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An 11.88” Retina MacBook Air
- marknutter 13y agoThis is exactly what I've been waiting for to replace my current 11" MacBook Air. I hope the rumor is true!
- dmarusic16 13y agoExcept I think the author has this wrong: it won't be "Air" but "Pro", and will be thicker than the Air and more expensive.
- dagw 13y agoMore expensive is OK, significantly thicker and heavier is a deal breaker.
- matthewmacleod 13y agoI guess, but would you consider the existing 13" MBP to be "significantly" thicker and heavier? There's already very little differentiation between the models.
- glhaynes 13y agoI bought a 13" MBP to replace my 11" MBA because I was tired of waiting for retina and the size/weight difference seemed negligible. Regretted it within a couple of days of just using it around the house. On a purely numbers basis, the difference doesn't seem significant (hence how I talked myself into the purchase), but there's a massive "human scale" threshold that's crossed in that difference. IMO, an 11" MBA feels more "like an iPad" in those respects vs. a 13" MBP very much feeling "like a computer".
- seunosewa 13y agoYou're comparing apples and oranges: the 13" Retina Mabook Pro should be compared with the 13" Macbook Air & not the 11" Air.
- farinasa 13y agoWhich is exactly why an 11 inch retina would sell well. There is no small pro.
- glhaynes 13y agoIt would be a better comparison in some ways, you're right. Still, when I've picked up a 13" MBA, it's felt more similar to an 11" MBA than a 13" MBP to me, in large part I think because of the difference in thickness: both MBAs are "0.3-1.7 cm" while the 13" MBP is 1.8 cm all the way through. The weight also puts the 13" Air halfway between the 11" MBA and 13" MBP. Not knowing more about the specs of this hypothetical 12" machine, I'm theorizing it'd be approximately halfway between the 11" and 13" Air in size/weight. That of course may not be right, but it seems unlikely to be way off. So, while my comparison is hypothetical and imperfect, I don't feel it's quite apples and oranges, either.
- dagw 13y agoYes I would. I know the difference looks small on paper, but I find the difference huge in day to day use. For example I can curl up on the sofa and comfortable use my 11" MBA cradle in one arm, I can't do that with the 13" MBP.
- mkumm 13y agoAnyone else find it strange that the "blog" only has one post?
- danmatte 13y agoIt's my first blog post, simple as that. Will probably write about other 2014 Apple products next.
- jseliger 13y agoThis new model would certainly represent one step towards John Siracusa’s goal for Apple to “introduce more, better Retina Macs” in 2014. This makes sense to me: I'm actually replacing a 2008-era MacBook with a Retina MBP primarily because of the screen and the machine's smaller physical size. A couple people in my firm are also using older but still functional iMacs, and we'll replace those when the Retina versions hit. Better displays are actually compelling reasons to update (despite what I wrote here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/mac-os-10-7-is-out-today-and-i-dont-care-because-in-the-beginning-was-the-command-line/ http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/mac-os-10-7-is-out-... a couple years ago).
- nandhp 13y agoThis links to the front page of the blog; here's a permalink: http://www.fpblog.net/blog/2014/1/20/an-1188-retina-macbook-air http://www.fpblog.net/blog/2014/1/20/an-1188-retina-macbook-...
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- gushie 13y agoWhat a poor headline. It only goes to 2 decimal places, not nearly enough accuracy for us to know whether it is suitable for our needs!! I really need an 11.88483" laptop...
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- auctiontheory 13y agoTime to upgrade from my 2009 MBP? It's so hard to "throw away" a perfectly functional laptop that does everything I need - just not as well (I realize) as a faster, lighter, machine would.
- protomyth 13y agoI would wait a bit for reports of how well the retina displays are doing. I have a MBP 15" that I need to take back in to get the display replaced since it ghosts the old images for minutes. Also, I am curious if the chipset drives the display decently.
- mikhailt 13y agoIf the article linked here is correct, there's nothing to worry about because it's the same panel as the iPad's screens, just slightly bigger.
- grapeshot 13y agoThere will probably be multiple suppliers of these displays, like there were for the Macbook Pros. If the new panel is IPS and from LG, it will probably have the same ghosting problem. (If you have a LG IPS display, you can see this issue clearly by watching a Youtube video in a window for 15-30 minutes and then immediately loading Metafilter in the same window.)
- danmatte 13y agoActually, I would buy right away. Apple generally sources higher-binned (higher quality) components early on. i.e., only Samsung panels when the Retina MBP first launched in 2012. Broadwell will be perfectly capable of driving the display.
- keithpeter 13y agoIf you want the new shiny, just sell your old MPB on. Stays out of landfill, makes someone happy &c. Else, just 'Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without'. Is there anything your laptop can't do that is important to you?
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- smackfu 13y agoIf they are both Retina, then the weight difference is the biggest deal. Reducing the screen size from 13" to 12" would let them make it significantly lighter than the MacBook Pro.
- pulmo 13y agoRight. And people will ask themselves ... why have I paid more for a heavier notebook?
- dagw 13y agoI imagine that a 12" retina MBA will mean the death of the 13" MBP. I further imagine that Apple is perfectly OK with that.
- XorNot 13y agoI'm really struggling to imagine customers are going to be ok with that. Just because a smallish form factor proved propular doesn't mean you're not suddenly going to find a size which is a dealbreaker. 12" is tiny and doesn't really improve portability for a laptop-like device (which goes in a backpack).
- rsynnott 13y agoSooner or later, it's likely that all non-Retina Macs will go away. Probably not this year, though. The screen is hardly the only differentiator between the Air and Pro; current 13" Pros have a CPU of twice the frequency of that found in the current Air, and far faster graphics, while the 15" Pro has quad cores, faster again graphics, and an option for discrete graphics.
- mikhailt 13y agoThere will not be any more non-Retina displays from Apple in the near future (2 years max), they're just waiting for the fabs to catch up and for the costs to drop. This is one of the ways to do this, by reusing the iPad's screen technologies to adopt it for the Airs. This makes all the sense in the world to do, especially if Apple wants to keep it at 999$ priceline. Apple will be seem as "falling behind" if they do not get rid of their non-retina displays sooner as the rest of the industry starts to catch up. Especially with Sharp's IGZO panels being used in many new products being released this year. Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc are all going to be releasing 4K displays in addition to including retina-class displays for their tablets and laptops.
- hartator 13y agoMy dream: A black 14" macbook air with a retina display. Hug!
- kybernetyk 13y agoHmm, isn't the MBA mainly about mobility and battery life? Wouldn't a retina display drain too much power?
- lnanek2 13y agoSupposedly the new panel is IGZO, which should take less power than previously. I use a retina macbook pro as my daily driver, but I don't even care about the retina myself. I guess I do care about battery life and lightness, though. I suppose retina is a good bullet point for them over other laptops, though, so maybe it is worth it for them for improving sales.
- mikhailt 13y agoCorrect, that's one of the screen technologies that is supposedly already in place for the new iPad Airs.
- dombili 13y agoThat's true and Apple probably knows that. They wouldn't add retina screen to MBA and compromise on battery life. Battery life would probably stay the same.
- ChuckMcM 13y agoMy guess would be that it is for the new iPad pro not a Macbook.
- danmatte 13y agoThere are good reasons to think that they really are separate products.
- ulfw 13y agoI'd prefer a 13" form factor personally, but I'd still be excited to upgrade from my trusted 2010 13 MBA. What a wonderful workhorse that has been so far!
- rayiner 13y agoMe too. That model is a champion.
- mahyarm 13y agoNext, give us dual cpu socket mac pros!
- jsz0 13y agoAn 11/12" MacBook Air with a touchscreen that could also run iOS apps with cellular connectivity would be the ideal iPad Pro for my needs. Using a touchscreen on a small laptop is no worse than using an iPad in a stand or flat on a desk.
- shurcooL 13y agoIt frustrates me more than it should when these high profile articles make mistakes about basic Mac hardware facts. >.< > Recall that Apple made the discrete GPU-less 13.3” Retina MacBook Pro thinner last year, but not the 15.4” model. These facts would match up nicely with a three-tier laptop segmentation strategy. Eventually, Apple would sell only three Retina MacBooks ranging from thinnest to thickest, stratified by price and screen size: 11.9”, 13.3”, and 15.4”. The latest 13" rMBP was made thinner than the 13" rMBP before it, but it only _caught up_ to the thinness of the original 15" rMBP. The first 13" rMBP was actually thicker than 15" rMBP (something I found quite odd when it first happened). (Mid 2012, Early 2013, Late 2013) 15" rMBP - 0.71 in high (Late 2012, Early 2013) 13" rMBP - 0.75 in high (Late 2013) 13" rMBP - 0.71 in high So that entire paragraph is making an argument based on an incorrect statement.
- danmatte 13y agoGood catch. I'll update the post. To clarify, what I meant by three-tier: 11.9" Retina Air - slightly thicker than the current Air 13.3" Retina Pro 15.4" Retina Pro And the older Air would stick around for a while. I really doubt Apple would throw away the Air branding or thinner design.
- shurcooL 13y agoThanks for fixing that. :)
- snowwrestler 13y agoTo create the MacBook Air, Apple took out the spinning HD, the optical drive, and soldered in the battery. To create the new Retina MacBook Pro, Apple took out the spinning HD, optical drive, and soldered in the battery. But they also put in a Retina display--as well as the more powerful GPU and larger battery it requires The current MacBook Pro IS the Retina Air in everything but name only. It's the thinnest and lightest laptop that Apple can make with a retina display. In summary: the hard part of a Retina Air is not the pixel density, the hard part is the power. Any blog post that does not address that question is not adding much to the conversation.
- dhruvmittal 13y agoI really wish more people recognized this relationship between the number of pixels and power necessary to drive those pixels. Journalists seem to constantly call for higher pixel densities on everything, ignoring the practical reasons and tradeoffs that must be considered. The current Macbook Pro/Air situation is fairly elegant- it's a simple tradeoff between portability and resolution when you choose between the two 13" Macbooks. And it's not as if you get shafted by that choice, given how similar the machines are aside from their displays.
- baddox 13y agoI don't understand your point. Technology improves over time, and it's reasonable to expect that Apple will create an even smaller laptop with a Retina display which it might call a "Macbook Air."
- cenhyperion 13y ago> Technology improves over time Not so much in battery tech. It's really holding back a lot of hardware innovation on computers and also holding back the viability of EVs for many consumers.
- mikhailt 13y agoThat is true but CPUs and panels do decrease in power usage over time to the point that you can adopt Retina in MBA without harming the battery life. Not to mention if they find a way to cut down on the weight, they can also increase the battery's capacity. The Retina display in iPad Air is much more power efficient compared to the retina display in 3rd gen iPad due to reduction of backlight LEDs and move to IGZO type of panel.