We’ve been speculating a lot over the last month or so about the refreshed iMacs expected shortly, with features you’d like to see, what price you’d pay, and rumors of a release this month or in May. We hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the new MacBook Air for 2011 though and yet we realize they will probably be receiving a refresh in the summer. Now we are wondering if they will possibly get improved specs to match those of the new MacBook Pros.
The new Apple MacBook Air refresh last year has been a huge hit for Apple and over one million were shipped in the first quarter of sales. Just as we are expecting the new Thunderbolt technology to come to the iMacs, as it did on the MacBook Pros released in February, we would be very disappointed if it didn’t also feature in the new line of MacBook Airs. We also recently heard that future versions of the iPhone and iPad might well have Thunderbolt so this looks a dead cert. Other new features on the MacBook Pros that we would expect for the new MacBook Airs are the latest Sandy Bridge processors.
We’ve also compared the new Samsung Series 9 laptop to the current MacBook Air and the Series 9 is a pretty impressive device although the current MacBook Air came out slightly on top. The new Series 9 though features the Sandy Bridge i5 or i7 processors so the likelihood that Apple won’t upgrade the processors to the same, which are also on the MacBook Pros seems very slim. Christopher Hudson over on GizmoCrunch also feels it’s likely the new MacBook Airs would feature the Sandy Bridge i5 or i7 processors and points out that either would be a significant improvement on the current MacBook Air’s Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
Another upgrade we could expect for the 2011 MacBook Airs would be 4GB RAM as on the MacBook Pros, rather than the current 2GB. Other speculation includes an improved screen for the MacBook Air following news that the developers build of Mac OS X Lion may allow for higher resolution, advancing towards that of the famed Retina Display on the iPhone 4.
Over on Cnet, Brooke Crothers also speculates on the new MacBook Air and anticipates the potential of much faster speeds, similar to that of the MacBook Pro refresh and the Samsung Series 9 laptop. Crothers also notes a timeframe of this summer is likely for the new Airs. To read more check out the Cnet link above. We’re really interested to find out what you want to see on the new MacBook Air for 2011? Do you think the new Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology are a must, or what else do you think is crucial? Let us know with your comments please.
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