iPad Air and MacBook Air remain the lightest product in their respective form factors. There's no confusion, IMO.
When Apple launches their 15.5-inch MacBook, they may borrow the Plus name from the iPhone family.
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15-Inch MacBook Air Still on Track to Launch in April, Says Analyst
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iPad Air and MacBook Air remain the lightest product in their respective form factors. There's no confusion, IMO.
When Apple launches their 15.5-inch MacBook, they may borrow the Plus name from the iPhone family.
No disagreement with your observations. You make a good point regarding the iPad. I just think if they were going to abandon Air, it would have been done with the release of the first MBA M2
Yes, unlikely given they stuck MBA for the M2 release last summer. When they dumped the name powerbook, it was coordinated with significant hardware changes and components not previously used in their product line and a complete redesign of their laptop strategy. From where I sit, that is not the case in this instance.
Adding variations such as Pro, Ultra, etc. in no way means they would be dumping Air from the scheme. Every place they introduced those names, they did not change the base name.
I am not forgetting anything.
If we assume 2022 was a fluke and the M2 Air was delayed until October and the Pros carried over until this year, then maybe Apple will want to reset the calendar with Spring M3 MacBook Airs and Fall M3 P/M MacBook Pros, Minis, etc. That would make the M2 a very short lived processor, but it may make sense for them to want to flush that out of the lineup to make capacity at TSMC for all 3nm production for A-series and M-Series chips.
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Is Ross Young really that reliable a source given that he said on 10 March 2022 that “Panel production has started for the new 27" MiniLED display”?
I hear you...except the 12" MacBook wasn't called an Air and the 13" MacBook Pro doesn't/didn't deserve the same name as the 14 or 16" variants, which are genuinely pro-level laptops with completely different chipsets and ports.
For the record...I cast no aspersions on anyone who bought a 13" MacBook Pro...they are all great machines. But the 14"/16" is just in a different class.
Somewhere, there's a room filled with Apple marketing/product managers whose primary job is naming devices. I think a few of them might be asleep at the wheel. Or maybe every one of them is a VP's niece or nephew and they are trying in vain to capitalize on their pricey liberal arts degrees.
Ugh...for the record...I cast no aspersions on anyone who has a liberal arts degree (technically, I have one as well...among a few others).
I think I'll stop now before MacRumors kicks me off.😜
Can't believe no one has asked but anyone want to take a guess on what this 15" MacBook air would cost?
Tldr the current apple lineup is a mess naming wise! And it really is, folks who dont really follow apple have basically no clue how to parse the lineup at the moment. What’s frustrating is Apple used to be good at this, or at least a hell of a lot better.
Ross is accurate. But maybe Apple will be waiting it out a bit more till WWDC to launch a 15" with M3
I'd bet on starting at $1499, I could see it maybe as low as $1299 if they really go hard on price drops if they phase out the M1 13", but I'd err towards the higher end of the range
Ross is accurate for sure, the problem with WWDC is that Apple are rumoured to be announcing the VR headset there. I'm not sure Apple would announce the VR headset which they are going to spend a lot of time talking about since it's a new product, along with all the software and then also announce new MacBook Airs and Mac Pro.
If there are no design changes to the MacBook Air and this is just a bigger screen, then I could see Apple dropping the 15" via a press release.
My guess would be $1399-1499 with 8GB and a 256GB SSD.
Thanks. My main need is I want a bigger screen with dual monitor support. So hopefully they offer M2 pro on it or M3 can support that. Which is why I keep leaning towards Pro though they are heavier.
The only thing that will attract or deter me is price.I am ready to place my order for the 15" regardless of the final name and the M2 chip is just fine with me, so bring it, Apple.
I can't see them offering a Pro-series SoC as that would make it a direct competitor to the MacBook Pro 14 and 16.
True but was thinking they may do similar to new mac mini now offers m2 pro as I saw others posts.
So thinking if they offer M2 pro in MBA 15 but without: max chip, ProMotion display, mini led, hdmi, sd card slot, 1 less thunderbolt port, no cooling fans, etc to not step in Pro category.
I mean, I could see it if the next generation of the max has a substantially bugger delta from the pro than the M1 series
Also they have done the equiv before, I have a last gen intel 2020 air with the quad i7, which bumped right up against the 13” qc pro
The Core i7-1060G7 in the 2020 MacBook Air offered fairly lower-performance than the Core-i7-8569U in the 2019 MacBook Pro 13" due to having 33% of the base clock speed and 80% of the turbo clock speed.
Of course, Apple could do something similar by dramatically lowering the clock speeds of an "Air" Pro SoC and/or disable more CPU and GPU cores (perhaps offering 4E+4P CPU and 14 GPU on the Air compared to the 4E+6P and 16 GPU in the MBP).