I'm excited about everything mentioned in the rumors, except for the "flat edge design similar to the iPhone 12". One of my favorite parts of the MacBook design is how easy it is to pick up off of a flat surface with one hand. The tapers help me slide my fingers underneath the computer to hold on. I feel like if there is a flat edge, it'll be hard to grip on the side unless you're using 2 hands.
I’d argue that the thinner edge is more ergonomic than the regular MacBooks; it doesn’t “cut” into your wrists as much. I suspect the wedge shape also provides some incline to the keyboard, which is preferable for most.
Good point. However, I don't recall Steve or any text on the Apple website that outright says that it is tapered for economics reasons. In this Stevenote and the previous Stevenotes where the MacBook Air was discussed it came across as if the the taper was there so they have another number to brag about when talking about thinness. That was my impression at least.
Glad to hear it won't have a tapered design. Not sure if it really needs to be thinner or lighter than the current rMBP but I'm fine as long as it keeps a keyboard that actually has some depth. Typing on the MBA and new MB is not a good experience.
I suspect that when you say "noone," you mean "noone except for all those weird people who bought the first generation of Macbook Air, and then another, and are now ready to buy a third Macbook Air."
Like me. And judging by recent Apple history, I am not an outlier. They have sold a LOT of Macbook Airs, to people who could have bought a "more powerful" machine with a different form factor.
Yes, absolutely I love its light weight. But I also like its profile, and the entire "thin wedge" design principle is to increase the appearance that it is thin.
The whole point of this article is that the original MacBook Air had a principle (thinness above all) that the current one has moved away from, and that it wouldn't be surprising if they moved back.
The obsession with thinness above all else is a great example of Apple's style-over-substance failures.
It's good for a laptop to be reasonably light and portable. Having one line that focuses on reducing size/weight and another that focuses on power, as Apple does, also makes sense. But if the power-focused branch is 15mm instead of 13, that is deeply not a problem.
>Those 2010-2015 era Airs were great laptops for their time.
Can concur. Back then Apple didn't go for thinness for the sake of thinness like the post 2015 machines did. And it's not like the 2010's generations of machines were think and bulky.
>Apple has consistently shown that it cares more about form over function. No one needs their laptops to be any thinner than they already are
Well, this depends.
Here's how a user put it: "I have to admit being a bit baffled by how nobody else seems to have done what Apple did with the Macbook Air - even several years after the first release, the other notebook vendors continue to push those ugly and clunky things. Yes, there are vendors that have tried to emulate it, but usually pretty badly. I don't think I'm unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light. (...) A notebook that weighs more than a kilo is simply not a good thing (yeah, I’m using the smaller 11" macbook air, and I think weight could still be improved on, but at least it’s very close to the magical 1kg limit)." - Linus Torvalds
(Later he stopped using Apple laptops for the even lighter/thinner chromebooks).
> relentless pursuit of thinness and lightness has come at the expense of the premium, robust feel of their older MacBook models.
The 14/16" are significantly thicker and heavier than previous generations, both in actual measurements and in appearance (as they don't taper at the edge like they have since the 2012) I truly cannot imagine looking at that and thinking any part of the design was imagined with the words "thinness and lightness" in the mind.
One can hope, but I’m sure his decisions were not based off design quirkiness entirely. Apple must have a department that shows people want thinner and thinner laptops and that’s what they aim for. Right?
And they're already set up for this with their MacBook Air SKU. That product should be optimizing for thinness at all costs, while the MacBook Pro should be about functionality, usability, and power.
Instead the MacBook Pro is essentially "the laptop with a larger screen".
reply