Apple's 12-inch MacBook Air enters production

by Mark Tyson on 8 October 2014, 10:50

Tags: MacBook Air

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There are rumours that Apple will refresh its computer range shortly including its iMac desktops, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. The refresh will come hand in hand with the latest version of OS X codenamed Yosemite. However industry sources have said that there have been problems trying to mass produce the new 12-inch Retina screen equipped MacBook Air - so while it may be seen at the October event it may not make it to retail before the year is out.

The date of the Apple event is either 16th or 21st October, depending upon which news source you believe. The stars of the show are rumoured to be new tablets such as the Apple iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 2 and possibly a larger screened iPad - with a screen said to be as large as 12.9-inches. While the Air 2 and Mini 2 are incremental and evolutionary updates the large 12.9 inch iPad is rumoured to be jumping upon the 2-in-1 bandwagon and deploy both iOS and OS X. That rumour is rather eyebrow raising considering how much Apple has criticised convergent platforms previously.

Back to the new Apple computers. We should see the debut of Retina screens on both iMac and MacBook Air models at the forthcoming event. A leak indicated that the iMac would get a display of a pixel resolution between 4,096x2,304 and 6,400x3,600 - as the iMac comes in various screen sizes perhaps these reflect those options.

The 12-inch MacBook Air with Retina screen slots nicely in between the existing 11.6- and 13.3-inch models. However the new model boasts that high ppi screen and is slimmer than current models. DigiTimes reports that Taiwan-based ODM Quanta Computer is having difficulty with yields for this new computer. It says the slimness is a particular challenge to the laptop maker "posing challenge to component makers' technological capability". So it will be interesting to see how slim this laptop can be.

Both rumoured event dates aren't that far off so we should see some official hints and trailers for the launches of these products shortly from Apple.



HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Probably will cost more than a G750 17inch with GTX860m which means I will buy the G750 and experience twice the performance, if I need mobility then I will go with anything iPad air.
lumireleon
Probably will cost more than a G750 17inch with GTX860m which means I will buy the G750 and experience twice the performance, if I need mobility then I will go with anything iPad air.

Not rly fair to compare that 17 inch hulking beast of a machine to the new retina macbook air. People don't buy macbook air's to have insane GPU power for gaming. They buy it for computer productivity on the go. Browsing the web, writing articles, doing research. Everything other than gaming and video editing is what the macbook air is for.
sweet
lumireleon
Probably will cost more than a G750 17inch with GTX860m which means I will buy the G750 and experience twice the performance, if I need mobility then I will go with anything iPad air.

Although this seems kind of brash it does make sense. The iPad is now providing the productivity tools thanks to MS Office arriving and with some excellent keyboard cases its doing a very good impression of a retina macbook air anyway plus will be cheaper. Arguably lumireleon could buy the G750 and an iPad Air for less or around the likely cost of this Retina Air. Of course the G750 isn't running MacOS but thats not overly important to a lot of people as the user experience of iOS and MacOS are very different although they are starting to unify just a little.

The Surface Pro 3 from Microsoft leads the way at the moment. Will Apple respond or will we see (as is being suggested on various rumour sites) a separate Macbook Air retina and iPad Pro with no attempt to unify the lines like the MS Surface Pro 3 is attempting?