According to the current rumors, we can expect a new MacBook Air with M4 chip this week. Unfortunately, the MacBook Air will contain little renewal and it will mainly be a specification upgrade.
In the summer of 2022 the 13.6-inch MacBook Air was equipped with a brand new design, a larger version with a 15.3-inch display appeared a year later. Last year the Air was equipped with an M3 chip and standard 16 GB of memory. The expectation is that Apple will provide both MacBooks with a new processor and a few minor changes this year.
Extra powerful thanks to M4 chip
The M4 was the first to be added to the iPad Pro in the spring of 2024 and only in the fall to the iMac, Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. The powerful GPU of the M4 line is a big step forward for the graphic architecture of Apple Silicon.
The M4 chip is designed using a 3NM manufacturing process. This is an advanced production technology that is used to make semiconductor chips. A 3nm process means that the transistor gate is only 3 nanometer wide, explaining what is so special about it.
The GPU is faster, more efficient and uses the Dynamic Caching technology. Moreover, thanks to this GPU, functions such as Ray Tracing and Mesh Shading with hardware acceleration are possible with rendering on Mac. This is primarily a big plus when gaming on a Mac.
Specifications M4 Processor
Thanks to the M4 chip, the MacBook Air will most likely have great computing power and can complete these tasks in no time. Below the specifications of the processor:
- Up to 10-Core CPU with 4 Performance Cores and 6 Efficiency Cores
- Up to 10 -Core GPU
- Up to 32 GB memory (standard 16 GB)
- 16 – Core Neural Engine
- 120 GB/s Memory bandwidth
- Media Engine: H.264, HEVC, Prores and Prores RAW with hardware acceleration
- Ray tracing with hardware acceleration
- 1 (prores) Encoding and decoding engine
- choice of up to 2 TB storage
- Support for up to two 6K displays and one 5K display
Other innovations
The innovations below are also expected in the new MacBook Air model. This list is based on rumors and not yet confirmed.
- Renewed 12MP Facetime camera
- Support for Center Stage camera with desktop view
- Record videos in 1080p HD
- Choose from a normal or display with nanotexture
- Improved battery life thanks to the M4 chip
The design of the 15.3-inch and 13.6-inch MacBook Air may remain unchanged. The color choices will probably not be adjusted. The Spacezwart therefore remains exclusive for the MacBook Pro.
Availability MacBook Air with M4 chip
Mark Gurman van Bloomberg has in his Power on newsletter Last weekend reported that Apple may reveal the new MacBook Air with M4 chip in the coming week. This will take place via a press release. The current generation of MacBook Air has a starting price of € 1299 for the 13-inch model and € 1599 for the 15-inch Mac. The expectation is that these prices will remain the same.