¶ My Dream MacBook Air

The MacBook Air has a decade long history of being the forerunner of design in Apple’s portable line. The original MacBook Air set the stage for unibody construction, and the 2010 refresh made the MacBook Air the de facto portable computer for the rest of the industry by perfecting the unibody design, lowering costs, and expanding the utility of the device in its power and ports.

As a longtime MacBook Air user, I was so excited when that computer was refreshed in 2018 and brought up to modern standards — chiefly a Retina display. But my excitement was dashed by the inclusion of the butterfly keyboard. I just didn’t trust the keyboard’s longevity after 3 years of maligned reports regarding its reliability. Thus, I continue to use my 2012 MacBook Air, hoping the Magic Keyboard released with last week’s MacBook Pro 16-inch comes to the rest of Apple’s portables soon.

All it would take to get me on board with a new MacBook Air is the new Magic Keyboard. However, I can’t help but consider how the MacBook Air could be the forerunner of Apple’s portable strategy for the next decade.

My dream MacBook Air would largely take cues from the iPad Pro. Touch ID, while lovely, would be replaced by Face ID and a better FaceTime camera. Face ID has proven itself on the iPhone and iPad Pro, and should begin making its way to the Mac. (If not Apple’s portables, then surely the iMac should receive Face ID, as it doesn’t even have Touch ID!)

The next-gen MacBook Air should also adopt Apple’s in-house ARM-based chip designs. I’m not convinced it should be the same A-series chips found in iOS devices, so maybe a different alphanumeric combination, since Apple could probably pack a lot more punch in something the size of a MacBook. Apple used to tout an M-series coprocessor with its A-series chips, but hasn’t done so in years. M would be the perfect moniker for a chip destined for the Mac.

Finally, four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports should be the standard, since we’ll all reside in Dongletown for the foreseeable future. The argument could then be made that the Pro line should have 6 ports, which I don’t think anyone would complain about.

The laptop form factor has generally reached perfection, and did so a long time ago. We already have gorgeous screens and superb industrial design. The next decade of Mac portables should embrace the Magic Keyboard across the entire product line, adopt Face ID as the authentication standard, unleash the power and battery life that Apple’s ARM-based chips have become renowned for, and increase the amount of ports to connect to.

These advancements would position MacBooks — Air and Pro — as the must-have computers for the next decade.