[paulmd]

the 15" MBA really needs the M3 Pro chip so it can support multiple displays. That's a kink even with "suits clicking on spreadsheets", it is definitely true that everyone is used to at least dual external monitors by now. Let alone actual dev work.

C'mon guys, you sized the M3 Pro down and everything, I know it'll fit. Yeah, it'll throttle under heavy load but that's what MBAs do. The 15" chassis is overkill for the M3 base-tier and it'll be fine, and that's the buy-in for multiple displays. M3 is a great tablet/ultraportable but it's still ultimately not an ultrabook chip.

Personally I happened to have ultrawide already so it was not the end of the world using a MBA for a while with my single external screen... but it's a bad limitation and there's no real solution except either putting the 2nd display controller on M3 (probably not going to happen for cost reasons) or putting the M3 Pro in the 15" chassis.

Even if you think it's part of some strategy to price-ladder you into the MBP... surely having another rung on the ladder is part of the game too? ;)

Hopefully we see it with the N3E variants that should be releasing sometime this year...