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The rumored 12-inch MacBook with Apple Silicon - a 2024 perspective (Speculation Megathread?)
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Macbook = Students / Low budget Consumers
MacBook Air = Office Based Professionals / Businessman / Frequent Flyers
MacBook Pro = Power Users
If an Mx 12" MacBook was to come to pass; Apple Silicon tends to level the field unless you have specific needs. Even the M1's are still very capable in comparison to many others.
When the 12" rMB was released Apple turned everything on it's head with the performance profile & pricing excluding the majority. A 12" Mx would be perfect for the business traveller, students, the casual couch surfer and a multitude more where size & weight is a significant factor.
Predominately the Air works for all the above with ease. That said close to a decade on when you pick up the 12" rMB it still feels like someting special. Still utterly nuts that a fully functional Mac can exist in this diminutive formfactor. I still use my 2015 rMB from time to time and still enjoy it. Far from perfect yet as they say nothing compares.
Back to you post would be difficult today to see where a Mx 12" would fit in, equally I hope Apple produces one, I for one would be all in. I hammered my 2015 12" rMB in professional roles across the globe, nor confined to soft jobs.
No need to push boundaries just a well priced 12" MacBook with even the M1 SOC, instant sale...
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Yep, doesn't need to be the top line processor - a Model-T for the masses like the original MacBooks/iBooks has been missing from the lineup for the longest time.
Keep it a SOC generation behind so not to cannibalize sales of the Air/Pro.
Agree. Generally, intelligent users buy what supports their needs plus a bit of margin for Apple and (in my case) Adobe bloat growth. I’m into photography. I’ve had dual cpu G4's, maxed out rMBP's and maxed out iMac's. After reading some comparison tests by photographers that showed, for my use case, a base model M1 Air outperforming some fairly heavy duty i7 computers, I picked up an 8, 8, 16 with 16 gb RAM. I’m still in awe 3 years later.
Apple's Marketeers may slot the Air as entry level. Fine with me, I guess I’m entry level watching mine take less than 10 seconds to perform operations that well spec’d X86 boxes take minutes to perform.
Apple's Marketeers may slot the Air as entry level. Fine with me, I guess I’m entry level watching mine take less than 10 seconds to perform operations that well spec’d X86 boxes take minutes to perform.
Not much for photography, but at times I need to manipulate images. My go to is the 13" M1 MBP with GIMP, still super fast, absolutely nails it...
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You know, if the 11” iPad Pro could boot Linux I would buy it. Great form factor, great screen, great performance. It only needs an OS.
One SoC generation behind would not be enough
That's the problem with Apple Silicon
It has been unintentionally, absurdly futureproofed so much that even an M2 would still drive away sales.
The combination of SoC + Smaller screen + Lower price might make it more obvious that this was not a flagship machine.
Of course they could always make it polycarbonate instead of Aluminum
Knowing apple though they'd make super duper lightweight model out of the most exotic alloys, with all the same features of the MBP. Charge $3000 (for the base model) and a year later tell us no-one wants a small lightweight machine anymore as is obvious from the dismal sales.
They can call it the Macbook "Mini"
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They would likely use a design which r&d costs have been atomized by this pointThe combination of SoC + Smaller screen + Lower price might make it more obvious that this was not a flagship machine.
Of course they could always make it polycarbonate instead of Aluminum
Knowing apple though they'd make super duper lightweight model out of the most exotic alloys, with all the same features of the MBP. Charge $3000 (for the base model) and a year later tell us no-one wants a small lightweight machine anymore as is obvious from the dismal sales.
They can call it the Macbook "Mini"
And enough stability to not fall over while using the Magic Keyboard on a bed or something.
The thickness of the 14 inch MacBook Pro of nowadays is 0.61 inches
The thickness of a 2008 MacBook Pro is 0.95 inches
And which one looks sleeker?
Tell me
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Conveniently hiding the hideous notch that is already obsolete in Apple's design language in the rest of their product lineup yet they keep on MacBooks for some reason despite not even having Face ID, also hiding the bulky side profile. For their respective times, in comparison to their competition; that MBP was miles ahead of what this current one is.
Compare that 2008 MBP with other laptops on the market at that time. Then compare the current MBP with other laptops of today. Apple was once the peak of aesthetics in tech, those days are long gone.
I dream of the return of the 12-inch. I use a 15-inch M2 as my main workstation, but I frequently travel with my Lenovo Chromebook Duet (which I love), but I terribly miss macOS. I think that a 12-inch MacBook could be one of the rare times I’d purchase something within the hour of the launch.
That's just Apple's wallpaper
The hiding on the notch is also present on the M3 Air and the 15'' M2 Air
I had a 2016 mbp, I now own a 2021 mbp. All I can say to this statement is
“Good riddance”