MacBook Air 2022 was missing in action at Apple’s Event, but leaker promises it’s not dead

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New laptop could arrive later this year with an M1 chip inside

Apple MacBook Air (M1,2020) Rear Lid
(Image credit: Future)

We didn’t see a MacBook 2022 turn up at the big Apple Event that just happened, to our surprise, but those keen to see a new laptop from Apple shouldn’t despair – the rumor mill is still sending strong signals that the redesigned MacBook Air remains incoming for 2022.

The latest from reliable Apple leaker Ming-Chi Kuo is that we can expect the MacBook Air revamp to enter mass production late in Q2 or in Q3, so at any point from June through to September. The launch would presumably come shortly thereafter.

This laptop would be built around an M1 chip, Kuo reckons, and it won’t run with a Mini-LED display.

The MacBook Air will sport a completely new design, as the rumor mill has contended for a while now, and an “all-new form factor” with “more color options” to be had. Again, the latter assertion about colors has been floating around for some time, with the expectation that the Air will adopt an iMac-like color palette of options.

Analysis: Going with the M1 – really? But what kind of M1?

Of course, design aside, the juiciest and most surprising assertion here is that the M1 SoC will power the incoming MacBook Air. The most recent chatter from the grapevine indicated that the M2 would be the chip of choice for the new Air, but it seems that may not be the case.

Maybe the use of the M1, and lack of any Mini-LED, could point towards Apple looking to keep the price tag of the Air more wallet-friendly, perhaps? Or is this some kind of typo from Kuo, who meant to write M2 but didn’t, maybe? The latter seems unlikely, of course. In fact, the former idea doesn’t seem too convincing either.

What Kuo doesn’t say is what kind of M1 chip might be used. So, it’s possible that a peppier spin, let’s call it the M1X, to pick another name that’s been floating around in the past (and could still theoretically be employed) might be destined to be the engine of the new MacBook Air.

Whatever the case, we’d expect a new MacBook Air launch to come equipped with a meaningfully more powerful CPU, and we can only hope on the pricing front (or that the current model could be maintained as a budget option, if nothing else).

Via MacRumors

Darren Allan

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).