
MacBook Air supplies dwindle ahead of WWDC, Intel CPU refresh - Libertatea
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/05/macbook-air-supplies-dwindle-ahead-of-wwdc-intel-cpu-refresh/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+All+content%29
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cstross
A month ago, I idly looked up BTO prices on store.apple.com/uk/ (I'm British)
as part of my annual "I wonder where the sweet spot's moved to" check.

13" Retina Probook with 2.5GHz i7 processor, 8Gb RAM, 512Gb SSD, costs ~
£1650.

13" Airbook with 2.0GHz i7 processor, 8Gb RAM, 512Gb SSD, costs ~ £1600.

So for an extra £50, you can go from the Airbook to the 13" Retina Probook.
You gain a _vastly_ better display and 20% faster CPU, in return for a 300
gram weight penalty.

My reading of this is that the 13" rMBP has massively eroded the value
proposition of the high-end 13" Airbook. So either the 13" Airbook price is
going to have to come down significantly, or the spec is going to have to
rise, or both. (Something like a 2.5GHz Haswell CPU and a £50-100 price cut
would begin to make it appealing again.)

~~~
ghshephard
An alternative perspective - for people that travel a lot, that 300 grams (.6
pounds) - is a deal breaker. Also, you really have to be a power user to need
more than a MacBook Air can give you in terms of performance - my 2010 4GB 256
GB SSD MBair is plenty fast for me, and I'm probably pushing it harder than
95% of "road warriors" do.

It may be the case that people value the mobility so much that Apple isn't
dropping the price on the MacBook Air. (Or, alternatively, people are no
longer buying the heavier MacBook Pro, so they've dropped it's price.)

~~~
coldtea
> _An alternative perspective - for people that travel a lot, that 300 grams
> (.6 pounds) - is a deal breaker._

I travel a lot, and even the 15" rMBP is not a "deal breaker".

It's funny how pathetic it would look to our fathers that we find 2.5 kg to
much to carry around in a bag...

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chicagobob
Agree 100%. I travel a lot and need more power. I currently have a 13" MBA,
and am waiting to see what the next refresh offers, but am seriously looking
at a 15" rMBP for my next machine. The screen is sooooo much better that the
extra weight becomes a non issue (plus all the extra CPU power is huge too).

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cpswan
I can live without Retina. I can live within 512GB SSD. But I really need 16GB
RAM... fingers crossed.

Haswell demos at IDF last year were pretty awesome, so I think longer battery
life at the same travel weight (and better overall performance) is pretty much
a given.

~~~
mtgx
We'll see about idle time, but active time won't be much better. The 17W IVB
chips will be replaced with 15W Haswell chips. Performance will only feel
better for "retina" laptops, because of a stronger GPU. The Haswell GPU will
barely be "adequate" for retina displays though. So don't expect to be "wowed"
or anything. IVB GPU wasn't adequate at all for retina displays. Haswell is
really the first generation that can _begin_ to handle retina displays with a
"PC OS".

If you don't use retina, you won't feel much of a difference, except in games
(if you were playing games on an Intel integrated GPU before). Haswell has
been generally overhyped. The improvements are relatively minor compared to
IVB. CPU wise I think it's only 5-10% faster.

~~~
cstross
IVB is adequate for retina display ... if paired with a sidecar like the
GeForce GT650M. Or used solely for typing and similar non-graphically-
intensive activities. (As on this rMBP 15").

Haswell promises _cheaper_ adequate performance, on less power. And speaking
as someone with retinal (eyeball, not electronic) trouble, I'm really looking
forward to a portable (i.e. 13") laptop with adequate performance that I can
work on. (My 15" rMBP is great for work in the home office, but a bit
heavy/bulky/expensive for carting around airports and foreign parts.)

(Don't expect to see a retina display on Macbook Air this year, though -- too
power hungry. It'll probably just be a better 13" retina Probook for now.)

~~~
Osmium
> IVB is adequate for retina display ... if paired with a sidecar like the
> GeForce GT650M. Or used solely for typing and similar non-graphically-
> intensive activities. (As on this rMBP 15").

Completely agree -- I think there were early performance issues which were due
to unoptimised drivers causing e.g. laggy Safari scrolling and that's caused a
lot of misinformation to be out there. The truth is that, in practice, the IVB
GPU has been more than fine for me unless I'm doing something that would
require a dedicated GPU anyway.

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antirez
Finger crossed for a retina 11" model with a very big SSD... if it does not
happen I'll probably use the money to get a big replacement SSD for my current
11" model instead, that's fast enough with its i7 for most programming tasks.

Edit: apparently my mid-2011 model is not capable of installing big enough
SSDs, so I'll have to upgrade anyway to the new model.

~~~
vvhn
>Edit: apparently my mid-2011 model is not capable of installing big enough
SSDs, so I'll have to upgrade anyway to the new model.

Are you sure ? It sure can take in these ( the same max capacity as the 2012
or 13" ones) <http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Air_2011>

Note : Apple doesn't upgrade the Macbook Air's SSD post purchase so you'd have
to get a third party one like the macsales one anyway.

~~~
rz2k
A note of caution: though you can upgrade the SSD on recent Macbook Airs, you
_cannot_ upgrade the RAM after purchase.

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gbrindisi
I have the first 13 Macbook Alumium, upgraded with SSD and 8gb of ram and
sometimes I'd like to upgrade to something newer but the thing is still
working perfectly. No crashes, no melting, no anything, simply indestructible.

When I will have to switch, it'll be a sad day.

~~~
tluyben2
I have that one as well and it's unbreakable indeed. I have also 8gb and SSD
and the thing is rocksolid. However, it's too slow when i'm working with
Xcode, Eclipse, Chrome and high performance apps. So I bought a 15 inch i7 to
go with it. Horrible machine; crashes, feels(!) slower for normal work than
the 13 inch one, has a broken magsafe internal (I soldered the wires to the
board otherwise it wouldn't load anymore; one day i'll pick up a new magsafe
from ebay but I still don't like the price of the real verified ones) just
after the warranty. Recently the 'asd' keys just stopped working (no moist or
anything, just stopped working). The machine makes it capable of doing
intensive eclipse + xcode + simulator work on it while the 13 inch doesn't,
but when doing anything else, i'm working on my trusted 13 inch macbook (which
is much older).

I hope they will make the next line as robust as that one.

~~~
ericd
I have a 2011 15in i7, it's been rock solid, are you sure you didn't just get
a lemon? You should take it in...

~~~
tluyben2
Yeah it could be, but it's too old now... I should've taken the 3 year
warranty, but as I said; my previous experiences (were I did have 3 years
warranty) I didn't need it so I didn't take it for this either. That bit me
badly...

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Keyframe
I'm still good with my mid-2011 model, 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 13"... Old adage of
updating Macs every 3 years still holds I guess.

~~~
avn2109
This thread amazes me. I'm writing on a 2007 vintage white plastic Macbook
which has been my main and only non-scientific machine for the past half
decade. It "feels" nearly as fast as my friends' much newer MBAirs and Pros
(except boot time, ofc) and is hilariously more responsive than the new
Windows laptops owned by people in my lab.

~~~
smackfu
Which OS?

~~~
avn2109
Snow Leopard. It can't run anything newer.

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ameen
While it's no surprise that a new MacBook Air might be around the corner,
Apple could still better itself - Retina for Air, higher reliable/capacity
SSDs, Longer battery life, etc.

I wonder if OS X itself would be tweaked a bit to facilitate enhanced power
efficiency. An Air with long(er) battery life + Retina + decent crunching
power could potentially threaten the "Ultrabook" segment.

~~~
masklinn
> Apple could still better itself - Retina for Air, higher reliable/capacity
> SSDs, Longer battery life, etc.

The first thing it needs to do is put more RAM in the thing, even more so
because it can't be upgraded over time. There really needs to be a 16GB BTO
(and if there can be a 32GB one even better, even if it costs an arm and a
leg, 16GB is not enough to be _comfortable_ when you need to juggle half a
dozen VMs)

~~~
ameen
Yeah, I mean RAM is a crucial part. I'd be willing to be the extra for that.
Considering the leaps in RAM tech, we'd better see >8 GB RAM on devices
shipping this year.

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warrenmiller
Damn. Just bought one. :(

~~~
Demiurge
I made the same mistake once. Managed to return it though, loosing $200, but
the new one was worth it.

Since then, this has been very helpful: <http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/>

