Earlier today we reported that Apple would release new MacBook Air models this week, likely tomorrow, and that the refresh would likely focus on improved Intel Haswell processors. A source has just sent in the above image that confirms this refresh will revolve around new chipsets…
The above label represents the new entry-level 13-inch model, and the only noticeable change is that the computer will now have a 1.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz. Today’s standard 13-inch MacBook Air comes with a 1.3GHz processor and Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz.
This label also indicates that the design and weight of the MacBook Air will be retained for this refresh.
We’re expecting similarly small boosts across the standard MacBook Air lineup (with the built-to-order models moving from 1.7GHz to 1.8GHz), with not much else coming to the line until the Retina Display models ship later this year. Here’s the current array of MacBook Air specifications:
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MacBook Air is already so far ahead of the competition that it would be difficult to do a lot more right now. Faster processors is a significant boost to the product and will tempt many to upgrade.
Faster processors in anything but iPhone and iPads are absolutely meaningless to me. Unless you are a professional it’s really just sad to care about processing power at this point, getting on Facebook can be done the same, either way. The things to care about or to be impressed by are the resolution, PPI, color, contrast, viewing angle, reflectance, thinness, weight, noise, heat, amount of bezel, battery life, and a few other things. Granted, better more efficient chips help you improve things like these, but I literally am completely numb to any upgrades like these which only offer a slightly more powerful processor.
This is a really stupid comment. First off, if you’re just going to use it as a Facebook machine, higher resolution doesn’t matter at all. It’s already to the point where the human eye can almost not distinguish any higher resolution. And 1.3 GHz vs 1.4 actually makes a big difference. It’s not like this is 2.6 vs 2.7. With a 1.3 GhZ processor, even having a lot of tabs or apps open at the same time will result in your machine slowing to a crawl. With a 1.4, the same is true… but less so.
I’m not sure if you’re joking about bezel, but I agree with you that, weight, heat, battery life are very important. No one is going to notice a 1 mm difference in thinness either, though.
Hahah. It’s no where NEAR the point where the human eye can’t detect the pixels, that’s embarrassing. Put your reading glasses on. Secondly PPI matters no matter what you are doing…you see when you see text that is incredibly sharp, that’s better, no matter what, and especially for Facebook where there is a lot of text. Secondly, I don’t get on Facebook, it’s just what the vast majority do with their computers (the only thing the vast majority do on their computers). No, it makes almost no discernible difference, sorry. Again, especially so for the vast majority of people , which have 1 tab open, and that’s Facebook, and one app open, that’s safari or chrome.
I’m not sure if you’re joking about suggesting I was joking about bezel, but any intelligent person knows that ideally you want literally no bezel around the screen, the most beautiful display is one without a bezel (sorry you want the old fashioned TV bezels with 6″-2′). Lastly, 1mm thinner is noticeable when you are as slim as the MacBook Air already is. That’s like saying 1mm is nothing on an iPhone, but it is huge, because it is already so thin.
Well broadwell isn’t out yet and won’t be for a while, so there’s not much they can really do. Next revision will probably be a totally new design, unified 12″ model with smaller bezels to make it overall smaller and lighter than even the 11″, retina, broadwell processor.
So this really isn’t that newsworthy and probably won’t even be mentioned anywhere by Apple.
Here comes all the bitching and moaning!
If people started hyping up a ‘new and improved’ Ferrari, that’s identical to last years model except it was bumped up by 5 horsepower, then yeah, I’d expect car enthusiasts to be bitching and moaning.
No one’s hyping a new and improved model. A blog that only talks about one company notified you there is a minor change to one of the company’s small number of products and showed you the proof. You’re acting like Apple went on a billion dollar marketing campaign.
Never said Apple hyped anything, people (aka this blog) hyped up a meaningless spec bump.
There won’t be another MBA update this year.. The earliest we will see re-designed 12″ retina/fanless MBA is 2015. This is why they are doing this incremental refresh to hold us back until 2015.
Or you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. Just to let you know, there is still a non-retina MacBook Pro, and they’ve still been updating it’s processors. It’s very conceivable that they will continue to offer the non-retina, at a lower price than the new retina, and that they will continue to see upgrades for a while.
No, they haven’t. The 13″ is the only remaining non-retina Pro because it’s popular with schools and fleets. It was last updated 2 full years ago, and is a terrible buy. 15″ was discontinued a while ago, which made more sense than the 13″ to buy considering it had a high res option (1680×1050) that actually looked pretty nice (though nowhere near the retina display), dedicated graphics, fully upgradeable, etc.
I think that this refresh is more the doing of Intel than Apple. Intel has a new product. Intel wants to move into mass production of said product, and inturn is greatly reducing or eliminating the production of the last gen Haswell chips. Apple is refreshing their product because Intel is forcing them to. They will announce the new MBAs in October. It will have been over a year since the last refresh by that point.
Except the photo in the article proves you wrong.
Except Broadwell’s release later this year proves you wrong.
Except YOU YOURSELF IN THE THIRD SENTENCE OF YOUR POST PROVES YOU WRONG. Try reading posts before committing them.
In October 2012 Apple released the 13″ rMBP with an Ivy Bridge processor. In February 2013 the entire lineup got a 100MHz CPU boost (still the Ivy Bridge processor). In October 2013 Apple released a more substantial rMBP update with Haswell processors and Thunderbolt 2. It’s probably the same thing happening here. Intel is just ending production of the slower chips, and Apple is moving on to the new base model for the rest of the production run.
Because broadwell and sky are behind, all apple has to give are the haswell refresh cpus until new ones are available. However, there is still a chance of broadwell before 2014’s end so I wouldn’t writeoff an actual refresh just yet.
I wonder if this update is less about the improvement that Apple could bring to the machine with faster processors and more about Intel reducing the production output of the last-gen levels to less than Apple’s output of MacBook Airs. Necessity not improvement.
I think the MBA is due for a huge refresh and I’m sad if this is the case. Apple needs to do something about the screen on the MBA, the bezel is awful, huge and a big waste of valuable real estate. Time for them to get creative again and stop resting on their laurels. They also need to offer a 16GB ram option with 8GB default. The 4GB is laughable. My MBA runs at 3.88 gb straight from a fresh boot. When cell phones have nearly the same ram as a laptop you know it’s time to up your game.
Your OS will always use as much RAM as it can, moving stuff from the slower storage drive to the RAM as much as possible. It doesn’t take much to use 16GB of RAM because, why wouldn’t it? 4GB of RAM is still plenty for 99% of tasks (I’m an extremely heavy user and have the baseline late 2013 pro 13″) and it isn’t a detriment, but more RAM is always better, so of course smartphone makers will push it for their $800 flagships.
it’s not so much the bezel is big, it’s that it’s not pretty. if it was edge to edge glass like in the mb pro, it would look a whole lot better and you wouldn’t notice how big it was.
I just received a custom 13″ Macbook Air this past Friday. I ordered the base model with 8GB of RAM and I am loving it. I know I could take return it and order the new model, as I am in the 14 day window, but I can’t see doing it for so incremental an upgrade.
I did exactly the same thing and I completely agree!
Reblogged this on BobLovesTech and commented:
Call me a cynic but I always see this sort of thing as a bit of stock clearance ready for bigger stuff.
Burying the lead; the full versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, the whole iWork suite, now comes preinstalled. The whole iLife suite as well. Most likely on all new models of Macs from here on out.
That’s going to be huge boon for Apple and another blow to the incumbent Microsoft Office. Why should I buy a yearly subscription to an office suite when I was given one for free when I bought my Mac?
“But Aeron, this little feature in Office, and that little feature in Office, and my opinions!” You may have valid points, but greater than 90% of buyers are just going to go with what’s already right in front of them.
Hasn’t this been the case since iWork 2013 came out? Anyway, it’s free on any Mac if you do a clean install.
It’s been free, but this is the first case of it coming pre-installed on a retail-boxed Mac I believe. I expect all refreshed Macs from now on will get this.
it shows that apple can’t make different in macbook air it abstractly make seance but if we compare to Samsung more then we thing
I see this the first time, but I believe Apple just started preloading these machines with iWork, instead giving app recommendations in the app store, as before.