New MacBook (Air?) 2018

Anyone else excited for the potential release of a new Macbook/Macbook Air next week? It seems all but certain that it will be unveiled.

Key considerations which may determine whether it is a success or not (other than price)

- Screen/Bezels. Will it give it a meaningful update.
- CPU. Will it use Kaby Lake Refresh (old) or Whiskey Lake (new).
- TouchID. Rumors of it including TouchID have been circulating, but if they don't deliver this, they will be behind all those that offer Window's Hello
- Battery. The previous Air was loved for it's really long battery life, will it continue to deliver.

Will be interesting to see what direction Apple goes with this, it could be a huge hit.

The original Air came out 10 years ago, back in 2008, so Apple may make a big deal out of it.

 

I highly doubt that it would have Touch ID, I mean everything else has Face ID and all of a sudden this new product has Touch ID? That does not seem likely to me..

 

Macbook Air is secretly my favorite Apple laptop, I hope it gets a decent refresh instead of being truncated. MBA is faster, more useful, cheaper than the "Macbook" lol. Coupled with student savings and best buy events, I was able to get a 13" model for 750$ brand new a couple years back.

 

The only way they could implement FaceID is if they use the solution Window's laptops use, which is IR only (not that secure) - which I don't think they will do. The FaceID they use on the phone (with its dot projector), from what I've read, technology isn't there to implement on the laptop without making the screen significantly thicker.

Perhaps they have made those advances, though I doubt it since the MacBook Pro's still don't have it.

 

For developers (who most of the time are writing code), it is the best because for us, comfort is king on the go. It will be slower when doing builds/etc but most of the time, since you're just writing, it is a good balance between performance and usability.

If I was a video/photo editor with large exports/encoding which take sometimes over 10-20 minutes, I can see why an Air won't cut it. But in development, this is rarely the case, even more so as we use a lot of VM's etc in our work which do the major horsepower stuff.

 

All MacBook Pros have touch ID. Why would it surprise you if the new Air would have it too?

 

900p screen

 

13" display

 

I'd at least go with FHD even on a 13" display tbh

 

I’d be surprised if Apple even replaces the MBA. Isn’t the MacBook 12” basically the modern MBA already?

 

No. MacBook has weaker processor and less ports. MBA actually has more utility.

 

Has better everything, apart from the screen/bezels!

 

The bezels do not bother me at all, in fact I like bezels as they serve as a buffer zone away from the fringes of the display to minimize risk of damage. Resolution of 900P is fine at 13.3" display. Only thing I could ask more from the MBA display is higher color gamut and brightness. Other than that, it is a perfect thin-n-light companion computer. At least I don't need a dongle to hook my iphone into it!

 

It does have Touch ID:

 

And Apple has done it again, taking a once decent machine and turning it to complete sh!t again. Goodbye magsafe, goodbye standard USB ports, goodbye sd card slot. Very strange they chose to keep the headphone jack, I expect that will also be gone in the next refresh. So to recap:
Pros of the 2018 model

• Higher gamut, higher resolution display
• Stronger/more efficient Processors
• TouchID
• Forcetouch Trackpad

Cons of the 2018 model

• No standard USB 3.0A
• No MagSafe
• No SD Card Slot
• Extremely limited ports (2 x USB C only)
• 200$ Price hike over the old model while retaining the 128GB base storage (are you fvcking kidding me, in 2018??)

Carryover from 2017 Model

• Headphone jack

Screw you Apple, continuing to become more and more greedy, charging more for less. Not only do I NEED a dongle to hook up my iPhone 8, but I'm reduced to a SINGLE PORT when I hook in my new MBA to charge. Magsafe was amazing, and I could hook in my 2017 model + have 2 USB ports + thunderbolt, with an SD card inserted. I pray for your downfall one day soon.

 

I'm more interested in the new Mac Mini. It'd be expensive, but you could create a neat productivity/gaming machine by pairing it with an eGPU. I may pick one up when they start hitting the refurb store.

 

You’re too kind.

The previous Air and the 2016 non- Touch Bar Pro had 15W CPU’s

The non-Touch Bar Pro also has a 500 nit P3 display.

What does the new Air have?

5W CPU and a ****ty non-P3 300 nit display.

The price difference between it and a 13” Pro Touch Bar doesn’t justify how **** they made it. It’s even made of recycled aluminium and it’s still so expensive. Should knock off £200 off it at least.

 

I suppose I have to eat Crow, I was wrong it does heve touch-id although right now I have a regular Macbook Pro 15 inch I would imagine in the future I'd more than likely end up having a Macbook Air as my "Pro" toolage on my macbook has been slowly diminishing. The only thing I currently need out of it is the 15 inch display as I perform more of my heavy CPU or GPU tasks on my Razer Blade 15...

So while many of you are disappointed with this system, I find myself likely migrating to this system in the next 3 years or so lol... Because it's not like the Macbook Pro is getting any cheaper nor worth it's current price tag...

 

Only $100 cheaper and .25 lbs/120g lighter than the MBP. Uses a fanless CPU.
Why? Why does this design still exist? This is so dumb. No one in their right mind would even bother with this new "Air" when they can just get a Pro for only $100 more.

Not to mention 2.75 lbs/1.25 kg is really heavy for a fanless laptop. There are over a dozen 13" Windows laptops running 15W CPUs that are LIGHTER than the new MBA. They barely shaved off weight from the old MBA chassis (2.98 lbs/1.35 kg). And 100% recycled aluminum? More like 100% recycled MBA.

What they've should've done is use the 12" Macbook's design for the new MBA. The modern MBP 13 has already taken place of the old Air.

 

This **** is turning into like Cars either BMW or Mercedes. Basically the highest class car gets all of the upgrades and over the years it just trickles down to the smaller cards. So pretty much the next edition Macbook Air will have touchbar! Great...

 

Full, honest review of Apple October MacBook Air, Mac Mini, iPad Pro update.
Peter Paul Chato
Published on Oct 30, 2018
153- A wide-ranging philosophical soup of happiness and angst as I weigh in on the new MacBook Air, Mac mini and iPad Pro. I have a long history with Apple and their products. I hate Apple because I love them. The supreme neglect of the Mac line has been painful for me to comment on. Has Apple responded to Mac lovers who can't afford an iMac Pro? I want to know.

New iPad Pro/MacBook Air and Mac Mini Reactions! Plus, iOS 12.1!
Brian Tong
Published on Oct 31, 2018
How many Good or Bad Apple’s are getting dished out? It’s my reactions to arguably Apple's best keynote this year with the undeniably stellar iPad Pro, a new MacBook Air and a new Mac Mini. No AirPower no AirPods 2. And will the iPad Mini be gone in a year? Plus, new features in iOS 12.1

Spoiler: Click to See Video

AMD’s Vega Mobile Lives: Vega Pro 20 & 16 in Updated MacBook Pros In November
by Ryan Smith on October 30, 2018 5:00 PM EST
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ga-polaris-gpus.799348/page-519#post-10815293

 

MacBook Air Review - The Magic is Gone
Dave Lee
Published on Nov 8, 2018
Dave2D review of the 2018 Apple MacBook Air. The new Macbook Air is the cheapest laptop from Apple with the modern styling. It is also one of the best laptop for students from Apple. It has had some big improvements like a retina display and much improved hardware but the pricing isn't as attractive anymore.

 

I am very wary of the direction Apple is going, they are becoming more like a luxury designer brand than a computing company.

 

I have an iPhone X, it's a good phone, I don't love Apple. They make some decent products, they make a lot of terrible ones. They are making their decent ones way more expensive.

 

Watch the blazing CB15 performance

2018 MacBook Air vs 2015 MacBook Air, CineBench R15 Performance - Netcruzer TECH
Netcruzer RC TECH CARS
Published on Nov 9, 2018
Is the New 2018 MacBook Air any faster than the previous MacBook Air? 2018 Intel Core i5 8210Y 7watt Y series CPU vs 2015 Intel Core i5 5250U 15watt U series CPU. Both MacBook Air are dual core with hyperthreading, 8GB RAM, and 128GB NVMe SSD. Cinebench R15 CPU and OpenGL Test.

 

Apple May Have Considered Releasing a 2018 MacBook Air With Faster Core i7 Processor
Friday November 9, 2018 8:39 am PST by Joe Rossignol
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/09/2018-macbook-air-core-i7-geekbench/

"...The apparent MacBook Air with a Core i7 chip has a multi-core score of 8,553 on Geekbench, which would make it roughly 8.5 percent faster than the average multi-core score of the existing option with a Core i5..."

AngerDanger
1 day ago at 09:00 am
"Just think of the milliseconds that could be saved performing tasks on this unreleased MacBook…"

Comments

 

I wonder will the air have the same insanely fragile screen the pro has? You look at th screen the wrong way and it shatters.

 

It’s an Apple laptop, so it’s very likely.

 

I wasn't expecting the new MacBook Air to be anything revolutionary. I kinda figured it was the 12" Macbook Refresh that everyone wanted. But after watching snazzy labs video I'm questioning why did they make it this way? It's in an odd place costing between the macbook and the macbook pro. But, it performs like a Macbook. And having a fan in a chassis that doesn't connect to the cpu? Why? I'd be curious to see how it performs with an external gpu since it has thunderbolt.

 

IMO the magic left apple Oct 5th, 2011.

 

Slowly, but surely, they have wandered off course like they did the first time around when Scully and co ousted him. *sigh*

 

Yep, Stocks are proving that too. Apple is in a nose dive, and MS just over took them for the most valuable company! Good on Microsoft. NOW, get on with making Windows 10 more touch friendly please!

I guess people are starting to get tired of the same devices and software every year and apple ringing the bell on stage how AMAZING they are. I almost jumped ship to the new air. The more I looked at how much apple is gouging you for upgrades, I said NOPE. Plus MacOS is a MESS! The only thing apple has going for it is it's "polish". Everything looks pretty. I am an apple iPhone / ipad user right now because they have the tablet thing down. Once Mr MS gets his head out of the cloud and back to business of making windows more touch friendly, I am ditching my ipad and iPhone, moving to a surface go LTE and an LG stylo Plus phone.

 

What exactly are you looking for Microsoft to improve? I've used touch on the surface pro devices and the older razer blade laptops and loved it. Only thing was I didn't like clicking links on the Razer because they were too little to click. On the surface it was fine since I was using the surface pen.

 

They need to make tablet mode into windows 8. Gestures, and just the overall feel of windows 8 as tablet mode in windows 10.

 

I do wish Microsoft stopped imposing us their charging solution on the Surface lineup and give us the much requested TB3 port!

 

But then they can't gouge you on the surface dock.

Think of the investors, don't be an entitled prick.

/s

 

Yes, just like the poor shareholders at DONGLES R US.....er I mean Apple.

 

, agreed, though GestureSign is a nice opensource program to easily add custom gestures. You can also export/import them so you basically just need to set it up it once.
Just noticed it is also on the Windows Store, don't know if there are any differences with the desktop app.

 

It's not just gestures. It's the overall layout of tablet mode. They just need to make tablet mode, 8.1 and it would be amazing!

 

, most can be fixed by adding gestures however. E.g. if you watch this video: , you will see that besides the gestures it is mostly smooth animations that made the W8 tablet mode better. Especially if you put the taskbar in W10 to the left (and possibly let it auto-hide). And of course things like auto-fullscreen for Edge would be nice and sometimes the onscreen keyboard is slow to react (I think this differs per laptop/tablet though).
Personally I prefer the overal interface (action center vs charms bar, having a taskbar etc) of Win 10.

 

I prefer the action center etc in desktop. but in tablet mode, the 8.1 is MILES ahead.

 

Vega 20 MacBook Pro - SOOO Much Better
Dave Lee
Published on Nov 21, 2018
Dave2D reviews AMD Vega 20 2018 MacBook Pro. Significantly faster performance for certain applications like Adobe Premiere. With a 6-core i9-8950HK this newly updated MacBook Pro can push out some serious GPU and CPU performance. Vega 20 and Vega 16 are some badly needed graphics upgrades on the 15" Apple MacBook Pro