Ouch! This new rumor will make you regret buying the new MacBook Air 15-inch
I'd hold off on buying Apple's MacBook Air 15-inch if I were you
I hope you didn't buy the latest M2-packed 15-inch MacBook Air yet. According to a new rumor from reliable and highly respected Apple leaker Mark Gurman, Apple is working on rolling out two M3-packed MacBook Air variants next year.
According to the grapevine, the new-gen 15-inch MacBook Air was supposed to come with the brand new M3 chip, however, in late April, a rumor revealed that its M3 plans were thwarted. As a result, the Cupertino-based tech giant had no choice but to outfit the newer, larger MacBook Air with the year-old M2 chip.
However, it seems like what we wanted with the current-gen MacBook Air is hurtling our way soon.
New M3 MacBook Air laptops incoming
Gurman said that the M3-packed MacBook Air, both in 13-inch and 15-inch models, are poised to be released in 2024, according to his Power On newsletter.
As mentioned, the new 15-inch MacBook Air model Apple introduced at WWDC 2023 in early June still packs the M2 chip. This is the same chip, based on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)'s 5nm process, that is stuffed inside the 13-inch MacBook Air, which was unleashed in June 2022.
The new M3 is reportedly built on TSMC's 3nm process, which is expected to deliver gen-over-gen improvements to performance and battery life. However, according to Gurman, the core counts should be similar to the M2's current offerings (8-core CPU, 10-core GPU),
It's also worth noting that 2024 is also expected to gift us new M3-packed iMacs and 13-inch MacBook Pros. Although Gurman has an impressive track record of being correct, he has his moments when he gets it wrong, too. So, as always, keep your grain of salt ready as we wait (impatiently) for an official statement from Apple.
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Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master's degree in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire's business beat in 2013. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economy, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat, she discovered her passion for tech as she dove into articles about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After eight years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!