15-inch MacBook Air release is edging closer and closer

The 15-inch version of the MacBook Air sounds as if it could be imminent.

According to a new report, Apple is “ramping up” the testing of the new machines “on a par” with the M2 chip set to arrive soon.

The well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman was sent developer logs showing Apple is testing the machines with third-party Mac App Store apps in order to ensure they’re compatible.

The M2 Mac Mini just keeps dropping in price

Amazon has cut the price of the recently-released Apple Mac Mini M2 numerous times before, but those savings don’t tend to stick too long. This time the site has slashed a tempting 8% off the £649 price.

“That’s a necessary step in the run-up to the launch of a new device,” Gurman writes. He said that new device is likely to be the 15-inch MacBook Air, which would be the largest MacBook Air in the history of the range. They are typically 13.3-inches in size, but there have been 11.6-inch models in the past.

Gurman said the chip will have eight CPU cores and 10 graphical cores with a minimum of 8GB of RAM. He said the processors are “just like the current M2” and that almost certainly means they will be running on the M2.

The report says the resolution of the 15.3-inch display will match the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which means it’ll have slightly lower sharpness. The Macs Apple is currently testing, the report says, are already running on macOS 14, which will be revealed at WWDC on June 5.

Depending on when Apple chooses to launch the new MacBook Air 15-inch, it may still launch running on the current macOS 13 Ventura with a free upgrade this autumn. If Apple holds off the launch of the hardware until, say, October, it’ll be running macOS 14 out of the box.

Following the MacBook Air could be versions of the iMac, 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro all running the as-yet-unreleased M3 processor. We’re also waiting on a potential new Mac Pro release.

“Apple is planning to refresh the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros in the first half of 2024 as well with higher-end versions of the M3 chip,” Gurman writes.


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