[kondro]

Just give me cellular in a MacBook Air already Apple if you want me to insta-buy! Bonus points for OLED.

Air’s don’t have to be just cheap. I want a thin and light premium laptop for walking around and a second Mac (of any type) for my desk.

[leakycap]

I'm guessing carriers/networks can't handle a fleet of MacBooks-with-cellular yet. The data workload would be sustained and intense with macOS not having the type of system-level cellular framework/data control as iPad and iOS (I have used the low data mode on macOS, it helps but only handles a small part of the problem).

I have bought cracked-screen iPhones since Personal Hotspot allowed wired connections back in the 2000s, velcro'd them to the back of my MacBook screen and have been living the "I have internet on my Mac everywhere" life since then. With 5G, I can't really tell when I'm on Wi-Fi vs. when my MacBook opts for the hotspot connection.

I'd love a cellular MacBook and would also insta-buy, but I've given up hope until the next network upgrade.

[kondro]

That doesn’t make much sense to me, there are literally billions of phones that people are using all the time.

Apple has over 2.3 billion active devices of which a small percentage are Macs (an estimated 24 million were sold in 2024 and around twice that in iPads).

The most difficult to scale part of a cell network is number of devices connected, not bandwidth used anyway and cellular Macs aren’t going to add significantly more load to a network. And that assumes that Apple even cares what a carrier thinks.

I’m in Australia, not the USA, and for all people like to complain about internet here, we have excellent mobile coverage and it’s relatively affordable, but it’s all priced by usage.

I have 4 devices on my plan with shared 210GB of 4G usage between them for around AUD$200 (USD$130) a month on Australia’s best network (Telstra). I work remotely from cafes a lot (probably around 20-30 hours a week) as a developer and get nowhere close to that usage. I update all my apps, download all my podcasts, listen to lossless music and stream video whenever I want during breaks (although I’m not a huge out-of-home video consumer). I do literally nothing to limit my bandwidth usage and am lucky to use 30-40GB a month across all my devices.

[rtpg]

The problem I think is that desktop software is often not written on the idea that they might need to sip from a straw.

Anyone who has tethered their machines to a phone with a middling connection knows how bad the computer experience cna get.

Like you mentioned 50 gigs a month per device... when I had to tether my machine for a week I was finding myself using 10 gigs _a day_, and this was ~6 years ago.

Not an argument that this stuff is impossible, of course, but I do think these machines are different beasts.

[xethos]

> The most difficult to scale part of a cell network is number of devices connected, not bandwidth used

Not a network engineer, but isn't it possible that it's only wasy to scale the number of devices because mobile devices play nice with the network? For example, battery life depends on batching network requests, meaning the incentives are aligned between Google, Apple, and the carriers?

If every device defaults to treating the network like a LAN, like MacOS is accustomed to being able to do, that may change the part of the network that's easy to scale

[paradox460]

Osx has, for a little while now, had a "metered" flag for networks. Not sure which apps, if any, respect it, but it's there

[leakycap]

> (I have used the low data mode on macOS, it helps but only handles a small part of the problem)

Yes, I mentioned that in the post you responded to.

> Not sure which apps, if any, respect it, but it's there

It reduces data consumption for me about 1/5. Not nothing, but the Mac can easily consume hundreds of GB of data a week doing "normal" activities. YouTube on a MacBook is many times more data than the equivalent on a phone screen.

[B1FF_PSUVM]

> cracked-screen iPhones

Sheesh, what do you have against MiFi 4G pocket routers?

[leakycap]

4G came out a loong time ago and is slow.

Cracked phones aren't tempting for anyone to steal when I leave it out, and the 5G iPhone SE came out many years ago and is available new for about $130 without a cracked screen, but finding a use for cracked devices saves them from being ewaste.

[jazzyjackson]

I know minis don't sell well but I wish they kept the Air 11" format but without the bezel one way or another

My craving has been answered by the GPD WIN MAX 2, a 10" mini laptop with lots of ports and bitchin' performance (AI 9 chip sips battery). It's windows, but an upgrade to pro to disable the annoying stuff via group policy + never signing into a Microsoft account, it's amazing how much faster it is than a machine that's always trying to authenticate to the cloud before it does anything. Wake from sleep is also excellent which was the main thing that kept me using MacBooks. Anyway it's the first computer I've bought in a decade that has some innovation to it.

Edit: there's a slot for a cellular modem but I haven't done enough research to find one that will play nice on US networks

[joshstrange]

I've heard (but not tested) that Tahoe and iOS 26 do a _much_ better job of auto-connecting and reconnecting (if your cell drops, like going through a tunnel or similar) to make it easier to use your phone with your MBP.

I hope this is the case. I don't know if I would buy a cellular MBP (just wouldn't use it enough) but better tethering is a huge win for me.

[apparent]

Why carry around two cellular modems? Are you ever out and about with your computer but not your phone? I've been happy to hotspot my computers and tablets to my phone, which I always have with me.

The only possible issue I can think of is battery life, but if I'm carrying around my laptop I can throw a charge cable in the bag to keep my phone juiced.

[kondro]

I want my computer to have an always on cell modem just like my phone does.

The Apple Silicon chips all run in a version of always on these days because the efficiency cores are so, well, efficient.

Additionally, while you may want to burn the battery in multiple devices and deal with having to manage that, I don’t want to.

Apple has been selling cellular iPads since the beginning and I love never having to worry about pairing mine.

Tethering to an iPhone or iPad Is much better than it used to be, but it’s still not perfect.

Apple makes their own modems these days and even with Qualcomm had a capped per device license fee more than covered by the premium they charge for cellular in, say, the iPad.

I know so many people who want this convenience and are willing to pay for it that it just seems like stubbornness at this point that they’re willing to put modems in iPads and not MacBooks.

[leakycap]

I leave my setup plugged in, using a low-profile USB-C to lightning cable on the iPhone SE stuck on the back of my screen and wired hotspot on macOS is a great experience.

We're discussing a MacBook someday with a built-in phone, the closest I've found is an iOS device wired to my MacBook as a wired hotspot. It's like having fast wifi everywhere.

Using my personal phone (that I also use for other things like calls) wouldn't be like having wifi everywhere on my Mac, for example if I walk away from my laptop while on the phone the Mac would lose internet.

[themagician]

The pairing has become almost flawless as well. Years ago, it was slow and inconsistent, but now the hotspot feature is almost perfect and automatic. Honestly, I don’t really think about it anymore.

[abtinf]

It’s hard to explain, but having an always-on connection on a tablet or laptop just feels like absolute magic.

You sort of have to experience it first hand.

[brailsafe]

> Why carry around two cellular modems?

Why not? If I had both with me, I'd rather just have my phone on Airplane mode preserving the battery and my focus.

> Are you ever out and about with your computer but not your phone? I've been happy to hotspot my computers and tablets to my phone, which I always have with me.

I'd really really like to be. The amount of dependence I have on the phone being there at all times is insane. I just want to leave with my laptop and be good to go, no possibility of receiving a call or getting distraced with stupid group chats.

My phone recently died spontaneously, and if I didn't replace it immediately, I can't work online from cafes or anywhere else without depending on the place having open wifi.

[raw_anon_1111]

For tablets, at least with T-Mobile, for $25 you get unlimited data. You only get a limited amount of tethering data.

[apparent]

True, but don't you have to treat the device as a separate line? If the laptop had cellular I'd have another bill to pay.

[raw_anon_1111]

To be completely honest, I would be fine not having cellular data on my iPad and don’t think I would use more than 40GB of tethering ever if I took advantage if using WiFi every opportunity I could instead of not worrying about it.

It’s just one of those things that it’s convenient not having to worry about WiFi when we travel and hotel WiFi depending on how busy they are is often pretty bad.

But especially with a laptop, as often as we travel, I don’t think I’ve ever needed to tether to my Mac accept for brief periods of times when our condos shared WiFi went out (I work remotely).

I wouldn’t pay for a separate line for a computer. I am sure others would.

On another note, I did give my mom my previous iPad and kept the data plan so she doesn’t have to worry about WiFi when they take road trips.

[leakycap]

T-mobile is so scammy, though. Have you been keeping up with all the lawsuits against them in the US?

[raw_anon_1111]

All carriers are scammy in their own way

[apparent]

MVNOs FTW. They know they're competing for price-conscious consumers so have to offer more value. The big 3 know most of their customers are going to go with one of the big boys, all of whom are expensive and not great.

[raw_anon_1111]

MVNOs have slower data rates since they buy deprioritized traffic in bulk, don’t have the roaming agreements domestically and especially not internationally, and don’t offer unlimited high speed data.

[leakycap]

So, maybe don't do business with the worst of them? Of the big 3 in the US, T-Mobile is the one I'd avoid right now.

[raw_anon_1111]

Verizon is overpriced and is the Comcast equivalent of cellular carriers. AT&T is about as bad

[dbg31415]

Just out of curiosity why do you want cellular in a laptop? Just seems like another monthly service bill.

I just tether to my phone. Wouldn’t that work?

[brailsafe]

When they finally put cellular in Macbooks, I bet they only put them in the Air for like 2 years, because we all know serious professionals are always at a desk with WiFi

[lifter3101]

Didn’t you just describe an iPad? Unless you need your second Mac to run “normal” apps.