Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, tweeted this week to his followers claiming that we could see a new 15-inch MacBook Air in just a few months. As an industry analyst who focuses on screens, Young’s track record with such rumors is generally quite strong.
According to Young, the display panel for this new MacBook Air has just entered production. Given the panel production schedule on older MacBooks, this points to an early April release, which could line up with an Apple spring event. Rumor has it that a new Apple silicon-based Mac Pro and the long-awaited debut of the Apple AR headset are also announced for this event.
A less reliable DigiTimes report following Young’s tweet claimed that the new Air entered production in late January and is eyeing a launch in the second quarter of 2023.
Other than the screen, which is alternatively 15.2-inch or 15.5-inch depending on which rumors you’re following, we’re not sure what other specs to expect. It will obviously have an M2 processor, but some suggest that an M2 Pro option could also be available. This would narrow the gap to the MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,999, although a 15-inch MacBook Air would still lack many Pro-level features, including ProMotion HDR displays, extra ports, an SDXC card slot, and an M2 Max. possibility of processor.
Some have speculated that the M3 chip will make its debut in this product, but if it arrives in April that seems very unlikely – most rumors don’t expect this chip until the second half of 2023 or early 2024.
We expect the larger model to start at a price that puts it between the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 ($1,199 / £1,249) and 14-inch MacBook Pro M2 Pro ($1,999 / £2,149) . Considering the other benefits of the MacBook Pro, a starting price of $1,499 / £1,549 seems reasonable.
