- Apple’s M4 MacBook Air is expected to launch soon this year
- M4 models are rumored to be in mass production, codenamed J713 and J715
- The M5 chip is also expected to be unveiled later this year
While all eyes may have been on Apple’s plans to unveil the rumored M5 chip after last year’s late M4 reveal, new rumors suggest the M4 MacBook Air will launch this year.
According to reliable Apple leaker Mark Gurman (as highlighted by Notebookcheck ), 13-inch and 15-inch models of the M4 MacBook Air will launch soon this year, codenamed J713 and J715. Gurman states that these models are already in production, which means that a launch could happen in a few months.
This would complete the M4 MacBook range after last year’s launch of the updated MacBook Pro. Given the pricing of the current M2 MacBook Air ($999/£999/AU$1,599) and M3 MacBook Air ($1,099/£1,099/AU$1,799) models, Gurman expects Apple to replace the M3 models with the alleged M4 models while the M2 is on. market as a more affordable option.
We still have the potential reveal of the rumored M5 chip slated for later this year, so Gurman’s prediction is certainly plausible — as it often is.
What does this mean for M5 MacBooks?
In addition to the M4 MacBook Air, the M5 MacBooks are rumored to be unveiled this year — there’s not much hope that the M5 MacBooks will feature any major redesigns, as they’re reportedly slated for next year’s M6 MacBooks, according to Gurman.
Given the performance of the M4 chipset, I expect the M5 chip to take things up another notch, as we saw with the jump from the M3 to the M4. Apple has finally moved away from the unwanted 8GB of base configuration unified memory (which is essentially just system RAM shared between the CPU and the integrated GPU), so from here on out, multitaskers and gamers should be happy going forward.
While we may have to wait another year for the rumored OLED MacBook Pro packed with other new features, we probably shouldn’t write off the upcoming M5 models based on these rumors – especially if you haven’t yet upgraded to an M4 model.
Personally, I’ve never really been drawn to MacBooks as my primary device, but as a big gamer, seeing the addition of new triple-A games like Cyberpunk 2077 is gradually changing this stance – the current 10-core GPU on the more powerful M3 MacBook Air models is enough to handle recently added titles such as Resident Evil 4 replay (which I absolutely loved), so I expect the M5 chip to double down on this performance boost as Apple starts to take gaming on the Mac more seriously.
