
As MacBook Air ages, Apple rivals show the way to Retina - vellum
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57606096-37/as-macbook-air-ages-apple-rivals-show-the-way-to-retina/
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aaronbrethorst
Pff, I bet you the three laptops mentioned in this article can't hold a candle
to the Air's 12 hour battery life. Given that Apple has been shipping both
larger and smaller retina displays for a while now, I'm sure they could add
one to the MBA if they felt so inclined, and must have a good reason to not do
it. Like, say, battery life.

Let's see:

HP Spectre 13 - "up to 9 hours of battery life" \-
[http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ads/new-
products/spectre-13-ultrabo...](http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ads/new-
products/spectre-13-ultrabook.html) (and then the small text: "Battery life
will vary depending on numerous factors including product model,
configuration, loaded applications, features, use, wireless functionality, and
power management settings" \-- so basically, you'd have to have a stock
configuration of Windows and not touch it to see nine hours. Useful.)

Dell XPS 11 - ??? - The laptop hasn't shipped yet, it seems, and no one's
saying how the battery is.

Sony Vaio Pro 11 - "battery life in excess of 6 hours"
[http://www.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-
pro-11/4505-3121_7-357...](http://www.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-
pro-11/4505-3121_7-35781039-1.html)

~~~
FireBeyond
Yes, because only Apple has access to Haswell processors.

"Battery life will vary depending on numerous factors including product model,
configuration, loaded applications, features, use, wireless functionality, and
power management settings”

Apparently the MBA doesn’t require battery to run its Wifi, either...

~~~
MetaCosm
The 1.3Ghz 13" crushes other portables in 3rd party battery tests, getting
12:51 on engadgets movie test ([http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/13/macbook-
air-review/](http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/13/macbook-air-review/)). While
being light and easy to tote.

It is more than just the processor, this is one place where Apple's sourcing
and close hardware/software bonding really shows value.

For me, it was a bit of a game changer, because I can charge it at home like a
cell phone rather than dragging around the power supply and cables in my bag
like I used to.

Excluding special "sheet batteries" and other basically external batteries,
there are only a handful of laptops that are in the ballpark, and they are all
significantly more bulky.

Lenovo 9-Cell T430 and X230 beat it out battery wise (slightly), and the Dell
E6430 and HP 2570p come close. Out of those, the only one near it weight wise
and size is the X230 -- and with the 9 cell battery it is still over half a
pound heavier (3.5 versus 2.9). Also, the X230 as configured to beat Apple is
slower and $650 more.

~~~
ankushnarula
And of course with the impending release of OS X Mavericks - which is highly
focused on optimizing power consumption - we will get even more battery life
out of our MacBooks. Based on preliminary beta reports the 2013 13" MBA will
get closer to 14 hours in real world usage.

~~~
selectodude
My retina MacBook gets 2 additional hours of real world usage on Mavericks.
Amazing update.

------
programminggeek
I own the current MacBook Air and I don't care about retina. Yes, it would be
nice, but I prefer the extra battery life. It's the best computer I've ever
used.

~~~
evli
I own a retina and the battery life is simply horrendous.

~~~
Moto7451
I spent 4 hours on a plane on Friday using my 15" MBPr the entire allowable
time (4 ticks of screen brightness)and still had 50% of my battery left.
Hardly what I'd call horrendous.

------
thefreeman
off topic, but I have been looking to get a new laptop and could use some
opinions. My past laptop purchases have been pretty much a failure as I always
opted for large 'desktop replacement' style laptops which in the end basically
defeat the purpose of having a laptop in the first place.

This time, I want to make sure my laptop is portable and lasts a while on
battery. I know tons of developers love the MBP but I am having a hard time
reconciling the 1000ish dollar difference between equivalent windows based
machines, along with the fact that I am not a big fan of apple and will be
putting Linux on whatever machine I get regardless.

I guess my real question is, is there anyone out there who has tried both
sides of the spectrum and can speak to whether any 'ultrabooks' can compare to
the MBP in terms of screen quality, portability, and power. Or should I just
bite the bullet and go for a MBP. My main use cases are standard development
stuff. Relatively resource hungry Jet brains IDE, virtualization, etc.

Any opinions are appreciated.

~~~
innino
I have a new MBA and it's superb, I'm really satisfied.

That said I'd suggest waiting for Lenovo's new Thinkpads to become available
before making a decision. If the new Thinkpad Yoga's digitizer works with
Linux it would be a pretty impressive competitor to the MBA, surpassing it in
every are except perhaps battery (just depends on how it reviews.) I'm not
sure if the TP Yoga has a soft-touch finish though, that's one area where I
would go for a Thinkpad over a Macbook, cold aluminium is attractive but not
so flesh-friendly.

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city41
I really don't think retina is that big of a deal. I've owned a MBPr since
they launched. But I also regularly use standard res screens, and I barely
even notice the difference.

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37prime
My rule of thumb: If it’s a CNET article, don’t bother reading it.

------
msoad
At least for developers who basically do all their work in an OS it's not easy
to switch between OSX and Windows, even if Windows machine is way better in
spec you have to wait for Apple for better product. Simply because switching
from Windows to Mac and vise versa doesn't worth it most of times.

Switching between Linux and Mac is easier but when you put Linux on those
machines you lose a lot of battery life optimization and maybe even certain
hardware!

~~~
isaacwaller
If you use Windows you can choose from any hardware on the market, including
Macs; if you use OS X, you are limited to only Apple-produced machines.
Perhaps a reason to make the switch?

------
jrs99
Is the article written by a guy that can't wait any longer for Apple to
release a new macbook air? Seems like he's dying for it to come out.

------
chadhietala
This man suffers from a case of what I now call "CK Syndrome". Everything is
awesome and he's still complaining.

------
coryl
I have a 2011 air. If they can make an MBA with retina and good battery life,
it's an instant buy for me.

~~~
Demiurge
Me too, but I was hoping for this year... At this point it looks it will be
one more year.

------
eonil
I never seen any non-Apple laptop which can actually live over 1~2 hours with
only battery from first. They advertises something a lot, but nothing's
trustworthy.

MacBook battery also ages and decreases, but at least it's usable for a few
years unlike others which is unusable from first.

------
leephillips
While it's interesting to know about the screen resolution in these new
laptops, I notice that that's usually the only aspect of the display mentioned
in this type of superficial article. Just as important is the color gamut,
color accuracy, etc.

------
adamnemecek
"It's certainly doable."

I love these sorts of armchair tech pundit comments.

------
lelandbatey
The thing I'm dying for is the trifecta:

\- 1080p+ resolution

\- 8 hour battery life (of actual use, say listening to music, web browsing
and typing)

\- Excellent keyboard

Pretty much nothing else matters to me.

~~~
nwh
That's pretty much just the Retina MacBook right there.

~~~
tomlu
My retina gets about 3-4 hours, so I don't think 8 hours is a real
possibility.

~~~
nwh
Disable your dedicated GPU.

[http://gfx.io/](http://gfx.io/)

------
JoshTko
I think the fact that the author replaced his Macbook Air with another Mac
says it all.

------
dman
Can someone with the haswell air comment on whether it gets hot under load?

~~~
kenrikm
Never heats up.. like ever - even running games it stays cool.

~~~
innino
Well, not quite true, mine gets warm playing Fez.

