 10/100/1000.
- smackfu 15y ago
  They could probably make a thunderbolt -> ethernet connector, but it definitely wouldn't be $29.
angerman 15y ago
This is surely a nice update. But I _really_ miss configuration options. The only option seems to be 1.7GHz i5 -> 1.8GHz i7 No choice of flash no choice of ram :/ I love my current air. It's a really nice piece of engineering but even 4GB of ram are sometimes full. With an more powerful CPU more RAM would be a nice choice... TB, Backlit KB and a faster CPU are very nice though.
- sandGorgon 15y ago
  but no dedicated graphics card
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
    - bstx 15y ago
      The NVIDIA 320M of the previous model did not have dedicated memory either.
- sp332 15y ago
  I think the RAM is soldered to the board, to save space and weight. So it's really hard to "configure". :)
TillE 15y ago
That 13" Macbook Air is looking really attractive as a portable work computer. Any downsides I should be aware of?
- bretthoerner 15y ago
  I've been using one for months (as a dev machine) and haven't had an issue.
  - dlokshin 15y ago
    Second that. Also been using the 13" since early Jan as a dev machine and am absolutely in love with it. These upgrades will only make it better.
    - bluekeybox 15y ago
      Third. Traded in 13" Pro for 13" Air two months ago. Especially appreciate the higher-resolution screen on Air (and the weight of course). In fact, the 13" Air has the same resolution screen as the standard 15" Pro.
- cdr 15y ago
  The biggest downside might be 4GB maximum RAM - that's enough to dissuade me, anyway.
  - afterburner 15y ago
    Seems like plenty to me for a laptop, do you bump up against that limit for what you do on a laptop? (I'm curious.)
    - w1ntermute 15y ago
      He might need virtualization, which is essential for any web dev who wants to target the mainstream. You might have multiple VMs up so you can test different versions of IE (no IE 6 on Windows Vista or 7). When you add in Photoshop, Firefox with Firebug, and Apache, you really start pushing the limits of 4 GB.
jrnkntl 15y ago
Does anybody know if they advertised with the "Instant on. Even after a month off." on the previous models as well? Or did they upgrade the flash storage type so that this is now possible?
antidaily 15y ago
I wonder if the 4GB and 256GB SSD limits have to do with keeping MBPs from becoming obsolete.
- loire280 15y ago
  We'll find out in the teardowns how much space they're taking up, but I suspect volume is the limiting factor - RAM and flash chips are only so dense (at least at a certain price point). The RAM is already built into the motherboard to save space, and it was rumored that they would do the same with the SSD this generation.
ionfish 15y ago
There's a bit of sleight of hand on their Thunderbolt Display page [1]. The first image is of a MacBook Air hooked up to one of the new displays, but when they talk about "The ultimate docking station" they show a MacBook Pro. This is because the Thunderbolt and power ports are next to one another on the MBP, but on the Air they're on different sides of the machine, which is going to make it a lot less elegant. [1] http://www.apple.com/uk/displays/ http://www.apple.com/uk/displays/
- marknutter 15y ago
  That or they wanted to save time and just take one picture, which is probably their go-to picture whenever talking about "the ultimate docking station."
  - reustle 15y ago
    I'm pretty sure apple is anything but lazy with these types of things.
    - amstrad464 15y ago
      Saving time doesn't necessarily mean laziness, especially if one has to meet tight deadlines (which may or may not be the case here). I don't understand why the grand parent is being down-voted, he just offered an different view.
      - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
        I suspect it's because Apple are generally seen as sticklers for perfection when it comes to presentation and people think it's unlike that they've cut corners on something like this for a new product launch.
  - marknutter 15y ago
    They clearly took a picture with the Macbook Air, but I still maintain they weren't trying to intentionally mislead people: [http://images.apple.com/displays/images/overview_hero1.jpg](http://images.apple.com/displays/images/overview_hero1.jpg) http://images.apple.com/displays/images/overview_hero1.jpg](...
nivertech 15y ago
No 8GB RAM upgrade?
- dschobel 15y ago
  Yeah, that's the only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger at this point. I hate thinking about memory pressure and having to manage applications to keep it in check...
  - sp332 15y ago
    With your swap file on SSD, is it really that noticeable?
    - chopsueyar 15y ago
      Interesting point. Anybody?
      - blinkingled 15y ago
        I had a 2GB 11" Air that was swapping out around 350Mb with my workload and it was noticeable although not a deal breaker - think slight switching delays and rare mouse freezes for split second - obviously much better than if the swap was on 5400RPM rotating disk. I ended up returning it anyway - 2GB isn't nearly enough for anything other than just browsing.
        tgood 15y ago
        The last part isn't true. I've got the bottom priced 11" and being an entrepreneur I use it heavily for design. My only issue is the memory. After CS5 and a couple other programs I was down to 10gb.I'm 80% in front of a big cinema display but even working on the go its great. Photoshop too. My usual is itunes, mail, 5-10 safari windows, Photoshop, Illustrator and no spinning wheel of death. My experience of Apple is nearly 10 years and came from a 15" MBP that died. If you're questioning it, go for it... You'll feel like James Bond when on-the-go.
duck 15y ago
Does anyone use an Air for a lot of Photoshop work? My wife does photography on the side and is looking for a laptop to go with her iMac. Seems like the screen would be too small?
- snorkel 15y ago
  A maxed-out Air is plenty fast enough for PS work but you may want to consider adding a 2nd display for design work.
- peng 15y ago
  Unless the Macbook Air screens have changed, they're far worse than Macbook Pro screens for displaying color. I've used a 13" MBP and a 13" MBA and it's easy totell the difference. You can go to a store and see for yourself: the colors on the MBP are more vibrant than the MBA.
iaskwhy 15y ago
Still glossy display only.
- dhbanes 15y ago
  There's a big difference between the MBA glossy display and the macbook pro glass display. I use the MBA daily but when I got a chance to play around with a friend's 17" MBP glossy... it was terribly unusable.
  - Udo 15y ago
    At least you can custom order the MBP a with non-glossy hi-res display (I'm quite happy with mine now). I don't think that option exists for the MBA.
    - palehose 15y ago
      MBA is not nearly as glossy as the MBP.
      - Udo 15y ago
        Is it just because of the screen size or is the material different somehow? I'm actually toying with the idea of buying one to take with me on the road where the 15" colossus is just impractical...
        chrisbolt 15y ago
        I think the MBA glossy display is plastic and the MBP glossy display is glass.
      - moe 15y ago
        I don't think we should be making excuses here. I recently bought a $200 samsung netbook that is perfectly usable in bright sunlight with sun-glasses on. Try it in a store with a sunny corner if you don't believe me, it's the NF310 and I'm not making it up. I haven't seen the latest MBA yet, but the prev generation turns into a perfect mirror under the same lighting conditions.
kieranyo 15y ago
Dammit, just bought a MacBook Air a month ago. Is there much difference between the 1.4 core 2 duo and the 1.6 i5?
- jolan 15y ago
  Yes, quite a bit: http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697 http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697
  - kieranyo 15y ago
    Win! Spoke to Apple, they are going to refund and take away my 16 day old MacBook Air so that I can order the new one :) Excellent customer service once again.
    - listic 15y ago
      It's a win unless you don't care about the downgrade in graphics performance (nVidia > Intel GMA) and power consumption (Core2 > i7). In these regards the latest model looks like a downgrade, at least on paper. I'm appalled that noone seems to notice or care about those things, especially power consumption. Graphics performance: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark... search for "NVIDIA GeForce 320M" and "Intel HD Graphics 3000". Intel has a history GPU's with poor perfomance and feature support. Power consumption: on this very table, look at TDP http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697 http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697 Pentium M(2004) = 5W http://ark.intel.com/products/27609/Intel-Pentium-M-Processor-ULV-733733J-%282M-Cache-1_10A-GHz-400-MHz-FSB%29 http://ark.intel.com/products/27609/Intel-Pentium-M-Processo... Core2(2008) = 10W i7(2011) = 17W Despite the shrinking of the electronics Apple even had to raise weight a little in the latest model, to accomodate a battery large enough to provide the same "5-7" hours of runtime. That's when you are mostly idling or browsing; I'm sure the new Air will run hotter and shorter if you utilize your CPU closer to 100%. Well, customers want an "upgrade", and there are no better parts available; what else can you do?
  - saturdaysaint 15y ago
larrik 15y ago
Also, new Mac Mini: http://www.apple.com/macmini/ http://www.apple.com/macmini/ NO Optical Drive! Includes Thunderbolt. Supports an SSD plus a regular hard drive. HDMI port. I really have no idea how much of this is new features, though.
- macavity23 15y ago
  It looks like the external superdrive from the MBA will fit neatly on top of/underneath the mac mini, if you have a nostalgic attachment to pieces of spinning plastic. ;)
- chopsueyar 15y ago
  Notice the new MacBook Air does not have an HDMI adapter available?
  - spullara 15y ago
    You should be able to use the mini-displayport to HDMI connector in the Thunderbolt port (which is a mini-displayport as well).
evilswan 15y ago
Next gen SSDs - that's what I'm waiting on. Lower cost and higher capacity, then I'll be all over one of these.
banders 15y ago
Will these be available in retail stores today?
- pedrolll 15y ago
  AppleInsider says Thursday. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/20/apple_releases_new_macbook_airs_with_thunderbolt_backlit_keyboards.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/20/apple_releases...
  - kadavy 15y ago
    Gah! Just ordered one off Apple.com and they estimate it will arrive next Thursday :P
swah 15y ago
diff(old,new)?
mellis 15y ago
It looks like they got rid of the white plastic MacBook, too. Now the product line is even more focused.
- daimyoyo 15y ago
  Wow. I am genuinely shocked that they decided to kill off the white MacBook. All the development costs were already recouped, and I was under the impression that white MacBooks were the majority of laptops sold. It takes a very brave company to kill off a cash machine like that.(The $70B in the bank probably helps.)
  - Lewisham 15y ago
    The white Macbook was cannibalized by the Air's lower price point in the last generation, so keeping it around always looked anachronistic.
- protomyth 15y ago
  still available for education
justinchen 15y ago
For anyone else confused by the lack of DisplayPort: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20043524-263.html http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20043524-263.html
- ascendant 15y ago
  From the article: "The new port is backward compatible so it can still be used to connect to DisplayPort devices; however, only the new port can be used to connect to Thunderbolt devices."
corin_ 15y ago
I'm really not a fan of their non-US pricing, it rarely works out well for international buyers. For example the $1,199 model costs £999 in the UK. $1,199 is equal to £744. So to buy it from the UK store you're paying 34% more? For the cheapest option, $999 in US store, the UK price is 37% more. And I'm too lazy to work out the 13" price differences.
- w1ntermute 15y ago
  Aren't there various extra taxes in the UK, VAT or something?
- silverlight 15y ago
  Is VAT tax built-in to the £999 price point? Or is that added on at checkout (like sales tax is in the US)? If it's built in, that would explain at least part of the difference.
  - corin_ 15y ago
    Yeah, it's built in and explains some of it, but VAT is only 20%, so the difference is still very noticeable.
    - colin_jack 15y ago
      I believe the exchange rate right now explains some of it too, particularly as Apple haven't adjusted their prices in the UK to reflect it. I did read they'd adjusted their Canadian prices for the same reason though.
- swombat 15y ago
  I think this has been discussed a number of times, both on and off HN, and the final word on this is that the difference is made up of VAT and various importation taxes levied by the UK government. So, blame Her Majesty, not Apple...
  - colin_jack 15y ago
ludwigvan 15y ago
One interesting thing to note is almost all the Mac's now have ATI cards, some Intel, and no NVIDIA. http://www.apple.com/mac/ http://www.apple.com/mac/ When did this change happen? What would this mean for someone developing cuda apps, then?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- younata 15y ago
  I imagine about the same time NVIDIA announced they were getting out of manufacturing graphics cards?
aznwhtey 15y ago
Does anyone know if the Thunderbolt on the MacBook Air supports multiple displays?
- yardie 15y ago
  The Intel HD3000 can only support one 2560x1600 display and the built-in. It's safe to say it can't do multiples. And the TB->DVI adapter only has one DVI interface so you can't even try 2 lower resolution monitors.
chopsueyar 15y ago
I want the i7 one.
deltriggah 15y ago
I want a 15 inch Macbook Air
deltriggah 15y ago
I want a 15 inch Macbook Air
BornInTheUSSR 15y ago
I just bought the maxed out 13 inch air in October, and it's been a great dev machine (rails, ios) someone please talk me out getting the newest shiniest for no good reason
- joeguilmette 15y ago
  i bought the maxed out 13" last year as well. pulling out my credit card...
  - markbao 15y ago
    Don't do it! You really don't have more important things to spend $2000 on? Fight the power :)
    - Locke1689 15y ago
      To be fair, 2k isn't much more than my weekly salary and I'm an intern.
      - deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
    - joeguilmette 15y ago
      I'm selling my current model for about what I spent on it (got an employee discount from a friend). So it's only costing about $200 to upgrade :)
- kelnos 15y ago
  I'm having trouble resisting as well. On used Mac sites, the maxed out 11" 2nd-gen is going for around $1150 (maybe lower in some places?). The maxed out 11" 3rd-gen costs $1650. I could upgrade for $500+tax. (Or $400+less-tax if I'm willing to wait for my sister to buy it for me with her edu discount in a lower-tax state and mail it to me...) So difficult. I'm worried about the Intel graphics, but I bet they're much better supported under Linux than the 320M is.
deltriggah 15y ago
i want a 15 inch air
lispm 15y ago
Now the questions are: * how warm will the MacBook Air get with the Thunderbolt in use / not in use? Will the fan kick in more often? * what effect has the i5 or i7 wrt. to heat? * will the average battery runtime be better or worse? Are the Apple numbers realistic? From what I hear, the Thunderbolt MacBook Pros are using the fans to cool the machine more often.
- ascendant 15y ago
  I have a current gen MBP with a core i7 and I don't really hear the fans that often, and I'm usually running a lot of stuff at once.
  - kayoone 15y ago
    i have a current gen MBP with a core i7 Quad-Core 2.2Ghz and while attached to an external display the fans get noisy pretty fast. I basically gave up working on GPU intensive stuff on the MBP because the fans annoy me.
purephase 15y ago
Damnit..
saturdaysaint 15y ago
A maxed out 11" MBA (which unfortunately comes to a mere $50 less than the comparable 13") with a 27" Cinema Display sounds like my dream rig - complete flexibility between portability and comfort/expandability (when connected to the spacious and port-packed display).
joshklein 15y ago
I'm going to be purchasing the 13" MBA, and I'm trying to decide between the baseline version and the maxed out version. I would pay the $100 to upgrade to the i7, but one can only do so by also paying $300 for the 256GB of memory. Honestly, the 256GB memory vs 128GB isn't important to me (most of my stuff is small files or in the cloud), so I'm finding it hard to justify $400 for the better processor. Any advice from those with MBA in the wild? This is replacing a 3 year old MB I use as my primary machine, and my laptops tend to last me at least 2 years.
- jrockway 15y ago
  The i7 is going to use less power for a given workload because it will be asleep more.
  - dlehman 15y ago
    Is this true? For the same workload, would the i7 processor shorten or lengthen battery life? If it's the same or better, $100 for the \i7 upgrade seems like a no-brainer. Or am I missing something?
    - lovskogen 15y ago
      You're missing that it's $400, not $100, which made it hard to decide.
- crazygringo 15y ago
  For regular computer stuff, my 2nd-gen Macbook Air works like a dream, and in day-to-day use it's the SSD that makes it so much faster than my work computer with a normal HD. In the SSD era, if you don't use videogames or do video rendering, I don't think processor speed matters that much anymore. (Cue mobs with torches...)
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - 15y ago
ilmare 15y ago
Did apple add kensington lock in new models? If not are there any viable options(besides carrying notebook or have lockable drawer)?
notahaxor 15y ago
Great specs to go along with the great looks. I'm still disappointed that the smaller model uses a squished 16:9 ratio screen, it's useless for writing anything longer than a tweet. Also, I hope the now backlit keyboards see some improvement in tactile feel, I thought these were a weak point on the previous generation.
wyclif 15y ago
Any good recommendations for a sleeve or messenger bag that is good for the 13" MBA and is form fitting so it doesn't slide around inside the bag/sleeve?
- jolan 15y ago
  http://www.booqbags.com/13-inch-macbook-air-bags http://www.booqbags.com/13-inch-macbook-air-bags
  - wyclif 15y ago
    That "Viper Hardcase 13" looks ideal. Thanks.
pedalpete 15y ago
I had been eyeing up a Samsung series 9 laptop, but the Air now has a faster processor, larger ssd drive and a lower price. Competitors are going to be VERY hard pressed to compete with this device I think.
mcculley 15y ago
D'oh. We just received three new MacBook Airs on Monday that we ordered last week. We haven't even deployed them yet. I wonder if Apple offers any ability to ship these back and get the new faster ones.
- nolanbrown23 15y ago
  If they aren't custom configured I think it's easy to send them back for new ones. I thought Apple typically let you exchange without fees if you bought within 30 days of a refresh.
BillSaysThis 15y ago
Space constraints or not, the 4GB limitation is annoying. I'm using a two month old 13" MBA, which will go to replace the wife's 2007 white MacBook once I get to the Apple Store, and the dashed hope of getting 8GB has dampened my enthusiasm. But not cancelled it completely ;)
lean 15y ago
Isn't the Intel HD 3000 a downgrade from the previous-gen MBA's Nvidia GeForce 320? http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.... http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-320M.28701.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-320M.28701.0.htm...
- kayoone 15y ago
  roughly the same. For the Sandy Bridge platform there is no other choice anyway as a dedicated nvidia chip wouldnt fit and draw more power.
mahyarm 15y ago
Almost as good as a Vaio Z12. It just needs an 8GB RAM option and 13" 1080p.
- dmarble 15y ago
  Almost? If you live and die by external design and feel (trackpad, keyboard, sturdiness) than most everything but a Macbook will seem inferior, but overall if you're an equal-opportunity platform user and want the thinnest and lightest complete desktop replacement like me, I don't think it's remotely close. I'm typing this on a year-old Z11, which you can pick up used now for about the cost of a MBA, with: * Core i5 520m * 8GB RAM * 256GB SSD * DVD+RW * Switchable graphics w/ GeForce GT 330M (1GB) * 1600x900 13" matte display * HDMI out * VGA out * Gigabit ethernet * 3 USB 2.0 ports * Fingerprint reader * Expresscard 34 * 3 lbs * swappable 4 hr standard battery, 7 hr extended battery If you need everything in a thin-and-light, the last generation of Sony Z was pretty unbeatable. I heartily recommend a used model to devs I meet. Even still, I was seriously considering getting the new MBA, as the Sony is flimsy with so much crammed into it, the trackpad is tiny, much of my dev work targets *nix, and I'd like to get into some iOS projects. But 4GB max? If they'd offered 8GB RAM, I might have pulled the trigger.
  - mahyarm 15y ago
    I'm an iPhone developer and Hackintosh just doesn't work. I'm stuck on apple machines, anything else is an exercise in frustration.
LetBinding 15y ago
I am about to embark on a 18-month long data mining project, where I'll be developing Python NLP software for recognizing patterns in textual data. Will the MBA be a good machine for this? Ideally I should get something with more horsepower, but if the MBA suffices, then I feel its portability will really increase my productivity.
- davidst 15y ago
  Is 4GB RAM enough for your project? If so, you're probably fine. I do a lot of statistical ML (feel free to AMA) and chafe at the 32GB limit of the machines I'm using.
  - LetBinding 15y ago
    I could use all the RAM available. Ideally I would need 8 GB. But my thinking is that with the high I/O throughput of the SSD in the Air, swapping from disk won't lead to a perceptible performance drop. I will occasionally have access to a server for particularly intensive tasks. But I would like to be able to code from my bed, in a coffee shop, library, bus, etc. Hence my fascination for the Air. What kind of stuff do you do that uses up 32 GB RAM? Is your data set huge, or are your algorithms RAM intensive?
    - davidst 15y ago
      I'm gathering statistics on words, phrases and a few other things from a medium-sized (about a terabyte) corpus. There are several billion that aren't hapaxes. That's just the initial feature collection pass. Next, I'm looking for correlations among these features. It's a challenge to make it fit in 32GB. A lot of effort goes into bit-twiddling to make things fit and into algorithms that try to be intelligent about what to keep and what to discard.

142 points by privacyguru 15y ago

While I'm sure this is nice, I don't have a compelling reason to upgrade from my existing MBA (and I really wanted to!). I'd have loved to have seen 8GB RAM as an option.

macavity23 15y ago
I have a current MBA, and I find 2GB very limiting when running eclipse, tomcat, photoshop and firefox. 4GB will be very nice. Also, a second USB port! Oh, the luxury!
- bretthoerner 15y ago
  You must have the original? I have the Air that was available yesterday and it has 2 USB ports and 4GB RAM.
  - cubicle67 15y ago
    pretty sure 2GB was std, but 4 was available as a bto option
  - macavity23 15y ago
    It was a second gen, not 'current', you're right. :) I could possibly have gotten 4GB with it, but my aging brain still couldn't conceive of anyone ever needing more than 2GB. Now I know better, haha.
ot 15y ago
Sandy Bridge is way faster than Core 2. If you are doing any computationally intensive stuff, it may be worth the upgrade (I had postponed the purchase of a MBA for this reason, and I am definitely going to buy this one).
- kelnos 15y ago
  Yeah, I have a 2010 11" MBA, and I'm thinking about the upgrade. I really wish they'd bumped the max RAM up to 8GB; Eclipse for Android development is cramped in 4GB with other stuff running. I'm a little worried about the Intel graphics as well. The upgrade is also a little more expensive, too. I think I paid $1500 for the maxed-out 11" last year, but maxing out the new 11" costs $1650. But the Core i7 and 256GB SSD are very tempting. I dual-boot OSX and Linux, and 128GB is starting to feel a bit cramped. I was looking around at aftermarket SSD upgrades for my existing Air, and an off-the-shelf upgrade to 240GB would cost me $520, which is a third of the cost of the laptop! I could probably sell my current one for $800-$1k, and get the new one for $1650 without breaking the bank.

jason_tko 15y ago

HD video cameras, backlit keyboard, i5 upgradable to i7 - pretty decent upgrade. Curses, 3 month old MacBook Air.

snorkel 15y ago
But the max screen is still only 13" max and not a significant price drop on existing models so I'm glad I didn't wait for this release before buying.
- micheljansen 15y ago
  Apple never does price drops. They have a fixed product line and while the hardware changes over time, the price stays the same.
  - macavity23 15y ago
    Rarely, but not never. My 2nd gen top-of-the-line macbook air was £1850, top of the line now is £1450. That's a fair difference.
    - kelnos 15y ago
      Really? My 2nd gen top of the line (11") MBA was $1400 (I think), and now the top is $1650. Maybe it's different for the 13"...
  - sjs 15y ago
    Sometimes they bump the price up and down here and there, but rarely enough to cause even a stir. For the most part it is pretty constant though.
- crazygringo 15y ago
  Totally agree, I was all set to have new-product envy... and then discovered they barely changed anything.
randito 15y ago

_Fil_ 15y ago

Still no Gigabit Ethernet adapter ?!? Even with the thunderbolt port ? Come on Apple, you can do better .... Apart from that slight pet peeve of mine, those looks like really great replacement for my now aging MacBook unibody.

jolan 15y ago
You can buy a third party one based on this chip: http://www.asix.com.tw/products.php?op=pItemdetail&PItemID=84;71;100&PLine=71 http://www.asix.com.tw/products.php?op=pItemdetail&PItem...
joeminkie 15y ago
They want you to get the new Thunderbolt LED Display which has a gigabit ethernet adapter built in.
CWIZO 15y ago
You mean this: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC704ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC704ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY ?
- _Fil_ 15y ago
  This is still the same 10/100 adapter. Not a 10/100/1000.
smackfu 15y ago
They could probably make a thunderbolt -> ethernet connector, but it definitely wouldn't be $29.

angerman 15y ago

This is surely a nice update. But I _really_ miss configuration options. The only option seems to be 1.7GHz i5 -> 1.8GHz i7 No choice of flash no choice of ram :/ I love my current air. It's a really nice piece of engineering but even 4GB of ram are sometimes full. With an more powerful CPU more RAM would be a nice choice... TB, Backlit KB and a faster CPU are very nice though.

sandGorgon 15y ago
but no dedicated graphics card
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - bstx 15y ago
    The NVIDIA 320M of the previous model did not have dedicated memory either.
sp332 15y ago
I think the RAM is soldered to the board, to save space and weight. So it's really hard to "configure". :)

TillE 15y ago

That 13" Macbook Air is looking really attractive as a portable work computer. Any downsides I should be aware of?

bretthoerner 15y ago
I've been using one for months (as a dev machine) and haven't had an issue.
- dlokshin 15y ago
  Second that. Also been using the 13" since early Jan as a dev machine and am absolutely in love with it. These upgrades will only make it better.
  - bluekeybox 15y ago
    Third. Traded in 13" Pro for 13" Air two months ago. Especially appreciate the higher-resolution screen on Air (and the weight of course). In fact, the 13" Air has the same resolution screen as the standard 15" Pro.
cdr 15y ago
The biggest downside might be 4GB maximum RAM - that's enough to dissuade me, anyway.
- afterburner 15y ago
  Seems like plenty to me for a laptop, do you bump up against that limit for what you do on a laptop? (I'm curious.)
  - w1ntermute 15y ago
    He might need virtualization, which is essential for any web dev who wants to target the mainstream. You might have multiple VMs up so you can test different versions of IE (no IE 6 on Windows Vista or 7). When you add in Photoshop, Firefox with Firebug, and Apache, you really start pushing the limits of 4 GB.

jrnkntl 15y ago

Does anybody know if they advertised with the "Instant on. Even after a month off." on the previous models as well? Or did they upgrade the flash storage type so that this is now possible?

antidaily 15y ago

I wonder if the 4GB and 256GB SSD limits have to do with keeping MBPs from becoming obsolete.

loire280 15y ago
We'll find out in the teardowns how much space they're taking up, but I suspect volume is the limiting factor - RAM and flash chips are only so dense (at least at a certain price point). The RAM is already built into the motherboard to save space, and it was rumored that they would do the same with the SSD this generation.

ionfish 15y ago

There's a bit of sleight of hand on their Thunderbolt Display page [1]. The first image is of a MacBook Air hooked up to one of the new displays, but when they talk about "The ultimate docking station" they show a MacBook Pro. This is because the Thunderbolt and power ports are next to one another on the MBP, but on the Air they're on different sides of the machine, which is going to make it a lot less elegant. [1] http://www.apple.com/uk/displays/ http://www.apple.com/uk/displays/

marknutter 15y ago
That or they wanted to save time and just take one picture, which is probably their go-to picture whenever talking about "the ultimate docking station."
- reustle 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure apple is anything but lazy with these types of things.
  - amstrad464 15y ago
    Saving time doesn't necessarily mean laziness, especially if one has to meet tight deadlines (which may or may not be the case here). I don't understand why the grand parent is being down-voted, he just offered an different view.
    - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
      I suspect it's because Apple are generally seen as sticklers for perfection when it comes to presentation and people think it's unlike that they've cut corners on something like this for a new product launch.
- marknutter 15y ago
  They clearly took a picture with the Macbook Air, but I still maintain they weren't trying to intentionally mislead people: [http://images.apple.com/displays/images/overview_hero1.jpg](http://images.apple.com/displays/images/overview_hero1.jpg) http://images.apple.com/displays/images/overview_hero1.jpg](...

nivertech 15y ago

No 8GB RAM upgrade?

dschobel 15y ago
Yeah, that's the only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger at this point. I hate thinking about memory pressure and having to manage applications to keep it in check...
- sp332 15y ago
  With your swap file on SSD, is it really that noticeable?
  - chopsueyar 15y ago
    Interesting point. Anybody?
    - blinkingled 15y ago
      I had a 2GB 11" Air that was swapping out around 350Mb with my workload and it was noticeable although not a deal breaker - think slight switching delays and rare mouse freezes for split second - obviously much better than if the swap was on 5400RPM rotating disk. I ended up returning it anyway - 2GB isn't nearly enough for anything other than just browsing.
      - tgood 15y ago
        The last part isn't true. I've got the bottom priced 11" and being an entrepreneur I use it heavily for design. My only issue is the memory. After CS5 and a couple other programs I was down to 10gb.I'm 80% in front of a big cinema display but even working on the go its great. Photoshop too. My usual is itunes, mail, 5-10 safari windows, Photoshop, Illustrator and no spinning wheel of death. My experience of Apple is nearly 10 years and came from a 15" MBP that died. If you're questioning it, go for it... You'll feel like James Bond when on-the-go.

duck 15y ago

Does anyone use an Air for a lot of Photoshop work? My wife does photography on the side and is looking for a laptop to go with her iMac. Seems like the screen would be too small?

snorkel 15y ago
A maxed-out Air is plenty fast enough for PS work but you may want to consider adding a 2nd display for design work.
peng 15y ago
Unless the Macbook Air screens have changed, they're far worse than Macbook Pro screens for displaying color. I've used a 13" MBP and a 13" MBA and it's easy totell the difference. You can go to a store and see for yourself: the colors on the MBP are more vibrant than the MBA.

iaskwhy 15y ago

Still glossy display only.

dhbanes 15y ago
There's a big difference between the MBA glossy display and the macbook pro glass display. I use the MBA daily but when I got a chance to play around with a friend's 17" MBP glossy... it was terribly unusable.
- Udo 15y ago
  At least you can custom order the MBP a with non-glossy hi-res display (I'm quite happy with mine now). I don't think that option exists for the MBA.
  - palehose 15y ago
    MBA is not nearly as glossy as the MBP.
    - Udo 15y ago
      Is it just because of the screen size or is the material different somehow? I'm actually toying with the idea of buying one to take with me on the road where the 15" colossus is just impractical...
      - chrisbolt 15y ago
        I think the MBA glossy display is plastic and the MBP glossy display is glass.
    - moe 15y ago
      I don't think we should be making excuses here. I recently bought a $200 samsung netbook that is perfectly usable in bright sunlight with sun-glasses on. Try it in a store with a sunny corner if you don't believe me, it's the NF310 and I'm not making it up. I haven't seen the latest MBA yet, but the prev generation turns into a perfect mirror under the same lighting conditions.

kieranyo 15y ago

Dammit, just bought a MacBook Air a month ago. Is there much difference between the 1.4 core 2 duo and the 1.6 i5?

jolan 15y ago
Yes, quite a bit: http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697 http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697
- kieranyo 15y ago
  Win! Spoke to Apple, they are going to refund and take away my 16 day old MacBook Air so that I can order the new one :) Excellent customer service once again.
  - listic 15y ago
    It's a win unless you don't care about the downgrade in graphics performance (nVidia > Intel GMA) and power consumption (Core2 > i7). In these regards the latest model looks like a downgrade, at least on paper. I'm appalled that noone seems to notice or care about those things, especially power consumption. Graphics performance: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark... search for "NVIDIA GeForce 320M" and "Intel HD Graphics 3000". Intel has a history GPU's with poor perfomance and feature support. Power consumption: on this very table, look at TDP http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697 http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697 Pentium M(2004) = 5W http://ark.intel.com/products/27609/Intel-Pentium-M-Processor-ULV-733733J-%282M-Cache-1_10A-GHz-400-MHz-FSB%29 http://ark.intel.com/products/27609/Intel-Pentium-M-Processo... Core2(2008) = 10W i7(2011) = 17W Despite the shrinking of the electronics Apple even had to raise weight a little in the latest model, to accomodate a battery large enough to provide the same "5-7" hours of runtime. That's when you are mostly idling or browsing; I'm sure the new Air will run hotter and shorter if you utilize your CPU closer to 100%. Well, customers want an "upgrade", and there are no better parts available; what else can you do?
- saturdaysaint 15y ago

larrik 15y ago

Also, new Mac Mini: http://www.apple.com/macmini/ http://www.apple.com/macmini/ NO Optical Drive! Includes Thunderbolt. Supports an SSD plus a regular hard drive. HDMI port. I really have no idea how much of this is new features, though.

macavity23 15y ago
It looks like the external superdrive from the MBA will fit neatly on top of/underneath the mac mini, if you have a nostalgic attachment to pieces of spinning plastic. ;)
chopsueyar 15y ago
Notice the new MacBook Air does not have an HDMI adapter available?
- spullara 15y ago
  You should be able to use the mini-displayport to HDMI connector in the Thunderbolt port (which is a mini-displayport as well).

evilswan 15y ago

Next gen SSDs - that's what I'm waiting on. Lower cost and higher capacity, then I'll be all over one of these.

banders 15y ago

Will these be available in retail stores today?

pedrolll 15y ago
AppleInsider says Thursday. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/20/apple_releases_new_macbook_airs_with_thunderbolt_backlit_keyboards.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/20/apple_releases...
- kadavy 15y ago
  Gah! Just ordered one off Apple.com and they estimate it will arrive next Thursday :P

swah 15y ago

diff(old,new)?

mellis 15y ago

It looks like they got rid of the white plastic MacBook, too. Now the product line is even more focused.

daimyoyo 15y ago
Wow. I am genuinely shocked that they decided to kill off the white MacBook. All the development costs were already recouped, and I was under the impression that white MacBooks were the majority of laptops sold. It takes a very brave company to kill off a cash machine like that.(The $70B in the bank probably helps.)
- Lewisham 15y ago
  The white Macbook was cannibalized by the Air's lower price point in the last generation, so keeping it around always looked anachronistic.
protomyth 15y ago
still available for education

justinchen 15y ago

For anyone else confused by the lack of DisplayPort: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20043524-263.html http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20043524-263.html

ascendant 15y ago
From the article: "The new port is backward compatible so it can still be used to connect to DisplayPort devices; however, only the new port can be used to connect to Thunderbolt devices."

corin_ 15y ago

I'm really not a fan of their non-US pricing, it rarely works out well for international buyers. For example the $1,199 model costs £999 in the UK. $1,199 is equal to £744. So to buy it from the UK store you're paying 34% more? For the cheapest option, $999 in US store, the UK price is 37% more. And I'm too lazy to work out the 13" price differences.

w1ntermute 15y ago
Aren't there various extra taxes in the UK, VAT or something?
silverlight 15y ago
Is VAT tax built-in to the £999 price point? Or is that added on at checkout (like sales tax is in the US)? If it's built in, that would explain at least part of the difference.
- corin_ 15y ago
  Yeah, it's built in and explains some of it, but VAT is only 20%, so the difference is still very noticeable.
  - colin_jack 15y ago
    I believe the exchange rate right now explains some of it too, particularly as Apple haven't adjusted their prices in the UK to reflect it. I did read they'd adjusted their Canadian prices for the same reason though.
swombat 15y ago
I think this has been discussed a number of times, both on and off HN, and the final word on this is that the difference is made up of VAT and various importation taxes levied by the UK government. So, blame Her Majesty, not Apple...
- colin_jack 15y ago

ludwigvan 15y ago

One interesting thing to note is almost all the Mac's now have ATI cards, some Intel, and no NVIDIA. http://www.apple.com/mac/ http://www.apple.com/mac/ When did this change happen? What would this mean for someone developing cuda apps, then?

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
younata 15y ago
I imagine about the same time NVIDIA announced they were getting out of manufacturing graphics cards?

aznwhtey 15y ago

Does anyone know if the Thunderbolt on the MacBook Air supports multiple displays?

yardie 15y ago
The Intel HD3000 can only support one 2560x1600 display and the built-in. It's safe to say it can't do multiples. And the TB->DVI adapter only has one DVI interface so you can't even try 2 lower resolution monitors.

chopsueyar 15y ago

I want the i7 one.

deltriggah 15y ago

I want a 15 inch Macbook Air

deltriggah 15y ago

I want a 15 inch Macbook Air

BornInTheUSSR 15y ago

I just bought the maxed out 13 inch air in October, and it's been a great dev machine (rails, ios) someone please talk me out getting the newest shiniest for no good reason

joeguilmette 15y ago
i bought the maxed out 13" last year as well. pulling out my credit card...
- markbao 15y ago
  Don't do it! You really don't have more important things to spend $2000 on? Fight the power :)
  - Locke1689 15y ago
    To be fair, 2k isn't much more than my weekly salary and I'm an intern.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  - joeguilmette 15y ago
    I'm selling my current model for about what I spent on it (got an employee discount from a friend). So it's only costing about $200 to upgrade :)
kelnos 15y ago
I'm having trouble resisting as well. On used Mac sites, the maxed out 11" 2nd-gen is going for around $1150 (maybe lower in some places?). The maxed out 11" 3rd-gen costs $1650. I could upgrade for $500+tax. (Or $400+less-tax if I'm willing to wait for my sister to buy it for me with her edu discount in a lower-tax state and mail it to me...) So difficult. I'm worried about the Intel graphics, but I bet they're much better supported under Linux than the 320M is.

deltriggah 15y ago

i want a 15 inch air

lispm 15y ago

Now the questions are: * how warm will the MacBook Air get with the Thunderbolt in use / not in use? Will the fan kick in more often? * what effect has the i5 or i7 wrt. to heat? * will the average battery runtime be better or worse? Are the Apple numbers realistic? From what I hear, the Thunderbolt MacBook Pros are using the fans to cool the machine more often.

ascendant 15y ago
I have a current gen MBP with a core i7 and I don't really hear the fans that often, and I'm usually running a lot of stuff at once.
- kayoone 15y ago
  i have a current gen MBP with a core i7 Quad-Core 2.2Ghz and while attached to an external display the fans get noisy pretty fast. I basically gave up working on GPU intensive stuff on the MBP because the fans annoy me.

purephase 15y ago

Damnit..

saturdaysaint 15y ago

A maxed out 11" MBA (which unfortunately comes to a mere $50 less than the comparable 13") with a 27" Cinema Display sounds like my dream rig - complete flexibility between portability and comfort/expandability (when connected to the spacious and port-packed display).

joshklein 15y ago

I'm going to be purchasing the 13" MBA, and I'm trying to decide between the baseline version and the maxed out version. I would pay the $100 to upgrade to the i7, but one can only do so by also paying $300 for the 256GB of memory. Honestly, the 256GB memory vs 128GB isn't important to me (most of my stuff is small files or in the cloud), so I'm finding it hard to justify $400 for the better processor. Any advice from those with MBA in the wild? This is replacing a 3 year old MB I use as my primary machine, and my laptops tend to last me at least 2 years.

jrockway 15y ago
The i7 is going to use less power for a given workload because it will be asleep more.
- dlehman 15y ago
  Is this true? For the same workload, would the i7 processor shorten or lengthen battery life? If it's the same or better, $100 for the \i7 upgrade seems like a no-brainer. Or am I missing something?
  - lovskogen 15y ago
    You're missing that it's $400, not $100, which made it hard to decide.
crazygringo 15y ago
For regular computer stuff, my 2nd-gen Macbook Air works like a dream, and in day-to-day use it's the SSD that makes it so much faster than my work computer with a normal HD. In the SSD era, if you don't use videogames or do video rendering, I don't think processor speed matters that much anymore. (Cue mobs with torches...)
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- 15y ago

ilmare 15y ago

Did apple add kensington lock in new models? If not are there any viable options(besides carrying notebook or have lockable drawer)?

notahaxor 15y ago

Great specs to go along with the great looks. I'm still disappointed that the smaller model uses a squished 16:9 ratio screen, it's useless for writing anything longer than a tweet. Also, I hope the now backlit keyboards see some improvement in tactile feel, I thought these were a weak point on the previous generation.

wyclif 15y ago

Any good recommendations for a sleeve or messenger bag that is good for the 13" MBA and is form fitting so it doesn't slide around inside the bag/sleeve?

jolan 15y ago
http://www.booqbags.com/13-inch-macbook-air-bags http://www.booqbags.com/13-inch-macbook-air-bags
- wyclif 15y ago
  That "Viper Hardcase 13" looks ideal. Thanks.

pedalpete 15y ago

I had been eyeing up a Samsung series 9 laptop, but the Air now has a faster processor, larger ssd drive and a lower price. Competitors are going to be VERY hard pressed to compete with this device I think.

mcculley 15y ago

D'oh. We just received three new MacBook Airs on Monday that we ordered last week. We haven't even deployed them yet. I wonder if Apple offers any ability to ship these back and get the new faster ones.

nolanbrown23 15y ago
If they aren't custom configured I think it's easy to send them back for new ones. I thought Apple typically let you exchange without fees if you bought within 30 days of a refresh.

BillSaysThis 15y ago

Space constraints or not, the 4GB limitation is annoying. I'm using a two month old 13" MBA, which will go to replace the wife's 2007 white MacBook once I get to the Apple Store, and the dashed hope of getting 8GB has dampened my enthusiasm. But not cancelled it completely ;)

lean 15y ago

Isn't the Intel HD 3000 a downgrade from the previous-gen MBA's Nvidia GeForce 320? http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.... http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-320M.28701.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-320M.28701.0.htm...

kayoone 15y ago
roughly the same. For the Sandy Bridge platform there is no other choice anyway as a dedicated nvidia chip wouldnt fit and draw more power.

mahyarm 15y ago

Almost as good as a Vaio Z12. It just needs an 8GB RAM option and 13" 1080p.

dmarble 15y ago
Almost? If you live and die by external design and feel (trackpad, keyboard, sturdiness) than most everything but a Macbook will seem inferior, but overall if you're an equal-opportunity platform user and want the thinnest and lightest complete desktop replacement like me, I don't think it's remotely close. I'm typing this on a year-old Z11, which you can pick up used now for about the cost of a MBA, with: * Core i5 520m * 8GB RAM * 256GB SSD * DVD+RW * Switchable graphics w/ GeForce GT 330M (1GB) * 1600x900 13" matte display * HDMI out * VGA out * Gigabit ethernet * 3 USB 2.0 ports * Fingerprint reader * Expresscard 34 * 3 lbs * swappable 4 hr standard battery, 7 hr extended battery If you need everything in a thin-and-light, the last generation of Sony Z was pretty unbeatable. I heartily recommend a used model to devs I meet. Even still, I was seriously considering getting the new MBA, as the Sony is flimsy with so much crammed into it, the trackpad is tiny, much of my dev work targets *nix, and I'd like to get into some iOS projects. But 4GB max? If they'd offered 8GB RAM, I might have pulled the trigger.
- mahyarm 15y ago
  I'm an iPhone developer and Hackintosh just doesn't work. I'm stuck on apple machines, anything else is an exercise in frustration.

LetBinding 15y ago

I am about to embark on a 18-month long data mining project, where I'll be developing Python NLP software for recognizing patterns in textual data. Will the MBA be a good machine for this? Ideally I should get something with more horsepower, but if the MBA suffices, then I feel its portability will really increase my productivity.

davidst 15y ago
Is 4GB RAM enough for your project? If so, you're probably fine. I do a lot of statistical ML (feel free to AMA) and chafe at the 32GB limit of the machines I'm using.
- LetBinding 15y ago
  I could use all the RAM available. Ideally I would need 8 GB. But my thinking is that with the high I/O throughput of the SSD in the Air, swapping from disk won't lead to a perceptible performance drop. I will occasionally have access to a server for particularly intensive tasks. But I would like to be able to code from my bed, in a coffee shop, library, bus, etc. Hence my fascination for the Air. What kind of stuff do you do that uses up 32 GB RAM? Is your data set huge, or are your algorithms RAM intensive?
  - davidst 15y ago
    I'm gathering statistics on words, phrases and a few other things from a medium-sized (about a terabyte) corpus. There are several billion that aren't hapaxes. That's just the initial feature collection pass. Next, I'm looking for correlations among these features. It's a challenge to make it fit in 32GB. A lot of effort goes into bit-twiddling to make things fit and into algorithms that try to be intelligent about what to keep and what to discard.