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2025 M3 Macbook Air Iteration – Your predictions

KhunJay

KhunJay

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Sep 16, 2013
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I still have a 2018 Intel MBP 16GB running Ventura and quite happy with the performance.

Was on the verge of getting the new M3 MBA 15" mainly for screen size and souped up M3 performance.

Just wondering what the Mac whisperers here think about next year's release...guesses are fine.

I reckon M3 chip won't change...there could be a bump in CPU and GPU processors (maybe 10CPU 12GPU).

Possibly a addition/relocation/redistribution of thunderbolt ports.

Anything else?

(Please do not say buy what you want, when you need it, don't worry about next year's model etc etc...no lectures please. Thanks!)
 
KhunJay

KhunJay

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Was reading that 2nM chips will arrive in2025. And TSMC says they are aiming to make 1nM by 2030.
That's the end of the road as far as chip architecture goes.Will 2nM will be exponentially better than
3nM...is it safe to say the improvements will be slight and not a giant leap?

The 3nM line-up seems to have a few sub-variants rolling out in the future, so maybe these
will show up progressively in future MBA iterations: N3E, N3P, N3X, N3S.

In which case, looks like the improvements will come in the area of things like the display
and port technology... plus external design.
 
G

geta

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May 18, 2010
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Next MBA will have M4 chip and hopefully the base model will have 12GB RAM.

Also would be nice if they’ll make a cellular version in the future.
 
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Timpetus

Timpetus

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No disrespect meant to you OP, but you seem to have been misinformed about several things regarding Apple's expected future releases and tech in general. Highly likely that there will be an M4 MBA sometime in 2025, since the M3 came out pretty recently and they are usually about 1.5 years between generations. M1 came out late 2020, M2 mid 2022, M3 late(ish) 2023. M3 was a little different in that we got the Pro and Max at the same time, that hasn't happened before.

Die shrinks will continue below 1nm, this is already planned. The naming conventions are also somewhat misleading, with rounding and many chip features not being as small as the name implies... Anyway, looks like we'll be heading into Angstrom (Å) territory soon.
 
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DHagan4755

DHagan4755

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Timpetus said:
Die shrinks will continue below 1nm, this is already planned. The naming conventions are also somewhat misleading, with rounding and many chip features not being as small as the name implies... Anyway, looks like we'll be heading into Angstrom (Å) territory soon.
Click to expand...
At some point you'd think they'll be looking beyond silicon if they're not already actively researching it.
 
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sw1tcher

sw1tcher

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KhunJay said:
Just wondering what the Mac whisperers here think about next year's release...guesses are fine.
Click to expand...
chabig said:
Apple doesn't revise machines annually. They only release new machines when new capabilities arise (like a new CPU). Don't expect new MacBook Airs until the M4 versions come out. My guess puts that in 2026.
Click to expand...
joeblow7777 said:
My prediction is that there will not be a new M3 MBA in 2025. Why would there be?
Click to expand...
While Apple doesn't update Macs on an annual schedule like iPhones, based on announcement dates for past MacBook Air models we see that they get new M-series chips every 19- 21 months with the exception being the 15-inch MBA.

13-inch M1 MacBook Air announced November 10, 2020

19 months later...

13-inch M2 MacBook Air announced June 6, 2022

21 months later...

13-inch, 15-inch M3 MacBook Air announced March 4, 2024

If Apple follows the 19-21 month (20 month average) pattern for the M4 MacBook Air, we could see an annoumcenet around October or November 2025 like how we got an M1 MacBook Air and M3 MacBook Pro announcements ahead of the holidays in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
 
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J

joeblow7777

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Sep 7, 2010
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DHagan4755 said:
No doubt a MacBook Air with M4 will be available in 2025. Apple won't rest on its laurels (even though sometimes I think they do too much resting on their laurels).
Click to expand...
Maybe, but the question was about an M3 MBA next year, unless that was a typo.
 
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M

Mainsail

macrumors 68020
Sep 19, 2010
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My Guesses:
  • M4 MBA with base 12GB RAM/256GB storage: early Fall 2025 (~1.5 years after 2024 M3 release)
  • M5 MBA new design with base 16GB RAM/512GB storage: WWDC early summer 2027 (~1.5 years after 2025 M4 release, and 5 years after the release of the M2 MBA model)
My Predictions:
  • Pages and pages of complaints on MR that 12/256 is not enough in 2025.
  • Pages and pages of complaints on MR that 16/512 is not enough in 2027.
 
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sw1tcher

sw1tcher

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Mainsail said:
My Guesses:
  • M4 MBA with base 12GB RAM/256GB storage: early Fall 2025 (~1.5 years after 2024 M3 release)
  • M5 MBA new design with base 16GB RAM/512GB storage: WWDC early summer 2027 (~1.5 years after 2025 M4 release, and 5 years after the release of the M2 MBA model)
My Predictions:
  • Pages and pages of complaints on MR that 12/256 is not enough in 2025.
  • Pages and pages of complaints on MR that 16/512 is not enough in 2027.
Click to expand...
😂 If Apple increases the base memory in 2025 with M4 update they are not going to increase base memory again whenever they release it with M5 chip, whether that's in 2027, 2028, or 2029. Apple goes many many years before increasing the base memory. And each time they did, they took longer to do so than with prior base increase.

Introduced (original) MacBook Air on January 15, 2008
2GB of memory and 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive


Apple increased the base memory 3.5 years later with the release of...

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011) - https://support.apple.com/en-us/112038
4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 onboard memory (on 13-inch model only. the 11-inch MacBook Air still had 2GB base memory)


The MacBook Air's base memory didn't go up again until mid 2017... 6 years later...

MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017) - https://support.apple.com/en-us/111924
8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory


It's now 2024 which means we're overdue for an increase to base memory. If Apple releases an M4 MacBook Air in late 2025 with a bump in the base memory, we will have gone 8.5 years since last increase to base memory.

At this rate, we won't see the next increase to base memory until after 2035.
 
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snipr125

snipr125

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An Xbox series S which costs £250 (i got mine for £150), has 10GB RAM as standard. Just sayin…
 
krspkbl

krspkbl

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Jul 20, 2012
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I think next years Air will be a minor refresh as M4 doesn't seem to be coming any time soon. M4 is probably not coming until 2025. Maybe they will ditch 8GB RAM and make 16GB standard while keeping 256GB SSD.

2025 is probably when we'll get a redesign with OLED.

Edit: I'm stupid.

snipr125 said:
An Xbox series S which costs £250 (i got mine for £150), has 10GB RAM as standard. Just sayin…
Click to expand...
So only 2GB more than the base Air? Consoles use "unified memory" too. That 10GB needs to be shared between CPU and GPU.

Yeah, we all know Apple rip us off with RAM pricing.
 
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J

jdb8167

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Nov 17, 2008
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sw1tcher said:
😂 If Apple increases the base memory in 2025 with M4 update they are not going to increase base memory again whenever they release it with M5 chip, whether that's in 2027, 2028, or 2029. Apple goes many many years before increasing the base memory. And each time they did, they took longer to do so than with prior base increase.

Introduced (original) MacBook Air on January 15, 2008
2GB of memory and 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive


Apple increased the base memory 3.5 years later with the release of...

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011) - https://support.apple.com/en-us/112038
4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 onboard memory (on 13-inch model only. the 11-inch MacBook Air still had 2GB base memory)


The MacBook Air's base memory didn't go up again until mid 2017... 6 years later...

MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017) - https://support.apple.com/en-us/111924
8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory


It's now 2024 which means we're overdue for an increase to base memory. If Apple releases an M4 MacBook Air in late 2025 with a bump in the base memory, we will have gone 8.5 years since last increase to base memory.

At this rate, we won't see the next increase to base memory until after 2035.
Click to expand...
One thing that might change that trend is machine learning/artificial intelligence. It currently takes a lot of RAM to do AI well.
 
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KhunJay

KhunJay

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Original poster
Sep 16, 2013
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Fascinating stuff so far!

When some of you predict next year will see a M4 MBP series, do you reckon it will be built
around a 2nM chip or one of the 3nM variants that were mentioned above?
 
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