Wait, does the Air actually have more ports than the MacBook? What's going on? I thought the MacBook replaced the air, an the MacBook pro is a merger of the MacBook and MacBook pro?
Have the MacBook and MacBook air "switched"?
Have the MacBook and MacBook air "switched"?
The MacBook has one USB-C port, has a smaller 12" screen, and is lighter (2 lbs).
The MacBook Air has two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, has a 13" screen, is heavier (2.75 lbs), and has more CPU power than the MacBook.
The MBP w/o touch bar has two Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, a 13" screen, is heavier (3 lbs), and more CPU power than the Air
The MBP w/ touch bar has four Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, a 13" screen and has more CPU power (options) than the MBP w/o touch bar (same weight).
(I intentionally left out the 15" MBP)
Their line-up is quite a mess. I don't see why they haven't updated the MacBook Pro without touch bar or the MacBook 12". If you want a MacBook Pro without a touch bar, you are basically screwed, unless you can accept a potentially unreliable keyboard.
The MacBook Pro with touchbar received a slightly updated keyboard that is supposed to fix some of the issues people had with the old one.
The Air is 100$ cheaper, and has the TouchId scanner and the newer-gen keyboard.
The Pro has a 15W TDP vs 7W TDP CPU with slightly higher performance, and a TrueTone display with higher brightness.
I would probably pay the 8% extra, but overall those things are very close.
I suspect this is because Apple gives so little attention to Mac now and updates products two or three times a decade. So when one product is updated, the rest of the lineup seems incongruous.
Any chance Apple will back out on the touch bar for MBP's — "We've learned from that experience."? I have one and am not thrilled with the touch bar, but I really prefer fingerprint unlocking over typing a password.
It allows you to fully customise the buttons making it infinitely more useful.
I just walk up to my desk, tap the space bar and the watch and mac do their thing and I'm logged in. It's awesome.
> MacID 2.0 is now available has been renamed to Unlox.
I suppose you could argue that if you then forced people to use longer, more complex passwords, they would have fewer issues.
I can say that having traveled for months with a 12" MacBook it was a great little machine for what I wanted (collecting photos, checking mail and the web, and writing lots of code in Emacs). I plan to get another and make my 15" MBP behemoth a desktop.
Just the overall design — there are substantial internal updates (silicon, battery, etc.) every 12-18 months for most lines. Air had been waiting a while, though.
> heavier (and has more ports) ... I suspect this is because Apple gives so little attention to Mac now
A simpler explanation: There's a market for a laptop somewhere between MB and MBP.
We could call the latter "Macbook (void)" - void is lighter than air ...