Apple breathes new life into MacBook Air with overhauled 2018 model Apple has given the moldering MacBook Air a new lease of life at the company's hardware event in Brooklyn today. For years Apple seemed to be nudging its most practical computer into an early grave. Instead of wanting folk to buy the increasingly neglected workhorse, they were instead ushered towards its more expensive …
Actually it's the non-Touchbar 13" pro whose place I would question. That's still the 2017 machine, complete with only a dual core cpu and earlier generation keyboard, but at the same price it commanded when newly released. It also has a single fan (the touchbar models always had 2, even for the same cpu), a weaker WiFi unit, and of course the same smaller number of ports that the Air has (just 2). Maybe a year ago, when the touchbar models had the same cpus and keyboards, you might have felt that the other compromises were worth it to save a little money, but with the same prices this year and a more significant spec difference I'd question its value.
So personally I'd say buy the touchbar model if you need the extra power of the Pro, buy the Air if you don't.
Depends if you want the Apple store to repair it, from the looks of it Apple stores like to replace non essential parts and basically make repairs the same price as a new machine.
Louis Rossmann on Youtube shows that actually they can be cheap to repair and even shows how to repair common parts. Although I hate Apple with a passion (OTHER MANUFACTURERS STOP COPYING THEM FFS AND USING GLUE ON EVERYTHING, I WANT TO BE ABLE TO REPLACE BATTERIES WITHOUT TAKING OUT A BLOODY HAIRDRIER!), as its a very few models actually they should be easier to repair.
I have a PowerBook G4 and an iBook G4 still operating just fine since being bought new in 2006. My previous laptop, a G3 Wallstreet from 1998 died in 2008 after 10 years of rigorous service.
No. As a rule, Macbooks are pretty robust, but there are exceptions.
"...when it fails, is unrepairable and goes into landfill in a year or two."
The only thing going to landfill is rubbish comments like this.
Did you ever stop to consider that making things repairable makes them more susceptible to failure in the first place? Plug connectors fail. Things that are soldered into place are less likely to fail.
Macs do not fail after 2 years. I have given a few of mine to relatives and they have made over 10 years old.
Then when they are past their life, there is a good recycling scheme in place so they don't go into landfill.
@m0rt Have to agree the IBM ThinkPad's we had were owned outlasted by an old P3 Panasonic Toughbook.
HP Business laptops from just over 4 years ago used to all be easily to get into (Most cases one panel with a push clip and you were able to replace memory, hd's heatsinks and heatpipes) came with ok manuals, parts were a rip off but everything in the maintenance guides meant anyone could perform simple repairs (I remember touchpads being a pain in the arse on ProBook 6730b's but most people tended to crush the screen with a pen)
"Macs do not fail after 2 years. "
I've owned 2 macbooks, 1 macbook pro and 3 ipod nanos.
One of the macbooks was DOA.
One of the ipods was DOA
The MBP died after about a year.
The other MB and ipods and the replacement MB lasted fine for years.
But you know what? That's still not a good ratio. if that was a PC manufacturer people would be calling them out on it.
Fails? Have you actually used one? I've had my Air for five and a half years. It's still a damn good machine. Admittedly, it's not get retina-this and touchbar-that and the battery doesn't quite have the capacity that it did, but I'd say that it's the best portable Mac I've had. It's surprisingly solid and dependable.
I do have to say, though, that removing the SD card slot and all those other ports on the new model was a mistake - and let's not forget they've also adopted that new keyboard. I think I'll be keeping hold of my current machine for as long as I can.
The point of the 13" MBP (2018) is more cores + hyperthreading and processor grunt. (ie for developers).
You wouldnt want to run anything more than a basic VM on an Air.
Interesting but little known fact the low power Macbook 2017 CPU's are roughly equivalent to 2014 13 MBP. I looked into a MacBook as a replacement for my beloved 11" Air with an added need for a bit more VM grunt.
The point of the 13" MBP (2018) is more cores + hyperthreading and processor grunt. (ie for developers).
You wouldnt want to run anything more than a basic VM on an Air.
What the actual fuck? Who runs VMs when developing, is this 2012?
I don't need much CPU whilst developing - you only work in one small area of your code at a time - but the thing which makes my laptop stop being useful for development is when it runs out of RAM, and can't keep all those different kubelets in memory.
CPU? I haven't felt constrained CPU wise for ~10 years. RAM is the only thing I run out of when developing locally (and, I suppose, battery...)
can't keep all those different kubelets in memory.
CPU? I haven't felt constrained CPU wise for ~10 years.
I don't know what the fuck a kubelet is, but you obviously don't write them in C++, and you clearly don't need to compile them. If you did, you'd understand why you don't use a toy for development.
C'mon El Reg, nobody other than Americans uses lbs for weight these days (and if you're going to be all international and nickname yourselves with an "El", you should really be all properly international with your units of measurement), so what's 2.7 lbs in real money… (or even fractions of PHBs wrapped in carpet)?
(Ah, 1.22 kg, or so my phone tells me… That's pretty impressively light!)
"(Ah, 1.22 kg, or so my phone tells me… That's pretty impressively light!)"
Nah not so lite , the Lenovo X1 Carbon is only 1,13 Kgs and with a slightly better config ( 14" IPS Screen, same shitty 8gb ram, better disk capacity 256Gb SSD ), it is more expensive though.
Since when was 8GB RAM "shittty" in an entry level device FFS?
Since the Internet and browsers decided to use 150mb per page....
And anyone in IT is likely to have 20 or more pages/tabs open at once.
Then you remove Windows overheads. Then you remove your daily applications + Office/Outlook overheads, then there's that YT video in the backgrounds or a radio streaming and a couple of rdp sessions..
Suddenly 8gb seems very limited...
OK you standard user might use less but you can be sure that their PC is full of shitty games and a broken antivirus and the OS is screaming for updates, whilst Candy Crush or similar is hogging a max.... And they too start to feel the limit.
Memory costs very little today, except for Apple memory that is. So why limit it from the beginning h.
Shit if even my telephone has 4gb why would my pc have so little....
This is just vendor greed....
>so what's 2.7 lbs in real money…
> (or even fractions of PHBs wrapped in carpet)
I like this -->
so what's 2.7 lbs in real money… (or even fractions of PHBs wrapped in carpet)?
I'll be sure to weigh him next time I see him and I wrap it on a carpet - but meanwhile here's the Reg Standards' Bureau's take on how much 2.7lbs is.
It's about a seventh of an adult badger, give or take. Or, in other words, you'd need about 1225 new Macbook Airs to have the same weight as one skateboarding rhinoceros.
Still running a 2012 i7, and was thinking 'maybe an upgrade'.
Then read the specs.
And the price.
Quad core i3 for the price I paid for an 4C/8T i7. Barely improved base RAM after 6 years (4->8GB).
Never mind the customisability...of which I suspect there isn't any. If I'm proven wrong and off the shelf RAM/disk/additional disk are on the cards then it's a maybe. Otherwise I'll buy another i7 2012. Though they're still expensive - nearly as much now as new, presumably because there is no replacement.
M2 socket? That would be SO sweet!
that's as likely to happen as Steven Avery getting a fair trial......
Apple recently have been baking boards with ram and SSD direct on the main board so is not possible to change or upgrade. so the 120gb SSD is nothing more than a drive for the OS and everything else needs to be saved somewhere safe off the computer because if it breaks and you take it to apple to fix, you get a factory reset computer, even if the drive did not need to be wiped. and a hole in your wallet where the price of a new machine was....
So sweet?
But then hordes of people would buy them, my careful study of Apple's computer division over the past few years has indicated that making stuff people want to buy has been off the table for some time.
Want a nice upgradeable computer from Apple? A nice laptop with USB-A ports, magsafe and a decent screen?
No chance. Not while Tim Cook is there, he appears not to have a single tiny clue about the computer market, which is why when I needed a new laptop last time I bought a Lenovo. Better built, featured and priced, just a shame it's Windows and not Linux.
"My careful study of Apple's computer division over the past few years has indicated that making stuff people want to buy has been off the table for some time."
My careful study shows they are not selling the stuff _you_ want to buy, but they are selling the stuff _people_ want to buy.
-----8<-----
On Apple.com the price is $1,199.00
On Apple.com/uk the price is £1,199.00
on XE.com the current conversion rate says it should be £941.21
-----8<-----
Isn't the US price pre-sales tax and the UK incVAT ? ... at which point they're broadly the same?
"on XE.com the current conversion rate says it should be £941.21"
Oh well. Have you ever heard of VAT? Of the £1,199.00, Apple takes £200,00 straight away and sends them to the nice Mr. Hammond who is going to look after them.
Another major difference is UK customer protection laws, which mean that Apple will have to fix things if they stop working within two years. That doesn't come for free either.
So Apple have taken their one remaining buyable laptop (magsafe + usable USB sockets) and 'upgraded it' to stupid USB-C ports, no SD port but as compensation we get a decent screen at last.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Should I buy A: the old one with the 2010 screen, or B: the new one with useless ports?
Perhaps I'll go for C: a Dell laptop running Linux instead, as Apple seem to be DETERMINED to ruin their products and make them unbuyable.
Ah - found it:
https://makeawebsitehub.com/best-laptops-linux/
I only wanted a decent laptop to run *NIX on. Virtualbox+Debian under Win10 is way too slow compared to native *NIX, so it looks like after waiting for 8 years in hope of an updated Airbook I won't be spending my money at Apple. Hey, it was nice while it lasted.
Plus I can invest the money saved in the local pub economy rather than it sitting in Apple's ledger in some tax haven.
BTW thanks for the thumbs down, I didn't know my opinion was to be graded :D
I only wanted a decent laptop to run *NIX on.
I wanted the same, only I wanted decent battery life, too; 32GiB RAM, two NVMe SSDs..
You know, "standard high end stuff" in 2018.
I went with a Thinkpad t480. 9+h battery life while running two VirtualBox VMs and a few docker containers spinning? Hell yeah!
T480? We've just been upgraded to them.
Mine overheats and gives "Fan Error" messages.
My colleagues has had a new motherboard already after the USB-C connector failed. As they now use cheaper USB-C expansion boxes rather than the proper docking stations with proper connectors if you take your laptop around and have to plug / unplug the USB-C this happens. I leave mine connected all the time and use it as a desktop - so it is OK.
If you want reliability, look elsewhere.
The Dell XPS pricing used to be below Lenovo, then it shot up, I wonder if it's tied to the euro?
The System76 looks a nice box as it's Linux native, and some Asus and Lenovo look good.
The main Laptop requirements are (in case Timmy Cook is reading, stuff to LEARN here Tim:):
* Runs Linux (Debian or possibly Ubuntu) or Unix (OS/X)
* 11-14" screens at 1920 x 1080
* USB-A x 2 for temporary disks, CDs etc etc etc.
* 8GB memory minimum
* 2-8 core processing (i5+)
* 8 hours + battery
* Reasonably priced, standard and upgradeable SSD
* Repairable construction
The main desktop 'Mini' requirements are:
* Upgradeable CPU
* Upgradeable RAM
* Upgradeable disks (slot for SSD and slot for 2.5" or two)
* Network, USB-A and 'new trendy' sockets
It would also be nice if it had an Intel processor that wasn't crippled with the branch-prediction bugs that came with the last batch, perhaps AMD or ARM would be nice alternates.
Im not sure what to make of this release to be honest
I own both the...
MacBook Pro 13" with touch bar
Macbook 12
As stated in the presentation, it hits a lower price point then the Pro & 12 whilst providing a retina screen.
What I find slightly annoying is that its overall depth is the same as the Pro model
Depth: 8.36 inches (21.24 cm)
ok its a little lighter but hey...
I see this as a comprise more than anything
Its basically a slightly lighter 13" pro without Touch Bar
Would make sense to kill off the non touch pro model considering the new air is pretty much the same
What would have been sweet, is if it had the same svelte case as the MacBook but with a 13" screen
I have a Lenovo 710 2-in-1 that I paid less than $300 USD for that I've been very happy with for 3+ years. So lets look at a newer Lenovo with similar specs:
Lenovo Yoga 720 2-in-1: Price $743 USD. 13.3" screen? - Check. Resolution? 1920 x 1080 - Check. Intel Core i5 at 1.6GHz? - Check. Memory? 8 GB - Check. Harddrive? 256GB vs Apple 128GB - Check. Ports: 2 x USB Type-C with Thunderbolt? - Check. Weight? 2.87 lbs. vs Apple 2.7 lbs. Table Mode? Lenovo - check. Apple Air? No.
Other than the need for something running OS X, why would someone buy this new Apple?
I did EXACTLY that last time.
Looked at all the USB-free Macs in the Apple Store, admired their Tripwire Power connectors and then walked into the department store next door, selected a nice Lenovo on Easter-Sale pricing and bought that.
The Yoga 2-1 I have was better built than the old Airbook, had 256GB + 8GB, an i7 and was STILL way cheaper than the 2010 spec Airbook, which was my last buyable Apple.
All Apple had to do was upgrade the screen on the Airbook to 1080p and leave the rest alone, I mean how difficult was that? A $Trillion company unable to understand how to fit a USB-A socket and use Magsafe? Has everyone with an IQ in double figures left Apple just to be left with drooling marketroids and brain dead accountants (I'm looking at YOU Tim)?
They sell useless £1000 iPhones, bizarre square watches with 1970s styling and no decent computers, so sad to see a company with so much potential fall. The Apple share-price reflects this failure too, if they stopped their share buybacks if would fall off a cliff.
Someone tell them a 256Gb SSD is about 50 quid and is really tiny these days
and 8Gb of ram not much more
As for the rest, I dont give a shit how thin or light it is, I just want something reliable that wont cook itself on its battery because the thing can't be removed if it overheats.
Because I really don't want to buy a chromebook
“Someone tell them a 256Gb SSD is about 50 quid and is really tiny these days
and 8Gb of ram not much more
As for the rest, I dont give a shit how thin or light it is, I just want something reliable that wont cook itself on its battery because the thing can't be removed if it overheats.
Because I really don't want to buy a chromebook”
I’ve been buying various Apple laptops since my first PB 520c in 1995. Sadly, Apple keeps doing the same type of very stupid things you mention. I think it’s all about timing. I bought the last Macbook Air, and yes, retina would have been nice, but the screen is pretty spectacular even without. This MBA runs my pro graphics stuff quite smoothly.
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