What do you think pricing will be like on the Macbook Air 15" model?

I'm looking for a machine for my 70yr old mom, and mostly just need the bigger screen and storage for her photos.

I'm likely to look for a 15", 16gb, 1TB model, but Apple is just brutal on the pricing for this now. I could consider going with a 512gb SSD and using external storage but that is kind of a pain. Not really considering 8gb ram. No need for the 10 core gpu but not sure what the M3 will bring and how many cores it will have.

Current 13" M2 air pricing:

- 13" air w/ 16gb/1tb (standard pricing): $1799 / (edu pricing): $1659
- 14" pro 10-core/16gb/1tb (standard pricing): $2199 / (edu pricing): $2029

Going from the 14"->16" screen size adds $200 with the pro displays and also gets better speakers & cooling. Really for a non-mini-LED screen I would hope that it's more like $100 to bump up screen size, but Apple might bump this even more.

My guess:
- 15" air 16gb/1tb: $1899 or $1999 standard pricing. The problem with $1999 is that it's awfully close to the 14" pro pricing.

Probably start at $1,599 for the base 8/512 model since it is expected to serve as an intermediate between the Air and Pro terms of performance and size.

ls1dreams said:

What do you think pricing will be like on the Macbook Air 15" model?

I'm looking for a machine for my 70yr old mom, and mostly just need the bigger screen and storage for her photos.

I'm likely to look for a 15", 16gb, 1TB model, but Apple is just brutal on the pricing for this now. I could consider going with a 512gb SSD and using external storage but that is kind of a pain. Not really considering 8gb ram. No need for the 10 core gpu but not sure what the M3 will bring and how many cores it will have.

Current 13" M2 air pricing:

- 13" air w/ 16gb/1tb (standard pricing): $1799 / (edu pricing): $1659
- 14" pro 10-core/16gb/1tb (standard pricing): $2199 / (edu pricing): $2029

Going from the 14"->16" screen size adds $200 with the pro displays and also gets better speakers & cooling. Really for a non-mini-LED screen I would hope that it's more like $100 to bump up screen size, but Apple might bump this even more.

My guess:
- 15" air 16gb/1tb: $1899 or $1999 standard pricing. The problem with $1999 is that it's awfully close to the 14" pro pricing.

Click to expand...

There is no 15" Air... If they did that I don't think it would be called Air...

xboxbml said:

There is no 15" Air... If they did that I don't think it would be called Air...

Whatever they call the new 15" non-pro model

xboxbml said:

There is no 15" Air... If they did that I don't think it would be called Air...

the rumors suggest there will be one soon. but this is apple; we won't really know until we get there.

the base M2 air is $1199; i wouldn't be surprised to see a 15" air starting at $1499. but again, all guesses until it's real...

Right now there are 2 pressure's on Apple. Inflation and Recession.

On the one hand it is costing them more to manufacture and on the other sales are down 40% this year. So bad that they stopped production of M2 chips.

So Apple will want to maximize profit and price as high as possible but they also want to sell.

Since this is sort of an untapped market I bet they are expecting high sales numbers but I think what they might not be factoring in is that many people bought M1 MBP during the Pandemic and year or so afterwards and those people who would have bought an air 15" if it would have been available most likely got a 14" or 16" base model M1 MBP.

So it is tricky

I would imagine pricing from $1399 to $1599 for the base model M3 MBA 15" and the 13" to hold on current prices.

At least a $200 to $300 bump from current air 13" pricing.

But it is anyone's guess if and when they release a 15" and how much they will charge.

The M1 Air can stay on the menu as an inflation/recession product. Apple can even drop the price of the M2 Air if they really need to. But this 15-inch product will probably be priced relatively high.

I'd put the base model (mostly likely 8c/8GB/256) at $1499, same price as the 13" MBA with the 10 core GPU and 512GB. Makes sense that the higher tier 13" would be equal to the base 15". They've done that before.

I doubt that a Pro chip would make an appearance, given that it is an Air.

The 15" 10 core GPU, 8GB, 512GB model would probably be at $1799, with a 16GB 10 core config costing $1999.

The entire attraction of MBA is portability...15" MBA is probably just meant to sit
on a desk like MBP 16"...for those who don't need the firepower of the latter.

Technerd108 said:

On the one hand it is costing them more to manufacture and on the other sales are down 40% this year. So bad that they stopped production of M2 chips.

The desperation in apple stores is now palpable...sales people are asking questions like:
"what's holding you back?" LOL

Errr...nothing, except that the world economy is riddled with uncertainty, almost certainly headed to
edge of the precipice... and it's a long way down. Apart from that, all good. 😅

fisherking said:

the rumors suggest there will be one soon. but this is apple; we won't really know until we get there.

the base M2 air is $1199; i wouldn't be surprised to see a 15" air starting at $1499. but again, all guesses until it's real...

Oh... I hadn't seen that.. I haven't been paying attention much in a while.. busy fam life lately.. That would be interesting...with the way the M2 is, no longer wedge shape, can't imagine they'd call it air...but who knows.. Like you said, it's apple..

I hope this is called simply the 15" MacBook. Period. No Air. No Pro. Just MacBook. Apple needs to rethink their naming strategy, it's confusing and counterintuitive. The "Air" can now be physically larger than a "Pro" and the "Air" is arguably the only one without air (fan) cooling. It makes no sense! Previously the 12" MacBook was even smaller & lighter than the Air. It made no sense!

Call the upcoming 15" the just-plain MacBook at $1500, make the Air smaller at 13" for $1200, and make the Pro's 14" & 16" starting at $2000 based on their better ingredients. Easy peasy nomenclature & pricing structure.

eRondeau said:

I hope this is called simply the 15" MacBook. Period. No Air. No Pro. Just MacBook. Apple needs to rethink their naming strategy, it's confusing and counterintuitive. The "Air" can now be physically larger than a "Pro" and the "Air" is arguably the only one without air (fan) cooling. It makes no sense! Previously the 12" MacBook was even smaller & lighter than the Air. It made no sense!

Call the upcoming 15" the just-plain MacBook at $1500, make the Air smaller at 13" for $1200, and make the Pro's 14" & 16" starting at $2000 based on their better ingredients. Easy peasy nomenclature & pricing structure.

i don't get it; if, design-wise and spec-wise, it's similar to the current air, why can't it simply be an air, albeit with a larger screen? anyway, whatever apple decides is what happens. and am sure they have reasons to do what they do (whether we like it or not).

personally, i think a 15" air is a good idea.. just not for me. am still hoping for a silicon 12" macbook... whatever that might be called 👍

ls1dreams said:

What do you think pricing will be like on the Macbook Air 15" model?

I'm looking for a machine for my 70yr old mom, and mostly just need the bigger screen and storage for her photos.

I'm likely to look for a 15", 16gb, 1TB model, but Apple is just brutal on the pricing for this now. I could consider going with a 512gb SSD and using external storage but that is kind of a pain. Not really considering 8gb ram. No need for the 10 core gpu but not sure what the M3 will bring and how many cores it will have.

Current 13" M2 air pricing:

- 13" air w/ 16gb/1tb (standard pricing): $1799 / (edu pricing): $1659
- 14" pro 10-core/16gb/1tb (standard pricing): $2199 / (edu pricing): $2029

Going from the 14"->16" screen size adds $200 with the pro displays and also gets better speakers & cooling. Really for a non-mini-LED screen I would hope that it's more like $100 to bump up screen size, but Apple might bump this even more.

My guess:
- 15" air 16gb/1tb: $1899 or $1999 standard pricing. The problem with $1999 is that it's awfully close to the 14" pro pricing.

Click to expand...

It sounds like you’re doing with most people do when they look at the price of a Mac. They look at the base price which is a great deal, but then feel they must have all these upgrades. Then it becomes not such a good deal.

There’s a point where a highly upgraded lower model becomes just as expensive or more expensive than the base higher end model.

I can see more storage but why is 16 GB of RAM? You just added $200 but is it really needed? I don’t know what your mom does with her laptop but my mom watches YouTube videos and looks at pictures so I bought her the base model M1 MacBook Air.

If the photos are something she’s using or looking at all the time, then sure, but if it’s just archive storage of stuff, she doesn’t want to lose then external drive would be the way to go.

I’m just thinking of ways you can save money because that’s how people end up spending so much money on Apple computers.

Also, comparing the 14” Pro to the 15” Air will be different because the Pro will have a smaller screen, but it might be heavier. This is highly speculative of course, because there is no larger Air yet. I know a lot of people like to compare the current MacBook Air to the 14” MacBook Pro especially when you do those upgrades the price is very close, but the Pro feels so much heavier. This is only important if you’re using it as a laptop rather than just it sitting on a desk.

If you look back when Apple had a consumer notebook with a display over 13 inches, the 14 inch iBook, the price difference was about $600. I would guess that the 15 inch Air would be around the $1799 price point. That would also give Apple two options, they could use the 14 inch Pro as a ladder from the Air or they can just increase the price of the 14 inch Pro when it gets its next update.

russell_314 said:

It sounds like you’re doing with most people do when they look at the price of a Mac. They look at the base price which is a great deal, but then feel they must have all these upgrades. Then it becomes not such a good deal.

There’s a point where a highly upgraded lower model becomes just as expensive or more expensive than the base higher end model.

I can see more storage but why is 16 GB of RAM? You just added $200 but is it really needed? I don’t know what your mom does with her laptop but my mom watches YouTube videos and looks at pictures so I bought her the base model M1 MacBook Air.

If the photos are something she’s using or looking at all the time, then sure, but if it’s just archive storage of stuff, she doesn’t want to lose then external drive would be the way to go.

I’m just thinking of ways you can save money because that’s how people end up spending so much money on Apple computers.

Also, comparing the 14” Pro to the 15” Air will be different because the Pro will have a smaller screen, but it might be heavier. This is highly speculative of course, because there is no larger Air yet. I know a lot of people like to compare the current MacBook Air to the 14” MacBook Pro especially when you do those upgrades the price is very close, but the Pro feels so much heavier. This is only important if you’re using it as a laptop rather than just it sitting on a desk.

Click to expand...

I just don't trust 8gb of ram:

1. My laptop in 2011 had 8gb of ram. We're 12 years past that now. Who knows what new software pops up where it might be needed. On a $1600 machine I'm spending that $200 all day long.
2. Likely more SSD wear with less RAM. The original M1''s had issues with SSD's writing tons of data as well with macOS which made things even worse. Less concerned about that now though.

Storage I do think I could cut down. I just find it frustrating to come up with a good solution for backing up an iPhone regularly but not exceeding storage. Her iPhone alone has 256gb of storage, and she probably has 100gb+ of old photos. Don't really want to spend $10/mo to icloud for 2tb of storage - not to mention it's not a true backup solution.

I've been thinking about just using photosync app + a b2 backup of some sort but it's kind of complicated.

Re: 8GB on "Base" M1/M2 machines...

For the vast majority of buyers 8GB is adequate for their needs, so it's reasonable to include 8GB on the "Base" machines. I have an M1 Mac Mini with 8GB/256GB and it's happily handled everything I've thrown at it. Sure some people have more demanding workflows that require more RAM (or just want more regardless) and that's perfectly fine. (I'm typing this on a Late-2012 iMac with 16GB RAM that's 68% used.) But for "apples-to-apples" price comparisons 8GB/256GB still seems to be the magic number -- at least for entry-level Macs.

Obviously its anyone's guess but do people think it is likely that an M3 13" MacBook Air is announced at WWDC in June? I find it somewhat hard to believe Apple will already release a new chip in the MacBook Air in less than a year.

eRondeau said:

Re: 8GB on "Base" M1/M2 machines...

For the vast majority of buyers 8GB is adequate for their needs, so it's reasonable to include 8GB on the "Base" machines. I have an M1 Mac Mini with 8GB/256GB and it's happily handled everything I've thrown at it. Sure some people have more demanding workflows that require more RAM (or just want more regardless) and that's perfectly fine. (I'm typing this on a Late-2012 iMac with 16GB RAM that's 68% used.) But for "apples-to-apples" price comparisons 8GB/256GB still seems to be the magic number -- at least for entry-level Macs.

what...have you thrown at it. ventura alone takes 1-2gb of ram. 5-6 tabs on safari is already 2-3gb.

ls1dreams said:

I just don't trust 8gb of ram:

What don't you trust? I think people have some sort of emotional attachment to their computers but it's just a machine. You don't need to trust it. If your mom does with a computer, the same things as my mom does, 8 GB of RAM is more than enough. Maybe she doesn't do the same things though. If she wants to use Chrome and has 50 chrome tabs open then perhaps she needs more. Everyone is different, but it shouldn't be an emotional decision based on something you need, but rather what the person using the computer needs.

ls1dreams said:

1. My laptop in 2011 had 8gb of ram. We're 12 years past that now. Who knows what new software pops up where it might be needed. On a $1600 machine I'm spending that $200 all day long.

Just because your computer from 2011 had X amount of RAM does it mean that's not good for today for someone else? You can buy a Mac today with 64 GB of RAM but that doesn't mean in 2035 that's not going to be enough for web browsing. Maybe it won't but who knows but I don't think that's a good method to decide the amount needed. I'm not saying don't get it, if you need it but you have to realize upgrades can turn a $1600 machine into a $2000 machine without even trying. I'm guilty of it myself so I know where you're coming from because it doesn't hurt if you have 32 GB of RAM and need 8 GB but it's not good the other way around. The only downside is your wallet.

ls1dreams said:

2. Likely more SSD wear with less RAM. The original M1''s had issues with SSD's writing tons of data as well with macOS which made things even worse. Less concerned about that now though.

I think that was blown out of proportion for clicks on websites. Unfortunately, with today's computers, you need to realize they might not be working 10 years from now, so when you buy them realize that. They're not what were used to have for you can pull out the motherboard and solder on capacitors or change out the ram sticks. Some parts are replaceable, but when the main computer dies it goes to recycling heaven 🤣

I mean, if we're thinking practical, 10 years old means an unsupported operating system that can't safely access the web and hardware that can't run many modern programs so other than nostalgia it's not usable for most people.

ls1dreams said:

Storage I do think I could cut down. I just find it frustrating to come up with a good solution for backing up an iPhone regularly but not exceeding storage. Her iPhone alone has 256gb of storage, and she probably has 100gb+ of old photos. Don't really want to spend $10/mo to icloud for 2tb of storage - not to mention it's not a true backup solution.

I've been thinking about just using photosync app + a b2 backup of some sort but it's kind of complicated.

I would strongly advise on spending the money for iCloud as a back up. I agree it's not a true back up but if she drops her iPhone in the gutter and that's the only device with her photos on it, it's something.

My first thought would be to archive the really old pictures on an external drive and another drive just to have them in two different places, then remove them from photos to save space. Of course, if she wants all her photos in one place, then this is not going to work.

I'm not familiar with this photo sync app, but it needs to be something that's automatic. Backups usually don't happen if they're manual because people just forget to do them until they realize they need it and don't have it. Even if you keep the iCloud setup, you might want to consider at least manually backing the photos on an external drive just in case. This way if there accidentally deleted she doesn't lose years of family photos. I've lost photos from a vacation because I thought they were on iCloud and they're gone. I didn't delete them but somehow they didn't make it to iCloud.

8gb these days is for kids and oldies /theend

Surfsalot said:

8gb these days is for kids and oldies /theend

Well since the OP is looking for a computer for his 70 year old mom, I guess she falls under "oldies" as you put it.

I don't understand how people make hardware specs a status symbol. I would love to say it's an Apple thing, but no people in the PC world are the same. I don't know how many times people have said if you're gaming PC doesn't have 32 GB of RAM it's 💩.

Surfsalot said:

16gb should be base

my 8gb M2 air is killing it. i run safari (maybe 10-12 tabs open), mail, caiendar, notes, pages... etc. then i might also open affinity photo, or rapidweaver, etc. and (so far) no bumps in the road, no 'out of memory' warnings. no crashes, freezes...

everything depends on what you do with your mac. i live on mine. i do my 'heavy lifting' (ie logic pro & final cut) on my other mac. but my day happens on my air... & 8gb ram... and all is well 👍

ls1dreams said:

What do you think pricing will be like on the Macbook Air 15" model?

Guess / hope = $1599

ls1dreams said:

I'm looking for a machine for my 70yr old mom, and mostly just need the bigger screen and storage for her photos.

I'm likely to look for a 15", 16gb, 1TB model,

How about the 512 or even 256 and storing photos in the cloud. One spilled cup of coffee away from losing a thousand photos is a horrible thought. One emergency evacuation due to flood or tornado and losing a thousand photos is equally frightening. How about a MacMini ($599US) and a 27" 4k ProArt monitor (~$450).

I really can't see a market for this if it's more than a +$200 modifier over the 13.6" spec for spec. While Apple likes to make the next model up appealing, they're just going to cannibalise the sales of both this machine and the 14" if the pricing overlap is too great, rather than encouraging those looking at the M1/M2 machines to maybe pay a bit more for the larger display which would be optimal if they want to actually sell units and maybe bump the Mac line's ASP up a little.