I think Apple is rethinking its product matrix.

This new MBA is the entry-level system. The 12" MB is an upgrade option if you value thin/light/battery life -- the new "executive laptop". The MBP is an upgrade option if you need power or screen space.

12" MB: No touch ID, slower CPU, crappy last-gen keyboard that breaks all the time.

Typing this from my 2017 12" MacBook...have not had a single issue with the keyboard. In fact, I have grown to quite like it. Sure it's not my beloved WASD Code with the Cherry Clears, but it's one of the better portable keyboards in terms of typing experience of late, in my opinion.

It’s not ‘arguably’ slower - it absolutely is. That CPU was already slower than last year’s A11 Fusion CPU, the A12X will blow it away.

> It's literally going to be the same CPU as in the current 12" Macbooks with a slightly relaxed power envelope

Is it? I was under the impression that these were different chips.

They are different chips in the sense of being different generations. It's interesting that the Air is a "Y" part which is the same low-power/lower performance family as the Macbook. No updates for the Macbook yet otherwise they probably would be the same.

Macbook 12" 2017 = i7-7Y75 (top spec, cheaper ones are lower clocked i3/i5 Y)

Macbook Air 2018 = i7-8510Y (617 graphics supposedly faster)

You can hardly call them different generations there is zero difference in the core, the Intel Graphics 617 is also looking to be a pure marketing BS it's the same Gen9 GT2 iGPU as the 615 (we have had benchmarks for it on gfx bench for a while now), maybe it will get a 50mhz more graphics boost clock but even that is doubtful since the results are the same as the 615.

Like it wouldn't surprise me if the whole i7-8510Y thing is literally Apple going to Intel and saying please increase the SKU of the same CPU you gave Google for the Slate so it would appear as like ours is faster on paper.

https://gfxbench.com/compare.jsp?benchmark=gfx50&&did1=64774...

The results are so close that they are both within the margin of error of each other and within the normal thermal/power constraints you have between two different mobile systems.

The challenge with mobile parts is that 25-30% performance delta's are not unheard of between two systems with identical parts on paper but very different thermal and power delivery solutions.

I'm not sure it's an i7-8510Y - note that the MacBook Air specs [1] say it's an i5 chip. (And you can't upgrade it to an i7 either.) I'm not sure we know what chip it actually is yet.

[1] https://www.apple.com/au/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/silver-1.6...

The i7-8510Y is the only one with the specified 617 graphics, but thanks for pointing out that difference. Maybe they have a slightly lower-spec custom i5 SKU from Intel? I'd be surprised though if it wasn't a Y-device nevertheless.

Looks like it's landed in Intel ARK now - i5-8210Y:

https://ark.intel.com/products/189912/Intel-Core-i5-8210Y-Pr...

Thanks for posting - that's a pretty big yawn part. The Haswell in my current old Macbook Pro (a wonderful laptop) beats that easily enough.

The only thing custom in it is the naming, the GT2 is a single slice iGPU there is nothing to enable in it over the 615 which is already a full slice my bet is that if there is any difference is that the 617 has a boost clock of 1100 instead of 1050mhz or something silly like this.

i5 and i7 are the same chip with HT enabled on the latter but disabled on the former.

It’s still the same Amber Lake dies which are the same as KBLY.

Yes, Intel hasn't made a new CPU core for like 3 years now, this will be an Amber Lake Y CPU which are identical in function, features and performance to Kabby Lake Y.

Both are Dual Core, 4 Threads, 4MB Cache same Intel GT2 Graphics, there is literally not a single difference between them besides the SKU numbers.

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/amber_lake_y

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/kaby_lake_y

It boggles my mind that Apple hasn't switched to AMD Ryzen yet. Lower cost for them, more cores/higher overall performance for their customers. What's not to like?

But no, they'd rather try and sell people $20,000 Xeon Mac Pros with half the cores of an AMD Threadripper and like 4x the price.

Raven Ridge does not offer more cores than Intel CPUs, these are 4 Core dies with an iGPU while Intel offers upto 6 and now 8 with an iGPU.

While Ryzen has good power efficiency as far as power gating goes and power management it's still behind Intel considerably which we can see in actual usability batter tests it will take probably 2 more generations until AMD has the same power management capabilities as Intel does not only for the CPU but for the entire system since Intel has been developing the centralized power management since the Centrino platform.

The future is application processors. No point in switching to another general purpose CPU.