Why so little speculation on new Air specs?

[hutchingsp]

I was in the Apple Store today to check out the 27" iMac vs. a 13" or 15" MacBook Pro with a TFT.

Found myself drooling over a 13" Air and walking out wanting one, however...

Apparently a new Air is "imminent" as in really imminent, maybe next week or within the next couple of weeks.

So I was a little surprised when I hit the Air forum here and found, really, very little speculation as to what the major changes will be with the new Air.

Any reason as it seems on the iMac/MacBook forums folks are already planning for the next release, and that's a lot more than 2 weeks away.

 

[johnhalsted]

there isnt going to be a major changes, just small updates that we have known of for a while, new better i3 processor, awfull intel graphics, probably a slightly faster ssd and maybe thunderbolt

 

[JD92]

there isnt going to be a major changes, just small updates that we have known of for a while, new better i3 processor, awfull intel graphics, probably a slightly faster ssd and maybe thunderbolt

I doubt we'll see an i3, it'll be one of the low voltage i5 or i7 processors. And you can bet the mini displayport will become a thunderbolt port.

 

[57004]

Because it's already been discussed to death since the first rumors came out months ago

This thread (from February) gives a very good overview I think.

 

[NurJahan]

Yeah, we've been talking about this for months now, there are plenty of threads on the next page probably.

 

[leftywamumonkey]

I think I get what he's saying. There has been speculation, but not as much as the Macbook Pro. There has been less speculation because theres not much that can happen in the next Air refresh.

 

[hutchingsp]

I think I get what he's saying. There has been speculation, but not as much as the Macbook Pro. There has been less speculation because theres not much that can happen in the next Air refresh.

Pretty much. Put it this way, I did read back a few pages but didn't expect to be pointed to a thread from February for the most likely speculation on what would be happening to a refresh in June/July, IYSWIM

 

[vistokid]

Anyone think an sd slot makes it in the 11"?

 

[TrollToddington]

Anyone think an sd slot makes it in the 11"?

Me thinks there's a greater probability the sd slots leaves the 13". In short, I feel there won't be a sd slot in the new 11" though I hope there will. Anyway, people with Nikon D700 or Canon 5D mark II won't care.

 

[hutchingsp]

I'm a little surprised there doesn't seem to be any sign of integrated 3g given just how portable the Air is.

 

[Burton8219]

I'm a little surprised there doesn't seem to be any sign of integrated 3g given just how portable the Air is.

I think the general feeling from Apple's standpoint is that if they include integrated 3G in the air then they are really making the iPad obsolete. Who's gonna be in the market for an iPad w/ 64 GB and integrated 3G for about 850.00 when they can go buy an actual machine for 150 more that has what the iPad has and more? I don't know if there will ever be an integrated modem in the MBA... now to the topic at hand. If they make a 15" MBA with an SB processor and a faster/bigger SSD for less than 2200 count me in!

 

[nuckinfutz]

I'm a little surprised there doesn't seem to be any sign of integrated 3g given just how portable the Air is.

I'm not surprised. At this point 4G is on the horizon and I think that there needs to be more of a universal 4G chip before we start seeing this hardware added to Macs.

We'd basically need to be able to buy a Macbook Air with a 4G chip in it that works with just about every major network out there. Then we have something. Right now the mix of CDMA and GSM networks out there make this prohibitively expensive in money and time IMO

 

[Stuart in Oz]

Also, I think Apple would prefer you to be tethering your Air to your iPhone than using on-board 3G.

 

[TC25]

So I was a little surprised when I hit the Air forum here and found, really, very little speculation as to what the major changes will be with the new Air.

I agree. I have always been helped in purchasing decisions by uninformed speculation by strangers on the Internet.

 

[Burton8219]

I agree. I have always been helped in purchasing decisions by uninformed speculation by strangers on the Internet.

This made me laugh thoroughly... very clever what you did there.

 

[42streetsdown]

I see no reason why the current mini display port wouldn't be replaced with thunderbolt. So, Thunderbolt on all new MBA models

Based on prices and power consumption, here are my guesses on the Sandy Bridge processors that will be in the machines.

11" MBA Base CPU:
Intel® Core™ i5-2537M Processor (Dual Core, 1.4 GHz(2.3GHz turbo) 3M Cache)

11" MBA BTO CPU:
Intel® Core™ i7-2657M Processor (Dual Core, 1.6 GHz(2.7GHz turbo) 4M Cache)

13" MBA Base CPU:
Intel® Core™ i7-2629M Processor (Dual Core, 2.1 GHz(3.0GHz turbo) 4M Cache)

13" MBA BTO CPU:
Intel® Core™ i7-2649M Processor (Dual Core, 2.3 GHz(3.2GHz turbo) 4M Cache)

The processors for the 13" here are a tad more expensive than the current ones but the is no 25W i5 chip and i imagine apple saves a bit not having the NVIDIA GeForce 320M anymore.

Also, all of these have obviously have the Intel graphics

I doubt SSD prices will drop much (if at all). they might offer a 256GB option but it'd be very expensive.

 

[42streetsdown]

Also, I think Apple would prefer you to be tethering your Air to your iPhone than using on-board 3G.

Why would they prefer that? it's the carriers who get to charge you lots for that, not apple.

 

[hutchingsp]

I agree. I have always been helped in purchasing decisions by uninformed speculation by strangers on the Internet.

Fair point, you got me there

Often however, the speculation doesn't end up too far off the mark so long as you ignore the ridiculous stuff.

 

[leftywamumonkey]

I doubt SSD prices will drop much (if at all). they might offer a 256GB option but it'd be very expensive.

But, they already do offer a 256GB option.

 

[zombierunner]

The best way to experience Lion OS is the macbook air .. so they want to release the new macbook air with lion pre-installed ... is what i think the reasoning is behind the refresh date .. whatever it is.

 

[KylePowers]

The best way to experience Lion OS is the macbook air .. so they want to release the new macbook air with lion pre-installed ... is what i think the reasoning is behind the refresh date .. whatever it is.

With the MBA being the "future of MacBooks", it wouldn't surprise me if the MBA was the first Apple computer to ship with Lion (sort of a headlining thing). If Lion does ship the 14th (as recently speculated, but doubtful from devs who've tested it) and with the 13in refurbs finally dropping in price (as of today or yesterday or whenever it happened recently), it all sort of adds up to be quite the possibility.

All I know for sure is how impatient I'm growing

 

[Hankster]

I think most people assume the upgrades will be minor spec boosts. The only hardware that may be added is a TB port. We'll see soon!

 

[zombierunner]

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When Steve jobs shows off lion it's going to be on the new mac book air ... And he'll be like oh yea folks one more thing ... This notebook is the new mac book air if you haven't noticed it already.

 

[Kavrocks]

I doubt SSD prices will drop much (if at all). they might offer a 256GB option but it'd be very expensive.

I thought they had dropped in price by between 10% and 20% in the last month?

 

[iRun26.2]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

When Steve jobs shows off lion it's going to be on the new mac book air ... And he'll be like oh yea folks one more thing ... This notebook is the new mac book air if you haven't noticed it already.

Maybe we will know before Steve announces it because the new MBA with Intel IGP 'beach ball's while taking on a complex graphics task...

(Sorry, I know that's unlikely, but I just couldn't resist)