After the refresh of the Macbook Pro back in February and then more recently the newlineup of iMacs, we turned our attention to the MacBook Air 2011 refresh. We noted recently that the new models could be coming in June or July, though nothing is yet confirmed, but we do have some news about the three new processors that are possible additions.
Other recent posts have included asking what price you would be willing to pay for improved MacBook Airs, and also what new features you’d like to see. We also told in an earlier article that likely features that most are expecting to see on the new Air’s are the Thunderbolt port, as on the new Pro and iMac’s, and also the latest Sandy Bridgeprocessors. Now it seems that Intel is working on three new ULV (ultra low voltage) Sandy Bridge processors, which would be suitable for the MacBook Air.
Current MacBook Airs still use the Core 2 Duo Processors and the three new Sandy Bridge dual-core processors rumored for the next MacBook Air are said to be due “later this year” according to Arnold Kim over on MacRumors, sourced from CPU World. However Apple is known to sometimes receive new Intel components before other companies can get their hands on them so it’s possible they might appear in the next refresh due soon. The three new processors under discussion would be a significant improvement on the current processors and they are the Core i5-2557M, the Core i7-2637M and the Core i7-2677M and you can see more details below.
As you can see the Core i5 processor with a 1.7GHz frequency can be turbo boosted to a speed of 2.7GHz and the superior Core i7 can be turbo boosted to speeds of 2.9GHz. A lot of people would be very pleased to see these processors in the MacBook Air 2011 refresh soon. The new processors also have graphics cores ranging from 350MHz to 1.2GHz. An article over on Cult of Mac also reports on these new processors, describing them as a “perfect fit” for the MacBook Air, so let’s hope that they do indeed make it to the next refresh.
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