New data arrives (or rather predictions) on a new 15-inch Apple laptop. Not even a week ago Mark Gurman was talking about a MacBook Air this size, but now Ming-Chi Kuo has reasons to believe it might not be a MacBook Air.
If it’s M2 Pro, it can’t be MacBook Air… can it?
Forecast updates:
1. The new 15″ MacBook would go into mass production in the middle of 1H23, and the launch date could be 2Q23 or later.
2. The new 15″ MacBook can offer two processor options, M2 (with 35W adapter) and M2 Pro (with 67W adapter).
3. I haven’t heard of any 12-inch MacBook plans yet. https://t.co/zm09nMvG7R—Ming-Chi Kuo (@mingchikuo) June 15, 2022
The reason is that Kuo thinks this 15-inch laptop will be able to equip an M2 chip or an M2 Pro, which would bring it closer to a professional range. Depending on the chip it has, the MacBook may need a 35W or 67W charger. 35W is precisely the power at which the MacBook Air M2 can be charged, even with the new USB-C dual-port charger.
It would be the first time a 15-inch Apple laptop could be charged with such a low voltage adapter. The mark would look demonstrate the low consumption of its Apple Silicon chipsalthough obviously the charge would take a little longer than in the 13-inch models.
But there’s a bigger question that inevitably arises: are we dealing with a MacBook Air or rather a MacBook Pro? Or maybe Apple is planning to launch a new line of computers bridging the two lines? There is a strange mixture in the data that either shows that the rumors are still very diffuse, or that Apple has more complex plans with the future of its laptop line.
Kuo thinks this laptop will be mass-produced in the first half of 2023 and start selling during the second quarter of the same year. By then, the logistics and component crisis should have (I insist should) have subsided.
