New MacBook Air once again rumored to have USB-C

MacBook Air

You could easily be forgiven for thinking that Apple won't release a new MacBook Air in 2016, despite the fairly persistent rumors that the company will, because so far, all that has pretty much come to nothing – but there is still speculation that Cupertino will push out a new version of the lightweight laptop this year.

The latest nugget from the notebook grapevine comes courtesy of DigiTimes, which published a report on how laptop manufacturers aren't so keen to adopt USB Type-C ports – but it mentions that Apple is an exception in this case.

The DigiTimes article claims that Apple has decided to include USB-C on-board its MacBook Air, therefore reasserting that the company does indeed have a refreshed version of the notebook coming in the pipeline.

Previous speculation from Macotakara has pointed to a new MacBook Air with USB-C ports, with an announcement that was supposed to happen at the end of June – although obviously that didn't materialize.

Rejigged range

However, maybe we'll see this announcement coming next month, or possibly more likely in September. If the Macotakara rumor is correct, the smallest MacBook Air (11-inch) will be dropped, and a new 15-inch version will be introduced.

This new snippet from DigiTimes certainly adds a bit more weight to the possibility of a MacBook Air for 2016, along with the simple fact that this is a much overdue refresh.

You might also be interested in the other laptop vendors said to be considering employing USB-C ports according to DigiTimes – these being HP and Asus, as well as Apple. Acer, Dell and Lenovo are apparently still weighing up the pros and cons of going USB-C with their next-in-line models.

Via: MacRumors

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).