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MacBook Air rumor roundup: More RAM, bigger SSD, launch next week

by Chris Rawson Jul 14th 2011 at 7:30PM

Various sites have been abuzz with rumors surrounding the launch of the next-gen MacBook Air, which many speculators expected to hit the market this week. AllThingsD has now weighed in on these rumors, citing "several sources" who claim the MacBook Air will not launch until late next week at the earliest.

AllThingsD's sources also confirmed the widespread rumors that the MacBook Air will feature a return to backlit keyboards, a Thunderbolt port, and more powerful "Sandy Bridge" processors from Intel. The new MacBook Air is also rumored to have its base RAM and SSD capacity bumped up, with 128 GB now the baseline capacity and 4 GB the new minimum RAM. This will be welcome news to potential buyers; the 11" MacBook Air's base specs of 64 GB SSD and 2 GB RAM seemed a little anemic. While you could pay more to upgrade both pieces of hardware, it seems you may not have to with the next-gen product.

The MacBook Air's hardware has reportedly been ready to launch for quite some time, but sources indicated that Apple held off on launching the hardware until Lion's public launch. Alongside rumors that Lion will not launch until next week, AllThingsD's sources on the "late next week" launch of the MacBook Air seem to be on the right track.



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Various sites have been abuzz with rumors surrounding the launch of the next-gen MacBook Air, which many speculators expected to hit...
 

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oneMadRssn

Are the ULV Core i5/i7 going to be THAT much faster than the C2D? Especially since we already know the graphics will not be as good (unless the CPU is fast enough to compensate and make up for the lack of graphics power). At this rate, I think I'm going to just buy the outgoing model in the refurb store for a discount.

July 15 2011 at 10:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mister

Friggin' Apple...I JUST BOUGHT THE OCTOBER 2010 MacBook Air a few months ago!!! They're "refreshing" the lineup with faster processors AND a backlit keyboard ALREADY?!?! I totally want some fraction of my money back....the product cycles are getting WAY TOO FAST to even be fair...come ON. Geezuz.

I mean come ON...when Apple lowered the price of the iPhone once, they reimbursed people who had just paid full price within the past month. Now, people who just bought $1500 laptops are having to watch a version come out a few MONTHS later with faster CPUs and the backlit keyboard?!?!

July 15 2011 at 1:21 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
7 replies to Mister's comment
Ryan Thompson

Wow, that's unbelievable. I'm astonished. I thought that the new models would have less ram and less hard disk space.

July 15 2011 at 12:14 AM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
Scotty

I will get a new Macbook pro when they come out with a retina display that is equal to or better than my iphone 4. Till then. I gota wait. I want the best...

July 14 2011 at 10:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Scotty's comment
Jasoco

You'll never have the "best" because there will always be better eventually. You want the "best", you buy it right now. It will be the "best" until the next one comes out. Which will then be the new "best". Until the next ones come out. You gotta buy sometime. I say set a goal for what you'll settle for, then when it comes out, get it. Want your retina display MacBook? Well, let's hope they do come out soon. But it probably won't be for a while seeing as resolution independence isn't working right yet. Plus the whole cost issue.

July 17 2011 at 9:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ralph Kooi

I'm glad to see the return of the backlit. For me this was a deal breaker over the MP.
Now all I need to do is start saving... :)

July 14 2011 at 8:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Apple Drunk

But the question is will Lion launch at the same time as the new hardware?

http://appledrunk.com/rumour-updated-macbook-airs-to-launch-next-week/

July 14 2011 at 8:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jasoco

If 4 is the new minimum, I hope that mens there's a $100 8GB option... and not a $300 8GB option. How are the prices on 8GB sticks these days?

And 128GB SSD standard would be really nice. 64 is barely enough for anything once you plop your music library, iPhoto and applications on there you're out of space for anything else.

Do it and keep the price of the 11" base model at $999 and I'll be happy as a clam.

July 14 2011 at 8:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jasoco's comment
 Mike Beasley

If they do that and keep the prices the same, the white MacBook is definitely done. You would be getting a slightly smaller screen and less hard drive space (from 250 to 128), but I'm pretty sure the white MacBook will be pulled from the market if they do what you say here. Heck, white MacBooks used to have 120 GB drives in them, so this wouldn't be a stretch at all.

July 15 2011 at 12:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to  Mike Beasley's comment
tnguy

If they keep the same price for that specs, I think not only the white macbook but also the Macbook Pro will be in danger. They have to keep a gap between the Air and the Pro either with price or specs to keep both running.

July 15 2011 at 1:34 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down
Jones

This would be a welcomed change, 2 GB of RAM isn't enough and it made the $100 4 GB upgrade effectively mandatory since it's not serviceable.

July 14 2011 at 8:08 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
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