Apple’s VP of hardware engineering Kate Bergeron and marketing employee Laura Metz recently discussed the design of the Cupertino firm’s new 15-inch MacBook Air with Tom’s Guide‘s Mark Spoonauer.
Bergeron discussed how Apple decided on offering a 15-inch MacBook Air:
The Air is known for having this amazing feature set and awesome combination of performance and portability. It’s not just about being thin and light but also having amazing battery life so that you can use the device wherever you want to go throughout the day. And as we look at the market landscape, we’ve got a huge population of PC laptops that have 15-inch displays. And so we know that we’ve got users who don’t necessarily need the performance of a MacBook Pro to get that larger display. They just don’t necessarily need all that capability and performance, and so with Apple silicon it was a great opportunity to look at this.
Bergeron also talked about how Apple picked a 15.3-inch size for the new MacBook Air’s display:
We worked very closely with the folks on our display team to understand how we can optimize the number of panels we can fit on a large set of the motherboard glass. And so, we knew we wanted to be in the 15-inch range, but we got the opportunity to push all the way out 15.3 inches because we could cut the other glass to that size. So, it’s nice that we could hit this sweet spot and even go just a tad bigger, which our customers will really appreciate.
When asked if Apple considered adding an additional USB-C port or SD card slot to the 15-inch MacBook Air, Metz said Apple believes the existing port selection is “very complimentary to the thin and light design of the product.”
The interview, while not offering any great reveals, is a worthwhile read for those interested in how Apple designed the 15-inch MacBook Air.
