Larger 15-Inch MacBook Air Expected in 2023

[Tagbert]

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...

a 15" display is only 27% larger in area (and thus backlight power) than a 13.3" screen. That is not a huge difference in power requirements. The overall case and battery size would increase at approximately the same rate so it is unlikely to be a real problem. Even the weight would only increase from 2.8 pounds to 3.5 pounds which is the same as the 14" MBP. That is still less than the 4 pounds of a 15" MacBook pro.

The point to a 15" MacBook Pro is that some people want a larger screen but don't need the weight, power, and cost of a full MacBook Pro. That is why that is a very popular size in the PC laptop world.

A lot of people aren't buying the MBA because it is lightweight, they just get it because it is the lowest price laptop from Apple. The next step up in Apple's lineup is a pretty big jump in price. A 15" would make them more likely to upgrade their purchase over a 13".

 

[asdfjkl;]

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...

It doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that along with a larger display would come a larger chassis capable of holding a larger battery.

 

[ric22]

I think battery life is already great in the MacBook Air 13". A lot of the extra battery size on this hypothetical 15" would be taken up feeding the larger monitor, and I'd rather some of that extra space went on providing a couple more ports and bigger/better speakers.

 

[smirking]

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?

True. It only occurred to me that a 16" MBP has more than 2x the battery capacity of a MBA after you said this. That said, they should be able to keep a MBA in the 10-14 hour range bumping up to a 15" size and bumping up the battery a bit with the extra room. Of course, now it weighs more.

It'd depend greatly on what people are willing to accept as lightweight. I rather liked the Intel MBPs for their lack of weight and size and I could run that thing for the advertised 8-10+ hours if I just did light Web browsing. Of course, I never used it like that and 3-4 hours was more typical.

I could see a market for a 15" MBA that has 10-20% less battery life than a 13" MBA, but still weighs less than the 15" tbMBPs. It would be awfully tempting to me once the performance bumps up a bit more. I love my 16" M1Pro, but it's just a smidge wider, taller, and heavier than I want.

 

[Tagbert]

True. It only occurred to me that a 16" MBP has more than 2x the battery capacity of a MBA after you said this. That said, they should be able to keep a MBA in the 10-14 hour range bumping up to a 15" size and bumping up the battery a bit with the extra room. Of course, now it weighs more.

It'd depend greatly on what people are willing to accept as lightweight. I rather liked the Intel MBPs for their lack of weight and size and I could run that thing for the advertised 8-10+ hours if I just did light Web browsing. Of course, I never used it like that and 3-4 hours was more typical.

I could see a market for a 15" MBA that has 10-20% less battery life than a 13" MBA, but still weighs less than the 15" tbMBPs. It would be awfully tempting to me once the performance bumps up a bit more. I love my 16" M1Pro, but it's just a smidge wider, taller, and heavier than I want.

The MBA has 2 features that distinguish it from Apple’s other laptops and that make it the most popular model, low weight and low price. Some people really value the light weight and are fine with the smaller screen. Other people want the larger screen but will not spend MBP prices for it. A 15” Air would appeal to those people. The battery would not be significant problem.

Even with just a linear scaling from 13.3” to 15”, that is 27% increase in area. The battery would also be 27% larger as the case would need to scale proportionally. Weight would go up to about 3.5 pounds but that is still less than the 14” MBP.

 

[smirking]

Some people really value the light weight and are fine with the smaller screen. Other people want the larger screen but will not spend MBP prices for it. A 15” Air would appeal to those people. The battery would not be significant problem.

A 15" screen with real world usage battery life of 10 hours at the weight of the 2018 15" MBP and it will be a hard decision for me when it's time for my next upgrade.

 

[Tagbert]

A 15" screen with real world usage battery life of 10 hours at the weight of the 2018 15" MBP and it will be a hard decision for me when it's time for my next upgrade.

The 2018 15” MBP was 4 pounds (same as the 2021 14” MBP). If you use the 13.3” MBA as a base and scale it to 15”, that is a 27% increase in both screen and battery and probably weight as well getting you to 3.5 pounds so I think it would meet your needs if Apple is willing to go that direction for a model between the MBA and the Pro

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

A 15" MBA would be nice. I'd settle for a 14" and a 16"...if that's not being too greedy.

 

[Mat.Rynio]

I've just bought MacBook Pro 16" but I'd ditch if they will announce 15" Air (I just want bigger screen, don't need power). Apple make it happen.