Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook is a faster, pinker upgrade from last year’s MacBook. But how does it stack up to a newer MacBook Air? It’s a good question. The Verge’s Lauren Goode reports.
Let's face it, if the MacBook Air had the retina display it'd be superior in just about every single way. That's probably why Apple refuses to give it one, no one would buy the MacBook.
true but there's another reason why Apple refuses to give the MacBook Air a retina display. If the Air had a retina display, it wouldn't have such a great battery life because it has to power more pixels and the battery life of the Air is its main selling point because obviously by now, the MacBook has overtaken the Air on portability.
+Ry It does take a lot more processing power to drive all those pixels though. Also, the larger screen size would mean even more pixels to maintain enough DPI to qualify as "retina," so it's really not feasible on a Macbook Air. A higher rez screen on the Macbook Air would mean slower performance and less battery life, given it's processing power, defeating the whole point of a Macbook Air. I'm sure it will eventually have one if Moore's Law can get us there, but we'll need faster chips than are cheaper to produce and consume less power. Edit: ah, I didn't read Isaiah's reply, but he basically just said the same thing.
@Isaiah @bluesdealer I would have to agree with Ry. More pixels will task the battery and require more processing power, but improvements in Intel's chips as well as other engineering improvements should compensate fairly well. The Macbook gets a higher resolution with a much less powerful processor and a smaller body to fit the battery in. In the end, its battery life suffers compared to the Air. So what exactly is gained with the Macbook? Apple's way forward seems to be you'd want to buy their next device because it's thinner and lighter than the last. For a lot of their product iterations, that has worked, but with the Macbook they seemed to have hit the place where they paid a hefty price in terms of functionality. In reality, if you took the engineering that made the Macbook possible, applied it to the Air so that you could fit in a bigger/better battery, upgraded the screen and upped the performance with latest generation processors, you really would get a laptop that is better in every way that the MacBook. Except it's not as small, and one has to wonder, does that matter a great deal?
The MacBook Air is better overall, that's just why Apple will discontinue it next year. Gotta make the people buy the more expensive, shittier product.
Now imagine, the Macbook Air with retina display plus a USB C port keeping all the old ports and updated specs. I'd buy that today, but sadly it won't happen.
+Tavin Wong It's actually a very old effect. It's filmed with the camera locked off (not moving) and the actor performs twice, being careful not to cross the line. It is then composited to play both at once.
+Melinon I watch them as they come out. It's not necessarily that I'm tired of them, more that it's a little cringy to watch some lady pretend to argue with herself over the colour of a laptop. I would just prefer a traditional comparison video where they contrasted the devices. Not a staged argument.
+Melinon Or I could give feedback to a channel and publication that I like when I'm not enjoying an aspect of their material? You're right no one forced me and watching this didn't kill me. I don't hate the Verge. I just pointed out that I found this style of comparison cringy and lacking substance.
I really like how the verge is changing up the way they do their reviews, and comparisons. Feels very millennial and just a new turn on tech. I like it.
so what I'm getting about this is that MacBook is for rich kids who just want to show something off while the Air is a practical device for someone who wants MacOSX
8bitZawad My MacBook Air has an i5, 8gb ram, an SSD, lasts me 2 days on a single charge, and is thin and light. No $500 dell laptop can match that, trust me I checked before buying. it's competing with the XPS 13
My Asus has an i7, 16gb ram, a 1tb hd with an ssd upgrade only costing $50, but does only have 4 hrs of battery and is a bit thick, but is still not too bad.
the macbook is a lifestyle device, plain and simple. spin it any way you want to lower your dissonance, but everyone knows the differences. get a macbook air.
I love how the lighthearted tone of this series doesn't sacrifice the informative comparison between the two devices (same goes for the iPhone SE/iPhone 6S comparison). Great work Lauren, keep it up!
This video was surprisingly entraintaining. And I fully agree...Apple's line up seems more and more far away from the "one solution for your problem" philosophy.
I actually sat through a whole comparison video. you guys don't know how big of an issue that is for me. lol. Tech has such a short shelf life I could care less about most tech comparison videos but I was so entertained by this. kudos on the vid.
Which one would be better for me I'm going to highschool and I'm going to be using it for projects and presentations and just Netflix and other little things so which would be the better choice?
How much does the MacBook Air cost with 8GB and 256GB SSD? (the base model of the MacBook 12's specs) almost just as much. So you are basically getting the Retina display for free and the world's coolest laptop for about the same price.
I'll admit I watched this vid for Lauren. I don't care at all about MacBooks but she's entertaining and her smile is contagious. "I LOVE ADAPTORS!" just totally got me.
The non-retina models are only an option, if you're not used to higher resolution displays. After a week with the MBP Retina I thought my old MBP's panel looked terrible af! Not only sharpness but also color accuracy. I would trade my MBP Retina for a MBA Retina, if there will be one. I love the design of the 12" MB but I don't like its Keyboard and the lack of ports.
Hi Guys Please help me to pick one -MCP 2013 and 2014 with 4gb of Ram and 128 gb ssd (retina or not) or MCA 2016 8gb of ram with 256 gb of memory which one?
People need to frinkin stop comparing the MacBook's base price to the MacBook airs base price! The MacBook in a base configuration comes with twice the storage and ram so that's not fair if you compare them like that! If you put them on the same playing field (256 gb of storage and 8 gb of ram) then the price difference between the 11 AND 13 inch MacBook Airs and the MacBook is 100$, a much more respectable difference!
RMP1 It isn't tho, it is for performance no doubt, for someone who wants to edit video or something heavy. But for normal tasks like web browsing, documents and programming there is no reason at all to buy the bigger heavier pro. Its the most portable full PC in the world. I picked one up 3 days ago and its the perfect companion to my beast desktop.
