Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, just sent out a tweet to his subscribers suggesting that we can expect a new 15-inch MacBook Air in a few months. As an industry analyst focused on displays, Young’s track record with these kinds of rumors is usually pretty solid.
According to Young, the display for this new MacBook Air was recently put into production. Given the time frame for panel production on previous MacBooks, this points to an early April release, which could tie in with an Apple spring event. A new Apple silicon-based Mac Pro and the much-anticipated debut of the Apple AR headset are also rumored ahead of that event.
Outside of the screen, which is alternately 15.2in or 15.5in depending on which rumor you follow, we don’t really know what other specs to expect. It will obviously have an M2 processor, but some suggest an M2 Pro option may also be available. This would narrow the gap to the MacBook Pro, which starts at $1,999, though a 15-inch MacBook Air would still lack many of the Pro-level features, including HDR ProMotion displays, additional ports, an SDXC card slot, and an M2 Max processor option.
Some have speculated that the M3 chip would make its debut in this product, but when it arrives in April that seems very unlikely – most rumors don’t expect that chip until the second half of 2023 or early 2024.
We expect the larger model to start at a price point between the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air ($1,199/£1,249) and the 14-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro ($1,999/£2,149). Given the MacBook Pro’s other benefits, a starting price of $1,499/£1,549 seems reasonable.
