12-inch Retina MacBook Air coming soon without fans and mechanical trackpad buttons

[ShiverMePenguins]

Was going to get the current 13" model but I guess I'll wait for June now...

 

 

I suspect it will have a 2560x1440/1600 display. Also, it will almost definitely have scaling, just as the 13" and 15" Retina models do, so real estate will actually be the same if not better than any other 12" laptop out there.

scaling is still horrid on quite a few apps. so 1280x800 will still feel small. thats why i like 900p on the 13" air. i won't use a 16:9 laptop, and if the pixel had a haswell variant (that i could install osx or ubuntu on) i'd never use another laptop again.

[Lyons]

scaling is still horrid on quite a few apps.

 

Such as?

[jrfox87]

scaling is still horrid on quite a few apps. 

 

I have a 13" rMBP that I run scaled to 1680 x 1050, I have yet to run into any app with bad scaling so far. The only time I had any issues with the screen actually was Windows 8.1 under boot camp looked really messed up no matter what I did, worked fine under Parallels though.

[minimalist]

Glad to hear they are going with tap only on the trackpad. That's way more convenient and is very easy to get used to. Buttons and clicking really aren't needed, at least on OS X.

[sysloc]

Apple once again doing something different. Just wait for the awful laptops from Asus, Acer and HP that dont have fans or mechanical disks.

The sarcasm is strong in this one.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

The sarcasm is strong in this one.

What sarcasm?

 

You know just as well as anyone that Asus, Acer and HP are going to bring out laptops without fans or any moving parts.

[Lyons]

The sarcasm is strong in this one.

 

No, it's true. Manufacturers are yet to match Apple's portable computer brilliance.

[Nineshadow]

Cheaper...in the US.

[snes]

I would prefer a 13" screen, but the rumored specs have me interested. I always wanted a laptop PC that didn't need a fan.

[TheRetiredSlave]

No fans? And how do they plan on cooling it if the user decides they need to do something heavier than web browsing?

 

Or are they trying to turn the Air into a tablet /w keyboard and anyone who may need to do heavier tasks should buy the Macbook Pro?

 

Frankly, I'd rather have a more powerful CPU/GPU with active cooling, but then again, I'm not the type of person that Apple is marketing the Macbook Air to.. If they can pull it off reasonably well and their customers like it, good for them. 

[ZiggyManSaad]

No fans? And how do they plan on cooling it if the user decides they need to do something heavier than web browsing?

 

Or are they trying to turn the Air into a tablet /w keyboard and anyone who may need to do heavier tasks should buy the Macbook Pro?

 

Frankly, I'd rather have a more powerful CPU/GPU with active cooling, but then again, I'm not the type of person that Apple is marketing the Macbook Air to.. If they can pull it off reasonably well and their customers like it, good for them. 

If you want something more powerful, then you would get a MacBook Pro. That's the reason that line exists. The Air is meant for browsing and text editing and the sort. Heavy use is the Pro's forte. 

[snes]

The Air is meant for browsing and text editing and the sort. Heavy use is the Pro's forte. 

 

That's how I see it. The Air is perfect for taking it to school. You will still be able to watch 1080p YouTube videos, though. What more could Joe Average ask for? Not everyone does video editing or heavy gaming. Some people just want a laptop PC that just works, has outstanding battery life and isn't too heavy.

 

With the fanless design and non clicky trackpad it will also be quiet enough for taking it to the library. No more awkward stares.

[Kamina]

Macbook Air has been rather price competitive with some high end unltrabooks. Makes a great convenient notebook that is snappy and fast with amazing battery life. Be interesting to see a 2-1 Macbook air.

[xmx1024]

So you would have a completely silent laptop?

YES!

[ItsComrade]

I think having a completely silent laptop would be amazing, but no fans? How is it gonna be cooled? How are we gonna keep it from overheating especially if its a warmer environment? Although knowing Apple, they'll probably think of something genius no one thought of to keep it cool.

 

Knowing Apple, they'd probably just get some proprietary company to solve it, and then market it as some 'Revolutionary new Apple Technology'. Hell, Apple users don't know that their computers use the same Intel chips and graphics cards as PC's do. To them, it's just special Apple hardware.

[RedRound2]

Knowing Apple, they'd probably just get some proprietary company to solve it, and then market it as some 'Revolutionary new Apple Technology'. Hell, Apple users don't know that their computers use the same Intel chips and graphics cards as PC's do. To them, it's just special Apple hardware.

 

They design their own products. They choose the hardware and make their own software. How do you think the Mac Pro is made. All companies use Intel or AMD and in case of ARM, they do design their own based on ARM architecture which is the reason why dual core A7 is as powerful as a snapdragon 800

[Rageodontist]

looks interesting, too bad its not a pc.

[ItsComrade]

They design their own products. They choose the hardware and make their own software. How do you think the Mac Pro is made. All companies use Intel or AMD and in case of ARM, they do design their own based on ARM architecture which is the reason why dual core A7 is as powerful as a snapdragon 800

 

Yes, but they don't market it that way. Of course, any PC uses AMD or Intel. That's not how Apple markets things. All Apple does is make sub-par to adequate software, pair it with some select hardware, and kick the price up. They don't necessarily innovate on their own as much as they market that they do or people believe they do. Most people I know think that iPhones are the most advanced and furthest innovated, as compared to Androids or Windows phones. Really, Apple releases one every couple of years, markets it, and it sells like hotcakes not because it has enough changes in it from the previous gen but because of the five or six new things they throw in and they market them to hell! Let's be honest. The average Apple consumer doesn't know or care what hardware is in their phone. They don't give a shit about the clock speed. The only thing that matters are the software features and storage space. That is what makes me mad about apple. Not what they do innovate but what they pretend to.

[StingBull]

What's up with Apple and their incessant desire to make everything thinner? I hear next iPhone might be thinenr than before as well. Stahp Apple! I don't want to hold a sheet of paper in my hand.

[RedRound2]

Yes, but they don't market it that way. Of course, any PC uses AMD or Intel. That's not how Apple markets things. All Apple does is make sub-par to adequate software, pair it with some select hardware, and kick the price up. They don't necessarily innovate on their own as much as they market that they do or people believe they do. Most people I know think that iPhones are the most advanced and furthest innovated, as compared to Androids or Windows phones. Really, Apple releases one every couple of years, markets it, and it sells like hotcakes not because it has enough changes in it from the previous gen but because of the five or six new things they throw in and they market them to hell! Let's be honest. The average Apple consumer doesn't know or care what hardware is in their phone. They don't give a shit about the clock speed. The only thing that matters are the software features and storage space. That is what makes me mad about apple. Not what they do innovate but what they pretend to.

General consumers don't care about clock speed, not apple. In android specs are important since it determines how the phone will perform. While on apple, the latest flagship is guaranteed to perform well for atleast four years because of their amazing softwares. Even the higher resolution 1080p screens doesn't make a difference since most people can't see the difference. On the Mac line on the other hand, they do share what is ticking inside those machines since people actually care and different workflow need different configuration. If a phone performs well, the specs don't matter, which is the case in all iPhones

[jezza39]

General consumers don't care about clock speed, not apple. In android specs are important since it determines how the phone will perform. While on apple, the latest flagship is guaranteed to perform well for atleast four years because of their amazing softwares. Even the higher resolution 1080p screens doesn't make a difference since most people can't see the difference. On the Mac line on the other hand, they do share what is ticking inside those machines since people actually care and different workflow need different configuration. If a phone performs well, the specs don't matter, which is the case in all iPhones

 

Yep, who cares about what specs are included when all you do is type documents and check youtube/email? People obsess about specs on everything without seeing how it actually performs. It flies for the tasks it is designed for.

[steffen_anywhere]

PS everyone should know it will be a 1366x768 screen with double the pixels. It will have significantly less screen real estate than current models

13 inch Retina Pro has 2560 x 1600. At 220ppi linear. I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

EDIT: I see what you mean but it would be 4x the pixels because math.

[ShiverMePenguins]

13 inch Retina Pro has 2560 x 1600. At 220ppi linear. I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

EDIT: I see what you mean but it would be 4x the pixels because math.

pixel density doesn't equate real estate.

 

besides, the retina display doesn't truly show 1600p. it renders as 800p doubled. consider it somewhat similar to fxaa in video games.  you can run the screen at 1600p though by modifying settings, but you can't see anything really.

 

whereas the 13" air is 1440x900 with no pixel doubling.  so thats 120 pixels wider and 100 pixels higher. thats considerably more real estate when viewing web pages.

 

 

if the "retina" display ran at normal 1600p and just modified text  and images to fit the ratio we would have a arguably better experience, but its easier to just use upsampling instead.

[ItsComrade]

General consumers don't care about clock speed, not apple. In android specs are important since it determines how the phone will perform. While on apple, the latest flagship is guaranteed to perform well for atleast four years because of their amazing softwares. Even the higher resolution 1080p screens doesn't make a difference since most people can't see the difference. On the Mac line on the other hand, they do share what is ticking inside those machines since people actually care and different workflow need different configuration. If a phone performs well, the specs don't matter, which is the case in all iPhones

 

You seem to be quite misinformed. The hardware in an iPhone definitely determines how well the phone performs. If software determines how long the hardware in a device performs, the why doesn't my 6 year old dell still perform well? If I installed OSX onto something, the software won't improve the speed of the machine. An android phone will perform differently from any other model because many different companies create phones running the same OS. Between an M8 and a Nexus 5, the performance will be different because they contain very different hardware. The same way an iPhone 3 may not be able to run intensive apps designed for a 5. There is a huge gap in hardware. Apple's hardware can't make a 3 perform like a 5. Software cannot compensate for hardware that way. Don't even get me started on when you said that most people can't see the difference between 720p and 1080p. That is just pure garbage.

[CCap]

If they can just keep the gosh darn thing under 100c (unlike the MacBook pro I have now) then I'd be happy. I can't even render a video for longer than 20 seconds before the thing begins thermal throttling.