MacBook Air Could Benefit The Most From This iPhone 17 Pro Feature
Apple redesigned the iPhone 17 Pro models from the inside out. With pretty much all the horsepower now reengineered around the camera plateau, the company added a vapor chamber cooling system to prevent these devices from overheating, as used to happen with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models.
With Apple getting positive feedback from this feature, which is more efficient than having a fan-based cooling system, the company is now exploring expanding the vapor chamber to the iPad. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, in his Power On newsletter, the next-generation iPad Pro could benefit from this technology.
Still, this might not be the only product that could take advantage of the vapor chamber. The journalist also suggests that if this technology is successful on the iPad, the fan-less MacBook Air could also get the same technology in the future. That said, it could make the MacBook Air even more powerful, while avoiding the thermal throttling we've been seeing with the M5 MacBook Pro.
Apple should add a vapor chamber cooling system to the MacBook Air
In the fifth generation of Apple Silicon, the current MacBook design has started to show its age. In an in-depth comparison between the M4 MacBook Pro and the new M5 MacBook Pro, a YouTuber showed that the M5 chip could throttle and get warmer than the last generation when performing some tasks.
That said, Apple's single fan cooling system on the base-model MacBook Pro is not as efficient as it used to be a few generations ago. Since the MacBook Air shares the same chip as the base model MacBook Pro, it's only natural to assume that Apple will have to limit the actual power of its next-generation chips or users will have warmer machines that could throttle more easily.
To continue leveraging Apple Silicon's horsepower, the best solution could be adding a vapor chamber to the fan-less MacBook Air, ensuring it still runs silently but as efficiently as ever.
A redesigned MacBook Air could get this vapor chamber
With the iPad Pro expected to get the vapor chamber cooling feature by 2027, as Apple is focusing on an 18-month cycle for this product, and the MacBook Pro is Apple's next redesign priority, it's possible that we'll only see this technology on the MacBook Air by 2028. So far, rumors point to Apple redesigning the MacBook Air a few years after the MacBook Pro. With that, users will continue to have the current design for at least three years, and then Apple is expected to add an OLED display to this computer, among other perks.
With rumors pointing to touchscreen technology, 5G compatibility, and more to the MacBook Pro, it would be natural that some of these features eventually expand to the MacBook Air. However, it would be more interesting to see Apple adding the vapor chamber to this fan-less laptop, making it more power-efficient and reliable as ever. BGR will keep an eye on future reports of where Apple wants to take the MacBook Air, and we'll let you know once we hear more.