Next MacBook Air Powered by M2, To Come in Multiple Colors: Report

If a new rumor is to be believed, Apple wasn’t done using color with its new M1 iMac series: the design aesthetic is coming to the next MacBook Air as well.

Famed Apple leaker Jon Prosser, who has a pretty decent track record, has released a set of new renders that he says is indicative of MacBook Air designs he was shown from his own source at the company.

The renders feature several notable changes to the current MacBook Air design. The most obvious change is that the computer will supposedly be available in one of seven colors: Silver, Blue. Yellow, Orange. Pink, Purple, and Green. Not coincidently, those are the same colors that Apple’s newly-announced M1 iMacs are available in.

Additionally, Prosser’s renders show that the colors continue on the inside of the machines except for the thin bezels around the monitor and the keyboard keys which he was told will be white. This is in contrast to how Apple has designed its laptops in the past and all the way up to the most recent M1 MacBooks, which feature black bezels and black keys. The whole chassis is also thinner than before, with just enough height to fit a USB-C port.

One more note on those bezels: they’re quite thin. Prosser does admit that the size of the bezels was mostly a guess, but getting this small wouldn’t be crazy. As Digital Trends points out, other 13-inch laptops with 16:10 displays like the Dell XPS 13 and the Razer Book 13 already feature similarly thin bezels.

Prosser tends to get a lot right when it comes to features or generalities, but how products actually end up looking is where Prosser’s rumors tend to break up.

While he totally nailed that Apple was going to release the iMac in several colors, he struck out on what exactly those colors would be and how Apple actually ended up physically designing the computers. While many still hope for a pro-level iMac later this year that will look pretty much exactly like the Pro XDR Display, at least for now the iconic iMac “chin” ended up coming forward to the new designs despite what Prosser’s initial renders promised.

Finally, Prosser says this particular design won’t feature M1, but the new M2. It isn’t clear when Apple would release these new MacBook Air designs, but the company did reportedly start production on the next generation M chips late last month, which puts them on schedule for release in devices by the fall — a typical launch window for the company. Apple announced the M1 processor as well as the current MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro last November.


Image credits: All renders by Ian Zelbo for John Prosser.

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