Apple Says 11-Inch MacBook Air and Two Other Macs Are Now Obsolete

[MacRumors]

Apple today added three Macs to the obsolete products list on its website, including the final model of the MacBook Air with a smaller 11-inch display.

The three Macs that are now obsolete:

• MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, 4 Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)

A device becomes "obsolete" once more than seven years have passed since Apple stopped distributing it for sale. Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers typically do not repair obsolete products, but Apple says MacBooks may be eligible for battery replacements for up to 10 years after distribution ended, subject to parts availability.

Apple discontinued the 11-inch MacBook Air following its October 2016 event, moments after introducing the first MacBook Pro models with a Touch Bar. Given that the 11-inch MacBook Air was just added to the obsolete list now, however, it likely remained available through select resellers until at least some point in 2018.

The current MacBook Air has 13.6-inch and 15.3-inch display size options. If you wish there was a smaller-screened MacBook, know that Apple is rumored to be planning a new 12.9-inch MacBook powered by the iPhone 16 Pro's A18 Pro chip.

Apple also added iPhone 8 Plus models with 64GB and 256GB of storage to the vintage products list on its website today.

Apple considers a device to be "vintage" once more than five years have passed since the company stopped distributing it for sale. Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers can continue to offer repairs for vintage products until they become fully obsolete two years later, subject to parts availability.

Apple announced the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in September 2017, alongside the iPhone X.

Article Link: Apple Says 11-Inch MacBook Air and Two Other Macs Are Now Obsolete

 

[germanbeer007]

11-inch MacBook Air was the perfect form factor. they need to bring that back.

 

[Sami13496]

That iPhone 8 Plus looks so clean. Makes you realise how ugly those camera arrays really are on the current iPhones.

 

[ngextreme]

It's pretty sad that they just make these still capable devices obsolete. You can have a 2008 PC running windows 11, or a chrome OS laptop from 2011 running the latest version of chrome OS or a PC from 1985 running the latest version of Linux. I hope when the M series macs fall foul to the planned obsolescence greed of Apple, they open up the architecture to at least allow Linux builds to fully optimise the chipset. One can only hope!!!

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

there was a 11 inch mba ??

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

It's pretty sad that they just make these still capable devices obsolete. You can have a 2008 PC running windows 11, or a chrome OS laptop from 2011 running the latest version of chrome OS or a PC from 1985 running the latest version of Linux. I hope when the M series macs fall foul to the planned obsolescence greed of Apple, they open up the architecture to at least allow Linux builds to fully optimise the chipset. One can only hope!!!

Obsolete just means they won’t provide any hardware support to it, it says nothing about software support.
Apple has continued providing software to machines they have marked as obsolete before, and they have done the opposite, discontinuing software before the obsolete classification.

 

[kolebee]

This raises an interesting possibility for how Apple might approach a new lower cost MacBook: a smaller screen size again.

While an 11- or 12-inch display could attract its own crowd, that would keep it from just directly cannibalizing the base MacBook Air sales, particularly with the valuable college student market.

 

[iHorseHead]

there was a 11 inch mba ??

 

[iHorseHead]

It's pretty sad that they just make these still capable devices obsolete. You can have a 2008 PC running windows 11, or a chrome OS laptop from 2011 running the latest version of chrome OS or a PC from 1985 running the latest version of Linux. I hope when the M series macs fall foul to the planned obsolescence greed of Apple, they open up the architecture to at least allow Linux builds to fully optimise the chipset. One can only hope!!!

I've been telling for awhile on here that PCs last longer. My dad built a PC back in 2003 and still works today and has Windows 10 on it. For word processing and reading the news etc basic tasks it's still capable, believe it or not.

It'd never ever happen with a Mac. Macs have a very short software support. Can you believe that Big Sur from 2020 doesn't receive any security updates?

 

[macjaffa]

is 2017 mbp a touchbar mac? Think ive got one

 

[rovostrov]

11-inch MacBook Air was the perfect form factor. they need to bring that back.

I wish they would! It's the perfect travel companion. It's been my go-to device when I don't need much horsepower and space is limited. It's runs a bit slow with Monterey installed but serves it's purpose quite well.

 

[applegeek2024]

11 inch mba/ipad.. that's what I NEED.. Apple for the first time in like 20 years.. please be innovative and bring something like this to the market..

 

[antonrg]

11-inch MacBook Air was the perfect form factor. they need to bring that back.

I think the 12" MacBook is far better.

 

[daneoni]

12" MacBook was the sweet spot. That didn't need to be discontinued. Even more so now that we have Apple silicon. They would sell like hotcakes.

 

[joeblow7777]

That iPhone 8 Plus looks so clean. Makes you realise how ugly those camera arrays really are on the current iPhones.

I remember when people complained that even that was too much.

 

[uacd]

Honestly I kinda don’t understand how people liked 11’ MacBook Air. I can’t see stuff on my 13’! And 15’ came much later after I bought 13’. Imo the only adequate form-factor for laptop displays is 15-16’, and 17’ is ideal. Those were great days when Apple had MacBook Pro 17’, and it had awesome square-ish display, you could see everything on it.

I get the idea of portability but probably the iPad is enough nowadays for most things. Can’t imagine how editing photos was like on it or watching movies.

UPD: didn’t try to offend anyone, sorry. I just meant that MacBooks don’t have a good UI scalability, especially after transitioning to hiDPI Retina displays. 11 inch MacBook indeed had its user base and very specific use cases. To me it had few disadvantages such as fan and lower processing power.

If Apple was to make it again it would have been a good machine to watch movies on. Imagine: fanless and with A processor or older M series one. Maybe that’s exactly what are they after

 

[iHorseHead]

Honestly I kinda don’t understand how people liked 11’ MacBook Air. I can’t see stuff on my 13’! And 15’ came much later after I bought 13’. Imo the only adequate form-factor for laptop displays is 15-16’, and 17’ is ideal. Those were great days when Apple had MacBook Pro 17’, and it had awesome square-ish display, you could see everything on it.

I get the idea of portability but probably the iPad is enough nowadays for most things. Can’t imagine how editing photos was like on it or watching movies

Most people watch movies on their phones. I used to watch movies on my iPod nano.
You can use the trackpad and zoom in on photos etc. I'd love an 11-inch MacBook again. No hard feelings and I don't mean to be offensive, but if you cant see stuff on 13" maybe you should visit a doctor?

 

[coffeemilktea]

All these devices mentioned were great workhorses... respect. 🫡

 

[uacd]

That iPhone 8 Plus looks so clean. Makes you realise how ugly those camera arrays really are on the current iPhones.

Apple gone mad with installing lots of cameras on iPhone.

Just look:
1. Ultrawide that serves as computational crop macro now. Quality worse than 10 years old GoPro, I mean why include that camera if it cannot compete with GoPro or other wide-angle action cameras?
2. 24mm lens that makes it a challenge to frame something easy, and portrait photos of people if done too close can look weird;
3. 120mm zoom is nice.

If I was Apple I would have left only two cameras - telephoto and wide, and changed wide from 24 to 33 or 35mm for better framing and less of digital zoom/crop “void” between two lenses. Ultrawide must go, honestly

 

[Lloigorr]

11” mba had a horrible screen imo. 12” MacBook was dog slow but still the better light and small Mac for travelling.

 

[uacd]

No hard feelings and I don't mean to be offensive, but if you cant see stuff on 13" maybe you should visit a doctor?

Why visit a doc if I know my vision is poor?

But this is totally not the case. The problem is that UI of MacOS doesn’t really zoom well, and while you can increase magnification of elements, it often breaks apps. Paired with tiny fonts that no more have shadows and other elements that help legibility, it makes it nightmare to read something on these displays.

But maybe 11’ Air was different since small screen resolution (non-retina) helped to read text better. On modern retina displays it feels much harder.

I often compare old Apple devices and new and old ones were much easier on eyes, probably due to smaller screen resolution so visible pixel grid acted as visual helper

 

[macbookj0e]

Loved my 11” MBA back in the day.

Imagine an updated one in 2025, the same chassis size with a screen fitting probably 12.5” with small bezels. I’d be tempted for sure but maybe that’s similar to what’s rumoured with the A chip MacBook?

 

[johnsawyercjs]

there was a 11 inch mba ??

The display's diagonal dimension was only 11 inches mostly because the bezel was so big. The width of the display housing for today's 13 inch Airs, with a much smaller bezel, is essentially the same, at 11.97 inches, compared to the 2015 model's 11.8 inches, though the height of the 2015 model was about one inch shorter, at 7.56 inches, compared to today's Airs at 8.46 inches.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

11-inch MacBook Air was the perfect form factor. they need to bring that back.

Agreed.

there was a 11 inch mba ??

There was.

And it was one of the best computers that Apple ever designed; mine quite literally travelled the world with me.

I bought (ordered) a maxed out CTO, and, it was honestly the best computer I have ever owned. Loved it.

I wish they would! It's the perfect travel companion. It's been my go-to device when I don't need much horsepower and space is limited. It's runs a bit slow with Monterey installed but serves it's purpose quite well.

Again agreed.

A perfect travel companion: Portable, powerful, reliable. A wonderful computer - the very best I have ever had.

I think the 12" MacBook is far better.

12" MacBook was the sweet spot. That didn't need to be discontinued. Even more so now that we have Apple silicon. They would sell like hotcakes.

The 11" and 12" were both excellent computers.

Honestly I kinda don’t understand how people liked 11’ MacBook Air.

Portable and powerful and reliable.

And yet, it had a full - proper - beautifully designed, yet fully functional, keyboard with decent (tactile) travel on the keys. Gorgeous.

I can’t see stuff on my 13’! And 15’ came much later after I bought 13’. Imo the only adequate form-factor for laptop displays is 15-16’, and 17’ is ideal. Those were great days when Apple had MacBook Pro 17’, and it had awesome square-ish display, you could see everything on it.

Too large - and heavy - for me.

I get the idea of portability but probably the iPad is enough nowadays for most things.

No, it is not.

Not for those of us who like to write with a fully functional, tactile keyboard.

Personally, I loathe, loathe, loathe, detest, abominate touch screen keyboards; for writing, nothing beats the feel and function of a proper keyboard, with decent tactile sensation and proper travel on the keys.

In any case, I cannot abide the iPad, and deeply dislike the iPhone.

Can’t imagine how editing photos was like on it or watching movies

Actually, I still use it - mine - to watch movies, and stuff on YouTube.

 

[now i see it]

"obsolete" is one thing but unusable is quite another. These devices can easily go for 12 years or more