MacBook Air M5 with Vapor Chamber + ProMotion?

[DHagan4755]

Now that the iPhone Pro has been announced with its vapor chamber for better thermal performance, how likely do you think the next MacBook Air will get the vapor chamber cooling? Also with the standard iPhone 17 getting ProMotion, will the next MacBook Air also get ProMotion? Looking at some of the MacBook Airs competitors, they seem to already ship displays with the higher refresh rates (and some of them have OLED panels).

Thoughts?!

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

One can only hope but since the iPhone is their biggest seller it made sense to do that lineup…still never thought I would see the day ha. I could see them doing the iPad lineup before MacBooks though.

 

[DHagan4755]

Yeah, it would probably trickle down on the iPad lineup first.

 

[menju]

MacBook Air does not have a heat problem for standard users. Getting Promotion Display in a MacBook Air is unlikely because it might hurt MacBook Pro Sale.
Maybe it is time to make it thinner again.

 

[DaveEcc]

Yeah, it would probably trickle down on the iPad lineup first.

Back in the M1 days I'd have hoped it trickled up to iMacs, so they can get non-entry level chips. With board tucked into a small portion of the display, they couldn't dissipate the heat of higher end chips... the vapour chamber would have been a great advancement.

Now that we're at M4, the entry level chips are well beyond good enough for most users, I'm not sure how many higher-end iMacs they'd sell to bother adding the higher-end cooling system.

As for the Air, does the Air need extra cooling? It's got a larger heat dissipation surface than a phone already. Sure preventing thermal throttling during sustained load would be nice and all, but the Air isn't designed to be a sustained load system. It would remove one of the reasons to upgrade to a Pro, so I'm not convinced Apple would go for it. I could see them adding it to the Pro, giving more reason to upgrade, rather than adding it to the Air and making it so there is less reason to upgrade.

 

[helloapple1]

This would be a dream. Love the air, but the screen needs updating in 2025. Almost into 2026. Hope they don't ship next model with the same 60Hz refresh rate.

 

[menju]

This would be a dream. Love the air, but the screen needs updating in 2025. Almost into 2026. Hope they don't ship next model with the same 60Hz refresh rate.

updated speakers with more bass would make the package complete

 

[helloapple1]

updated speakers with more bass would make the package complete

Ya! The 15” one has pretty good speakers, but always could be improved

 

[DHagan4755]

the Air isn't designed to be a sustained load system

GREAT point!

 

[JPack]

Some people are confusing heat dissipation, surface area, sustained load, and other concepts.

It's not about sustained load. The purpose of a vapor chamber is to help with high heat flux. Having a big heat spreader is irrelevant if the heat cannot be transported away fast enough.

It's like using a magnifying glass on your skin in direct sunlight. Even if you have a cooling fan, you can still be burned because heat isn't being transported away quickly enough.

If future M-series chips become smaller in terms of die size, this could be a problem requiring a VC.