Rumor: Apple to launch 15-inch MacBook Air in April, 'effectively killing the Pro' - Page 3

While I agree, I expect the next generation MBA to have an option of 8 GB of RAM on the motherboard. The Pro may have the option to go to 16 GB.

After getting my grubby little hands on a 17" MacBook pro for a few days I have to agree. Lugging that big beast around would get old rather quickly. Even if it gets the air treatment that would still be to big to take everywhere. IMHO.

I wonder if Apple might keep a single model 15" with an optical drive around for a while. I personaly don't think it has to be either/or situation. Yet.

Weight is an unusually selling point with a machine you set down to use. If we're talking a couple pounds it's an issue but a couple ounces isn't a big deal to carry around in a bag that liekly weighs more than it.

They might be seeing an ODD-less MBP and think it's a MBA. That certainly isn't uncommon on these forums.

Personally, I can see a 15" MBA even going with the HiRes display option the current iGPU of the MBAs can handle it. I also think their performance levels are good enough for most users. Just pack in more battery life, append a couple hundred over the base MBA price and I think you'll have a very popular 15" notebook from Apple.

For a thinner MBP Apple can do several things to shrink the thickness without losing RJ-45 jack, which is by far the largest port remaining. They can shrink the top case by using the milled technique of the MBAs, or make the bottom plate bevel less. I think they could thin out the chassis a little around the RJ-45 jack, but not much.

I hope the next MBPs come with HiDPI and IPS displays... but I'll take either one. I expect Apple to focus heavily on Macs this year. I think we're going to be overwhelmed with the Mac updates this year. I also wouldn't be surprised if they expand their line up. At this point they need more products, not less.



I despise having 1/2 the battery life that could be gained from the ODD's space. I despise the lack of ports on the right side of my MBP.

We are two and a half months into 2012. I own a 13" Macbook Pro and I have used my optical drive and ethernet port exactly zero times this year. I think I used the optical drive once in 2011.

I think lugging around an optical drive is a waste of weight, but I prefer having a hard disk drive over the flash module thing the Airs have. USB optical drives are fine. New Macs use Lion over the Internet or on a recovery partition or flash drive, so a DVD-drive (Apple-blessed or not) isn't needed for recovery purposes. A USB ethernet adaptor can be be made available for those that need it (or for those situations where you might want one), just like they did with dial-up modems.

So i welcome the optical drive-less design and having an extra USB port to replace the ethernet jack. They can get rid of the Firewire 800 jack while they're at it and allow people to create a thunderbolt-to-firewire800 adaptor for those that need it.

Yes, but that's assuming they keep the mbp form factor, which I am sure they won't. The question is how thin a 15" Air can be and still squeeze in an HDD. Possibly a 15" Air will be just that much thicker and larger than the 13" model that a few 'essential' ports can be fitted - Ethernet / USB / Thunderbolt?

Here's a wild idea !!

We know Apple likes to surprise. How about an 11" aluminum unibody MacBook Pro (or call it MacBook)? Same screen res as the current 13" Pro (which is the same as the 11" Air). No optical drive, 64GB (upgradeable) SSD, 2GB (upgradeable) RAM, and an HDD. Priced at $999. Would sell like hot cakes!

There - Tim Cook - an idea worth a few million in revenues !!

I wouldn't expect a MBA to have a 2.5" drive. It seems to me by definition an Air wouldn't have that. I was talking about a MBP that follows some of the design cues from the MBA like it did last time.

I would love Hi Res screens in the MBP / AIR, but wouldn't a shift to Hi Res laptop screens also require a change to their monitors? How difficult would that be in a 27" screen?

By the end of next year there will surely be more products - 7.8" iPad, Apple Television... and possibly even one more thing. But that doesn't preclude streamlining of the laptop range.

I'd expect the 27" iMac to be the last to get it. HiDPI displays are s trickle up technology for the yields weren't talking about. I also wouldn't expect the MBAs to get them before the MBPs because the MBAs don't seem geared toward high-end buyer.


I can't see I think either of those are a shoe in.

You do realize the latest Airs with their slower processors outgun my fully loaded quad-core i7 MBP with a 7,200 RPM drive, right?

I fully expect that a Macbook Air 15" with the latest chipsets would put any laptop (and many desktops) to shame.

In CPU performance? In GPU performance? In drive performance? The only one that is likely is in drive performance because a 7200 RPM HDD is slow.

I am not convinced the MBA and the MBP will have a different form factor. I wonder if the difference will be in the specs only.

I don't know what you mean. Do you expect the next MBPs will have a tapered design like the MBA? I do, but I expect them to be thicker to accommodate ports and internals that the MBAs can't.

Hey thanks for the random insult.

I did in fact use a ruler although, and yes it was marked in 16ths so I'm talking about the nearest 16th of an inch. I didn't in fact measure the male RJ-45, but the hole that it goes in (as I noted) on a unibody MacBook Pro which is exactly the size I mentioned.

So in fact, there is nothing inaccurate about my measurements at all.

I recently upgraded my 15" MBP by ripping out the optical drive and adding a 128GB SSD as the main boot drive. I left the old HDD in place because I thought I needed the extra space. Not sure I did.

The SSD makes such an incredible difference to the performance of the machine.
If I had to choose, I would now opt for fast and small over large and slow any day.

C.

In terms of raw numbers, you are right.
In terms of usability, the drive performance makes an astonishing difference.

I have a Mac Pro, quad core, with 9Gigs of memory - running of a Velociraptor 10,000 RPM HDD.
But to use, my recently upgraded MBP with an SSD feels like the faster machine.

C.

Sorry, in the States we usually call 6/16" three eighths. The Imperial units of measure suck anyway and that is just one example of why.

I am not convinced there will be a separate 13 MBP, but instead a higher specced MBA (possible called MBP), and I imagine the 15" MBA will be be thick enough to accommodate ports and internals as you suggest, but that a lower specced version will be called a MBA and a higher specced version the MBP. Maybe there will be some other differentiating factor in terms of looks, but I wonder if the chassis will be identical. And that there will be no 17MBA, only a MBP, but with the same design as the MBA.

All 2011 (Feb and Oct) Pros can go to 16GB (although not officially acknowledged by Apple).

Sure, but we're still talking about an HDD v. an SSD. I think it's reasonable to assume that any form factor change to the MBP will also come with fast boot, like in the MBAs, but also allow for having high capacity drives that simply aren't an option in the MBAs.



Usually you change to the lowest common denominator for math class but in the real world it can oft be easier if all measurements have the same denominator.



To me that sounds like a convoluted line up. A MBA with the performance of a MBP sounds to me like it should be marketed as a MBP.

I have been tempted to do this for a long time with my MB (Alu but pre pro by about a week!), but as my machine is getting long in the tooth anyway I am not sure it is worth it.

Really? I've been using my 17" MBP since 2006 and haven't found it to be too much to 'lug around'. Sure, it's a big computer, but unless you're incredibly weak, a 6 pound computer instead of a 3 pound computer shouldn't make THAT much of a difference.

Would I like it to be lighter? Sure. But I wouldn't claim that it's not usable because of the size.


I think the point is that in terms of usability and responsiveness, the Air is faster than a MBP for the average user. Again, keep in mind that the quote that started this thread was that a 15" MBA would kill of the Pro FOR THE AVERAGE USER. The average non-pro user isn't doing anything that requires massive CPU or GPU performance, so most people would see a 15" Air with SSD as being at least equal to a conventional 15" Pro with HDD.

I think people are being a tad short sighted here. Yes a 15" version of the air wouldn't be a "Pro" replacement.

But if they were to meld the air design into a 15" chassis, remove the optical drive and use all the additional space to build in the required logic boards etc to include Ethernet & additional FireWire/TB ports I reckon they'd be on to a winner.

A best of breed if you will.

Sure. I am not convinced I am right . But does Apple market the MBP separate form the MBA? What if they were all MacBooks, but top of the line had the 'pro' moniker added. Cars don't tend to change form factor just because they have 4wd or a more powerful engine. The Air form factor is no longer special, for Apple or otherwise, and so to market it as distinct from their other offerings seems sort of passé.

Having said that, Perhaps having two form factors for every laptop makes sense from a profit pov. I imagine not, but I stand to be corrected.

USB 3.0 is a given for the new models due to it being already integrated on Ivy Bridge.

As for it diminishing any reason to go to Thunderbolt, 3rd party manufacturers have already seen to that. Thunderbolt will find a niche in high-end video editing businesses and such like but it was DOA for the consumer mass market.

Same here. I would consider it (I almost never use the OD on my Pro), but the computer's well over 5 years old and I just don't see the point.

I did try a hybrid hard disk (HDD/SSD combination) a couple of years ago and must say that I really didn't see that much difference. While people rave about the hybrids, I didn't notice much improvement.

The people bitching about this are comical.
Read the article.
The headline is very misleading.
The quote is referring to the 15" pro being "killed" in the consumer market IE average consumers buying the pro because of its screen size but do not need "pro" features.

Me too. MacBook Air Pro (the Pro being the retina display models).

those dongles suck and look ugly. no reason they can't leave an ethernet plug on it. i think most pro users wouldn't mind better battery life, a 'real' processor and some basic ports rather than super thin and weak.

Obviously, not too many other people thought that? Or, was it very popular, and I somehow missed hearing about it?

Smart looking, but it had plenty of issues that made it less desirable than the MBA.

How about a Thunderbolt dongle?

Apple::
"With PCI Express technology, you can use existing USB and FireWire peripherals even connect to Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks using simple adapters."
http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/

My physics prof. used to say without the margin of error included, the measurement is meaningless. I'd say you measurement is meaningless!

But what if you could accomplish all the thinnest of the MBA without sacrificing performance? I say, release the MBAP already and chuck out all the bulky and antiquated ports. Let people who need them deal with USB 3/TB dongles.

That is so assinine.

He was clearly using the scale to show that it is indeed 1/16th of an inch bigger. Reducing the fraction just convolutes this measurement.

Sometimes this forum feels like highschool.

I think its going to be a MBA at 15 inch with the Option of HDD vs SSD just like the first MBA

And then I think they will offer different screen resolutions just like in the MBPs today

For those in need of the ODD, they will keep the MBP lineup for a while

ghostface, I feel your pain regarding vendors, but respectfully the hassle of getting them up to speed or switching vendors pales in comparison to the time you spend writing and labeling media.

It was borderline in maybe 2010 but in 2012 GoogleDocs and Dropbox have solved the issue of the person on the other end not understanding how to ftp. Seriously, any vendor who doesn't let you exchange a few gigs of files online every week, however you do it, is probably not up to speed on the rest of their scene either. How do you get the media to them, anyway? Messenger? Fedex? It adds up to much more than a little investment in an online privately shared encrypted folder setup, and it's easier to deal with than it might sound.

Ok but just an FYI if you go to a real world Home Depot to buy a 6/16" drill bit, you will not find one.

I'll add that Thunderbot will find a niche as a single-connection docking and monitor port for desktop use - just as Apple has said. One can only assume (yes, always dangerous) that the limited number of options to do this so far will increase and become less expensive. Of course you have Apple's new monitor which has gigabit ethernet, USB, and Firewire. Plug an external optical drive into this and you have about everything you need. Also, most people don't use all that hardware when traveling so why lug it around? Just leave it on your desk to plug in with one cable when you return.

Not necessarily. To me, the difference is features. Pro has ODD, hard disk with lots of storage, card slot (on some of them), full size keyboard and screen, and a full array of ports. MBA has a much more limited feature set.

Now, to be fair, I don't push my computer that hard, so I may be biased, but even if you could have an 11" Air with the same performance as a 17" MBP, I don't think the Air would be a pro machine.


On a good day. Most days it's more like junior high or grade school.