What to Expect from Apple’s Rumoured Macbook Air Refresh at October 30 Event

If you’ve been keeping tabs on the latest in tech, you’d know that Apple has scheduled a launch event for October 30 in Brooklyn, New York. Though the invite simply hints at the arrival of a new iPad, along with an upgraded Apple Pencil 2, the Cupertino giant islong-rumoredto unveil fresh new MacBooks anda modular Mac Proas well.

The most-anticipated among all the expected launches is obviously the MacBook Air, that hasn’t received any love from Apple for a really long time. It still dons the same-old build with massive bezels, age-old processors, and the iconic keyboard, which many might preferover the newer keyboards.

Needless to say, the MacBook Air deserves some much-needed attention and here’s what you can expect from its speculated October 30 launch:

Latest Internals

The biggest upgrade for the new MacBook Air, also the most important one, would be the CPU. Theaging MacBook Air is powered by three-year-old 5th-gen Intel Core processorsand it’sdisheartening to seein 2018.

While there has been a myriad of rumors about MacBook Air’s internal refresh in the past few months, there’s still no concrete evidence of what Apple would ultimately settle with. The rumor mill has suggested anupgrade to 8th-gen Intel Core processorsand it does look like the most plausible option.

Intel has a bouquet of 8th-gen processors that should be fitting for use in the speculated MacBook Air upgrade, including theKaby Lake refresh(Kaby Lake-R), Whiskey Lake, and Amber Lake processors. The most suitable of the lot, however, is believed to be their U-series Whiskey Lake processors that offer 2 times better performance and double-digit gains in office productivity as compared to a 5-year old PC.

Retina Display

As reported bymultiple sourcesin the past, Apple willfinally add a Retina display to its upcoming MacBook Airto bring it up to par with the rest of the MacBook lineup.

The existing MacBook Air, which is three-years too old now, just has a display resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels, but it could be bumped up to thesame resolution as MacBook Pro’s OLED display(2560×1600 pixels) soon. The LCD panel is rumored to be made by LG.

This would be a significant upgrade for MacBook Air, which has the most outdated screen on any Apple product right now.

Design Upgrade

Apart from powerful internals and a gorgeous Retina display,Apple is also expected to cut down on bezels, as well as change the portswith the MacBook Air refresh.

Almost every PC maker has trimmed out the bezels from the display this year, and Apple also did so with the MacBook Pro in 2016. The 13-inch MacBook Air has huge outdated bezels, well, because it’s from late 2010 and the design worked back then.

As for the ports, Apple could stick with its guns and make a complete transition to USB-C on the MacBook Air as well. This means you can expect toget sucked into thedongle life(which is an added expense) even if you decide to spend less and get a MacBook Air.

You’ll also have to leave behind the old-style chiclet keyboard and learn to adapt to thebutterfly keyboard, with less key travel and noise. And finally, we canexpect Apple to add some color to its new affordable laptopsand unveil Space Gray, Gold, and Rose Gold color options, alongside the silver one.

No Touch Bar

If you have been expecting theTouch Barto make its way down from the MacBook Pro to the forthcoming MacBook Air lineup, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

Apple’s Touch Bar looks great and has plenty of features, but ithasn’t received much love from usersor developers.

Touch Bar Feels Like a gimmick at this point

Apple is said to be planning a cheaper MacBook Air this time around, and the Touch Bar would be an added expense. Apple could addTouch ID (with the T2 security chip) in the power buttonto improve the security of its new MacBook Air, which would be exactly what many fans want.

Retina MacBook!?

Though the MacBook Air is certainly the one we’d like to receive a refresh at the October 30th event, we wouldn’t want the existing 12-inch MacBook, with a Retina display, to be left behind either. We expect Apple to upgrade the internals, further trim the bezels and bring a new fanless build to this MacBook but without a big price bump.

Finally, if you’re wondering how Apple is going to price the cheaper MacBook Air laptops, well, the rumor mill is insistent on the fact thatat least one of the configurations will be available for $999 or less(around Rs. 1 lakh, including customs duty+taxes).

Anmol

Getting my start with technology journalism back in 2016, I have been working in the industry for over 7 years. Currently, as the Editor of Beebom, I’m leading the coverage on the website. While my expertise lies in Android, Windows, and the apps world, find me reading manga, watching anime, and playing Apex in my free time.

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