According to Apple, M1 Max is an 85W chip. It just doesn't make sense to shove it in a 12-inch chassis. This is especially true given M2 is more power hungry than M1. This rumor doesn't make sense at all.
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Display Industry Analyst Expresses Skepticism About 12-Inch MacBook Rumor
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According to Apple, M1 Max is an 85W chip. It just doesn't make sense to shove it in a 12-inch chassis. This is especially true given M2 is more power hungry than M1. This rumor doesn't make sense at all.
I'm not entirely sure they want you to buy a 12". I suspect mostly they want you to open the 'Buy" page or drop into a Store for the 12", and then quickly realize "Well, for a mere $100 more I can get that one. And then for a $100 more I can get that other one." Too many SKUs is often a problem for industry, but I don't think the marginal cost of designing a smaller machine, once the entire chipset is on an existing SOC, is very high at the scale at which Apple operates. And they're sitting on how many billions in cash to do that with?
I loved my 12" PowerBook. Almost exactly the footprint of a sheet of paper, and a little over an inch thick. I can remember the dimensions to this day - 8.6" x 10.9" x 1.18" (haven't looked that up in very long time).
The 11" MBA's built-in screen was a bit too short vertically, but otherwise I would have wanted one badly - in fact, when I went looking around for a 2nd machine, I couldn't find a single 11" on the used market with 8GB of RAM - only the 4GB models :-(. Settled for a 13" rMBP, which works well, but not quite the same in the portability department.
The 12" rMB... I didn't like the keyboard before it was cool not to like the keyboard (just didn't like the key action). And crucially, when plugged in, there were no ports. Wired mouse... keyboard... SD card reader... nada.
A machine with the footprint of a sheet of paper, halfway reasonable power, with at least two usable ports when plugged in, would get me lusting after it (built in SD reader would be the cherry on top). The new MBA is oh-so-close, just really gnashing my teeth that with the 10 Core GPU, 16GB RAM, and 512GB storage, it's effectively the same price as a 14" MBP (often discounted to $1750). But hey, my 12" PowerBook G4 was $1800 back in 2003, so maybe it's not all that bad.
The 11" MBA's built-in screen was a bit too short vertically, but otherwise I would have wanted one badly - in fact, when I went looking around for a 2nd machine, I couldn't find a single 11" on the used market with 8GB of RAM - only the 4GB models :-(. Settled for a 13" rMBP, which works well, but not quite the same in the portability department.
The 12" rMB... I didn't like the keyboard before it was cool not to like the keyboard (just didn't like the key action). And crucially, when plugged in, there were no ports. Wired mouse... keyboard... SD card reader... nada.
A machine with the footprint of a sheet of paper, halfway reasonable power, with at least two usable ports when plugged in, would get me lusting after it (built in SD reader would be the cherry on top). The new MBA is oh-so-close, just really gnashing my teeth that with the 10 Core GPU, 16GB RAM, and 512GB storage, it's effectively the same price as a 14" MBP (often discounted to $1750). But hey, my 12" PowerBook G4 was $1800 back in 2003, so maybe it's not all that bad.
I think we are seeing the same pattern here than the thinking around the iPhone mini, where the community loves everything small Apple can make, but the market has spoken in opposite direction.
I really hope they come out with a 12". Its such a great utility, and powered by an M1/M2 would be unreal.
I don't understand the nostalgia over this piece of crap. It turned Macs into garbage for five years. (Longer, really, considering I'm still using my 2018 MBP.)
At this point, it is too early to say one way or another. If it happens, I will be thrilled. If it doesn't, life in Mac land will go on and my life will still have meaning.
I have to say I was really really hoping the new M2 MacBook Air would be a return to a truly portable laptop like the 12inch MacBook. The 12 inch MacBook is by far my favorite laptop of all time but is sadly now way too slow and plagued by that horrible keyboard to keep using productively; however the form factor is/was incredible. I have used that laptop professionally for years but sadly its just too slow now. I had been waiting and holding out for Apple to release a new version with Apple silicon and a better keyboard. Sadly it didn't happen. Having used the 2LB laptop for 5 Years it really is a big jump in weight going up to 2.7lbs. Way less portable and a noticeable difference. Let's hope they bring the 12 back to life....
Last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple was considering launching an all-new 12-inch notebook at the end of 2023 or in early 2024. Gurman said it was unclear if the notebook would be a low-end MacBook or a higher-end MacBook Pro.
In response to the report, Ross Young of Display Supply Chain Consultants has revealed that he is currently "skeptical" about a new 12-inch MacBook.
"We are skeptical on a 12" MacBook at this point," wrote Young, in tweet shared with his Super Followers today. "Apple's strategy for notebooks is currently 13" and larger. Companies in the MacBook Pro display supply chain we talked to are not aware of it."
Gurman and Young are both very reliable sources when it comes to future Apple products, so it is possible that Apple is still in the early stages of developing a new 12-inch MacBook, to the point that the company's supply chain currently has no knowledge of the plans. Apple also routinely prototypes a wide variety of products internally, and it does not always move forward with releasing all of them, as Gurman pointed out.
Young has revealed a wide range of accurate insights into Apple's plans, such as the iPhone 13 Pro's ProMotion display, the sixth-generation iPad mini's 8.3-inch display, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro's mini-LED displays with ProMotion, the new MacBook Air's slightly larger 13.6-inch display size, and more, so his comments are worth taking seriously, but it's still too early to rule out the possibility of a new 12-inch MacBook.
Apple has released both lower-end and higher-end 12-inch notebooks in the past. At the low end, Apple introduced an ultra-thin 12-inch MacBook that weighed just two pounds in 2015, but the notebook was discontinued in 2019. And at the higher end, Apple offered a 12-inch PowerBook G4 in the mid-2000s, prior to the original MacBook Pro.
Article Link: Display Industry Analyst Expresses Skepticism About 12-Inch MacBook Rumor
IMO, 12" is too small for a laptop screen. I attempted once but the screen was almost unusable (to me), so I retuned it.
“I see absolutely no reason to get a 12”, I would directly go for a 13” Air.”
I, on the other hand, am typing this on a 12” Macbook, final generation and loaded, and it’s the best subcompact laptop anyone has ever made. So yes, I am waiting for a real successor, because a MBA that is almost 50% heavier and bigger in every dimension is fine…but is not even remotely what makes a MacBook an amazing device.
“If this machine becomes reality, it's either a smaller MBA or the return of the 12" MacBook.”
I agree with this. There’s no universe where someone is putting an M1 or M2 Pro in a 12”, nor would anyone need them to.
“Take the old 12“, reduce the bezels and you have something like 12.7“.
It’s true, with how displays work now it will be nearly the size of the old MBA.
“Of course they could launch a 12" M2 MacBook Air and price it at $999, it would definitely be an interesting product.”
When they do it, it will be expensive—the people who want the smallest possible MacBook will pay for it.
“The 12 inch MacBook is by far my favorite laptop of all time but is sadly now way too slow and plagued by that horrible keyboard to keep using productively; however the form factor is/was incredible. I have used that laptop professionally for years but sadly its just too slow now.”
Well, I hear you—that’s why I traded up from the 2016 MB to the final 2017 one, which they kept selling into 2019. That one has 16 GB RAM, and everything is more powerful…which makes it juuuuuuuuuuust barely able to keep up. It will get Ventura in the fall.
But yes, I would like to be able to get on a new 12” Mac soon!
I, on the other hand, am typing this on a 12” Macbook, final generation and loaded, and it’s the best subcompact laptop anyone has ever made. So yes, I am waiting for a real successor, because a MBA that is almost 50% heavier and bigger in every dimension is fine…but is not even remotely what makes a MacBook an amazing device.
“If this machine becomes reality, it's either a smaller MBA or the return of the 12" MacBook.”
I agree with this. There’s no universe where someone is putting an M1 or M2 Pro in a 12”, nor would anyone need them to.
“Take the old 12“, reduce the bezels and you have something like 12.7“.
It’s true, with how displays work now it will be nearly the size of the old MBA.
“Of course they could launch a 12" M2 MacBook Air and price it at $999, it would definitely be an interesting product.”
When they do it, it will be expensive—the people who want the smallest possible MacBook will pay for it.
“The 12 inch MacBook is by far my favorite laptop of all time but is sadly now way too slow and plagued by that horrible keyboard to keep using productively; however the form factor is/was incredible. I have used that laptop professionally for years but sadly its just too slow now.”
Well, I hear you—that’s why I traded up from the 2016 MB to the final 2017 one, which they kept selling into 2019. That one has 16 GB RAM, and everything is more powerful…which makes it juuuuuuuuuuust barely able to keep up. It will get Ventura in the fall.
But yes, I would like to be able to get on a new 12” Mac soon!
How is a MacBook SE not a 12" MacBook when an SE device is just Apple taking the old casing of a device and upgrading the internals?
As a non-display industry analyst, I'd like to file my skepticism about not only the rumored 12" MBP but the actual need for a 12" option in the MBP lineup. Why do we need so many 1" incremental screen sizes?
I could maybe see a case for a 12"/14"/16" lineup. But I'd offer that 12" and 16" would suffice. Said another way: I'm curious to hear the thought process of those customers waffling between 12" and 13" laptop screens.
I could maybe see a case for a 12"/14"/16" lineup. But I'd offer that 12" and 16" would suffice. Said another way: I'm curious to hear the thought process of those customers waffling between 12" and 13" laptop screens.
It’s thanks to some people that Apple produces ridiculous products and keeps them up for sale for years beyond obsolescence, like the Apple Watch 3: in 2022 still demanding a cheap 15-inch portable Mac.
Nothing like it has existed for 17 years (iBook 14”), and in any case in with the diagonal one.
But some people are first to deceive them than to reason about it.
We DID have an 11” MacBook Air before the 12” MacBook Nothing.
I don’t know how I feel about them bringing it back.
I felt the MacBook Nothing was a lightweight, stylish, unproductive and underpowered laptop. Would an M2 fix the latter two comments? Sure. But what niche is it trying to fit in?
I don’t know how I feel about them bringing it back.
I felt the MacBook Nothing was a lightweight, stylish, unproductive and underpowered laptop. Would an M2 fix the latter two comments? Sure. But what niche is it trying to fit in?
But iPad will never run MacOS.
So we have a problem: iPad users with physical keyboard or over 10” who want MacOS.
Other users who want 18-inch Macs or budget 15-inch Macs, who have been asking for 30 years but Apple hasn't producing.
So Apple will continue NOT to produce iPads with MacOS, $5,000 18” Macs, and budget 15-inch Macs, why fight human stupidity if it makes you rich?
😉
The 12" MacBook weighed 2.03 lbs (0.92 kg). The 13" M2 MacBook Air is going to be 2.7 lbs (1.24 kg). Quite a large difference.
AHAHAH
This piece of crap?!
And that piece of crap of Air, MBP with fault CPU/GPU?!
I think more WINTEL sons are on the wrong side of the river, and they also think they can tell it to those who have seen a few moons more than them.
I really do wonder about how Apple is trying to pitch Stage Manager for M1 iPad Pro as comparable multitasking to MacOS on a small laptop. Even the pricing can get rather competitive between the two Apple devices lines. While its nice to have a touch interface, its also nice to have small laptop that folds protecting the display and not needing a keyboard to buy.
I don't think Apple has any intention of making iPads as productive as a Mac with MacOS. If you want a Mac you pay for a Mac. Otherwise you settle for iPad.
iPad is used to NOT make a line of MacBooks, the Airs and obsolete products such as the 13-inch MBP serve to cover that market segment that would not buy an expensive (but still unproductive) iPad but still wants to try to do something productive with the device.
Then there are those who talk nonsense about 18”, when the 17” were on sale Apple sold 3, throughout my career as a video editor I haven’t seen one, because colleagues bought the 15” to use with 23”/24”/27”/30”/32” outdoor screens.
But consider explaining it to those 3 who bought the 17” and today they would like a heavy, expensive, completely useless 18”.