New MacBook Air Leak Reveals Apple’s Disappointing Decisions

Forbes Innovation Consumer Tech New MacBook Air Leak Reveals Apple’s Disappointing Decisions Ewan Spence Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Storyteller exploring digital worlds, mobile, music and podcasting Following Jun 19, 2023, 07:04pm EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Updated June 19th: article originally posted June 17th. The faithful fans have been waiting for Apple’s launch of the 15-inch MacBook Air.

Now it’s here , and the reviews make it clear ; this laptop barely meets expectations. This isn’t Apple pushing the boat out with a new wonderful experience. It’s the same tired laptop that Apple has been releasing since 2020.

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 05: The new Apple 15-inch Macbook Air is displayed during the Apple . . .

[+] Worldwide Developers Conference on June 05, 2023 in Cupertino, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC23 developer conference with the announcement of the new Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Getty Images Update: Sunday June 18th: The ever-reliable team at iFixit has got their hands on the 15-inch MacBook Air and as always has stripped down the new hardware to look a t both the new components but also how easy it is to repair.

And both answers are disappointing. In terms of new hardware – beyond the display – Apple has bumped up the battery capacity to offer a similar lifetime as the 13-inch laptop. It’s a multi-cell unit that facilitates fast charging.

As reported, the space not used is filled with two extra speakers. Aside from those features, the MacBook Air 15’s internal construction is eerily identical to that of the MacBook Air 13. It genuinely is ‘same again but bigger’.

One decision is a poor choice, though; the MacBook Air is packed full of adhesive tape and tightly packed components that will make repairs incredibly difficult. Malcolm Own picks up the story : MORE FOR YOU Ranking Netflix s Black Mirror Season 6 Episodes From Worst To Best Ukraine Shows The Fight To Make The Bradley IFV Safer Was Worth It Billionaire Andrew Tan’s Megaworld To Invest $6. 3 Billion On Philippine Townships, Hotels In Next Five Years “Disassembly is a “miserable” experience, with the components assembled and overlapping each other in a “maze” that makes battery removal and taking out the logic board a tough challenge.

That logic board also has “pretty much the same stuff” as the 13-inch version. “As part of the teardown, Apple’s continued reliance of adhesive strips to hold the battery in place is thought to be unnecessary, given the sheer amount of components that must be removed beforehand that also holds the cells in place. ” CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 05: Attendees watch a video presentation during the Apple Worldwide .

. . [+] Developers Conference at its headquarters on June 05, 2023 in Cupertino, California.

Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC23 developer conference. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Getty Images Update: Monday June 19th: With the latest MacBook Air confirming the platform is at a standstill for another 12 months, what does Apple have planned for the next MacBook? Given various features stretch across Apple’s platforms, the addition of FaceID to the desk-bound computers would be universally loved. Which is something Apple has now confirmed it is working on.

Details have been found in a recently updated patent. Jack Purcher reports on the latest new feature : “Last Week the U. S.

Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent relating to Touch ID for Macs and other devices… While the new claims cover user authentication to access a Mac, the claims also notes that facial recognition (Face ID) would be used to access a user’s email. The validation would also work with user’s with one or two eyes (so Cyclops can use it too!). ” As always, a patent is not a guarantee of technology reaching the public, but FaceID is already a key feature on mobile devices.

It’s time to see it on the Mac. It might not be on the current model, but Apple is working on bringing it to the platform as soon as possible. People are seen next to an Apple store in the Huangpu district in Shanghai on June 15, 2023.

(Photo . . .

[+] by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images One of the criticisms of the 15-inch MacBook Air is that it’s behind the times and should have been released last year. The laptop’s specs (beyond the 15-inch screen) match that of the 13-inch MacBook Air launched at WWDC 2022 with the M2 chipset. If Apple had launched the 13-inch and 15-inch Airs simultaneously, there would have been significant synergy.

Instead, the industry had to wait a year for a bigger laptop. The increased internal volume allows for two more speakers, but everything else feels like a laptop from 2022. Even with Apple’s aggressive pricing, buying into the macOS laptop ecosystem is a big investment.

Is that one where you want to be buying old goods? Matching the 13-inch MacBook Air specs means that the issues present in the smaller laptop have been carried over. That means the memory read/write speeds have been halved compared to the M1-powered laptops launched in 2020. Putting aside revolutionary, where’s the evolutionary large MacBook Air? That’s not arriving until next year.

Apple’s upcoming M3 chipset family will offer more performance with better battery life and will be the heart of all consumer-focused MacBook Air laptops. In the meantime, the current 15-inch M2 MacBook Air feels like a placeholder, a laptop that is a ‘new’ released to keep interest and momentum high. Last year’s laptop will carry that disguise until the true next-generation MacBooks arrive.

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