Apple's M1 MacBook Air was announced back in November 2020, alongside the Mac Mini and the 13-inch MacBook Pro model. All these great Macs were among the first to be powered by Apple's M1 chip, which is plenty capable and powerful enough for most users even in 2023. I was one of the first ones to buy the M1 MacBook Air back in the day, and I still use it almost every day.

I've thought about upgrading to a new MacBook occasionally, but I never found a compelling reason to do so. A performance gain alone isn't convincing enough, especially when my current MacBook can already keep up with my needs well. Apple really needs to look at the competition and find new ways to make its existing users upgrade to newer products. The company does a decent job developing new features and upgrades for iPhones every other year, but MacBook upgrades have mostly been about performance for quite some time. I refuse to upgrade to a new MacBook unless Apple starts checking things off my wishlist.

3 Bring back the Touch Bar

But make it better

I'm one of the few who liked the idea of having a Touch Bar on the MacBook. I completely agree with my colleague Brady Snyder on this, who rightly pointed out that the Touch Bar should've existed alongside the function row instead of entirely replacing it. I can exist without a function row on my keyboard, but I'm not a fan of how the physical escape key had to go to make space for the Touch Bar. I am rooting for the return of the Touch Bar as well, and I hope Apple realizes the mistake and brings it back the same way it brought the ports back on the new MacBook Pros.

2 Give me a touchscreen

Natural evolution

It may never happen, but the next MacBook Air or Pro model should have a touchscreen. They've already become quite common in the Windows laptop space, and I don't see why it's still not a thing on the MacBook. Using a 12.9-inch iPad Pro model is the closest thing you can have to a touchscreen MacBook, but iPadOS doesn't have a lot of macOS's most crucial features, and it's safe to say that it's not replacing a MacBook anytime soon.

There's definitely space for both products to co-exist on the market, so it's not like a touchscreen MacBook will affect iPad sales. If anything, the iPad's revenue is already dwindling, so you might as well make it easy for the Pro users to switch to a touchscreen MacBook while retaining the relatively smaller iPads for casual users who want a tablet. You can also still sell a non-touch MacBook for those who prefer a traditional laptop.

1 Switch up the design

Windows laptops are way cooler

There's nothing inherently wrong with the MacBook's design, but it could use some changes to keep things fresh. A facelift would certainly make an upgrade more compelling than packing the new internals in the same chassis, similar to how the "trash can" Mac Pro was replaced by the "cheese grater" option. It's not something that would make me want to go out of my way to buy one immediately, but it's just another thing to look forward to when considering an upgrade. Adding new colors is nice, but they're not nearly enough to warrant an upgrade.

The MacBook's design looks particularly boring and when you compare it with some cool Windows laptops that feature new form factors, like the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i or the HP Spectre Foldable. The Yoga Book 9i, in particular, made me go "wow" with its dual-screen design. I only expect Windows laptops to get better in 2024, and I would love to see some significant design changes making their way to the MacBook. If not a completely new design, at least give us some new textures or finishes like the unique forged carbon lid you get on the Legion 9i.

Closing thoughts

I love how Apple constantly improves MacBooks to make them more powerful. The M-series chips have been truly revolutionary, but I am rooting for more features and meaningful upgrades. The performance jump from an M1 to an M3 is quite significant, but that won't be enough for most people. I know I'm not alone when I say the M1 chip is plenty capable for everything I do on my MacBook Air. I doubt if I'll be upgrading anytime soon for the performance gains, so it's time Apple got started on other changes.