It looks like Apple is getting its perfect laptop ready for market. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman on Friday, Apple has ramped up testing on “fresh Macs with processors on par with the current M2 chip.” Test logs seen by Bloomberg seem to indicate that Apple is testing what is likely a 15-inch MacBook Air.
The testing involves validity with third-party App Store apps, which Apple performs before a Mac is released to market. The chip in the tested laptop has eight processing cores (split with four performance cores and four efficiency cores) and 10 graphics cores, which fits the profile of Apple’s M2. The laptop was also tested with 8GB of memory, the standard configuration of the current MacBook Air.
Another key specification Bloomberg discovered is that the tested laptop has a screen resolution that’s equal to the 14-inch MacBook Pro. However, the 15-inch MacBook Air (like the current 13.3-inch MacBook Air) will likely use a Liquid Retina (LED) display that doesn’t offer the sharpness and brightness of the pricier Liquid Retina XDR (mini-LED) displays in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Bloomberg notes that the laptop has been tested with macOS 14, the next version of macOS that will be unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. That doesn’t mean the new laptop will be released with macOS 14, which won’t ship until the fall. Apple is currently with version 13.3.1 of macOS Ventura with version 13.4 in beta phase.
Considering that this testing is happening about six weeks from WWDC, we could be in for a 15-inch MacBook Air unveiling at the conference keynote. The possibility of a spring release before WWDC can still happen but seems less likely.
Apple is also working on an update to the current MacBook Air, iMac, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro, as well as an M3 chip that is created using the 3nm production process. However, the Bloomberg report does not say that these Macs or the M3 were include in the test logs they saw.
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