The MacBook Air has been around for a while now in the market with no major updates in terms of specifications — the current pone on sale still runs on 5th-gen Intel processors. However, after Apple updates the MacBook Pro lineup last week, rumours about an updated MacBook Air have been doing rounds of the Internet. And if the rumours are to be taken seriously, then Apple could opt for Intel’s 8th-gen Kaby Lake Refresh chips.
According to a report from Economic Daily News, Apple could opt for the eighth generation Intel Kaby Lake Refresh processors for the updated MacBook Air. The 8th-gen processors were unveiled by Intel almost a year ago and are based on the 14nm manufacturing process. Surprisingly, newer generation chips from Intel have been unveiled in the market and it comes across as weird for a brand like Apple to go for a slightly older chip.
However, Intel is not in a position to deliver its latest generation chipsets for commercial use by the time Apple is expected to put up the updated MacBook for sale. Intel’s new Cannon Lake processor based on the 10nm manufacturing process is rumoured to be made available for commercial use by 2019 only. Therefore, the 8th-gen Kaby Lake Refresh chips make sense as they are the latest ones available for use right now in the market.
That said, the Kaby Lake Refresh range of Intel chips are still fairly competent. The range consists of quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 processors with base clock speeds between 1.6GHz and 1.9GHz. They are capable of reaching max Turbo Boost speeds between 3.4GHz and 4.2GHz. These 15W chips are accompanied by an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620, with support for up to 32GB of DDR4 or LPDDR3 RAM.
Do note that these are still rumours, which is why you should take the information presented here with a bit of salt. However, if the rumours turn out to be true, then Apple could have a killer notebook for non-power users in the market. The new MacBook Air is expected to be priced under $1,000 and feature upgrades to the keyboards as well as ergonomics too.
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