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Apple Working on 15-Inch MacBook Air and 12-Inch MacBook for 2023

Small White Car said:
13” / 15” Air
14” / 16” Pro
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The perfect lineup.
What about pricing?
There's a $500 price bump to go from 14" to 16". Maybe we will see something like:

13" Air $1200 (8G RAM / 256G Storage)
15" Air $1700 (8G RAM / 256G Storage)
14" Pro $2200 (16G RAM / 512G Storage, @ $400)
16" Pro $2700 (16G RAM / 512G Storage, @ $400)

With the above pricing, the Pro models cost $100 more than the air (plus the current Apple surcharges for screen size, memory, and storage). For that $100 you get brighter/better screen, faster SSD, better speakers, and a ~1" larger screen. That makes sense, as the people who can afford the more expensive Pro can justify it based on this math, but the vast majority of people will go for a 15" Air (really should be 512GB Storage in 2023).

Those things would fly off the shelves at $1700.
 
Tagbert said:
In the MBP range the 16” is only $200 more than the 14”. It would make sense that a 15” MBA would be at most $200 more than a 13” MBA. that puts a 15” about $100 less than the current 14” MBP. Trends suggest that the M2 MBP will go up in price.
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14" MBP is $2000
16" MBP is $2500
 
macjaffa said:
They should do a 12" MBP but have it as a 4:3 screen like the old Powerbooks / thinkpad X61 style That would be pretty decent with the retina screen. Even ipad is 4:3 screen.

They should also make the hdmi port able to take video in.

First new gen m2 machine with promotion display gets my money
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would be cool but the keyboard would suck big time
 
The lineup of products is getting confusing now. I’m probably in the minority here, but I don’t like that they keep older products still on sale as cheaper options. It just confuses people.

They should just replace the models with new ones like they used to. Why are they still selling the AW series 3? It’s pretty much useless now. You couldn’t update it without restoring it until recently.

I’m not sure if I’m a fan of the ‘SE’ range of products either. The naming is silly and they’re just there.

I preferred Apple products because it was easy to look into what you needed and you bought it. They should drop the iPad or iPad Air model and just have: iPad/Air (only one of them), iPad mini, iPad Pro.
 
Salty Pirate said:
Used to think that.

Wonder why Apple has never done a 15" Air?
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Until recently, the Mac was more of a second thought at Apple. They didn’t see them as something that needed much attention and certainly didn’t see a reason to expand the line. The 12” MacBook was clearly intended to replace the MBA but they could never get the price down enough and the Air was too popular. They ended up with two small relatively inexpensive models. The 13” MBP was barely faster than the Air So that occupied a price point that a larger Air would have fit into. So, due to a misaligned product lineup and a lack of will, no one wanted to go there.

In the PC market the 15” moderately priced laptop is very popular. No reason to thing that Mac customers would turn up their noses at one either. If Apple do bring out a 15” Air, it gives them a well balanced and clearly defined product line.

Consumer priced small and large.
Professional priced small and large.

A new 12” would complicate that a little, but they might try to target it as an ultra portable and maybe extra low price addition to the Air line. That would give it a reason to exist. It could replace the current 13” MBA when it comes out if they can control the price well enough. They might even launch it with the M1 if they want to use that inventory.
 
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Ive been waiting for my MBP 2021 for 9 months, now they releasing the M2 Pro/Max?
 
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I would absolutely trade in my 2021 14" MBP for a 15" MBA. Or maybe I just trade ion the Mac mini and hook the MBP up to the monitor and live my best life. lol. Either way, I want it.
 
t0rqx said:
Ive been waiting for my MBP 2022 for 9 months, now they releasing the M2 Pro/Max?
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If you've been waiting 9 mo wouldn't that be the 2021 MBP? That must be some spec if it still hasn't been build it after all this time.
 
Orange Bat said:
I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t believe any of this. Apple’s line-up has become much more confusing with this latest update, and they would just further confuse it with a bigger Air.
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And someone will come up replacing Tim Cook, simplifying lineup again. Rinse and repeat.
 
12 in MacBook makes no sense. Just rumors and conjecture. We have iPads for that, 10.9 and 11. I don’t even think the 12 MacBook was a best seller.
 
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If you try and match up the specs, which means I'm not comparing base models, the price for going from 14" to 16" is $200. Even though the display tech is not the same, I think it's a fair assumption that Apple will ask for $200 to go from 13" to 15" on the Air. After all, they ask for $200 to upgrade from 8->16GB RAM.

MacBook Pro 14", M1 Pro, 10/16, 16/512GB $2299
MacBook Pro 16", M1 Pro, 10/16, 16/512GB $2499

MacBook Air 13", M2, 8/10, 16/512GB $1699
MacBook Air 15", M2, 8/10, 16/512GB $1899

That means $400 to upgrade from 15" Air to 14" Pro. You get better display tech, more ports, Pro SoC with additional CPU, GPU cores and additional media encoding engines. Seems pretty reasonable to me. The wonky part is everything listed above is BTO except the 16" MacBook Pro. And yes, I'm guessing that the 15" Air will come with 8GB standard.
 
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russellelly said:
With rumours like this, I’ll hang onto my 2016 12” RMB a little longer. So keen to see a modern machine this light and small again - it’s just perfect for my needs.
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My thoughts exactly. I originally had the 2015 rMB, then upgraded to the 2017 rMB, and have held on to it ever since. That 2lb weight is perfect as a couch/travel computer for me.

I don’t think that we’ll ever get back to 2lb (though I’d love that), because of all the compromises it needed, which I doubt Apple would accept again, and I don’t think that tech has evolved enough since to do it without those compromises.

But, I think that if it was 2.3-2.4lb that’d be “near enough” to separate itself from the 13.6” 2.7lb MBA. They might even try to hit the 2.2lb mark for marketing…

”One Kilo. One Centimetre. All MacBook.”
 
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I highly doubt the price difference will only be $100 or $200. It’ll neither be a big price based on screen size (like the 14” vs 16” MBP) or they will add some other feature(s) to the MBA 15” to justify a larger price jump. Like maybe the smallest SSD size will be 5-2 instead of 256, or something like that. My guess is it’ll be below the MBP 14”, but not by much.

Additionally, with inflation, I suspect that every iteration is going to be subject to a price bump. But, so that it doesn’t look like just an inflation-driven decision, there will be something else substantial done to justify it. Just like when the iPhone X came out it was a huge premium over the prior flagship model. Now we all think phones at $999 aren’t “expensive.”
 
They are on fire with Macbooks right now, so it would be good moment to push it a little bit more and experiment
 
No point in these machines while they are still relatively crippled with only single external display support, in spite of the graphics power. Even if it was limited to say 1x 6k or 2x4k. Yearly updating the power while still having the exact same limitations is absurd. My 2012 retina could run 3 external displays FFS.
Its so transparently a ploy to force people to buy a M1 Pro or max.
 
im patiently waiting for a 15” Air. its the perfect device! the new m2 air is fine but i cant deal with that size of screen. i shouldnt need to spend £2400 just to get a macbook with a screen thats not 13-14”. the 16” pro is overkill for my needs.
 
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rorydaredking said:
No point in these machines while they are still relatively crippled with only single external display support
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No point in dual-external display support for the target demographic. Very few people of the target audience use or miss a second external displays. These are the „Pro“ users, and „Pro“ choices exist for them

It’s just disappointing that they’re selling and releasing new „Pro“ machines without support for more than one external display.
 
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All I want is any one of those with 16GB RAM as a pre-configured model.

It's funny if Apple going back to the 12" Macbook. I'm guessing it will replace the M1 Macbook Air as a $999 model, while the M2 Macbook Airs price increase is permanent.

12" Macbook Air, probably the same exact innards as the M1 Macbook Air, but with 1 less port and lighter design. It's the Macbook Air Air. Cheaper for Apple to make with old and less components, and more margins.
 
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I think it would be better if apple return the MB lineup with a Non-Pro chip and added fans to cool down the machine. For now, their lineup is a bit convoluted as the MB 12 will definitely in par with their iPad products
 
If Apple are going to release a big screen non-Pro iPhone, then they should definitely also release a big-screen non-Pro MacBook.
 
ian87w said:
12" Macbook Air, probably the same exact innards as the M1 Macbook Air, but with 1 less port and lighter design
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Well, it‘d better be the headphone port then.

They‘ve failed twice to make overpriced subnotenooks with just one USB port popular (2008 Air and 2015 MacBook). And honestly, just one USB port sucks in user experience.

At least price shouldn’t be as much of an issue. Rather than developing a new (ultra) low power platform with expensive Intel CPU‘s, they can basically stuff an iPad mainboard/SoC into a 12“ MacBook chassis and be largely done with it.
 
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