Apple just introduced a new Mac today, but the rumors never stop. This time, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared on Twitter another prediction, this time about the rumored MacBook Air. In line with other rumors, Kuo believes that the new laptop will be announced later this year with a new design, but the analyst says that it will not have an M2 chip.
Ming-Chi Kuo corroborates previous rumors about the new MacBook Air having an “all-new form factor design” with more color options. Last year, leaker Jon Prosser revealed renders based on what he saw of the new MacBook Air, and the images show a flat-edged design that resembles the iPad Pro and iPad Air.
The current MacBook Air is available in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold colors, so we assume that the next generation will have the same colors as the latest Apple devices, which includes Starlight, Midnight, or even Purple – that’s a guess.
But contrary to what some rumors have said, the analyst believes that the new MacBook Air will no longer have a Mini-LED panel. This technology relies on thousands of really small LEDs in the backlight, which results in higher contrast ratios and deeper blacks, similar to OLED. At this point, only the latest iPad Pro and MacBook Pro feature a Mini-LED display.
Another intriguing argument from Kuo is about the chip that will power the new MacBook. Pretty much every source that has shared reports about the 2022 MacBook Air has said that it will be announced with the M2 chip, the next generation of Apple’s entry-level chip. However, Kuo says that the new MacBook Air will still have an M1 chip.
More specifically, Kuo told 9to5Mac in a private conversation that he strongly believes that Apple will use an updated version of the M1 chip instead of putting M2 on it. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has been testing a new Apple Silicon chip for Macs with 8 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores.
Either Ming-Chi Kuo is wrong about his prediction, or Apple will use a new variant of its original M1 chip that brings a more powerful GPU. It’s worth noting that the only difference between the A12X and A12Z chips is the addition of an extra GPU core, so perhaps the same will happen with M1. Kuo believes the M2 chip with more significant upgrades “may not come this year.”
The new MacBook Air is expected to go into mass production in late Q2 2022 or Q3 2022.
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