The M1 MacBook Air is over a year old and hasn’t received any updates since November 2020. Its design is even older than that, with Apple first debuting the current tapered chassis design in 2010.

With the MacBook Pro design refresh out of the way, it is now the turn of the MacBook Air to receive a design overhaul. Rumors indicate Apple will launch the M2 MacBook Air this year. Below is a roundup of everything leaks have told us so far about the new MacBook Air.

MacBook Pro-like Design

Although the official design hasn’t been leaked, concept renders from tipster Jon Prosser suggest that the upcoming M2 MacBook Air won’t feature a sloping design that’s thicker near the hinge and thinner on the opposite edge. Instead, the design is expected to resemble the current-generation MacBook Pro models with sharp creases and flat panels.

Additional design rumors suggest Apple will introduce new color variants of the 2022 MacBook Air, just like the 24-inch iMac. The latter’s color options include blue, green, pink, silver, orange, yellow, and purple. The off-white bezels from the desktop counterpart could be carried over as well.

M2 Chip?

Rumor has it that Apple could completely transition to its silicon by WWDC 2022, and to enable that, the 2022 MacBook Air could likely become the first Apple notebook equipped with an M2 chip. A Bloomberg report claims that the M2 chip would have the same number of computing cores as the M1 chip, but more GPU cores may be added. The change would bring improved GPU performance but the overall performance and efficiency are not expected to get a significant boost.

To avoid cannibalizing the M1 Max and M1 Pro’s market, Apple understandably won’t make the M2 chip as powerful as them, but an incremental upgrade from the M1 chip is expected.

Notched MiniLED Display?

Apple started using miniLED display technology on Macs with the 2021 MacBook Pro models. According to rumors, the technology could trickle down to the MacBook Air lineup in 2022. miniLED technology would help the 2022 MacBook Air display achieve sharper contrast and better color accuracy than its predecessor, among other things.

Additional rumors from Prosser and another leaker suggest that Apple will bring the MacBook Pro’s controversial notch to the MacBook Air as well. The inclusion of a notch means the size of the surrounding bezels can be reduced. It will also allow Apple to use a higher resolution FaceTime camera.

Considering the price point and target audience, the M2 MacBook won’t feature 120Hz ProMotion display as well.

Just ‘MacBook’

Prosser and leaker Dylandkt on Twitter claim that Apple could drop the “Air” branding with the upcoming model and could instead just be “MacBook.” Apple usually keeps its naming and associated marketing under wraps until launch day, so it isn’t clear if this will happen. If it does, there won’t be much confusion in the company’s product lineup because Apple discontinued the vanilla MacBook years ago.

The M2 MacBook Air is not expected to feature the same set of external ports like its Pro sibling. So, there will be no microSD card slot, HDMI port, or ProMotion display. So, the “MacBook” naming convention would make sense.

https://twitter.com/dylandkt/status/1451273835085537284?s=20

Price and Availability

Rumors suggest that the M2 MacBook Air will debut sometime in mid-2022, although an exact timeline hasn’t been ascertained yet. Reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple will start mass-producing the M2 MacBook Pro late in Q2 or early in Q3 this year, indicating the notebook could launch around August or September. Meanwhile, Dylandkt believes Apple will announce the new MacBook Air in H1 2022 but doesn’t provide more detail.

As far as pricing goes, the MacBook Air in the pipeline is expected to be a tad bit pricier than the current-generation MacBook Air that starts at $999. We believe the price increase would be due to the inclusion of the miniLED display, a redesigned M2 chip, and new molds and manufacturing processes required for the chassis.

Are you looking forward to the release of the M2 MacBook Air? For what improvements are you most hopeful? Tell us in the comments section below!