Apple is reportedly gearing to launch the M4 MacBook Air “as early as this week” with a Mac-related announcement imminent in the “next few days.” The timeline is spot-on as the M3 MacBook Air also broke cover at around the same time last year, on 4th March to be precise. With the launch, Apple will complete the MacBook’s full transition to the M4 chip, leaving only the Mac Studio and Mac Pro desktop computers, without the latest Apple silicon.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, M3 MacBook Air inventory has “significantly wound down” and Apple is “preparing its marketing, sales and retail teams for the debut” of the 13- and 15-inch M4 MacBook Air. Apple had lowered the price of the M2 MacBook Air soon after the launch of the M3 model. We can expect something similar after the launch of the M4 MacBook Air as well. What remains to be seen is if Apple continues to sell the M2 model, possibly reduce its price further, to make it even more accessible. It is likely that, that would be the case, but we’ll have to wait and watch how things pan out.
As for what’s coming, we can expect minimal changes in design and display, going by Apple’s track record, with big changes coming by way of improved performance and possibly, better battery life. The M3 MacBook Air had 60 percent faster performance than the M1 model, Apple claimed. The base variant—of the 13-inch MacBook Air—had an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB unified memory, and 256GB SSD. The base 15-inch MacBook Air M3 had a more powerful 10-core GPU, while keeping the rest of the package as is.
With the M4 MacBook Air, we can expect a setup widely similar to the base M4 MacBook Pro, at least, in which case, it could come with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPUs, obviously minus the cooling fan since it’s an “Air.” We can also expect fewer ports and a slimmer overall footprint. Last but not the least, it would be expected to support two external displays with the lid open, like the M4 MacBook Pro. Pricing should be consistent with last year. Watch this space for more updates.
Follow FE Tech Bytes on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook.
