ARM macbook air vs ARM macbook pro kinda feels like iphone 12 vs iphone 12 pro

[chad.petree]

I can't help but see the parallels between the ARM macbook air vs ARM macbook pro and the iphone 12 vs iphone 12 pro debacle, with the pro being considerably more expensive, but not offering much more.​

​

What will the macbook pro offer over the air now that both will probably will be using the same chipset? A higher speced option with 16 gb ram, but the starting configuration will probably see 8 gb for both models, both start with a 256 gb ssd, so... the pro only offers a brigther screen (500 nits vs how much on the air 380 nits) and the touchbar (which most people don't care for) and that is it? Am I missing something?​

​

Off topic: I hope apple takes the chance to slap the ipad/iphone front camera on their laptops, that 720p webcam is AWFUL​

 

[markiv810]

It's too early to say, you only have to wait for one week now. Maybe wait a bit and we all shall know. I have a feeling that the Apple Silicon would/ should be different for MBA and MacBook Pro.

Yeah the webcam on these laptops is simply awful, I don't understand how Apple gets away with it.

 

[imdropbear]

I can't help but see the parallels between the ARM macbook air vs ARM macbook pro and the iphone 12 vs iphone 12 pro debacle, with the pro being considerably more expensive, but not offering much more.​

​

What will the macbook pro offer over the air now that both will probably will be using the same chipset? A higher speced option with 16 gb ram, but the starting configuration will probably see 8 gb for both models, both start with a 256 gb ssd, so... the pro only offers a brigther screen (500 nits vs how much on the air 380 nits) and the touchbar (which most people don't care for) and that is it? Am I missing something?​

​

Off topic: I hope apple takes the chance to slap the ipad/iphone front camera on their laptops, that 720p webcam is AWFUL​

They haven‘t even officially announced those products, maybe you should wait before you jump to conclusions. I’m pretty sure they will differentiate them somehow If they really release both an MBA and an MBA with AS.

 

[thingstoponder]

I can't help but see the parallels between the ARM macbook air vs ARM macbook pro and the iphone 12 vs iphone 12 pro debacle, with the pro being considerably more expensive, but not offering much more.​

​

What will the macbook pro offer over the air now that both will probably will be using the same chipset? A higher speced option with 16 gb ram, but the starting configuration will probably see 8 gb for both models, both start with a 256 gb ssd, so... the pro only offers a brigther screen (500 nits vs how much on the air 380 nits) and the touchbar (which most people don't care for) and that is it? Am I missing something?​

​

Off topic: I hope apple takes the chance to slap the ipad/iphone front camera on their laptops, that 720p webcam is AWFUL​

We have zero clue which processors they will have. I highly doubt it’s the same chip. The “leaks” from Komiya on twitter have been nonsense. He was the only one saying it will be the same chip. What we do know from Gurman is there are three chips so far. Sounds to me like the Air, 13” Pro, and 16” Pro are all getting their own chip, but who knows.

Also the iPhone 12 vs 12 Pro wasn’t a debacle. It’s not even a big price difference when you normalize for storage. Demand for the Pro has been higher than Apple expected so I guess they did something right.

 

[Dhock_Holiday]

There are many ways to differentiate the Air/Pro even if they use the same chip. Apple can either set the clock speed lower or simply disable performance cores, Intel and AMD have been doing the same thing for decades.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Extra cores, extra RAM, extra battery, ProMotion, double the ports, etc.

 

[thekev]

Minor processor differences are not meaningful for most people. They are not "future proofing". If you look at their notebooks today, they tend to lock higher storage and memory capacities behind higher model tiers. Those tend to convey a greater real world advantage on average outside of specialized workloads.

 

[NT1440]

Debacle? What in the world do you mean?

 

[dmccloud]

I can't help but see the parallels between the ARM macbook air vs ARM macbook pro and the iphone 12 vs iphone 12 pro debacle, with the pro being considerably more expensive, but not offering much more.​

​

What will the macbook pro offer over the air now that both will probably will be using the same chipset? A higher speced option with 16 gb ram, but the starting configuration will probably see 8 gb for both models, both start with a 256 gb ssd, so... the pro only offers a brigther screen (500 nits vs how much on the air 380 nits) and the touchbar (which most people don't care for) and that is it? Am I missing something?​

​

Off topic: I hope apple takes the chance to slap the ipad/iphone front camera on their laptops, that 720p webcam is AWFUL​

What "debacle" are you referring to? Your post makes a lot of assumptions without any evidence to support your claims. The chances of Apple using the same processor on all of its new models is slim to none, just like they have different versions of their processors for iPhones and iPads now. As far as the 12 vs 12 Pro thing is concerned, three cameras vs. 2, LiDAR support, Apple Pro RAW support, and higher storage capacities all factor into the differences in price. Pro RAW is the feature that could easily kill off what little is left of the point and shoot digital camera market, because that makes the 12 Pro more of a prosumer level camera in so many ways, while being more portable (therefore easier to use in a pinch) than any point & shoot on the market today.

 

[chad.petree]

Extra cores, extra RAM, extra battery, ProMotion, double the ports, etc.

Fair enough, but promotion on the macbook right now is just (unfortunately) wishful thinking

 

[chad.petree]

Debacle? What in the world do you mean?

Its pretty obvious that the iphone 12 pro was supossed to have promotion as a big differentiator and it got scrapped, leaving apple with just minor differences between the pro and the standard 12

 

[UltimateSyn]

Fair enough, but promotion on the macbook right now is just (unfortunately) wishful thinking

They’ve got it in iPad Pro with their LCD panels, I’d bet money that the ASi MBPs get ProMotion out of the gate.

 

[bill-p]

They’ve got it in iPad Pro with their LCD panels, I’d bet money that the ASi MBPs get ProMotion out of the gate.

I wouldn't be so sure. Why? Because the iPhone 12 Pro didn't get ProMotion.

Also, all indications point to... just an announcement, with no redesign. I'm guessing that means Apple will be reusing quite a few components, perhaps including the display.

In fact, this time around, I'd think Apple won't do too much more than introducing AS MacBooks with "moar performance".

So I'm betting:
1. More powerful chips
2. Maybe up to 15 hours of battery life but... it really depends on how much performance Apple wants to squeeze out. I'll lean towards 10 or 12 hours though.
3. Same design.
4. No ProMotion.
5. Higher price.
6. Obviously Big Sur launch.
7. Probably shipping the week after.
8. Obviously won't cook you breakfast or wow you.

And then... it'll make sense: those who want AS Macs will have to pony up and those who still have a recent Intel MacBook can keep waiting for a redesign that may come... next year, or the year after?

It also fits into the theme of Apple's recent announcements: short, sweet, to the point, no surprises, nothing truly amazing, or ground breaking. I mean... we got the new iPad Air. It was a logical upgrade over the old iPad Air but nothing we haven't seen before. We got the iPhone 12 Pro. It's... got better cameras. And then we'll get... Apple Silicon MacBooks. They've got... Apple Silicon. And that's it. That's the "new thing".

 

[thenewperson]

I wouldn't be so sure. Why? Because the iPhone 12 Pro didn't get ProMotion.

That actually doesn't tell us anything and is actually a secondary point of the person you replied to. The iPhone uses OLED and the only ones that can make a ProMotion-capable display are Samsung and they're prioritising their own phones, likely making it impossible for Apple to have enough for theirs (especially important considering the reports that the 12 Pro is actually doing better than expected). The iPad Pro OTOH, uses LCD just like all Macs and there have been ProMotion-capable displays for Apple to comfortably source for a long time now. I don't know if they can be gotten in iMac/Pro Display sizes but MacBooks seem doable.

Having written all the though, I agree with you that we likely aren't getting ProMotion at this time. Maybe with that redesign that's rumoured for 2021.

 

[chad.petree]

I wouldn't be so sure. Why? Because the iPhone 12 Pro didn't get ProMotion.

Also, all indications point to... just an announcement, with no redesign. I'm guessing that means Apple will be reusing quite a few components, perhaps including the display.

In fact, this time around, I'd think Apple won't do too much more than introducing AS MacBooks with "moar performance".

So I'm betting:
1. More powerful chips
2. Maybe up to 15 hours of battery life but... it really depends on how much performance Apple wants to squeeze out. I'll lean towards 10 or 12 hours though.
3. Same design.
4. No ProMotion.
5. Higher price.
6. Obviously Big Sur launch.
7. Probably shipping the week after.
8. Obviously won't cook you breakfast or wow you.

And then... it'll make sense: those who want AS Macs will have to pony up and those who still have a recent Intel MacBook can keep waiting for a redesign that may come... next year, or the year after?

It also fits into the theme of Apple's recent announcements: short, sweet, to the point, no surprises, nothing truly amazing, or ground breaking. I mean... we got the new iPad Air. It was a logical upgrade over the old iPad Air but nothing we haven't seen before. We got the iPhone 12 Pro. It's... got better cameras. And then we'll get... Apple Silicon MacBooks. They've got... Apple Silicon. And that's it. That's the "new thing".

Great predictions, everything you said sounds plausible, I think apple will just stick an arm processor in the new Macs and call it a day, I sure hope you are wrong about them being even more expensive though, 2075 eur for a 13 inch 512 gb SSD, 16 gb ddr4 macbook is excessive , such a configuration shouldn't cost more than 1800 eur :/

I'd love to have promotion on the mac, but I don't want to set myself to be disappointed

 

[Serban55]

"

ARM macbook air vs ARM macbook pro kinda feels like iphone 12 vs iphone 12 pro"​

Or maybe the iphone 12 and 12 pro feels like the current Air vs Pro macbooks..same display dimensions, display diff brightness , diff ram etc
So we can still expect that from ARM also...diff RAM, higher/more core speeds, diff display

 

[Serban55]

that 720p webcam is AWFUL

Since the new imac has the 1080p i expect every new upcoming mac to also have that facetime camera

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

My best guesses for redesigned MBP features over the MBA;

- Faster processor and graphics
- More USB 4 ports (4 vs. 1)
- Face ID
- P3 display
- Micro LED
- Potentially; Magic Keyboard rather than a redesigned butterfly keyboard for MBA.

Obviously as far as the current chassis goes, it’ll all be about the CPU and graphics.

 

[theluggage]

- Faster processor and graphics
- More USB 4 ports (4 vs. 1)

...which is similar to the current distinction between the entry-level "two port" 13" MBP and the top-end "4 port" model.

I don't think there's a problem between a new ASi Air and a replacement for the "4 port" 13" Pro - it's the entry level MBPs that I don't see a role for in the ASi world unless Apple artificially knobbles the MacBook Air.

 

[guzhogi]

I've said in other threads, and I'll say it again here: I wish Apple would make the non-Pro MacBook the thin, light model, and the Pro model thicker so it can have a better CPU/GPU, bigger battery, etc.

 

[MysticCow]

Pro will likely have Apple Graphics while Air will have iPad graphics. For those still confused:

1. Pro models will have a special discrete graphics chip built-in.

2. Air models will have the regular graphics set attached to the A14/15/16/99 chip, just like an iPad.

 

[richinaus]

I've said in other threads, and I'll say it again here: I wish Apple would make the non-Pro MacBook the thin, light model, and the Pro model thicker so it can have a better CPU/GPU, bigger battery, etc.

I keep saying laptops should be thin and light, and do the heavy lifting on a desktop

 

[UltimateSyn]

Pro will likely have Apple Graphics while Air will have iPad graphics. For those still confused:

1. Pro models will have a special discrete graphics chip built-in.

2. Air models will have the regular graphics set attached to the A14/15/16/99 chip, just like an iPad.

Apple Silicon isn't going to use discrete graphics chips.

 

[mr_roboto]

Apple Silicon isn't going to use discrete graphics chips.

There are credible rumors that Apple is designing its own discrete graphics chip(s). This makes sense out of their claims that Apple Silicon will only use Apple GPUs - in some of their products, they're going to need a lot more GPU than is practical to fit on the same die as the CPU. (Most notably, iMac Pro and Mac Pro.)

Supporting evidence: Imagination Technologies recently announced a new generation of GPU core, B-Series, which supports linking multiple GPU cores (including ones possibly located on different chips) together to improve performance. Apple probably has access to this and other new technologies in B-Series due to an architectural license agreement.

 

[leman]

2. Maybe up to 15 hours of battery life but... it really depends on how much performance Apple wants to squeeze out. I'll lean towards 10 or 12 hours though.

I have good hopes for battery life. Why? Because of asymmetric CPU design. Apple can offload non-realtime background tasks to efficiency cores, saving massive amounts of energy in the process. A big problem with Intel CPUs is that they are very difficult to fine-tune: when a core actively performs work, the automatic overclocking machinery automatically kicks in and tries to boost as hard as it can, even if doesn't make much sense for the specific task. Examples are things like time machine backups, photo indexing, email fetch etc... and these are the things that end up eating a lot of battery without you even noticing.

If you instead run sustained multi-core workloads, I'd expect the battery life to be similar to current Intel Macs, as I expect the sustained TDP to be similar. For bursty single core workloads, Apple Silicon has tremendous saving potentials as well, since it will only need 1/3-1/6 power relative to Intel CPUs when running on high clock.