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Alleged photos of 12-inch MacBook Air lid and display appear online

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Photos of what is claimed to be the lid and display for the upcoming 12-inch MacBook Air have been published by iFanr9to5Mac exclusively reported earlier this month that Apple was planning to launch a mid-size variant of its notebook computer lineup, and these photos seem to provide even further evidence of that being that the case.

The legitimacy of the photos has not been determined, but you can see several additional photos below, including shots comparing it to current Apple devices such as the iPad and existing MacBooks.

The display is said to boast a Retina resolution, though the exact pixel count is still a mystery. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of the bottom case for this machine just yet, so the rumored single-port configuration will remain just that for the time being.

One possible clue that these photos aren’t real lies in the Apple logo on the back of the lid. The new computer forgoes the traditional light-up logo in favor of something closer to the polished metal logo found on the iPad.

Of course, this may actually end up being Apple’s real design direction, allowing the laptop’s design to fit better with Apple’s other devices and possibly accomodating a thinner design. A report from late last year indicated that Apple would be taking a new direction with the logo in 2015, so this could be related to that.

At any rate, you can view a gallery of the photos from iFanr below.

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Comments

  1. Could it be that the removal of the logo’s backlighting was done in an effort to further thin out the case? Seems like the most logical possibility to me.

    • Mosha - 9 years ago

      Except when you realise that the logo doesn’t have it’s own dedicated backlighting. It comes from the display blacklight itself.

    • Maxim Pecionchin - 9 years ago

      In fact, on current Apple laptops logos do not have individual backlighting, they are lit by the screen’s backlighting. So trying to make the screen thinner is not the case.

  2. 311sie - 9 years ago

    i call bs!

    • You know how many times people call BS on parts leaks and it ended up the leaks were legit? Lots!

      • Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

        I’m going to call this BS too, so take that!

    • darwiniandude - 9 years ago

      I’d bet my breakfast (which I am quite looking forward to) this is real.

      Why? The cables exit at the centre of the display. All current MacBook display cables exit either side by the hinges, as with PC laptops. This is a weak spot. Having seen the innards of many Apple devices this is the sort of internal design improvement they would do.

  3. rogifan - 9 years ago

    But I thought your mockup had silver bezels similar to the current MBA.

    • ruinelsoncarneiro - 9 years ago

      there can only be one!

      Of corse is the version with 1 USB Type-C port, because Apple is stupid like that, and wants people to not to buy their laptops, by deleting all the ports for no reason at all…

      • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

        You say for no reason, but one port does bring down costs if they wanted the price to be lower and afford Apple more internal space for the battery on this thin device. Design is about tradeoffs. If it ships with one more it’ll likely be because Apple prioritised display, thinness and battery life over everything else. And the good news is they will still sell all the existing portables so you’ll still have options.

  4. ruinelsoncarneiro - 9 years ago

    Make up your mind, 9to5!

    You showed us a version with back-lit Apple logo, and silver bezels.

    We want that MacBook Air in the market.

    Can’t be two.

  5. aglovelace42 - 9 years ago

    Nice bmw

  6. If I’m Apple, I’m figuring out what model of car that is and then looking in the registered cars database to see which employees drive it. They could probably pinpoint the person within a couple hours, especially given the wrist and hand in one of the photos.

    • johnwjr24 - 9 years ago

      The photos were taken in a BMW 5 Seridee.

    • Zane Liu (@zaneliu94) - 9 years ago

      Well, judging by the shifter it’s a BMW and judging by the shape of the dash it is one of the X model SUVs. After that it’s pretty difficult to estimate which. If I had to guess I would say X3 but that’s not certain.

    • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

      Not if it’s a friend of an employees car.

    • patthecarnut - 9 years ago

      BMW in a cold climate. (Seat heaters are on)

    • patthecarnut - 9 years ago

      “especially given the wrist and hand in one of the photos”
      and let’s overlook those pretty nails he has….eeew….nail clippers much?

    • Ethan John Crispo - 9 years ago

      It’s a 2008 BMW 535 or 550i.
      2008 was the first year for the electronic shifter, 2009 has a different Nav screen, and that leather choice is not available on 528i models.

  7. Rab Gábor - 9 years ago

    I don’t know if anybody noticed it, but the bottom part of the display is black plastic in the current MacBooks but here it’s aluminum, it looks far better then the current one. This is a major proof for me that this is a real thing.

  8. Andy Brooks - 9 years ago

    it would suck if they ditch the glowing Apple logo.. That was one of the stand out things that made me fall in love with the Mac.

    • ruinelsoncarneiro - 9 years ago

      The Glowing Apple logo only made sense with CCFL, not with LED displays.

      • AnxiousChild - 9 years ago

        So you are okay with Apple ditching the glowing logo. It doesn’t bother you at all…, at all ?

      • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

        Huh? The current rMBP has LED displays and glowing Apple logo. If they get rid of it it may be several reasons like marketing (different and new) and adding an additional antenna behind the logo for increased wireless reception over a glowing logo. Perhaps Ive feels the glowing Apple logo look is becoming cheesy and dated and wishes to blur the lines between iPad and MacBook Air.

    • You fell in love with a computer because of a f***g logo?

      • rettun1 - 9 years ago

        “That was *one of* the stand out things that made me fall in love with the Mac.”

  9. chasinvictoria - 9 years ago

    I have no idea how legit these pictures are, but there is definitely something fishy here. Look how THICK that display part is compared to a MacBook Air, and then compare the MacBook Air (any model) to the display on any MacBook Air. The MBA is all about the thin and light, so why is this display so thick?

  10. Matīss (@matseglv) - 9 years ago

    What if I want a Mac that’s bigger than 12 inches? And what If I don’t do any 3D modeling or heavy video editing and Macbook Pro would be an overkill. Why not just release 12 and 14 inch Macbook Air and not just 12?

    • quan7ics - 9 years ago

      Then the lower-spec 13″ (or even 15″) Macbook Pro should be your first choice.

      Those don’t have dedicated graphics chip so there’s no way you will be able to to heavy video editing on them. So they wouldn’t be overkill as you say.

      The main reason Apple is changing the Air to 12″ is so that it doesn’t overlap with the Pro line. At the moment the Air and the 13″ MBP are definitely competing against each other.

    • devanealex - 9 years ago

      Because the market for a 14inch MacBook Air is probably not very big and would cannibalise sales of the MacBook Pro (which has higher margins).

      • I’m willing to bet there is a market for a 14″ rMBA and Apple has gone on record many time stating that they are not concerned about cannibalization as long as it’s their own products doing the cannibalizing.

    • AnxiousChild - 9 years ago

      We just don’t get all the possible sizes all at once… never ever … woohoo :)

    • irelandjnr - 9 years ago

      The 14″ may come later in the year around the time the Pros get renewed, thinned-out further and get a price reduction. The rMBP will get more Air like in the future.

  11. This is the iPad 12″. Look at the depth of the display, look at the sound exits on the back. They changed the position for the Home Button and the sound exits (look at the pixelated parts of the back) for the new iPad 12″

  12. AnxiousChild - 9 years ago

    Ah, so some Chinese lad stole a brand new macbook from the factory ………. ah!! bad for him :D :D he’d better run !

  13. AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

    Please be real, I want the aluminum bezel to finally die.

  14. Oflife - 9 years ago

    The keyboards on modern ultrabooks are terrible, so this will be even worse. I was in a computer repair shop here in the UK yesterday and they had an old Dell Windows laptop on display. The keyboard was outstanding. Full throw keys that you could actually type on quickly and without any typos or finger strain.

    Yes, it was thicker, but so what? Weight is what counts. A laptop can be made light even if it’s thicker to provide a proper typing experience. It is time Apple stopped putting technology ahead of ergonomics and user experience.

    If this new MBA has a keyboard even thinner than the current Air, it’s going to be horrible.

    My backup laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro 13.3, who make the best keyboards today, but even that has chiclet keys so no match for the older laptops or desktop keyboards. My main machine is a MB Pro Retina 15, and the keyboard is similar to the Air, so painful after typing a bit. I have to use an external keyboard when at my desk. Silly really! Old MB Pro keyboard was nicer because it was deeper.

    Anyone else share my sentiment?

    • Karnashuk (@Karnashuk) - 9 years ago

      Honestly I never had any concerns regarding Apple keyboards on any device. Maybe in my imagination everything what Apple does is perfect and smooth (fanboi?). At the moment I use a standard Wireless Apple Keyboard and I enjoy typing on it. I myself would wish to have a bigger screen MacBook Air with a very light design. It may never happen, that is why I am hoping that this new upcoming 12″ macbook will be the thing that meets my needs. I never owned a laptop and I’d really love to have one. I just hope there will be more ports (thunderbolt – at least one) than just one usb type C. I hate the current chargers for macbooks, they’re big, not handy and faulty. Maybe finally they will change them. I agree with Mr Andy Brooks about the glowing logo – i love it! As usual I am sure that APPLE will suprise us once again.

    • MacBooks have the best keyboard that is on the market for years. I have been writing on many keyboards but none of them was as good as this one.

      • Oflife - 9 years ago

        Which macbook? The old ones or latest?

      • Hildegerd Haugen - 9 years ago

        The Whitebook has an outstanding keyboard.

  15. thisisasticup - 9 years ago

    No showing of the ports? or port? Worthless “leak”.

  16. When is this supposed to come out? Will they still be selling older macbook air’s at a lower price?

    • rettun1 - 9 years ago

      Hard to say, but when the redesigned retina MacBook Pro came out, they continued selling the older nonretina models. Pricing is another mystery, tho

  17. Long finger nails… IT’S REAL!!

  18. leonintheblind - 9 years ago

    Just a thought…what if the lack of backlighting is because they are going to have this work as both the MacBook Air and the iPad Pro. So when connected it’s an Air running OSX and when you disconnect it it runs IOS as the iPad pro. What if the 2 rumours are in fact about the same device?

    Apple mainly talk about the compromised experience when it comes to the software. We are all used to both OS’s and know they function differently. Just a thought…

  19. I totally know that an Apple IP address has visited this page ;P