New Mac Laptop...Macbook Pro or Air...Go!

[tball]

I've heard the rumors about a 14" Macbook Pro in a similar form factor as the current 13". It makes sense to make the screen larger and lose the bezels as they did with the new 16-inch.

Just my speculation, but I'd be surprised if they did the same with the Macbook Air. I bet they keep a 13-inch screen on the MBA but lose the bezels and make it smaller. Small and light is the traditional mission of the Air.

The two 13" models are currently too similar. Having a 13" MBA and a 14" MBP will allow them to diversify the products, and extract more $$ from the many who will want the larger 14" screen. Sorry, Phil.

 

[Philpug]

I've heard the rumors about a 14" Macbook Pro in a similar form factor as the current 13". It makes sense to make the screen larger and lose the bezels as they did with the new 16-inch.

Just my speculation, but I'd be surprised if they did the same with the Macbook Air. I bet they keep a 13-inch screen on the MBA but lose the bezels and make it smaller. Small and light is the traditional mission of the Air.

The two 13" models are currently too similar. Having a 13" MBA and a 14" MBP will all them to diversify the products, and extract more $$ from the many who will want the larger 14" screen. Sorry, Phil.

Going to the 14..as they did with going from the 15" to 16" makes sense in the product line. I tried to explain this to Look, there was no reason to keep the 14 when they came out with the Pivot 15 but I digress. But I am afraid you are right with the price difference, I cannot see the 14" coming in any less than $2K and I am not sure it will be enough pluses to outweigh the lighter and less expensive Air.

 

[Steve]

I just want to clarify my position. For my desktop and production computers I need power and RAM. If I was buying a laptop to be used for any processor hungry applications, graphics, audio, video, huge databases or spreadsheets - I'd go for power and RAM there too.

I use my 2012 MBA all the time. Mail, Excel, Word, Slack, Messages, Safari, Chrome, Ulysses mostly. I also share the screen of my desktop (a Mac Pro) so can run other apps that way remotely, so the MBA becomes a keyboard, trackpad and monitor.

For those uses 4GB of RAM works great. The Mac creates virtual RAM so it's not like things are being loaded in and out of RAM. I'm surprised by this, but it does. And 1.8 I5 processor is plenty. Mid 2012. You can buy these for a few hundred dollars. Battery will be old, may not stay charged for as long, but talk about value!

Search for MD231LL/A

 

[Tricia]

This is the configuration I got on my MBA

13-inch MacBook Air - Silver​

With the following configuration: 1.2GHz quad-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz Intel Iris Plus Graphics 16GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X memory 1TB SSD storage Force Touch trackpad Two Thunderbolt 3 ports Touch ID Retina display with True Tone Backlit Magic Keyboard - US English​

 

[Living Proof]

About 2 years ago, and, partially because of MacBook love in the PugSki community, I purchased a 2018 new MacBook Air. I really enjoy using it, my requirements are simple, most demanding task is photo editing. Love the screen, size, light weight. I remember visiting with Phil and Trish last year, and, she recently converted to a new, upgraded MBA.
The traditional knock on the MBA is that it is very underpowered, computer experts scoff at the cost vs performance, and, shake their head in a bad way.Another knock, corrected in a recent upgrade, is the "butterfly" keyboard for both feel and durability. Apple will correct failed keyboards for a few years after purchase.

The Apple community has been awaiting the new MacBooks which use a new Apple chip called the M1. The expectations were far, far better performance. Now they have been released, and,, the results are simply stunning. The new entry level MBA exceeds the past MacBook Pro's performance. Many reviews now question why bother to get the Pro model.

I follow a YouTube Channel specializing in Apple products by Luke Miani, who was a MBA critic, and now saying "Wow" about the new MBA.
It's a new era for the MacBook line.

 

[Tricia]

Trish last year, and, she recently converted to a new, upgraded MBA.

I was actually thinking about the Air at that time. I was waiting but after an issue with my monitor and a worn out battery on my 7 years old Pro I finally bit the bullet and got the MacBookAir this year. It would have cost close to 700.00 to get a new battery and screen on the old one.
I don't find it under powered at all.
This is my configuration.

 

[Philpug]

The Apple community has been awaiting the new MacBooks which use a new Apple chip called the M1. The expectations were far, far better performance. Now they have been released, and,, the results are simply stunning. The new entry level MBA exceeds the past MacBook Pro's performance. Many reviews now question why bother to get the Pro model.

Since I don't think we are going to see the 14" in the near future, I was already leaning to getting th MBA as my next computer. I am not doing heavy processing, high end graphics ( I have a @Dave Petersen for that) or movie editing so processing pwer of the MBA is within acceptable range with 16gB. One of the things with the new MBA that really impressed me was the battery life, wow, something like 16 hours?

 

[tball]

One of the things with the new MBA that really impressed me was the battery life, wow, something like 16 hours?

Yes, they are claiming the new M1 chip doubles the battery life. Apple making their own chips is a huge step forward for Macs in so many ways. I think the only downside is it won't be able to run Windows or Linux.

 

[wallyk]

This thread is just another reason why SkiTalk is THE place.......so much going on here. Was killing time at work and stumbled on this thread. Have been considering a new Air or Pro with the M1....processing/analyzing time series data in Python, and my old Air is OK but just getting slow ...reviews about the battery life and the speed of the M1 on the Wall Street Journal has been positive.

Am interested to hear feedback from actual users here....