Apple is expected to launch a new MacBook Air with all new design and specs. But according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo Apple might stick to M1 chip for the new MacBook Air instead of making it the first device to have M2 chip.
This is due to the release roadmap of TSMC, which is Apple’s key chip supplier.
According to Twitter user ‘ShrimpApplePro’, who has shared TSMC’s future roadmap Apple will continue to use ‘N5P’ logic nodes for its A16 chip for iPhone 14 as ‘N4’ does not offer any advantages when compared to N5P. Apple uses N5P for its current A15 chips.
N3 and N4P, which do offer significant improvements will be in mass production in 2023, so they cannot be part of Apple’s 2022 lineup of devices.
Due to this Kuo believes the new MacBook Air’s CPU will also have the same technical limitations as the A16 chip. And calling the chip inside the new MacBook Air ‘M2’ might not be a great idea, as it won’t be offering ‘great upgrades’ over the M1 series.
Since the new MacBook Air features an all-new design and its chip won’t offer significant improvements over its predecessor, Kuo believes Apple would be better off focusing on the design improvements of the Air while keeping the M1 series chip in the new affordable MacBook.
And once N3 and N4P become available in 2023 Apple could introduce M2 chip series along with the upgraded MacBook Pros and other devices expected to get released in 2023.
The new MacBook Air is expected to be a major upgrade over the previous model and expected to get thinner bezels with MacBook Pro like camera notch, MagSafe charging, new color options and more. It is expected to launch in second half of 2022.
