Apple Silicon MacBook Air predictions

[Yebubbleman]

I know that this one may be revealed very soon (within the next five months), but I haven't seen too much chatter on it. What do you expect the first Apple Silicon MacBook Air to be like? When do you expect to arrive? What do you expect will happen to the lineup when it launches? Will it launch by itself or alongside another Mac (give or take an Apple Silicon Mac)?

Personally, I'm thinking that:

- It will retain the same body style as the 2020 Intel models as well as the size, give or take a TouchBar inclusion, update to the screen, webcam (with a possible FaceID inclusion), and an additional two Thunderbolt ports on the other side.

- I'm expecting the performance to exceed that of 2020 Intel 4-port 13" MacBook Pro speeds (and to DEFINITELY exceed speeds of both the 2020 MacBook Air and 2020 Intel 2-port 13" MacBook Pro).

- If Apple is to be doing something similar in terms of differentiating the kinds of MacBook family SoCs that they do with the iPad family in between the iPad Air and iPad Pro, we will likely see an A14-based SoC with 8 + 4 cores (with 12 + 8 or 16 + 8 on the 13"/14" and 16" MacBook Pros with Apple Silicon); the Pro SoC will have a proportionately more performant GPU and RAM subsystem.

- I'm thinking that the fan will still remain in the system but that the need for it to be connected to the processor heatsink will be nil (and therefore the 2020 Intel MacBook Air's dreaded cooling system will actually be sufficient for Apple Silicon, if not more than sufficient).

- We already have a battery leak to suggest that the form factor likely won't change (sorry 12" MacBook fans) in this first release.

- Apple will keep the same colors available (give or take bringing on some of this year's iPad Air's colors to keep the two Air lines in sync from a colors standpoint).

- The Air will either launch first, perhaps alongside the 24" iMac and, effectively be the actual '13" MacBook Pro' that Kuo and supply chain leakers/analysts were suspecting (due to the Apple Silcon based MacBook Air adopting components that were previously reserved for the Intel 13" MacBook Pro) or it will come out shortly after the joint launch of the Apple Silicon 13" MacBook Pro and 24" iMac.

- Either way, the 2-port 13" MacBook Pro (effectively being the modern day successor to the 2010-2017 MacBook Air) will not make the jump to Apple Silicon and will be effectively replaced by either the Apple Silicon MacBook Air or the Apple Silicon 13" MacBook Pro (whichever comes out first) as either option will have no problem outperforming Intel 8th Gen based 2-Port 13" MacBook Pros and there will be no need for such a machine to continue to be in the line-up especially since the MacBook Air would then be restored to its former pre-2018/Y-series performance levels.

What say you all?

The Apple Silicon MacBook Air likely won't be my Mac of choice, but I'm still excited for it to come out nonetheless. I feel like the 2018-2020 models were poor releases compared to the wonderful 2010-2017 generation and that Apple Silicon replacing Intel in the same enclosure could totally remedy that and make that same body style really work in ways it really just doesn't with Intel inside (in the current 2020 Intel models). I'm also excited for the MacBook Air to replace the 2-port 13" MacBook Pro. The 13" MacBook Pro was never worthy of the "Pro" moniker, and the 2-port 13" MacBook Pro was always the continuation of the MacBook Air's former glory. It'll be nice to see the MacBook Air return to said former glory.

 

[OldCorpse]

I think the “Air” moniker will be retired. It’ll just be the MacBook. The base model.

It will be redesigned. In order to honor the introduction of AS, you can’t have the same old, same old shell.

The performance will be some 50% superior to the top Air. 14 hour battery life.

And some new interesting feature - don’t know what! - but it will have something to get everyone really talking about it.

 

[johnnyzg]

For me it would be enough to match the performance of 2020 Intel 2-port 13" MacBook Pro, but I hope it will exceed it. Also I hope there will be a standard model with 16 GB RM and 512 GB, because BTO orders in my country take 1 to 3 months and I don't want to wait that long.
Battery life 10-14 hours, price to stay as current Macbook Air i5, no touch bar and Magic keyboard.

 

[eric89074]

8 + 4 core A14X/Z/Y/whatever they call it
16GB RAM standard
256GB SSD standard
2 TB3 ports
At least 10 hours battery life

Entry model starts at $999.

 

[Falhófnir]

To begin with I could see them just making an Apple Silicon version of the existing machine. As you say the chip automatically works better with the cooling design. Get off to a good and easy start with a tried and tested (and liked) design. Most importantly this gives people a solid reference point - that was the old MacBook Air, look how much better we've made it by using our own chip. Possibly the revived 12" MacBook will be folded into the Air branding (I really disagree with others who say 'Air' will go away, it's just got so much goodwill and it's well known as the default mac option. Don't see Apple really wanting to give that up).

For the first Apple Silicon redesign, I guess made more like the 12" MacBook. Totally fanless, even thinner (still leaving enough room for the magic keyboard). Screen sizes increased to maybe 12.5" and 14.1" (the bezel on the 12" MacBook is huge and they can't make the footprint smaller as its dictated by the size of the keyboard).

I disagree about the 2 port MacBook Pro, though. I think that's going to be(come) the first AS laptop, with the 24" iMac being the first desktop. Eventually it might go away, but only after the transition is well established and Apple starts rationalising the lineup to suit their own chips better.

 

[leman]

I expect the Air/MB/whatever they call it to use the same chips as an iPad Pro, probably with less constrained thermals. So A12X with 4+4 CPU cores, 7 or 8 GPU cores, quad-channel LPDDR5 and the current form factor. Should be on par if not faster with any 13"-14" Tiger Lake machine out there.

 

[nutmac]

- It will retain the same body style as the 2020 Intel models as well as the size, give or take a TouchBar inclusion, update to the screen, webcam (with a possible FaceID inclusion), and an additional two Thunderbolt ports on the other side..

- We already have a battery leak to suggest that the form factor likely won't change (sorry 12" MacBook fans) in this first release.

The very first Apple Silicon models (MacBook Air and MacBook Pro) will very likely carryover old form factors, just as first generation Intel models did.

I think iMac will be an exception, which is largely seen as the most stale and dated looking Mac in the lineup. While I don't expect 12" MacBook to be part of the initial 2020 launch, corroborated by your battery leak, I expect it to sport all new design, possibly based on iPad Pro.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

My prediction is that will launch an Apple Silicon 13,3 inch MBA (I think they will stick to the name) in early 2021, one year after the 2020 refresh.
Concerning that they said there will be an ASi Mac in 2020, I think this will be a revived MacBook in 12". (As I fear, with butterfly keyboard.)
In both cases, I think the existing designs will be used - form factor, screen, ports and so on.
I expect design changes later in 2021, maybe together with mini LED displays.

 

[MysticCow]

Mine is the same prediction for any ASMac with a few "Consumer grade" adjustments:

1. The price has to on par with an iPad, or we're just going to run with an iPad. So we have to look at a $500 USD laptop that doesn't suck. This is a huge trap that can completely murder the Mac if it isn't priced to compete with those iPads.

2. Not only does the price matter, but being able to do things like add a stick of RAM should be a huge priority for any ASMac. Again, if we want an Apple Silicon chip with a display and no way to upgrade RAM, we can just get an iPad, plain and simple. At least one slot (like the old iBooks) should be available for a RAM upgrade and just solder the other one in.

3. Raw performance (not per watt, but real performance) cannot suck, or we're going to just stick with our old MacTels (i.e. mine from 2011!) or just buy an iPad. It has to outperform the iPad, the current MacBook Air, probably the MacBook 13 inch, and maybe even the iPad Pro. Judging by the benchmarks we've seen, this won't be hard at all.

4. Pull as many bells and whistles away from the MacBook Maybe Air or Not Pro or Whatever in order to push the price down to $500 USD. We don't need the touchbar on a Not Pro model. We don't need something with shiny objects all around. The first one we need is literally a cheapish model that doesn't suck.

5. Don't place the consumer in a situation where "Just buy an iPad" is a reasonable excuse not to buy the ASMac consumer-grade laptop. It bears repeating over and over again. If "Just buy an iPad" comes up when shopping for a new ASMac...then it's failed from the start. Make us WANT it and you can do that just by removing bells and whistles in favor of raw performance.

 

[xgman]

Mine is the same prediction for any ASMac with a few "Consumer grade" adjustments:

1. The price has to on par with an iPad, or we're just going to run with an iPad. So we have to look at a $500 USD laptop that doesn't suck.

You're dreaming.

 

[leman]

1. The price has to on par with an iPad, or we're just going to run with an iPad. So we have to look at a $500 USD laptop that doesn't suck. This is a huge trap that can completely murder the Mac if it isn't priced to compete with those iPads.

Never going to happen. And why would it be a trap? One is a laptop, one is a tablet... you get whatever you need. Many will get both.

2. Not only does the price matter, but being able to do things like add a stick of RAM should be a huge priority for any ASMac. Again, if we want an Apple Silicon chip with a display and no way to upgrade RAM, we can just get an iPad, plain and simple.

If you want the system to be slow and unstable, sure. Modern high-performance mobile RAM doesn't come in upgradeable form factor. Not to mention that Apple is likely to package it very close to the main chip to increase performance and reduce energy consumption, just like they do with iPads.

 

[OldCorpse]

Mine is the same prediction for any ASMac with a few "Consumer grade" adjustments:

1. The price has to on par with an iPad, or we're just going to run with an iPad. So we have to look at a $500 USD laptop that doesn't suck. This is a huge trap that can completely murder the Mac if it isn't priced to compete with those iPads.

2. Not only does the price matter, but being able to do things like add a stick of RAM should be a huge priority for any ASMac. Again, if we want an Apple Silicon chip with a display and no way to upgrade RAM, we can just get an iPad, plain and simple. At least one slot (like the old iBooks) should be available for a RAM upgrade and just solder the other one in.

3. Raw performance (not per watt, but real performance) cannot suck, or we're going to just stick with our old MacTels (i.e. mine from 2011!) or just buy an iPad. It has to outperform the iPad, the current MacBook Air, probably the MacBook 13 inch, and maybe even the iPad Pro. Judging by the benchmarks we've seen, this won't be hard at all.

4. Pull as many bells and whistles away from the MacBook Maybe Air or Not Pro or Whatever in order to push the price down to $500 USD. We don't need the touchbar on a Not Pro model. We don't need something with shiny objects all around. The first one we need is literally a cheapish model that doesn't suck.

5. Don't place the consumer in a situation where "Just buy an iPad" is a reasonable excuse not to buy the ASMac consumer-grade laptop. It bears repeating over and over again. If "Just buy an iPad" comes up when shopping for a new ASMac...then it's failed from the start. Make us WANT it and you can do that just by removing bells and whistles in favor of raw performance.

Wut? This is out in la la land. A laptop is a laptop and it runs MacOS - those who need this, and there are TONS of us out there, are going to buy a laptop - and I'm one of them, the moment the AS "air" or whatnot comes out, I'm buying - so very much cannot be done on an iPad, it's not even a comparison (and I own the iPad Air 3).

No way on Earth (and not even on Mars) is the price of the AS laptop going to be pegged in reference to the iPad anymore than it would be pegged to the Apple Watch. Different use scenarios, period. Those who want an iPad and can have it be a substitute for a laptop will not buy a laptop - they'll buy an iPad (that's me: I like my iPad, and I like the laptop - one doesn't impact the other).

I expect the base AS MacBook to come in at $999 - there's an outside chance (very, very, very small) that it'll be $899, but I don't really believe it - there's also a chance it'll come out at $1099 (see how the iPad Air 4 is $100 more than the Air 3 came out with).

I expect the base AS MacBook to be fanless, but a redesigned chassis. And if anything rather than removing bells and whistles, they'll add some in. I don't expect the RAM to be user upgradable. I'm only hoping that the base SSD will be a minimum of 500GB, but probably not, probably it'll be 256GB and I pray it will not be a meager 128GB (though it's possible, what with Apple constantly pushing iCloud).

But hey, we won't know until it comes out. It's funny though to see people having 100% opposite expectations like you and I for example, lol.

 

[thenewperson]

and an additional two Thunderbolt ports on the other side

This is hopeful ?. At best I'm expecting 1 port on either side. But I'd be pleasantly surprised if we got this.

we will likely see an A14-based SoC with 8 + 4 cores

I'm thinking that the fan will still remain in the system

I assumed they'd go 4+4 precisely to keep the fan out, though thinking about it more if they did that with the current design then what happens to the space in it? Anyway, I do hope there's fanless Mac laptop somewhere. I'd be sad if there wasn't.

 

[thenewperson]

I pray it will not be a meager 128GB

There is hope since they upped the minimum to 256GB with the last refresh.

 

[johngwheeler]

I think the “Air” moniker will be retired. It’ll just be the MacBook. The base model.

It will be redesigned. In order to honor the introduction of AS, you can’t have the same old, same old shell.

The performance will be some 50% superior to the top Air. 14 hour battery life.

And some new interesting feature - don’t know what! - but it will have something to get everyone really talking about it.

This gets my vote. I know some people think that the existing MBA or MBP13 design will be kept, but my gut tells me that Apple will want to differentiate the new generation of Macs with something new.

I think it will be called simply the "MacBook" - a familiar term that doesn't carry the pre-conceptions the previous Air (lightweight) and Pro (more powerful / expensive) labels.

Performance well above the 2020 Air and comfortably better than the 1.4GHz MBP13 models. 15 hour battery life.

Let the show commence!

 

[johngwheeler]

I expect the Air/MB/whatever they call it to use the same chips as an iPad Pro, probably with less constrained thermals. So A12X with 4+4 CPU cores, 7 or 8 GPU cores, quad-channel LPDDR5 and the current form factor. Should be on par if not faster with any 13"-14" Tiger Lake machine out there.

The new Tiger Lake CPU scores highly in Geekbench, particularly the 28W variant (https://www.tomshardware.com/features/intel-11th-gen-tiger-lake-superfin-10nm-benchmarks). It scores better in single and multi-core than the A12Z, and the iGPU seems to be a big improvement over the 10th gen.

I think Apple would need to do better than an A12X equivalent - which they probably will do! Probably the first ASi Mac will be close to Tiger Lake laptops, but I hope it will have much better battery life, and be better optimised for all Apple apps and selected 3rd party apps.

 

[johngwheeler]

Mine is the same prediction for any ASMac with a few "Consumer grade" adjustments:

1. The price has to on par with an iPad, or we're just going to run with an iPad. So we have to look at a $500 USD laptop that doesn't suck. This is a huge trap that can completely murder the Mac if it isn't priced to compete with those iPads.

2. Not only does the price matter, but being able to do things like add a stick of RAM should be a huge priority for any ASMac. Again, if we want an Apple Silicon chip with a display and no way to upgrade RAM, we can just get an iPad, plain and simple. At least one slot (like the old iBooks) should be available for a RAM upgrade and just solder the other one in.

3. Raw performance (not per watt, but real performance) cannot suck, or we're going to just stick with our old MacTels (i.e. mine from 2011!) or just buy an iPad. It has to outperform the iPad, the current MacBook Air, probably the MacBook 13 inch, and maybe even the iPad Pro. Judging by the benchmarks we've seen, this won't be hard at all.

4. Pull as many bells and whistles away from the MacBook Maybe Air or Not Pro or Whatever in order to push the price down to $500 USD. We don't need the touchbar on a Not Pro model. We don't need something with shiny objects all around. The first one we need is literally a cheapish model that doesn't suck.

5. Don't place the consumer in a situation where "Just buy an iPad" is a reasonable excuse not to buy the ASMac consumer-grade laptop. It bears repeating over and over again. If "Just buy an iPad" comes up when shopping for a new ASMac...then it's failed from the start. Make us WANT it and you can do that just by removing bells and whistles in favor of raw performance.

1. $500 Mac? Not. going. to. happen! I would be surprised if it costs <$1000

2. User upgradeable memory? Extraordinarily unlikely given the last few years' releases and Apple's design ethos.

3. People who buy a Mac are not looking for an iPad and vice versa. I use both devices and view them as having completely separate use cases. Yes, an iPad with a keyboard can be a useful device but is not the right tool for many jobs.

 

[leman]

The new Tiger Lake CPU scores highly in Geekbench, particularly the 28W variant (https://www.tomshardware.com/features/intel-11th-gen-tiger-lake-superfin-10nm-benchmarks). It scores better in single and multi-core than the A12Z, and the iGPU seems to be a big improvement over the 10th gen.

I think Apple would need to do better than an A12X equivalent - which they probably will do! Probably the first ASi Mac will be close to Tiger Lake laptops, but I hope it will have much better battery life, and be better optimised for all Apple apps and selected 3rd party apps.

Yeah, Tiger Lake seems to do excellently in Geekbench. I wonder why? It doesn't show these kinds of improvements in SPEC (https://www.anandtech.com/show/16084/intel-tiger-lake-review-deep-dive-core-11th-gen/8) — here Tiger Lake barely outperforms an iPhone A13 while drawing 4 times more power.

Geekbench is also a bit weird to be honest... for example, an Ice Lake i7-1068NG7 records higher single core scores than a i9-9980HK, which doesn't make much sense since the i9 is clocked significantly higher (and the IPC difference is not that large)...

 

[johannnn]

4. Pull as many bells and whistles away from the MacBook Maybe Air or Not Pro or Whatever in order to push the price down to $500 USD. We don't need the touchbar on a Not Pro model. We don't need something with shiny objects all around. The first one we need is literally a cheapish model that doesn't suck.

Lol, this is no chromebook. How can you seriously think it's gonna be $500?
Apple is not gonna push Apple Silicon with "this new computer is the slowest computer we've ever built, but hey it's cheap".

 

[Chozes]

14 hours? Try 24 hour battery life. They will be excellent performance for the form factor no doubt.

Tiger Lake is trash and it actually puts Geekbench into question IMO. Apple will have no issues blowing away Tiger Lake.

 

[raknor]

eekbench is also a bit weird to be honest... for example, an Ice Lake i7-1068NG7 records higher single core scores than a i9-9980HK, which doesn't make much sense since the i9 is clocked significantly higher (and the IPC difference is not that large)...

That's manly because Ice Lake and Tiger Lake support AVX-512 and the Crypto test in GeekBench uses it. That gives Ice Lake and TigerLake a nice boost based on the crypto weighting in the final scores.

 

[Jorbanead]

I personally see a $799 laptop being available. Apple needs to increase market share in China and India, and the #1 reason they haven’t been able to so far is price point. It’s why they’ve released products like the iPhone SE, and why they still sell the series 3 watch (and have the SE too). They have a harder time doing this with intel chips since intel stops making older chips after awhile. Apple can keep making older chips for a long time, or they can stockpile them up too if they expect TMSC to stop using that node after a few years.

Apple designed chips will allow them to reduce prices on the low-end while still retaining their huge margins. I don’t think this will be true for any other Mac (maybe the Mac mini will get a price decrease?) as I think price points for all their other macs, especially the high-end, will be exactly the same as they are today. The big selling point is you get a whole lot more for the same price, and Apple will use their increased margins to cover the cost of chip development and new features.

I think another case for lowering the price point over these next few years is because we are in a global recession. Again they don’t have to lower it for all macs, but even just having one laptop option that is below $1k would probably sell very well in today’s climate.

 

[johngwheeler]

Yeah, Tiger Lake seems to do excellently in Geekbench. I wonder why? It doesn't show these kinds of improvements in SPEC (https://www.anandtech.com/show/16084/intel-tiger-lake-review-deep-dive-core-11th-gen/8) — here Tiger Lake barely outperforms an iPhone A13 while drawing 4 times more power.

Geekbench is also a bit weird to be honest... for example, an Ice Lake i7-1068NG7 records higher single core scores than a i9-9980HK, which doesn't make much sense since the i9 is clocked significantly higher (and the IPC difference is not that large)...

Interesting! I didn't see any SPEC figures for the A13 in the Anandtech link, just a mention that Tiger Lake (15W or 28W?) was "close" the A13 but used more power.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I think the “Air” moniker will be retired. It’ll just be the MacBook. The base model.

It will be redesigned. In order to honor the introduction of AS, you can’t have the same old, same old shell.

The performance will be some 50% superior to the top Air. 14 hour battery life.

And some new interesting feature - don’t know what! - but it will have something to get everyone really talking about it.

I think they tried killing the "Air" moniker from both the iPad and the MacBook lines and nearly succeeded. But I think many people wanted it back (even though there were products in both lines [2-port 13" MacBook Pro and 5th/6th/7th Generation iPad and 9.7"/10.5" iPad Pro] that effectively continued the legacy of the respective Airs).

As for a redesign, there was only one Mac that had a total redesign during the last processor architecture transition (the 12" PowerBook G4 and both sizes of iBook G4 got merged into the 13" MacBook). Apple is not going to redesign EVERY MAC just because they're using a new processor architecture. That doesn't make any sense. They're going to want to prove (for most of the product lines) that adding in the new architecture, let alone their own microarchitecture, yields a benefit. They need to prove to us that this will be an improvement under the hood more than above it.

As for new features, you can be pretty sure that FaceID is not too far behind given Apple's dependence on the Neural Engine for it to work. It's not like the T2 chip has ever had that functionality.

For me it would be enough to match the performance of 2020 Intel 2-port 13" MacBook Pro, but I hope it will exceed it. Also I hope there will be a standard model with 16 GB RM and 512 GB, because BTO orders in my country take 1 to 3 months and I don't want to wait that long.
Battery life 10-14 hours, price to stay as current Macbook Air i5, no touch bar and Magic keyboard.

The A12X already outperformed the chips in the 2019/2020/current Intel 2-port 13" MacBook Pro. The A12Z adds another GPU core to A12X and therefore also outperforms it. Whatever Apple is getting ready to release, it will surely be faster than A12Z and will therefore also outperform every Intel 2-port 13" MacBook Pro that has ever existed, let alone every MacBook Air that has ever existed. It will very likely give the 2020 Intel 4-port 13" MacBook Pro a run for its money as well. So, good news there.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the higher end model come with 16GB of RAM; unsure about 512GB. Totally possible though, especially if Apple wants to maintain the pricepoints of the current Airs (as Apple Silicon saves them money over Intel).

Can't say for sure on the TouchBar. Magic Keyboard is a safe bet though.

8 + 4 core A14X/Z/Y/whatever they call it
16GB RAM standard
256GB SSD standard
2 TB3 ports
At least 10 hours battery life

Entry model starts at $999.

16GB RAM standard on the lower end model seems unlikely for this first rev. Totally possible on a higher end model though. I'm thinking that, unless there is a serious logic board constraint in terms of planting Thunderbolt 3 controllers, we'll see four. The constraint was Intel chipset specific before. I'm not sure that Apple is limited there when putting it on their own architecture. 10 hour battery life will be easily doable though. If anything, it ought to be closer to 20 hour.

To begin with I could see them just making an Apple Silicon version of the existing machine. As you say the chip automatically works better with the cooling design. Get off to a good and easy start with a tried and tested (and liked) design. Most importantly this gives people a solid reference point - that was the old MacBook Air, look how much better we've made it by using our own chip. Possibly the revived 12" MacBook will be folded into the Air branding (I really disagree with others who say 'Air' will go away, it's just got so much goodwill and it's well known as the default mac option. Don't see Apple really wanting to give that up).

For the first Apple Silicon redesign, I guess made more like the 12" MacBook. Totally fanless, even thinner (still leaving enough room for the magic keyboard). Screen sizes increased to maybe 12.5" and 14.1" (the bezel on the 12" MacBook is huge and they can't make the footprint smaller as its dictated by the size of the keyboard).

I disagree about the 2 port MacBook Pro, though. I think that's going to be(come) the first AS laptop, with the 24" iMac being the first desktop. Eventually it might go away, but only after the transition is well established and Apple starts rationalising the lineup to suit their own chips better.

The only reason the 2-port 13" MacBook Pro exists in the first place is that Apple wanted to kill the "MacBook Air" product line. The 2-port 13" MacBook Pro is the continuation of the 2010-2017 MacBook Air. It uses the same class of Intel CPUs. Apple eventually reversed course and rebranded the 12" MacBook into a more familiar 13.3" size and that's how we have the 2018-2020 MacBook Air that we have today. They'll easily be able to make a MacBook Air that uses the 2020 (or even 2018/19) MacBook Air chassis and still easily outperforms both the 2020 Air and the 2-port 13" MacBook Pro, which would effectively reconsolidate the MacBook Air. Plus, the only reason for there to be three different 13" Mac notebooks is that each chassis has its thermal limits as does each Intel CPU going into it. Apple could produce a CPU to go into the MacBook Air's current chassis that outperforms the Intel CPU in the current 4-port 13" MacBook Pro and still has room and thermals to spare.

I expect the Air/MB/whatever they call it to use the same chips as an iPad Pro, probably with less constrained thermals. So A12X with 4+4 CPU cores, 7 or 8 GPU cores, quad-channel LPDDR5 and the current form factor. Should be on par if not faster with any 13"-14" Tiger Lake machine out there.

So, in the same way that the CPUs that go into the iPhone also make it into the iPad mini and (in recent history) the iPad Airs, but not the iPad Pros? I could see that. I don't see why they couldn't up the core count though. The current iPad Pros aren't stuck at 4 + 4 right now, are they?

The very first Apple Silicon models (MacBook Air and MacBook Pro) will very likely carryover old form factors, just as first generation Intel models did.

I think iMac will be an exception, which is largely seen as the most stale and dated looking Mac in the lineup. While I don't expect 12" MacBook to be part of the initial 2020 launch, corroborated by your battery leak, I expect it to sport all new design, possibly based on iPad Pro.

Apple knows that they need a new body style for the iMac. But Intel's thermal constraints sort of limited the range of possible new designs (you can make it thinner at the edge, but you still need room for airflow with Intel). With Apple Silicon, they can absolutely do crazy things because the computing guts won't need THAT much room to accommodate cooling.

Mine is the same prediction for any ASMac with a few "Consumer grade" adjustments:

1. The price has to on par with an iPad, or we're just going to run with an iPad. So we have to look at a $500 USD laptop that doesn't suck. This is a huge trap that can completely murder the Mac if it isn't priced to compete with those iPads.

2. Not only does the price matter, but being able to do things like add a stick of RAM should be a huge priority for any ASMac. Again, if we want an Apple Silicon chip with a display and no way to upgrade RAM, we can just get an iPad, plain and simple. At least one slot (like the old iBooks) should be available for a RAM upgrade and just solder the other one in.

3. Raw performance (not per watt, but real performance) cannot suck, or we're going to just stick with our old MacTels (i.e. mine from 2011!) or just buy an iPad. It has to outperform the iPad, the current MacBook Air, probably the MacBook 13 inch, and maybe even the iPad Pro. Judging by the benchmarks we've seen, this won't be hard at all.

4. Pull as many bells and whistles away from the MacBook Maybe Air or Not Pro or Whatever in order to push the price down to $500 USD. We don't need the touchbar on a Not Pro model. We don't need something with shiny objects all around. The first one we need is literally a cheapish model that doesn't suck.

5. Don't place the consumer in a situation where "Just buy an iPad" is a reasonable excuse not to buy the ASMac consumer-grade laptop. It bears repeating over and over again. If "Just buy an iPad" comes up when shopping for a new ASMac...then it's failed from the start. Make us WANT it and you can do that just by removing bells and whistles in favor of raw performance.

In order:

1. Apple is not putting out a $500 laptop that doesn't suck. It would be nice, but it isn't happening.

2. If anything, removable RAM should've been a priority on Intel Macs where most Intel PCs still support removing/replacing RAM. However, many PCs are following Apple's lead on this. Dell's Latitude 7000 series, one of the nicer business PC laptops has already eschewed removable RAM. It's only a matter of time before Lenovo and HP follow suit on this. As it stands, Apple only sells three Macs that have removable/replaceable RAM; the Mac mini, the non-Pro 27" iMac, and the Mac Pro. It will, at best, remain this way going into Apple Silicon. I agree that removable RAM should be a thing. However, people demanded thinner laptops and that's just one of those necessary tradeoffs.

3. I agree; as was the case with the Intel transition, when we see models on the new (to the Mac) architecture, they will have outperform their most immediate Intel predecessors so that the move is shown to be worth having done. Developers (and the public) won't like it if there's all this effort to switch architectures and all it results in is the same performance as Intel chips (that are, themselves, only slightly different from 2016 releases).

4. Not going to happen for the reasons I've stated above.

5. Users will be swayed into buying an iPad for the simplicity of not operating an actual computer. Also that the iPad's app ecosystem is currently healthier than the Mac's, which has suffered in recent years (especially with the removal of 32-bit support). Otherwise pricing won't matter here. iPad and Mac are about as Apples and Oranges as you can get while still being in the same overall ecosystem.

If you want the system to be slow and unstable, sure. Modern high-performance mobile RAM doesn't come in upgradeable form factor. Not to mention that Apple is likely to package it very close to the main chip to increase performance and reduce energy consumption, just like they do with iPads.

That statement is not correct. Maybe it's true of LPDDR5 or LPDDR5X currently, but that's not to say that it's true of DDR4 (it's not) nor that we won't have removable LPDDR5 RAM down the road, but high performance RAM absolutely exists in upgradable fashion. There are Workstation laptops (HP ZBook and Dell Precision) that use way faster and way more advanced RAM than you can stuff in a 16" MacBook Pro and it's definitely still removable.

This is hopeful ?. At best I'm expecting 1 port on either side. But I'd be pleasantly surprised if we got this.





I assumed they'd go 4+4 precisely to keep the fan out, though thinking about it more if they did that with the current design then what happens to the space in it? Anyway, I do hope there's fanless Mac laptop somewhere. I'd be sad if there wasn't.

I'd imagine that the next redesign for the MacBook Air will omit the fan (as Apple will have been able to produce a faster and more energy efficient SoC that would allow it). I still think that the Macs will have more cores than the iPad Pros, but the MacBook Air could overlap with the iPad Pro in terms of which SoC they use in the same way that the iPad mini has overlapped with the contemporary iPhone SoC. If the performance of whatever iPad Pro based A14X/Z is decent enough (and right now the A12X and A12Z outperform the Ice Lake CPUs in the iPad Pros, and match it under emulation via Rosetta 2, so it ought to be decent enough), then it's likely we'll see parity there.

 

[thenewperson]

and right now the A12X and A12Z outperform the Ice Lake CPUs in the iPad Pros, and match it under emulation via Rosetta 2, so it ought to be decent enough

This is exactly what I'm basing my hopes off. I just feel like it'd be good if they gave us a fanless model immediately. Do they need to redesign the whole computer to remove the fan?