On Monday, Apple unveiled a slew of new products, including a 5G iPhone SE, an iPad Air with an M1 CPU, the Mac Studio, and an improved Studio Display. If a recent report is correct, there will be even more new Mac machines in the future.
Apple is working on a new MacBook Air featuring an Apple Silicon M2 processor dubbed J413, according to 9to5Mac. With eight CPU cores and ten GPU cores, the in-development M2 processor is said to be based on the Apple A15 (which is already shipping in the iPhone 13 series, 2022 iPhone SE, and 6th-generation iPad Mini).
MacBook Air Will Be More Powerful
It’s unclear how well the new chip will perform, although it’ll most likely be on par with the standard M1 rather than the higher-power M1 models launched later.
A new 13-inch MacBook Pro, codenamed J493, is also rumored to be in the works. The laptop will purportedly look identical to the current 13-inch MacBook Pro but will be powered by the same M2 CPU as the expected MacBook Air update. However, there are reports that Apple may delete the ‘Pro’ moniker, making this next model merely a ‘MacBook.’ The 2017 12-inch MacBook was Apple’s most current MacBook device that wasn’t an Air or Pro.
The current-generation 2020 MacBook Air, along with the M1 Mac Mini, was one of the first Mac machines to be upgraded with an Apple Silicon processor, thus it’s ready for an upgrade. After that, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 appeared, with the same basic design as the prior Intel-powered versions (complete with a Touch Bar). Last year’s redesigned 14- and 16-inch versions offer a more modern look, a higher-resolution display, and additional networking choices. We’ll have to wait and see if those improvements make their way down to the 13-inch, but it doesn’t seem probable.