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15-Inch MacBook Air Rumored for 2023, But New 12-Inch MacBook Now Unlikely

It's a shame they won't do a 12" MacBook as I loved that laptop, also the 11" Air.

Very pleased to see they're doing a 15" Air though, I think that will be a very big seller for them as I know a lot of people, myself included, who have a 16" MBP just for the screen size.
 
Who are you Gurman? And what qualifies you to predict anything that has to do with Apple...your Magic 8 Ball?
 
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A 15" MBA would be an instant buy for me. Been eyeing the M2 Air for a bit now, but holding out and hoping this machine actually gets released. I find the 13" a bit on the small side.
 
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smulji said:
This will be the perfect device for many
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I probably won't upend my preferred 4 year upgrade cycle just for this, but if a 15" Air exists, I can see myself trading my 16" M1 Pro for it and getting a Apple Studio if I need extra horses in the office.
 
I am a big fan of the MBA. I have owned three different models since launch of the 2010 version, and they have all been terrific. Also, we have purchased numerous MBAs for our kids while they were students. So, I would like to see Apple expand the offering to: 12in, 13.6in, and 15in. The smaller model is for people that put a premium on portability. The larger is for people that need more screen real estate when away from their desk/external monitor, but don't necessarily need the additional power of the Pro. IMO, the base MBA has more than enough power for the vast majority of consumers, but extra screen real estate might come in handy for some. So, there is probably a market for a larger model. That said, I think the majority of buyers would opt for the 13.6 in, which is kind of the sweet spot in the middle.
 
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I find that the flat design of the M2 Air makes it feel lighter and more balanced than the M1 version (I had both).

To me, it feels the same as my 12.9 iPad with a tri-fold folio cover, (which is saying something) and somehow way lighter than my iPad + Magic Keyboard combo.

It has become my favorite Apple laptop of all time.

A 15" version would be killer.
 
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azentropy said:
Always wanted a 12” MacBook, but disliked that keyboard and felt it was just too under powered and a tad overpriced. All three things could be remedied now. Shame If the don’t move forward with it.
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That's the one thing I don't like about smaller laptops. Just having no numpad repels me. With 12" they start consolidating keys, and I don't know where anything is compared to a full keyboard.
 
I think there's room for both a 15" entry level laptop and a 12" prosumer targeted model.

Other manufacturers have (fairly nice) 15" laptops for a lot less than Apple charges for a 16" MBP. There's a huge segment out there that would pick up a 15" Air, provided it was close in price to today's M2 Air.

I owned a 12" PowerBook back in the day and absolutely adored it - exactly as big as it needed to be for a full size keyboard with fantastic key feel, with a faster processor and GPU than you could get in an iBook. I ended up topping my 867MHz model out with the full 640MB of RAM, too.

If Apple came out with a 12", 4:3, ~2.5 lbs MacBook Pro with a Pro level chip, active cooling, and an SD slot, I'd be very interested. My use case is the same as it's been for the past 20 years - at home, use a laptop plugged in at a desk with an external monitor - don't need a particularly large or fancy internal display 70-80% of the time. However, I used to fly (and am getting back into flying) 3-4x a year, and having a laptop that has the footprint of a sheet of paper is the only size that's really usable in coach. Heck, I'd even take a 3lbs model if Apple would shove a 70+WHr battery in there, just keep it to that 8.5" x 11" footprint. For reference, the 12" PB was 8.6" x 10.9", and the 12 rMB was 7.8" x 11".

I've been using my 13" 2015 MBP for a while now, and while it's 1lbs lighter than the old PowerBook, the extra footprint just isn't ideal. The current crop of laptops are all very close in size to my MBP, so even the 13.6" M2 Air isn't really an improvement there. And my 10.5" iPad Pro is no good as a photo dump (I usually travel with two cameras, too).
 
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aliasfox said:
And my 10.5" iPad Pro is no good as a photo dump (I usually travel with two cameras, too).
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Traveling with cameras and all the extra camera gear that's plenty heavy on their own really changes your calculus on the importance of a portable laptop. I never considered laptop weight an issue before, but when I'm fully geared up, not only do I feel every extra ounce in that laptop, extra girth is also a problem because it puffs out the profile of my pack and makes it more awkward to haul around.
 
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I would love a 12" MacBook with the new Air design language, miniLED display, edge to edge keyboard, thin bezels, and built in LTE/5G options. I would definitely pay a 'tiny tech tax' premium for this. They finally have a chip that was made for a tiny, fanless, thin and light MacBook, so let's go! I hope it's not shelved forever.
 
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turbineseaplane said:
Apple used to be a company that would have recognized how great high hz is (ProMotion) and instead of segmenting their lineups to drive upsells ... put it everywhere as fast as they practically could.
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you mean like their original retina display? ……….. oh wait, I t took *checks notes* 21 months to move from the iPhone to the iPad, four months after that to moved to the MacBook Pro, three years after that to come to the 12 inch MacBook, and then… Checks notes again… For years after that to come to the MacBook Air.
Or how about their backlit keyboards… oh wait, those Didn’t come to the MacBook Air until 2011 despite being on all of the other computers since the early 2000s.
Steve also gave their lower end, computers less capable optical drives and slower hard drives, gave the iPod Touch lower quality LCD panels than the iPhone, gave the original iPad less RAM than the iPhone that was introduced two months after it, made Siri an iPhone 4S exclusive, despite easily being able to run as far back as the iPhone 3GS…
Steve was the absolute master of the upsell, he literally used to use a “Good, Better, Best” graphic for their computer configurations.
“Good” was of course the cheapest and usually got you a fine computer that came in one color, “better” got you a decent computer in a small selection of colors, and “best” got you the entire color selection, and the best processor available.
The old 2008-2011MacBook Pro’s used to have two screen options, a decent resolution, and a high resolution. You had to pay more for the higher resolution. You also had to pay more if you wanted anti-glare.
Please stop this revisionism that Steve was this all good man who gave the people paying $1000 for a computer, the same experience as the people paying 3000 for a computer, he absolutely was not, and he absolutely didn’t.
Restricting features like 120 Hz and always on to the pro line of products is literally exactly what he would’ve done.
Edit: just remembered a couple more…
Restricting the new processor, double the RAM and accessibility features to the 32 and 64 GB third generation iPod touches while keeping everything about the 8 GB version absolutely identical to the second generation.
Bumping Down the storage of the iPhone 3GS to 8 GB from 16 after the iPhone 4 was introduced, and the same with the 4 when the 4S was introduced. Literally making a product worse to make the new more expensive model more attractive.
Killing off software support for some PowerPC Macs less than four years after they were first introduced.
Making software updates for the iPod touch cost money while iPhone users got them for free. $19.99 for 1.1.3, and $9.95 for both 2.0 and 3.0
 
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Lounge vibes 05 said:
The old 2008-2011MacBook Pro’s used to have two screen options, a decent resolution, and a high resolution. You had to pay more for the higher resolution. You also had to pay more if you wanted anti-glare.
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Typing on the 2009, but can't recall exact BTO on screen Rez options? Curious what they were.

I did chose the 3.06 GHz C2D, 7200 rpm HHD and $AUD50 for the Matte display back then.
 
Lounge vibes 05 said:
The options were either the standard 1440x900, or a BTO for a 1780X1050 for I believe an extra $300 if I’m not mistaken.
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Right, would of specced to the max then but cannot recall this option at all tbh.

I've now got a pre loved screen anyways at 1440x900 so can't check re original. Yup, hinge failure shorting the display back then ⚡. Cheers
 
If this machine sees the light of day I seriously hope it supports multiple external displays. Sick of Apple locking out "features" just to force people to a more expensive model.
 
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