- A new rumor suggests the OLED MacBook Air has been delayed until 2029
- OLED tech could push the price up, so a delay isn’t the worst news
- By 2029, OLED could be much more affordable
Apple’s MacBook Air packs in a surprising amount of quality considering it’s the company’s most affordable laptop, with a blazing-fast chip and superb build quality making it feel far more premium than it should. Yet it’s always lacked a truly flagship feature – an OLED display – and a new rumor suggests that we’ll now be waiting until 2029 to see that tech make its debut in Apple’s laptop.
That’s according to leaker Jukanlosreve on X, who cites Korean outlet The Elec to claim that the apparently poor sales performance of the OLED iPad Pro has led Apple to push back the OLED MacBook Air’s release date. It’s not the first time we’ve heard of a delay to the OLED MacBook Air, and it might sound strange to hear it, but I’m actually glad that there’s more evidence it’s been postponed.
That’s not because I’m some partisan OLED hater – no, I would love to see an OLED panel one day grace the MacBook Air. But I’m concerned that adding OLED would compromise the MacBook Air’s best feature: its price.
OLED is a costly addition to any computer, and there’s no doubt that bringing it to the MacBook Air would push up its price. Right now, you can buy an M2 MacBook Air for under $1,000 / £1,000, with the speedy M3 model costing just $100 / £100 more. How long would we be able to continue saying that if OLED was part of the equation?
Still the best Apple laptop for most people
After all, the MacBook Air is not a laptop designed for Apple’s most demanding users – that’s a role fulfilled by the MacBook Pro. Instead, the MacBook Air is for everyone else, and its combination of fair price and a sprinkling of quality features means that in most cases, it’s the best Apple laptop for most people.
I’d be willing to bet that the majority of Apple’s MacBook Air customers care a lot more about the price than they do about their laptop’s display tech. After all, they’re not demanding pros who need the best of the best – they just want a solid laptop that performs well enough for their needs and lasts them years. The MacBook Air fulfils that role superbly right now. Would it be able to if it got a high-end upgrade that its users don’t need and a price rise that they definitely don’t want?
Ultimately, the report from The Elec doesn’t say that Apple will never bring OLED to the MacBook Air, just that it’s been delayed until 2029. By that point, OLED costs might have fallen enough that the price impact will be minimal, in which case we could have our cake and eat it, too.
That would be a great time to introduce OLED to the MacBook Air. Right now, though, keeping the price low is probably what most MacBook Air fans care more about.
