Do you think the decision to ditch the wedge on the new MBAs was a design choice, or a necessity?

[The Cockney Rebel]

A fascinating thread (I'm a fan of the "classic" MBA design) and a pleasure to read, for it is a thread conducted in a tone of mutually respectful and informed courtesy and civility.

I concur.

Too often people get tricky on MacRumors, but this thread has been a very pleasurable discussion.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

I don't think Apple ever makes any moves without involving both design and function. I'm using a MB 12" and still love it, minus the butterfly keyboard issues. I think the whole butterfly keyboard thing caused an enormous rift btw Cook and Sir Ives; the Air and the 12" MacBook were aggressive moves in terms of weight and engineering design. The new Magic Keyboard has resolved butterflygate and moving forward here; the goal is to sell more devices without class action lawsuit problems. Apple does not have time nor afford (not financially) to mess with such trivial matters; thus I think a decision was made to keep the design simpler and just simply produce very solid products for the time being. We will get back to a more sleeker awesome design era but when your target is to sell 250M+ iPhones a year, you've got to pick your battles and keep some things very simple. The aggressive design nature wasn't worth the problems; let's just keep the designs reliable and durable as nobody is going to not upgrade because the design isn't better or not. Right now, it's a matter of reorganising manufacturing plants and locations in Asia. These new MBP's and MBA's are super solid laptops, and now I think it will be a challenge to meet market demand as I think the Mac Sales will grow into becoming a serious fourth leg of the revenue stool....this will grow quickly in the next 24 months into ~$20B/quarter Mac sales revenue.

I'm dying for an upgrade to my six year old MB 12", but there has been so much transition in the Mac line from the keyboard to the switch from Intel to now moving to a 3nm chip manufacturing process. We're really just getting started and there are tons of more things to come to WOW us, but unfortunately it is a game of patience right now. You cannot fit a Magic Keyboard into a MB 12" chassis, so it would need to be redesigned with a deeper body. In my mind I'm thinking...."does it really take six years to get a sequel to my MB 12"? I guess so, maybe seven. The answer isn't to buy an Air, it's not the same product. So I will wait, as I am forced to. But I will be really awed if they can beat the weight of the 2.02 lb model I have, and if they don't and its released as a 12.5" with a body like the current laptop line and weighs around 2 lbs, I'll still buy it and be happy with it! And if that means no issues with the keyboard or anything else, that will be good enough for now. So I think the answer to your question is, "it's good enough for now." I hope this makes sense and I'd love to hear your thoughts as well on my answer.

I never considered the 12" MB because it was always said that it was really underpowered.

It's a lovely design, though. So incredibly thin.

I'd say it's more of an "Air" than the current MBAs.

Love my computer, though. I can't fault it.

By the way, what are the specs on your MacBook?

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I believe the decision to move away from the wedge is, thus far, typical of the post-Ive design language. It's putting function before form.

Just like the taper on the iMac the wedge only existed for aesthetic reasons, to make the device appear thinner than it actually was. The fact that it was easier to pick up was a by product.

It's common sense that a cuboid has more volume than space with curved faces. In moving to this new design, Apple has the ability to layout the components with ease and without the need for silly terraced batteries and empty space.

 

[mectojic]

Actually, I think it's more complicated.
Apple has been slightly refining its engineering processes for the past 15 years just with aluminium. The original Macbook Air was the first unibody Macbook, a major achievement. But there were still structural challenges, especially the hinges.
The 2010 Airs refined and fixed that problem, while simplifying the Air's sides by removing the port door and separate click button. But the wedge shape was still used, since it was essential to have enough structural support around the hinge. And look on those old Airs and the hinge area still had a black plastic support too, which disappeared in the 2018 Air redesign.

The subtle engineering achievement of the M2 Air was the ability to make such a dramatically thin device that didn't use the wedge shape, thus meaning the display panel had to be even lighter and sturdier without the weight support of the wedge or the plastic supports.

It's really quite genius.