Will Apple upgrade the MBA? Maybe these issues are what you care about

Tencent Digital (Wen Xin) According to the TechRadar website, Apple MacBook Air laptops have hardly changed in the past eight years. Although there were related rumors back in 2013 or even earlier, it was not accompanied by a retina display. A year and a half ago, Apple made a minor upgrade to the MacBook Air, upgrading its Broadwell processor. MacBook Air has not yet been configured with Intel's sixth-generation Skylake or seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors.

This means that Apple should release the new MacBook Air. There are rumors that the 2016 MacBook Air will have major changes, including the elimination of 11-inch, new 15-inch models, the release time for this fall.

The premise of the rumor is that Apple is willing to retain the Air product line, but Apple may not retain the product line, because the reservation of two product lines - 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro, more concise. Here's what TechRadar has about the 2016 MacBook Air.

The key issue

·2016 MacBook Air positioning? A new generation of Apple entry-level notebook

When is it released? Rumored to be late October

·Price? The starting price may be 749 pounds (approximately RMB 6156)

2016 MacBook Air Release Date

Regrettably, Apple’s September 7 conference was over. The 2016 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro did not show up.

The MacRumors article states that earlier versions of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 mentioned MacBooks that have not yet been announced. macOS Sierra 10.12.1 will be released later this month. As Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said, what we can do at the moment is “stay tuned”.

But a series of rumors indicate that the MacBook Air may be completely cancelled or at least broken. Given that Apple is promoting the use of iPad Pro to replace notebooks, this is possible. In addition, Apple also has a 12-inch Retina MacBook, which beats Air in terms of display quality and portability, and the performance gap between the two is also shrinking - according to MacWorld, MacBook Air performance is only 3% higher than Retina MacBook.

If the MacBook Air is not upgraded with the MacBook Pro, people may question the MacBook Air will repeat the mistakes of the Mac Pro and Mac Mini, the latter two products have not been upgraded for many years.

2016 MacBook Air Price

The current 11-inch MacBook Air starts at 749 pounds, and the 13-inch model starts at 849 pounds (about 6978 yuan). Apple may keep the current price, but one rumors that although the price remains the same, but the size will increase - 13-inch Air starting price of 749 pounds, 15 inch model starting price of 849 pounds.

However, according to media reports, the price of the 13-inch 2016 MacBook Air will fall, and the price of the 15-inch model will increase.

Thinner, Lighter, More Powerful MacBook Air

Media reports on the new MacBook Air first appeared late last year, when the Economic Daily News in Taiwan predicted that the MacBook Air will usher in a "major update" in mid-2016. It is already in the fall of 2016. The release time of the new MacBook Air is still unknown, but the outside world has already had a certain understanding of it.

There are rumors that the new MacBook Air will integrate TouchID fingerprint sensors, but TechRadar believes that this is only people's wishes: the same source also revealed late last year that the upgraded Magic mouse and touchpad will integrate TouchID, but in fact it is not the case.

Afterwards, Apple applied for a Magic mouse patent that integrates Force Touch technology. Apple supplier Foxconn displayed a Magic keyboard with an electronic ink screen. Therefore, related media reports are not too far off the mark.

One feature that will almost certainly appear on the new MacBook Air is the Siri Voice Assistant. Siri has already logged in to the Mac via macOS Sierra. Without a doubt, the 2016 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro will be preloaded with macOS Sierra.

In addition, although unlikely, especially on the entry-level MacBook Air, Apple's recent application for a MacBook patent without a physical keyboard is also worth considering. If the patent is successfully applied to the product, the entire Apple product line will use a virtual keyboard.

TechRadar believes that the 2016 MacBook Air is unlikely to be configured with a new generation of ultra-fast solid state drives. The Intel Optane SSD will be used on Macs, but it may be 2017, not this year.

USB-C interface

According to sources, the new Air is lighter and thinner than the current model, with new batteries, a cooling system, and an Intel Skylake processor and USB-C interface.

The MacBook uses the USB-C interface. The main reason for its thinner is the removal of interfaces other than the USB-C. Using the USB-C interface enables the Apple Design Director Jonathan Ive to put the thickness of Air again. Several millimeters of compression.

DigiTimes recently stated that HP, Asus, and Apple are all developing notebooks that use the new USB-C interface standard. According to sources, Apple is particularly interested in rumors of the 15-inch MacBook Air using the new USB-C interface.

God knows that maybe USB-C (or Lightning) may even replace the MacBook Air's headphone jack.

MacBook with stylus?

Apple’s recent patent application shows that Apple Pro's Apple Pencil may soon be modified to support Apple’s Magic touchpad and even the future model MacBook’s touchpad. Although it may not be possible to perfectly support drawing applications, Apple Pencil can be used by Mac users to flip document pages in Preview, or to move objects in Photoshop.

Will Skylake be configured for the 2016 MacBook Air?

Upgrading to the Skylake processor makes more sense than upgrading to Broadwell because the latter places more emphasis on battery life, energy consumption, and not performance. According to Intel, compared with Broadwell, the Skylake computing performance that may be applied to the 2016 MacBook Air is 10%-20% higher, the graphics performance is 34% higher, and the battery life is longer by one hour.

Other Skylake features include support for WiGig, WiDi, and wireless charging. But don't expect this year's model to support these features, but future models may.

Does the 2016 MacBook Air configuration still have a retina display? This is a problem

Last year Air was widely expected to upgrade to the retina display, but it turned out that the newly released MacBook was configured with a retina display. If you plan to lower the 13-inch Air price, Apple may not configure it with a retina display - at least for entry-level models. Like the current MacBook Pro, Apple may offer an inexpensive 13-inch Air with a non-retina display, and an expensive model with a retina display.

2016 MacBook Air: What Users Expected Features

TechRadar believes that Apple has fallen behind other notebook manufacturers, which have basically caught up with Apple, and even in some ways to achieve it. Insiders said, "Apple Air and Pro series notebooks should have been upgraded - not just a simple internal configuration upgrade. The design and configuration of the two series of notebooks are old-fashioned: the past six years, the MacBook Air has been using the constant display resolution rate.

Air is unlikely to configure the touch screen, because users who like to use the touch screen can purchase iPad Air and iPad Pro. The current version of macOS is not optimized for touch screens, but there is no doubt that with faster, thinner and more beautiful opponents. In contrast, the MacBook Air began to look old.

2016 MacBook Air: Will it be eliminated?

Although possible, it is unlikely. The price of the upgraded 12-inch MacBook is far higher than the popular Air. What causes Apple to eliminate an extremely successful product? A bigger possibility is Apple's elimination of the 11-inch Air, leaving the notebook line with 12-inch MacBooks, 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs, and 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros.

KGI analyst Guo Mingyi said that Apple plans to launch a larger 13-inch Retina MacBook to make up for the lack of upgrades to the MacBook Air. This will make the 2015 MacBook Air become Apple's entry-level notebook model, and the MacBook and MacBook Pro target the mid-range and high-end markets, respectively. This is considered to be Apple's phasing out of the MacBook Air, placing more emphasis on recent product launches.

Source: TechRadar