A refreshed MacBook Air is likely to come with Apple’s ‘Magic’ keyboard update
The last time Apple released a refreshed version of its MacBook Air laptop was in July 2019; a relatively small update that saw the addition of True Tone display and some tweaked keyboard components, but not the much-needed keyboard redesign of the 16in MacBook Pro.
Will 2020 be the year that the “butterfly” mechanism flaps its last in the MacBook Air? If the company decides to update its ever-popular ‘entry level’ laptop this year, it’s certainly likely. But when is a new MacBook Air expected to get here?
MacBook Air 2020: Everything we know so far
MacBook Air 2020 release date: When will it launch?
As mentioned, the last MacBook Air update was July 2019. Since then, Apple launched its 16in MacBook Pro (in November 2019), with a redesigned keyboard. There were rumours that Apple would choose to revamp the MacBook Air before the end of the year to bring it in line with the new keyboard design, but this didn’t come to pass. That’s probably no wonder, given there had already been a 2019 version of the laptop brought to market.
But now we’re in 2020, and there are predictions that a new MacBook Air will launch at some point in the year. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in a note to investors that was obtained by the website MacRumors, claimed the 13.3in MacBook Air would get a refresh in the second half of 2020. This would make it around a year since the previous offering, and bring it once more in line with the back-to-school season.
Alternatively, we could see a new MacBook Air as part of spring event, which the company sometimes holds. Perhaps. We’d say it’s more likely, though, that the MacBook Air 2020 comes either in the summer, at WWDC 2020, or during the September iPhone launch.
MacBook Air 2020 price: How much will it cost?
The July 2019 update to the MacBook Air range saw Apple discontinue older versions of the laptop, and bring the price of an entry point model down to £1,099. We’d say that price is likely to stick around for a while.
MacBook Air 2020 specs and features: Things we’d like to see
The last major redesign of the MacBook Air came in 2018, which is recent enough that it’s unlikely 2020 will bring anything in the way of a big overhaul. Much more probable is an iterative reworking of the current 13in model, most likely encompassing the new ‘Magic’ keyboard found in the 16in MacBook Pro.
That would be a welcome change. “It’s an excellent keyboard to type on,” wrote our head of reviews Jonathan Bray about the 16in MacBook Pro. “Keys don’t quite have the same amount of travel – it’s 1mm this time around – as they did in the pre-butterfly switch days, but typing does feel more comfortable.”
The other notable area where the MacBook Air 2020 could improve is in the processor department. The 2019 version, like the 2018 version, has Intel’s 8th Generation dual-core Coffee Lake CPU. That’s beginning to look a little long in the tooth, as many other laptop makers move to Intel’s 10th generation Ice Lake chips in their latest machines. Apple tends to do things on its own schedule, but it feels like an appropriate time for the company to upgrade the MacBook Air’s internals.
There are also rumours that Apple is developing its own laptop CPUs, which would be a massive blow to Intel’s business if it came to pass. A 2018 report from Bloomberg places this as happening in 2020, although there has yet to be anything in the way of an official indication of this.