Apple has big plans for a couple of long-forgotten products this fall, one of them being the MacBook Air. The last time Apple significantly upgraded the MacBook Air was in 2015 and since, its place among the MacBook line-up has been skewed amidst the release of the MacBook and MacBook Pro.
A new report from Bloomberg confirms the rumors that have been flying around of a revamped MacBook Air arriving later this year. According to the report, which comes from reliable Apple insider Mark Gurman, sources close to the development of the computer say Apple will release a device that looks similar to the MacBook Air but adds a few key upgrades. Among them is updating the laughably dated display to the higher-resolution Retina version found in its high-end laptops.
This in turn means it will borrow the minimized bezels newer MacBooks sport, which means it will also sport a smaller frame compared to the existing MacBook Air.
The report doesn’t get into specifics about pricing or other upgrades, but one that is anticipated to be included is a spec upgrade with the 14nm Kaby Lake CPU architecture. No word yet on if it’ll come with the new butterfly keyboard or Touch Force trackpad, but they may excluded as a cost-saving measure since the computer is rumored to be more affordable.
It’s still unclear if Apple will refer to this new MacBook by the MacBook Air moniker or it’ll go in a different direction. It may just use the name as a differentiating factor from the more expensive 12-inch MacBook, which starts off at $1,299.
The report goes on to peg October as the likely time frame we’ll see this new MacBook.
