A bigger Air is definitely coming

[gpat]

That's it. That's my prediction.

With the old MBP generation, Apple tried to make the Pro thinner and lighter in order to please both professional and people in search of a light and thin laptop with a big screen.

This strategy ultimately backfired because the 15" Pro always had issues with high temperatures from its CPU and GPU being too powerful for the thin chassis.

This time, they're making no compromises. The new Pro is thicker, they've given the cooling system all the space it could possibly need, with big exhausts and tall feet on the bottom chassis to expel the heat in the best possible way.

They are making it clear that the laptop is only for users that need the power, and taking distance from the ones that bought a 15" or 16" only for the big screen and macOS.

I personally like this decision because they quit making a jack-of-all-trades product, but rather a very focused one to appease a specific need in the best possible way.

The next logical thing to do is to release a bigger Air for people that instead want just a bigger screen with Apple Silicon.

I predict they'll release a 15"/16" Air together with the new 13"/14" one, with Apple Silicon, M1/M2 "standard" chip, and colors. Just the right features for people which were actually okay with the 15"/16" Pro for light usage.

They're not leaving that niche uncovered, for sure.

 

[Queru]

At this point I’m thinking (and hoping) the same, especially that they’ve created a price gap between base models - M1 Air and 13’ Pro and base 14’.

I think they will introduce more expensive 13’ Air with new design that will just shrink around the screen to provide more portability. I think that they’ll also introduce new 15’ Air - a bit bigger but with the same internals. It will still be 8-16 GB of RAM, 256 + storage. And there will be this distinction 13 and 15 Air vs 14 and 16 Pro

I would even believe in bringing old displays to these. So no mini-led, no pro motion obviously, but they might put 2016-2019 display tech from now-old MacBook Pro’s to these Airs to recycle production lines. So more brightness and better quality, but nothing close to 2021 Pro laptops. It’s too soon for Air to get miniLED in my opinion. They will bring notch for unification of design, 1080p webcam, better speakers and mices, magsafe, M2 with more power efficiency than current lineup and same CPU cores layout, 9-10 cores of GPU like rumours predict. Ad MagSafe, fast charge and you have a reason to increase prices.

1199-1299 for 13’ Air and 1499-1599 for 15’ Air. They will keep old M1 Air At 899.

And if that happens, I’m gonna go all in with 15’ Air. Pros have some nice tech but I don’t need all that power for $$$$ they want. 15’ inch Air for screen size would be the perfect machine for me. Now let’s hope it actually happens lol.

 

[addictive]

Perhaps they will go larger but I was thinking the opposite. With 14 and 16 inch models with the MBP surely they're going to release a 12 inch Mac whether its a renewed MacBook with AS or a new Air model it seems probable the display sizes will be 12, 14 and 16.

I can see that some people may want a larger display MacBook Air too.

 

[Dwalls90]

I agree. I would rather Apple move away from 13/15 to 14/16, as that's what's more common in the industry now while retaining the same footprint given smaller bezels. I think Apple will go with a 14" MBA, but I'm not sure if they'll go above that size as well at 16", or below that at 12". A 12" laptop in a small form factor with smaller bezels would be smaller than the larger iPad Pro, and I think that's more likely than a 16". I think most folks wanting light and portable would likely skew towards 12" vs. 16".

 

[wreck21]

as long as they offer a space grey or midnight black color

 

[alpinadvl]

It would be particularly welcome to use the "Air" Line to introduce sleek 16" size laptops alongside the current 13"(possibly 14") next generation "M" Air ....

just bump up the specs a bit... add the MagSafe charging, and an SD slot (along the thunderbolt 4 ports)... and that would be a winner for me... and for travelers / portability.

I also like that they finally made the Pro line what it should be... no compromise workhorses... but for those of us who just want the most portable MacBook Air... these new improvements would be welcome additions !

 

[Pugly]

It certainly seems like there's a missing price point here. And it does seem that there is a lot to differentiate the 16" Pro than just the larger screen, back with the 15" Pro was $1999 base price... it's a reasonable upsell. Maybe the mid tier size can get the plain MacBook branding so the names make a little bit of sense.

For me though I would like for them to go smaller. The current Air isn't bad, but I loved the portability of the 11" Air... so I hope there's room for both in the future. But I suspect Apple is relegating extreme portability for the iPad.

 

[blairh]

No it's not.

 

[F1 Fan]

I really hope it does but it seems that it's not coming quickly, if at all.

 

[skaertus]

I was skeptical about a larger MacBook Air coming, but now I think it may make some sense due to the road the MacBook Pro has taken.

The 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with TouchBar, released in 2016, was a 4.02lbs (1.83kg) laptop, which was fine, as it was one of the lightest devices in the world available in its category.

The 16.2-inch MacBook Pro, released 5 years later, is a 4.7/4.8lbs (2.1/2.2kg) beast, almost 20% heavier than that particular model. And now it is now particularly heavier than some Windows laptops featuring a screen of similar size.

The Dell XPS 15 starts at 4lbs (1.83kg) and is a powerhouse. The 15-inch Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 15 is 2.35lbs (1.07kg), the 15-inch Acer Swift 5 is 2.2 lbs (0.99kg), and the 17-inch LG Gram is 2.98lbs (1.35kg).

These Windows laptops are all significantly lighter than the large MacBook Pro, and the 16.2-inch model further extends this difference.

For some time now, Apple has had bragging rights over having thin and light, elegant and minimalist products. And now Apple has the M-series processors, which they claim to have more power per watt than any Intel competitor, allowing for more power and battery life inside smaller packages.

I do not see why Apple would not take advantage of this new breakthrough in technology to release a line of impressively light laptops to put Windows PCs to shame, even if for showing-off the capabilities of the M-series processors.

It would seem contradictory that, after releasing the most power-efficient chip in its history, Apple's larger laptop model would weigh as much as the larger model released over 9 years ago (as the 16.2-inch MacBook Pro is about as heavy as the 15.4-inch Retina MacBook Pro released in 2012). Especially when similarly sized Windows laptops, with their Intel chips, are now able to weigh as much as half of that.

The M2 will be more powerful than the M1, and, even though it may lack the multi-core CPU or the GPU performance of the M1 Pro/Max, it will likely be perfectly able to equip larger laptops that could compete head-to-head with heavier PC models.

I may be completely wrong, but it seems to me that a larger MacBook Air is a logical step. It would make sense.

 

[applesith]

I could see a 12 and 14 inch air to fill out the price points. I dont think Apple would create internal competition for the 16 MBP.
the new Air could also start at 1299 with the current M1 at the 999 price point.

 

[xraydoc]

I wouldn't mind a 13" MacBook Air with super thin bezels like the new MBPs. It would be pretty close in size to the old 12" retina MacBook.