> Yeah, Macbook air really feels abandoned

The Macbook-with-no-suffix line is the implicit replacement for the Air anyway.

Lighter, better screen, cheaper. I'm not sure why you'd buy an Air these days.

Keyboard doesn't feel like a keyboard, trackpad is fake, speed is that of a tablet, and has almost no ports.

I wanted the 11'' MBA with retina and an updated CPU, not a bastardized laptop. I want to feel keys pressing.

>Keyboard doesn't feel like a keyboard, trackpad is fake, speed is that of a tablet, and has almost no ports.

All valid points, bar the trackpad. The force touch trackpad is a pleasure to use and I much prefer it to previous Apple trackpads (which are still excellent).

Disagree, I use one of these machines on a daily basis (as well as one of the newer bluetooth keyboards with the same keys), and they are fantastic keyboards once you get used to them. The trackpad is fantastic as well

Right now the display port and the two USB ports for the Air feel just about right for me, and it seems like the ideal "minimalist" laptop.

Performance wise I hear that both are comparable and you'll get similar battery life on both, but for me the Macbook_Raw barely crosses the line of "too minimalist". Though honestly, even a second USBC port would probably change my mind on it.

I also really like the feel of the 13" screen - it seems just right, but I suppose I could get used to the 12". Also don't really wanna go back to a Bluetooth Mouse again, but this is ultimately a minor quibble that I could get over pretty easily.

Cheaper? Not at all. While I agree that the MacBook 12" is the new Air and the better purchase, it's rather expensive and currently the sole purpose of the original MacBook Air is covering the price range around 1000 €. Until the MacBook gets there.

To avoid dongle hell.

One man's dongle hell is another's unplug-one-thing-and-go heaven.

i'd be on board with two ports, i think, but one is a hard sell. i regularly want to plug things into my laptop while charging it. it's a shame, because they've almost sold me on the thing.

A second port wouldn't break your usecase.

I've noticed that having no choice in the matter makes it significantly more likely to be the case. After making the switch, I do feel that my experience is nicer for it.

Expansion lives on the outside, tailored to the environment in which it resides, and the battery lasts long enough that I can spend most of my day without the power adapter connected.

Because the Macbook runs slower the more you throw at it

Battery.

>>Yeah, Macbook air really feels abandoned

That's because it is.

What's interesting however is that my 2011 Macbook Air still works like a champ. It has a 1.7 Ghz Intel i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. And, amazingly enough, the battery still lasts for 3-4 hours, even after five years of heavy usage.

Macbook Pro is too heavy for me, and I don't like the lack of ports in the newer "Macbook" line, so I've held out. At this point the only thing I wish I had was a retina display, honestly.

I have the 2012 Macbook Air 8gb RAM and 512 GB SSD

Still perfect for me, I do casual video editing and some compositing in 1080p and rendering time is still great, I compile large programming projects and it is comparable to all the spiffy new macbook pros companies want to set me up with

I did replace the battery for around $100

It has all the right ports at the right speeds, multiple usb 3.0, sdxc card slot with sdxc speeds, thunderbolt at thunderbolt speeds

The user experience still beats out all the sub $1000 laptops because the target audience accepts a lot of compromises and their budget is $400 (okay, I haven't looked at the market, just see what I see. a lot of people switched to tablets)

So I just wish they'd release the 1 TB version with 16gb RAM

The macbook air 2012 is the machine I always wanted to exist for half a decade, and it is still great. Not the model before, or the model before that.