What exactly are the "unneeded bells and whistles" that you so badly wish to do without? The power? The retina display? Thunderbolt ports/throughput? 16 GB RAM?
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Larger 15-Inch MacBook Air Expected in 2023
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The extra ports I'll never use (SD, HDMI), the Pro and Max chip which drains a laptop of that size way more than an M1 or upcoming M2 would. Both the extra ports and the extra powerful chips (and thus the required space for thermal heating) all contribute to making it the ThickBook Pro now.
I'm mobile all the time. I use a web browser, spreadsheet, and word processor. I want the biggest-screen Mac laptop possible as thin as possible. You don't get that with the current ThickBook Pro.
I'm not saying the ThickBook Pro is a bad machine. It's amazing for media professionals who need the power. But to the average Joe who just wants a thin, portable MacBook with a big screen, the TBP ain't it.
I’m guessing this is the rumored “MacBook Studio” (aka the midrange for prosumers that demand more power at the price more affordable than the full blown 16 inch pro models)
Netbooks we’re sold from 2007 to 2013, Apple started selling the 11” MacBook Air from 2010-2015 and the 12” MacBook from 2015-2017, which really doesn’t line up with the Netbook “craze”. The 11” was the closest to a response to small and thin. The 12” was supposed to replace the MacBook Air and was a flop because people love the Air and a pitiful 5w Intel M and a single USB-C port wasn’t going to supplant the Air. That was Apple’s error which they had to eat crow and fix with the 2018 Air. Sure, some people love the 12” MacBook, but it was not a stellar computer. The 13” MacBook Air needs a larger sibling at this point to fill the gaping hole between the 13” MBP and the new 14”/16” models. It won’t be that much larger than the 13” if it’s packaged right. Even Microsoft is offering two sizes of their Surface 4 laptop.
I believe you have misjudged this because you’re viewing this through an outdated PC lens. PC OEMs are herd mentality creatures that collude with each other to homogenize their laptop offering as much as possible because if everyone is making and buying 14” panels, the price drops for everyone. Why do you think we have so many choices for 4K displays and virtually nothing in a higher non-standard 5K or 6K as Apple has done. This is simply another example of Apple recognizing a market opportunity to increase its marketshare and profit and now is the right time to make this device.
You realize netbooks are now called Chromebooks, right? They never stopped selling them - the market evolved to the point where consumers could buy 11- to 15-inch Chromebooks for less than half of a MacBook. There was simply no room left for 12-inch MacBook.
If it's "herd mentality" then Apple shouldn't gone with 14- and 16-inch displays for MacBook Pro. LOL.
If it's "herd mentality" then how come there are so many 34, 38, 43, and 49-inch ultrawide PC monitors but none from Apple? It's different solutions for similar problems.
I don’t see enough distance between the 14“/16“ MBP and the MBA of BOTH lines serve themselves by the M-processor.
That would lead to product-cannibalism… and though to big marketing-problems.
let us Analyse REAL reasons to long for other devices than the new MBP.
If apple wants to establish a product-line rather distinguishingly from the MBP they should have a look at the gap between IPadPro and MBP 14/16“.
I own the first 9,7“ iPad Pro and a 15“ MBP.
- The IPadPro line is used more and more for easy carry-around but it’s additional Keyboard is not a good emplacement for the Keyboard of a 13/14/15“ MBP/MBA
- we have reached at iPhones and iPads that are VERY powerful now and can do easily standard-performance like office, streaming, email, social media,… you name it
- as for demography people get older and older. Not only them, but a lot of other people as well don’t need high performance, they need instead:
—> affordable little computers
—> easy to carry around
—> NON-reflective Screens with high contrast (easy to work with) and not the highest resolution
—> less ports, but not a bag of supplementary adapters (Joni Ive‘s time is over)
—> Long battery life (24 h without charging)
IMHO there is a place for a „MBA“ with a simple modern (perhaps next generation) A-processor in an enclosure with an anti-reflective 12“ screen and LONG battery life for one sort of Clients who don’t need high performance, but high portability, a good keyboard and Long duration of usability like a whole day Without charging
And a 14“ Screen (size like the old 15“ screens) „MBA“ for people who like to or need to work with the same type of machine but a „bigger“ screen and accept a little bit more weight one needs with a bigger battery to get the same time of usability.
the 12“ „MBA“ could be a sort of 11,9“ iPad in a MB-enclosure with a scissor-keyboard and the touch-screen instead of a touch-pad
while
the 14“ „MBA“ could be without touch-screen but Sport a Touch-Pad.
I think there is a place for this type of „enough performing“ MBA which present more independence (of charging), low weight, perfect ergonomics (still lisible screen while sitting around in difficult light like in the Garden, very light environment, etc),
iPads getting bigger and bigger are more and more and thus having more and more bigger keyboards are about to get exactly the contrary of the original idea of the iPad!
A line of the „MBA“ like I described here are nowadays the logical development ergonomically since the technology has arrived the state that these machines can be produced.
And I propose the product-name for this line to be „MacBook“
just my 2 Cts …
That would lead to product-cannibalism… and though to big marketing-problems.
let us Analyse REAL reasons to long for other devices than the new MBP.
If apple wants to establish a product-line rather distinguishingly from the MBP they should have a look at the gap between IPadPro and MBP 14/16“.
I own the first 9,7“ iPad Pro and a 15“ MBP.
- The IPadPro line is used more and more for easy carry-around but it’s additional Keyboard is not a good emplacement for the Keyboard of a 13/14/15“ MBP/MBA
- we have reached at iPhones and iPads that are VERY powerful now and can do easily standard-performance like office, streaming, email, social media,… you name it
- as for demography people get older and older. Not only them, but a lot of other people as well don’t need high performance, they need instead:
—> affordable little computers
—> easy to carry around
—> NON-reflective Screens with high contrast (easy to work with) and not the highest resolution
—> less ports, but not a bag of supplementary adapters (Joni Ive‘s time is over)
—> Long battery life (24 h without charging)
IMHO there is a place for a „MBA“ with a simple modern (perhaps next generation) A-processor in an enclosure with an anti-reflective 12“ screen and LONG battery life for one sort of Clients who don’t need high performance, but high portability, a good keyboard and Long duration of usability like a whole day Without charging
And a 14“ Screen (size like the old 15“ screens) „MBA“ for people who like to or need to work with the same type of machine but a „bigger“ screen and accept a little bit more weight one needs with a bigger battery to get the same time of usability.
the 12“ „MBA“ could be a sort of 11,9“ iPad in a MB-enclosure with a scissor-keyboard and the touch-screen instead of a touch-pad
while
the 14“ „MBA“ could be without touch-screen but Sport a Touch-Pad.
I think there is a place for this type of „enough performing“ MBA which present more independence (of charging), low weight, perfect ergonomics (still lisible screen while sitting around in difficult light like in the Garden, very light environment, etc),
iPads getting bigger and bigger are more and more and thus having more and more bigger keyboards are about to get exactly the contrary of the original idea of the iPad!
A line of the „MBA“ like I described here are nowadays the logical development ergonomically since the technology has arrived the state that these machines can be produced.
And I propose the product-name for this line to be „MacBook“
just my 2 Cts …
Well that would have been my plan, despite the fact I don't need even one-quarter of the CPU power. Screen real estate is everything and I currently run my 15-in MBP at 2048x1280 (instead of 1680x1050) to squeeze stuff in.
But I'm saying the old MBA is already that size? The hinges have to support the display lid as it is, it doesn't matter if 90% or 10% of the interior surface of it is covered in screen. The trackpad isn't going to add any meaningful weight, I've covered the battery, and all the other components will presumably be the same as the 13" Air, just fit into a larger space. Seems like you're nitpicking just to nitpick.
Yes, Chromebooks out-junked Windows XP Starter / Windows Vista Starter.
But the MacBook Air didn't have anything to do with that, and neither did the 12-inch MacBook.
The 12-inch MacBook failed in part because people had gotten attached to the Air brand (and price point), and in part because Intel was years behind its Core M roadmap.
Are there? Pretty sure that's quite niche. They're reported on a lot precisely because they are unusual.
They are probably using bells and whistles not completely correctly here, but these are the things my 68-70yo parents would gladly give up to save some money on a machine with a bigger screen:
- 8 performance cores vs 4 performance cores
- Mini-LED screen - the basic apple screens are still amazing
- Stupid fast SSDs - no way they are going to notice 4000MB/s speeds vs 2000MB/s speeds (or even 500-1000)
Those 3 things alone could potentially save $500 or more off of a machine and would be an easy trade off.
You basically come in here with all these unrealistic assumptions and expect me to accept it. Then you call me nitpicking. Perhaps you don't have any engineering background or simply haven't thought about the numbers carefully.
1) You expect the edge-lit LCD MBA to have the same thin-bezels as mini-LED MBP. Why?
2) You expect something with a 30% larger display area to have only a 10% increase in battery capacity.
3) You expect the weight of a glass display is the same weight as aluminum, so hinges are the same.
...
Below are real world numbers provided by Apple. Even ignoring the difference in both aluminum and battery, there is nearly 0.5 lb difference between the two.
Of course the 12-inch MacBook competed with Chromebooks. To think otherwise is just silly. People buying 12-inch MacBooks weren't buying them for productivity. What organization assigns a 12-inch device to an employee? Chromebooks and cheap ultrabooks competed directly with the MacBook.
If ultrawide monitors are "quite niche" then I'm not sure what you would call Apple's 5K and 6K displays. Mainstream? LOL. How many 27-inch 5K iMac displays do you think Apple sells annually?
This 15" Mac notebook is totally replacing the MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020). I'm calling it now.
As for the standard non-Air/non-Pro/non-mini standard iPad, I'm struggling to figure out what they'd do to it other than maybe not give it a laminated display and maybe adding more bezels and/or giving it a smaller screen and an A14 Bionic to separate it enough from the iPad mini (which has historically had higher specs than the standard iPad).
As for the standard non-Air/non-Pro/non-mini standard iPad, I'm struggling to figure out what they'd do to it other than maybe not give it a laminated display and maybe adding more bezels and/or giving it a smaller screen and an A14 Bionic to separate it enough from the iPad mini (which has historically had higher specs than the standard iPad).
The awesome thing is that by the time this comes out, the MBA is probably going to be slightly faster than any of the current M1's for everyday computing. I love the power of my 16" MBP, but do feel the extra size and weight when carrying it. It'll be nice to have the option to slim back down if I want to later on.
Eh, it'll be like 10-15% faster in single threaded stuff which I agree covers every day stuff, but will barely be noticeable.
A14->A15 barely saw any changes.
If by 2023 they are on an M3/"A16" style cores at a smaller lithography it's possible we might see something like a 25-30% bump from the original M1 single threaded performance, which, honestly, is still pretty moderate. The good news is it will probably have even better power savings though.
Think possibly the also-rumoured 13.6" will slot into the $1,299 price point the 13" Pro currently occupies, the 15" maybe $100 or $200 more. The old 11/13 inch Airs were separated by $100, as are the current iPad Air and iPad mini, so the $200 size upcharge might be for the Pro tier devices. Even if it's not, I guess $1,499 starting price, presumably with a sweet spot of $1,699 for 8/512 or 16/256 configurations isn't too bad for a nice compact full-size MacBook. $1,899 for the 16/512 gets you looking at the base 14" for $100 more with the same options, so I think that's roughly where Apple is going to want this to be pricing wise.
One interesting part about these days we live in is that, in ANY given year, the poorest performing CPU that Apple produces will consistently be faster than what AMD/Intel consider their mass market CPU’s.
Sure, but I wasn't expecting a 2023 MBA to be as good as a current M1 Pro. A 25-30% improvement in already very good performance for a MBA might be enough to convince me to downsize from a 16" M1 Pro to a 15" MBA at some point. I've test driven the regular M1 for my back-end dev work and it's pretty close to being adequate.
The main hitch for me might end up being the display. I'd assume that the 15" Air wouldn't get the nice Promotion display treatment.
I doubt I'd consider upgrading by 2023 anyway though, but would really be excited to see the MBA climbing in ability so that when I am ready to upgrade in the 2025/26 timeframe, I might have options.
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Chromebooks compete with a 12-inch MacBook like a Lada 110 with a BMW 3 series. Yeah, they're the same size class, but completely different price classes and therefore customer segments.
Are you arguing against yourself? Because Chromebooks are absolutely bought for "productivity". In bulk, even.
Those are also very much niche, so I'm not sure what point you're making here.
Easily 90% of monitors sold are 20-24 inches and HD.
Bit late to this post. Like others have said, I really hope this is true, I've been saying for years that a lot of people want a larger Apple laptop than the 13" MBA without having to spend a ridiculous amount of money on the overkill computing power of the MBP.
Personally, I'd love for the MBA to come in 12", 14" and 16" sizes; ultra-portable, portable, and desktop.
Personally, I'd love for the MBA to come in 12", 14" and 16" sizes; ultra-portable, portable, and desktop.
Powerful performance engenders a weight/cost penalty; it is what it is. Buyers who want lesser performance/weight/price should expect lessened performance from an MBAir. I am afraid some here are looking for no engineering penalties to minimized cost and weight plus larger display.
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An MBA is expected to be lightweight, and the low power CPU is only part of the power equation. With light weight and a 15" display sucking power, where is the huge battery life to come from? Apple has trained buyers to expect very good laptop displays, so I do not see where a cheap/light 15" MBA display is to get the huge battery life from.
Edit: Unless Apple has an inexpensive+good+available display tech we have not seen yet...
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