Anybody hoping that Apple’s upcoming 15-inch MacBook Air will offer stronger specs alongside a larger screen looks set to be disappointed.
Internal Apple test logs seen by Bloomberg (opens in new tab) suggest that rather than using the as-yet-unreleased M3 chip, a device “likely to be the 15-inch MacBook Air” is being put through its pieces equipped “with processors on par with the current M2 chip.”
Like the existing chips that power the current crop of MacBook Airs on store shelves, these contain eight processing cores (split equally between performance and efficiency) and ten graphics cores.
The laptop also appears to pack 8GB RAM — the same quantity of memory that existing M2 MacBook Airs default to (though these are upgradable to 16GB or 24GB for $200 or $400 respectively.)
So, what of the elusive 3nm M3 chip? Gurman suggests these will follow later in the year for the 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and 24-inch iMac. “Higher-end versions of the M3 chip” are expected to follow for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro “in the first half of 2024,” Gurman adds.
While would-be 15-inch MacBook Air buyers may be disappointed, there are a couple of bits of good news in the report.
Firstly, Apple won’t just be stretching the current Air’s resolution onto the new, larger screen. While the 13.6-inch Air comes with a 2560 x 1664 display, the model in testing seems to be a sharper 3024 x 1964. That’s the same resolution as Apple uses on its 14-inch MacBook Pro, though of course it will lose a little sharpness on a larger, 15.3-inch display.
Secondly, the purpose of the testing seems to be to check the compatibility of apps running on the upcoming macOS 14, which is likely to be officially unveiled at WWDC on June 5. That strongly suggests that the new MacBook will ship with the new and shiny operating system when it arrives.
The question of ‘when’ remains up in the air, however. If the computers do indeed arrive with macOS 14, then a WWDC reveal seems likely, but recently the display analyst Ross Young said that the ramping up on display production points to a launch in “late April/early May”.
Most people still assume that a WWDC reveal is the likeliest eventuality, but there are good reasons for Apple to go early. Not only are the specs outlined above a touch underwhelming for a big on-stage reveal, but Apple is all set to launch its mixed-reality headset, and the last thing the company wants is attention being drawn away from a major new product announcement by a laptop.
With just 51 days until the first day of WWDC, all will become clear very soon.
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