In 2008, Steve Jobs presented the “world’s thinnest laptop” while still loaded. After comparing her creation with other “chubby” models and showing the profile of her design, she showed: Removed MacBook Air from mailing envelope and left us all speechless.

This first iteration was expensive and limited in features, but it was its wedge-shaped design that made its mark before and after. The back part of the device, closest to the screen, was thicker than the last part where we rest our hands to type or operate the trackpad.

There was a laptop inside. This was something unthinkable for that period.

Sixteen years later Apple killed this design. The 2021 MacBook Air M1 was the last model to retain the wedge format characteristic of these devices, but Apple discontinued them after the launch of the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air M3.

Things started to change with the 2022 MacBook Air M2, which appeared with a design for the first time and abandoned the wedge format. Instead, Apple has opted for lines that are almost identical to those of the MacBook Pro, with a completely uniform profile and much thinner than its bigger brothers.

With the 2022 MacBook Air M2, the wedge format is gone. Source: fcracer.com

These models not only eliminated the recognizable wedge, but also introduced the iPhone’s notch or ‘notch’ before the new dynamic island, and they did so artificially, too.

On the iPhone, this notch made sense due to the presence of the FaceID sensor. On the MacBook Air, the notch included only the webcam; this could well have been accommodated with a slightly thicker top bezel and without that noise.

But here Apple simply decided to: I wanted to replace one feature (wedge format) with another (notch).. Meanwhile, there was some good news as well as bad news, such as the return of the MagSafe port that was never supposed to go away; However, this change was undoubtedly important for a format that left its mark on an era.

Like many other ultralights, the Dell XPS 13 has adopted this format.

In fact it has become a classic and many manufacturers copied this. At the 2012 CES, for example, you could see how laptops from Asus, LG, Samsung, and of course other manufacturers like Dell, which adopted the same wedge format in its XPS, were doing this as well.

And they did this despite the fact that Apple managed to get a patent for the wedge design of their equipment. This certainly created some difficulty in terms of integration of batteries, complex design and manufacturing, and was probably slightly less efficient.

Comparison of old MacBook Air and new MacBook Air. Source: AppleInsider.

For Cupertinos, however, simplification, cost savings and increased profit margins are often a compelling argument. That’s probably one of the reasons the change was made: It’s now easier for the company to fit them into the new design of the MacBook Air.

The change may not seem particularly significant, but those of us who appreciate the original design (I bought a MacBook Air in 2010 and a MacBook Air in 2012) we will miss him.

Goodbye, wedge-design MacBook Air.

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