In April of this year, shortly after the start of sales of the 24-inch iMac with the M1 inside, Parker Ortolani’s fantasies about the new MacBook Air were published on the 9to5Mac Internet resource… Rumors about this laptop have been circulating for more than a month, but it was from that day that many people really wanted it. As they say, it is better to see once. The fact that Apple has nothing to do with this masterpiece of conceptual painting was somehow even forgotten. The same seven fun colors as the M1 iMac, flat edges. Forget this fairy tale. This week it became known that the release of the new MacBook Air is delayed. Due to production difficulties. It turned out that the new MacBook Air is too ambitious and unlike anything else. By the spring of 2022, when its sales were supposed to begin, its production will not be in time. But some details about the new MacBook Air have become known.
What is a “real household laptop” I can only guess? In the last ten years, what has not been designated by this term. But Apple does it. Sometimes. We will wait and see, but we will have to wait longer than expected. And the current postponement is most likely not the last. True, what has become known about the “real household laptop” leads to disturbing thoughts. Now it is not clear which laptop we are talking about.
What will be the MacBook Air 2021
Information about the new MacBook Air is controversial. As if we are talking about two different household laptops. In May, it was reported that the 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display (the one found in the iPad Pro) will also be used in a laptop. This is a mini-LED (mini-LED) display, the production of which is debugged and mastered. The idea was heavily criticized. Is this screen too small for macOS? In July, new information appeared about the MacBook Air. We have already heard that the MacBook Air will change its design. What and how will change was not reported. But the fact that for this laptop they are organizing the production of mini-LED screens with a diagonal of 13.3 inches is really news. Will there be two household laptops? Once upon a time, Apple released the MacBook Air in two sizes – 11-inch and 13-inch.
But the difference between 12.9-inch (32.77 cm) and 13.3-inch (33.78 cm) is only 1.01 cm. There is no point in producing two variants with such dimensions. But what if Apple is preparing to release two different household laptops? A MacBook Air with a 13.3-inch screen and the third incarnation of a MacBook with a 12.9-inch screen? Ultra-thin and lightweight laptop with a powerful yet economical chip inside. Something close in spirit to the 2015-2019 MacBook, only with really powerful graphics and, to put it mildly, with a capable central processor. And the MacBook Air is a higher-end consumer laptop with more options. I wonder which laptop was going to be unveiled next spring and was postponed? And what will be the difference between them, tangible enough so that they do not interfere with selling to each other? Both variants of the consumer laptop have one thing in common. They have the same chip. M2.
M2 processor specifications
Many people call the M2 a processor, but it is not a processor. On the M2 die, in addition to the processor, there is a whole computer. A graphics processor, a neural processor, a security enclave (with its own processor), specialized processors, the number and purpose of most of which are known only to Apple and possibly TSMC. A company that manufactures chips designed by Apple in quantities of hundreds of millions of copies. The M1, the first computer chip developed by Apple, is actually a beefed-up computer variant of the Apple A14. The M2 is a beefed-up variant of the Apple A15.
In the central processor Apple A15 6 cores, two of them, Avalanche (avalanche) “power”, and four – Blizzard (blizzard) – energy efficient. M2 has 8 cores with the same names – four power Avalanche and four economical Blizzard. The cores are not entirely identical, in the version for computers they are much more powerful. The M1 also has four power and four economy cores. But the graphics in M2 are more powerful. In M1, the GPU has 7 or 8 cores, in M2 there are 9 or 10. And the cores are more powerful. In the highest priority neural processor (artificial intelligence and machine learning), both M1 and M2 have the same number of cores. There are 16. But in M2 the neural processor is one and a half times more efficient. Like the M1, the M2 is an “entry-level” chip. For home computers and powerful tablets.
MacBook Air 2021 price
The hypothetical 12.9-inch model is most likely not a MacBook Air. Almost nothing is known about her. Even the approximate order of prices is unknown. Prices for the 12-inch MacBook started at $ 1,299, but the 12.9-inch unknown consumer computer is not a 2015-2019 MacBook. The MacBook Air is a completely different story.
M1 MacBook Air in the minimum configuration (8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, 7 cores in the GPU) costs $ 999 in the US (excluding taxes and fees) and 99,990 ₽ in the Russian online Apple store. According to business analysts, the M2 MacBook Air should cost about the same. But, because of the mini-LED (mini-LED) screen, the price may increase. Up to 1099 dollars
