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Waiting for the 2021 MacBook Air

Falhófnir

Falhófnir

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 19, 2017
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Well in traditional style now we've got the 2020 model time to start the next 'waiting for' thread. 2021 should bring Tiger Lake CPUs with better power efficiency, much improved graphics and another small step up in CPU power. It could also be one of the first Arm Mac models.
 
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I thought this was the year for ARM based Macs.
Everyone thought it would go in the MacBook Air too. Oh well...another year and long running thread. :)
 
satchmo said:
I thought this was the year for ARM based Macs.
Everyone thought it would go in the MacBook Air too. Oh well...another year and long running thread. :)
Click to expand...

It is that year.. Only that Apple's vision of ARM based computer is an iPad Pro with a Keyboard/Trackpad.

Get it through your heads people - there will be no ARM based Macs.
 
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satchmo said:
I thought this was the year for ARM based Macs.
Everyone thought it would go in the MacBook Air too. Oh well...another year and long running thread. :)
Click to expand...
For there to be Arm powered Macs, they first need to announce the OS/ software side of things at WWDC ;)
 
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Falhófnir said:
For there to be Arm powered Macs, they first need to announce the OS/ software side of things at WWDC ;)
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True...
However, the rumor was that we’d see a new 13 or 14 MBP with scissor keyboard this month, not a MBA.
That would have allowed software at WWDC and a MBA in the fall.
Now that all of that is out the window, it’s much further out or as ctyrider said, no ARM for Macs.
 
ctyrider said:
Get it through your heads people - there will be no ARM based Macs.
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Kuo, the guy who has the best record of what's coming down the Apple pipe has said that MAC's with ARM chips will be released in 2021. I would wait and see what WWDC brings in terms of the software transition roadmap. The problem is that Intel has struggled to get 10nm chips into the hands of OEM's. Apple is already producing A series chips at 7nm successfully and will launch their first 5nm chip with the iPhone this fall. Apple's chips are matching and even beating Intel in synthetic benches. The iPad Pro 11" from 2018 is still benching faster than the MBA released a couple of days ago. I think it's a pretty good bet that Apple will transition the Air to ARM next year.
 
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nylon said:
Kuo, the guy who has the best record of what's coming down the Apple pipe has said that MAC's with ARM chips will be released in 2021. I would wait and see what WWDC brings in terms of the software transition roadmap. The problem is that Intel has struggled to get 10nm chips into the hands of OEM's. Apple is already producing A series chips at 7nm successfully and will launch their first 5nm chip with the iPhone this fall. Apple's chips are matching and even beating Intel in synthetic benches. The iPad Pro 11" from 2018 is still benching faster than the MBA released a couple of days ago. I think it's a pretty good bet that Apple will transition the Air to ARM next year.
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Kuo has good ties into Chinese supply chain, which is where most of his "good" rumors come from. He has no idea about what Apple is or isn't working on internally, and he has been wrong many times predicting future products.

Apple is almost certainly working on new categories of products leveraging their A-series chips. However, those products aren't going be classic MacBooks running macOS, as we know it. They are going to be running iPadOS or its variant. I can more or less promise you that.
 
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I really hope they don’t switch to ARM next year for the MBA. Tiger Lake sounds great and I don’t want to be a guinea pig for ARM macOS. My guess is that the fanless MacBook will become the testbench for future ARM Macs.

I’d consider one after a few years of work and proof that Apple knows what’s it doing. If an ARM Mac is super locked down like an iOS device, loses its UNIX-ness, and doesn’t have wide app support, I wouldn’t bother with it.
 
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Yeah ARM macOS will likely take a good while to iron out the migration and compatibility issues like from IBM to Intel
 
Glacial Truffle said:
I wonder if something like that happened going from Power PC to x86. Did people know it was coming?
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When Apple announced the switch to Intel, Jobs told us that they had been developing OSX for Intel in parallel with the PPC version from the start. So when they pulled the trigger on the processor switch the software was ready to go. Apple had been also working with some of the biggest developers to port apps to the new version of OSX so most of the software was ready to go. Additionally, they had a system in place to help others port over to OSX on Intel.

Apple under Cook is far less brash then under Jobs. I could see Apple opening a new product line instead of replacing old ones. Apple/Arm laptops would be a "Chromebook-style" line, lower cost but with less capabilities. Maybe it will be the re-introduction of the basic MacBook.
 
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One thing I would really like to see from the 2021 MBA whatever form it takes is a 15" size option, Apple have been perplexingly resistant to making this machine, and it's been rumoured to happen on and off almost since the Air first launched (but obviously never did). It seems bizarre Apple neglect the most popular screen size in the industry for the consumer notebook line-up, and since 2016 the 15/16" MBP has been prohibitively expensive for just general computing uses.

satchmo said:
True...
However, the rumor was that we’d see a new 13 or 14 MBP with scissor keyboard this month, not a MBA.
That would have allowed software at WWDC and a MBA in the fall.
Now that all of that is out the window, it’s much further out or as ctyrider said, no ARM for Macs.
Click to expand...
The rumour for 2020 has been quite consistent, depending on exactly what they announce at WWDC the first machine could be a developer only model available from June, with consumer models following next year, or there could be a new 'iBook' line if MacOS is forked rather than fully transitioned, or they could just come out with an Arm version of all existing Mac models to sell alongside them.

Given Apple moved from OS 9 to OS X which included a major overhaul in preparation for the switch to x86, I wouldn't be surprised if Arm macs are based on a largely new (mac) OS 11.

Glacial Truffle said:
I wonder if something like that happened going from Power PC to x86. Did people know it was coming?
Click to expand...
I think it was rumoured if you look what Steve Jobs said on stage at the WWDC keynote in 2005 - there was a slide saying 'yes, it's true' which got a laugh/ applause from the audience.
 
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The MBA is pretty decent as is, the only thing I really want is for Apple to include a heatpipe and better cooling, for more performance. Size and shape of the MBA is pretty much perfect, so I prefer it over the MBP for everyday use. But yeah, Apple will definitely keep 14" for the Pro model, knowing Apple...
 
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OutlandishCricket said:
Is it too much to ask for two more ports next to the headphone jack?
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I think even one more on that side would be nice so you can benefit from being able to charge from either side. I think they might merge the two 13/14" MBP models and offer it just with 4 from this year, so maybe eventually this could happen?

Also, to nitpick, really the headphone jack should be on the other side, most wired headphones cables connect to the left earpiece.
 
Sorry to resurrect an old thread. I was just wondering if there are any rumors of a re-design in 2021 for the MacBook Air?

I really like mine but some of the competition has started doing much slimmer bezels on their laptops. I know there is a rumor of a 14 in MacBook Pro next year, so IMHO a 14 in MacBook Air would be pretty sweet too.
 
omelet1978 said:
Sorry to resurrect an old thread. I was just wondering if there are any rumors of a re-design in 2021 for the MacBook Air?

I really like mine but some of the competition has started doing much slimmer bezels on their laptops. I know there is a rumor of a 14 in MacBook Pro next year, so IMHO a 14 in MacBook Air would be pretty sweet too.
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No I think it's a fine time to start looking towards a possible 2021 refresh - even though that seems a long way off now.

What's everyone's wish list?

I think improved thermal design is at the top of mine, even if it's just a straight up copy of the base model MBP's single fan-to-heatsink design. In my experience, the case-cooling fan works really well on the 2019 MBA, but I haven't used a 2020 model where there hasn't been some level of heat/fan annoyance when doing pretty simple stuff (video calls being the obvious target).

Tiger Lake would be sweet, but another Ice Lake seems more likely than not, given that they stuck with Broadwell for five years. Optimisations for Ice Lake to fully harness its capabilities would be great for 2021.

Apart from that... I dunno, I think they're onto a winning formula again. The only question mark is whether the rug will get pulled out from Intel-based machines. If it does, I think the Macbook Air (as the replacement for the 12" Macbook) will be the guinea pig for ARM, and all the potential teething issues that might come with that transition.

Given they've just updated all the MBAs and MBPs with new Intel-based architecture (barring the entry level Pro), I don't know if ARM is going to happen in 2021. If it does, it certainly won't be all models at once.
 
Well, I have been watching all the complaining about this and that about the 2020 MBA, one thing struck me concerning the move to ARM. Many people complain about fan noise or over heating during video conferencing using the MBA. My iPad Pro 10 I have does that without a sweat.

Call it a semi chrome book if you want, but the ARM is very capable with the iPad display. If they can get drivers done well for the basic MBA hardware, with an ARM, fulfilling the base MBA philosophy, they might have a huge winner.
 
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Glacial Truffle said:
I wonder if something like that happened going from Power PC to x86. Did people know it was coming?
Click to expand...

They made an announcement on the same day they announced intel MacBooks (so no, but the writing was on the wall for PPC as Motorola/IBM didn't care about making PPC power efficient for laptops as mobile PPC was a tiny segment of the market; they were focused on servers - and mobile was and still is where most computer sales are headed)

They included translation software (Rosetta) which meant app developers didn't need to worry about their apps not running on day 1.

They will do the same for the ARM switch no doubt.
 
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