Apple unveils new MacBook Air lineup with all-day battery life, 802.11ac Wi-Fi
Apple's new MacBook Air lineup features Intel's latest Haswell ultra-low voltage processors, providing up to 9 hours of battery life with the 11-inch model, and 12 hours with the 13-inch version.
"True, all-day battery life," is how Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller portrayed the new MacBook Air models.
The new notebooks include 802.11ac for ultra-fast Wi-Fi connectivity. And the flash memory in the new MacBook Airs is said to be up to 45 percent faster than its predecessors.
Intel's new HD Graphics 5000 also give the MacBook Air up to 40 percent faster performance for gaming and graphics intensive apps. It also has dual microphones, a FaceTim? HD camera, a high-speed Thunderbolt port, two USB 3.0 ports, and support for dual displays and video mirroring while simultaneously supporting full native resolution on the built-in display.
The 11-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 with 128 gigabytes of flash storage, doubling its predecessor. The 13-inch model with 128 gigabytes is $1,099.
The new hardware, along with new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule wireless base stations providing 802.11ac support, ship immediately.
"MacBook Air is the industry leader for thin and light notebooks, and now with longer battery life, we?ve set the bar even higher," said Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With faster flash, more powerful graphics and up to 12 hours of battery life, the new MacBook Air packs even more performance into the portable and durable design our customers love."
"True, all-day battery life," is how Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller portrayed the new MacBook Air models.
The new notebooks include 802.11ac for ultra-fast Wi-Fi connectivity. And the flash memory in the new MacBook Airs is said to be up to 45 percent faster than its predecessors.
Intel's new HD Graphics 5000 also give the MacBook Air up to 40 percent faster performance for gaming and graphics intensive apps. It also has dual microphones, a FaceTim? HD camera, a high-speed Thunderbolt port, two USB 3.0 ports, and support for dual displays and video mirroring while simultaneously supporting full native resolution on the built-in display.
The 11-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 with 128 gigabytes of flash storage, doubling its predecessor. The 13-inch model with 128 gigabytes is $1,099.
The new hardware, along with new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule wireless base stations providing 802.11ac support, ship immediately.
"MacBook Air is the industry leader for thin and light notebooks, and now with longer battery life, we?ve set the bar even higher," said Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With faster flash, more powerful graphics and up to 12 hours of battery life, the new MacBook Air packs even more performance into the portable and durable design our customers love."
Comments
...and so why would anyone buy a Surface Pro?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pendergast
...and so why would anyone buy a Surface Pro?
Uneducated and uninformed is all I can think of.
Doubling the capacity and making it 9 hour of battery life for the 11" makes that very appealing. But dropping the price of the 13" another $100 makes it in the discussion again. Apple is brilliant with their marketing- without question. But more importantly, and less admired- is their even more outstanding pricing strategies.
Been saving for 6 months for a new Retina MBP, and was hoping this was the day I could put my order in ..... hugely disappointed. MBA has no interest to me, Mac Pro way over the top for what I need. Will have to hang on to the 3 year old iMac for a while longer it seems.
Mavericks and iOS7 look cool though. Airport Extreme a little weird, but I'm sure I'd get used to it.
Originally Posted by Pendergast
...and so why would anyone buy a Surface Pro?
To make iWork documents in iCloud!
Originally Posted by tkrunner1738
Can someone clarify the ac wifi thing, so currently the only apple product to take advantage of the 802.11ac is the new air? is that correct?
Obviously. It's new hardware.
Simplest pricing ever.
The new MBAs are on the Apple Store now and for the first time in my memory there are no limitations between models.
This is everything you need to know:
$1000 for the 11" with 4 gig memory and 128 gig flash storage 1.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
+ $100 if you want the 13" (and longer battery life).
+ $100 if you want 8 gig memory instead of 4.
+ $200 if you want 256 gig flash storage or + $500 if you want 512 gig.
+ $150 if you want 1.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
That's it. Mix and match however you want.
So every combination is available for $1000 to $1850.
I only just got our relationship back on track recently...
Current MacBooks will have better battery life with OS X 10.9 as well.
Outpost
Been saving for 6 months for a new Retina MBP, and was hoping this was the day I could put my order in ..... hugely disappointed. MBA has no interest to me, Mac Pro way over the top for what I need. Will have to hang on to the 3 year old iMac for a while longer it seems.
Mavericks and iOS7 look cool though. Airport Extreme a little weird, but I'm sure I'd get used to it.
I'm in the same sitch. Seems like they were pretty tasked with hardware updates overall, though. Surely we will see Haswell rMBP before 2014...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vorsos
Current MacBooks will have better battery life with OS X 10.9 as well.
But these are available today with 10.8, so the battery claims are not based on 10.9 optimizations. Must be black magic involved.
.11ac requires new hardware, yes. So, new devices then. This will be my most expensive upgrade year ever as I want to move to .11ac prompto.
New Airport
New AppleTV
New iPhone
New iPad
Either a new Mac mini or wire it up, thought the NIC is 10/100Mbps
And I need to finally wire my Mac Pro as I'm not going to install a 3rd party PCI card for it, nor am I getting the new model.
Vorsos
Can't use the Airport Extreme / Time Capsule until I get new hardware. 2014 seems a long time to wait.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Outpost
Vorsos
Can't use the Airport Extreme / Time Capsule until I get new hardware. 2014 seems a long time to wait.
By later this year- you'll be able to get a refurb'd AE or TC as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilBoogie
.11ac requires new hardware, yes. So, new devices then. This will be my most expensive upgrade year ever as I want to move to .11ac prompto.
New Airport
New AppleTV
New iPhone
New iPad
Either a new Mac mini or wire it up, thought the NIC is 10/100Mbps
And I need to finally wire my Mac Pro as I'm not going to install a 3rd party PCI card for it, nor am I getting the new model.
i agree, i was wanting to get a new imac, so i guess ill just get the time capsule for now, and upgrade as things become available. But eventually for me it will be
New IMAC
new Apple tv
iphone when my upgrade cycle comes due
ipad not sure
Quote:
Originally Posted by moelikepie
i have the 2012 MBA with i7 2.0Ghz upgrade.. is this faster/slower than this new release with upgrade to i7 1.7ghz??
You'll know in a day when people get them in their hands and Geekbench. It won't be substantial though compared to the battery life and wireless capabilities.
Originally Posted by Pendergast
...and so why would anyone buy a Surface Pro?
And why do people go to McDonald's when there's an In-N-Out across the street? Stupidity and the power of marketing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1983
What about upgraded rMBP's?
Waiting on a few components and/or manufacturing process refinements I should think - but expect 'em later in the later. My two cents: at least 80/20 by the fall.
Along with new Haswell Minis, iMacs, phones, pads and likely an ATV refresh (and maybe the "watch" thingie I could care less about personally).
So just the best selling notebooks for the moment.
Still, lots of OS stuff that will allow them to move forward in time with new products in the car, the home, the web, etc. Didn't like everything I saw, but I think people's concerns about Apple should be much assuaged based on what I saw today.
My yen for touch screens can wait a year or two as there's nothing yet in Win 8.1 I need virtualized for an all app/all purpose medium duty/highly portable machine - and nothing touchy in OS X at all - and I can live with 811ac and 1440x900 - and an external big ("up to 2560x1600") monitor. Also, no way Retina was ever going into this form factor at near this price and battery life at this stage of bits of kit required.
So think this new Air - while still only incremental on its own - is one I'll be able to be happy with for two years - and then keep it as a secondary machine when a few more bits get sorted out and I decide if I can justify a "pro-er" model for my needs or the then current machine in this class. My needs are mostly power user variety (heavy image editing, and some light to medium video editing starting to come in) - bunches of apps running and small biz productivity stuff at most. And no games. Ever. Well, Photoshop.....
I would've said it'd be my axe longer, but checking the store reveals something a bit curious I haven't heard discussed: No Thunderbolt 2 capability. Suppose it's a cost/margin thing and/or a feeling that few Air users will need that level of external throughput. Will be shocked if the rMBP doesn't have TB2 though.
Also the cost of a 512 and the lack of a 768GB SSD (which I would've fairly happily paid $500 to have) option pose challenges to the amount of "stuff" I like to have with me.... ...but just fortunate to be able to afford to kit it out (and wait to compare that to the base model next rMBP before pulling the trigger). And definitely will wait until it has Mavericks installed either way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by malax
Simplest pricing ever.
The new MBAs are on the Apple Store now and for the first time in my memory there are no limitations between models.
This is everything you need to know:
$1000 for the 11" with 4 gig memory and 128 gig flash storage 1.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
+ $100 if you want the 13" (and longer battery life).
+ $100 if you want 8 gig memory instead of 4.
+ $200 if you want 256 gig flash storage or + $500 if you want 512 gig.
+ $150 if you want 1.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
That's it. Mix and match however you want.
So every combination is available for $1000 to $1850.
I really do think that 256GB is overkill in the new cloud data model... If for nothing else... put your old laptop over in a corner, and build a VPN so you can tunnel in and mount the drive as your 'offline' data. Otherwise, most of your 'nearline' working set can live in dropbox/icloud.
Again, for most non-power users, 128 should be plenty.
That said, I can't see anyone buying a 4gb model;-) All the OS improvements in the world can't replace the need for the speed of real memory. delay maybe, but not replace.
My skin is in the game... I'm gonna benchmark this on Wednesday at the local Apple Store. I'm 4 months removed from my 2008MBP, and I looked at Mavericks and saw a lot of possibilities that made an iPad4/5 less and less likely.
It's "all day battery life*" with an asterisk.
*under ideal conditions...actual battery life may not be...yadda, yadda.