Apple Discusses 15-Inch MacBook Air's Design in New Interview

[MacRumors]

Apple's VP of hardware engineering Kate Bergeron and marketing employee Laura Metz recently spoke with Tom's Guide's Mark Spoonauer about the design of the new 15-inch MacBook Air, including its larger display and two additional speakers.

Bergeron said the 15-inch MacBook Air having the same battery life as the 13-inch model is the result of "thermal control loops and software optimizations."

There's definitely thermal control loops and software optimizations that we use.

The workloads for a typical MacBook Air owner are fairly bursty, meaning they may do something for a few minutes and then walk away from their computer and either have a background process running that's pretty light or just doing nothing at all. And so we can go in and tweak the levers in the silicon and software to be able to take advantage of these gaps in time and really take the power down to the most minimal level.

When asked if Apple considered adding an additional USB-C port or SD card slot to the 15-inch MacBook Air, Metz said Apple believes the existing port selection is "very complimentary to the thin and light design of the product."

There aren't too many particularly revealing comments shared in the interview, but it is a worthwhile read for those interested in Apple's design considerations for the 15-inch MacBook Air. The laptop launched today following pre-orders last week.

Article Link: Apple Discusses 15-Inch MacBook Air's Design in New Interview

 

[jmh600cbr]

Same same but bigger.

 

[DogHouseDub]

It's intended to function like a souped-up iPad Pro. Be happy you can charge and connect peripherals AND connect headphones.

 

[psxp]

It would have been nice to have the extra ports. I feel We're lucky we still get the headphone port !
They did come back with the Pro models having more ports, so its doable but Its the "Apple Way"

 

[Xand&Roby]

For what absurd reason should Apple have added something, if you just need to make it bigger to sell it?
I would have taken something away: the gain for Apple would have been greater.
Some customers deserve a similar company: we make it bigger, we make it pay more.

 

[oneMadRssn]

I've really wanted this exact laptop for probably a decade or more. But I just bought a 13" M2 MBA last year, and it's actually fantastic. I just cannot justify the upgrade at this time. Oh well.

 

[Populus]

I hope they also consider that some people could really use a 12” MacBook Air, and that smaller footprint won’t be an obstacle for a good thermal performance.

 

[Xand&Roby]

I hope they also consider that some people could really use a 12” MacBook Air, and that smaller footprint won’t be an obstacle for a good thermal performance.

I hope not: have they decided to lighten customers with this 'make it big' nonsense? Fine.
That money will be needed for Vision.

 

[G46&Fbnth5]

It’s actually disappointing that they have the same battery life, considering the 15” has a 25% bigger battery

 

[Motawa]

what new design?

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

Ports is how they sell the pros, so this makes since.

 

[macdisciple]

It would have been nice to have the extra ports. I feel We're lucky we still get the headphone port !
They did come back with the Pro models having more ports, so its doable but Its the "Apple Way"

Sell more MacBook Pros

 

[Freida]

Its incredible how much crap they can talk about when the product is literally identical except its just a bit bigger.

 

[mystery hill]

It has a slightly larger display and two additional speakers compared to the 13-inch model.

Why do they need an interview to communicate that?

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Bring back ports to the thin and light. Prefer thin and light laptop by a big margin. Don’t need 120Hz; don’t need active cooling; don’t need chonk and weigh, don’t need professional level of power; don’t need 3+ Thunderbolt 4. Do want SD Card for occasional use and HDMI is a no-brainier for projector compatibility. Hate dongles.

 

[Mr. Dee]

This is the first product I’ve seen them use designers and engineers of the product in the ad. Times have changed, Steve Jobs would be livid over the fear of poaching.

 

[mongobongo]

Is anyone actually impressed that the 15" has the same battery life as the 13"? Considering that the MBP 16" has better battery life than the 14". I know the difference in thickness is greater for the MBPs but that was my reference point so I was expecting the same for the MBAs.

 

[Naraxus]

"....Apple believes the existing port selection is "very complimentary to the thin and light design of the product"

Translation: We learned absolutely nothing from the 2015 MacBook Port fiasco

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Interview starts 10:00AM...

Interviewer: What can you tell me about the new, exciting MacBook Air 15?
Bergeron: We put in a 15" LCD and we had tons of extra speakers in China so we added 2 to help use them up.
Interviewer: Any other innovations or new features in the MacBook Air 15 not in the 13" Air?
Bergeron: Nope.

Interview ends 10:01AM.

 

[Klapper.cz]

It’s actually disappointing that they have the same battery life, considering the 15” has a 25% bigger battery

It's clear they went for keeping the same level of battery life with 27% larger screen while keeping Air to stay as light as possible - another 1-2 hours of battery hardly outweigh additional weight for a majority of users.

 

[ignatius345]

I don't mind having just the two USB-C ports, but I really do hate that everything is on one side. It's very annoying to use your Mac with the cord awkwardly jammed in from the wrong side because a wall outlet is on your right.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Its incredible how much crap they can talk about when the product is literally identical except its just a bit bigger.

The marketing hot air balloon of bs

 

[Klapper.cz]

Is anyone actually impressed that the 15" has the same battery life as the 13"? Considering that the MBP 16" has better battery life than the 14". I know the difference in thickness is greater for the MBPs but that was my reference point so I was expecting the same for the MBAs.

The additional weight difference MBP16 has over MBP14 would be unacceptable in the Air product. Personally I'm not impressed, but I do think the balance is very good between keeping 18hours same as AIR13 and reasonable weight difference.

 

[azentropy]

Really would have liked to see an additional USB-C on the opposite side. As for battery life it is rated the same as the 13" MBA which is fantastic. Wouldn't have wanted it thicker or heavier for something that would affect a small number of users. Plus some of the reviews I've seen it has outperformed the battery rating, so again it is very good.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I don't mind having just the two USB-C ports, but I really do hate that everything is on one side. It's very annoying to use your Mac with the cord awkwardly jammed in from the wrong side because a wall outlet is on your right.

One of the benefits of having both on one side is to use a dock like this:

Anker USB C Hub for MacBook, 7-in-2 USB C to C Adapter, Compatible with Thunderbolt 3 Port, 100W Power Delivery, 4K HDMI, USB C and 2 USB A Data Ports, SD and microSD Card Reader

Anker 7-in-2 USB C Hub with 4K HDMI Power Delivery SD/microSD Card Reader and 2 USB 3 0 Ports

a.co

Needs 2 USB-C ports on same side.