According to recent news, Apple will unveil a bigger version of their MacBook Air laptop at WWDC next week. The announcement will take place during Apple’s keynote at the annual developer’s conference on Monday, June 5 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
The previous MacBook Air (M2, 2022) had a screen size of 13.6 inches, which was not significantly bigger than the MacBook Air (M1, 2020). However, the new MacBook Air with a 15-inch display comes with several other features that we will discuss in this article.
Largest Display Yet: 15.5-Inch Screen Size
According to a trusted display industry analyst named Ross Young, the upcoming MacBook Air will have a bigger 15.5-inch screen. This new MacBook Air will be larger than previous models and fall between the sizes of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. It will be the largest MacBook Air released so far.
The 2022 MacBook Air had a screen resolution of 2560 × 1664 pixels with a density of 224 pixels per inch. It also supported a wide range of colors with a technology called wide color gamut (P3). The newer version will also reportedly have similar characteristics.
Enhanced Performance with M2 Chip
As per Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the 15-inch MacBook Air will come with the M2 chip. The current MacBook Air 13 also features the 3.5 GHz 8-core Apple M2 system-on-chip, which has 4 high-performance cores and 4 energy-efficient cores.
The M2 Chip is a powerful system-on-a-chip (SoC) created by Apple Inc. It is based on ARM architecture and offers notable improvements over the M1 chip. The M2 chip boasts an up to 18% faster CPU, up to a 35% faster GPU, and up to a 40% faster Neural Engine compared to the M1 chip.
The 2020 MacBook Air uses the M1 chip, while the upcoming models will benefit from the enhanced performance of the M2 chip.
Extended Battery Life
The latest MacBook Air brings a significant improvement in its battery life. With a larger chassis, the device accommodates a bigger battery, resulting in longer battery life. The 2022 MacBook Air, equipped with the M2 chip, had a non-removable lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 52.6 Wh.
It offered a remarkable 18 hours of usage per charge. Therefore, it is expected that the 15-inch model could potentially approach the 20-hour mark in terms of battery life.
Potential Wi-Fi Upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E
According to reports, the 15-Inch MacBook Air may support Wi-Fi 6E as opposed to Wi-Fi 6 in the 13-inch MacBook Air. Apple already introduced Wi-Fi 6E in their new 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models released in January.
Unlike Wi-Fi 6, which operates on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, Wi-Fi 6E works over the 6GHz band as well. This allows for faster wireless speeds, lower latency, and reduced signal interference.
Bluetooth 5.3
The 15-inch MacBook Air might receive an upgrade to Bluetooth 5.3, similar to Apple’s other recent devices. Bluetooth 5.3 offers improved reliability and better power efficiency compared to Bluetooth 5.2. If implemented, users can anticipate a smoother and more efficient Bluetooth experience on the 15-inch MacBook Air.
