2015 MacBook Air Rumors Heat Up with New Leaked Photos

Photos of what appear to be the lid display of the rumored 2015 MacBook Air have leaked, giving us an idea on how big the new notebook could be.

The photos come from Chinese website iFanr and they show the alleged 12-inch MacBook Air lid assembly compared to the iPad and a 13-inch MacBook for size comparison. It’s also said that the display assembly shown in the photos is a Retina-quality display, although the exact resolution is unknown at this point.

One aspect of this lid assembly that we see in the photos is that it doesn’t have a transparent Apple logo that all other MacBooks have, allowing the light the light from the display produce a humble glow of the logo. Instead, the Apple logo is a brushed finish just like on the iPad. We’re not sure if this means that Apple is going in another direction with its MacBook logos, or if the photos are completely fake because of this.

With that said, we’ll have to take this one with a big grain of salt for now.

We’ve heard a handful of rumors already about the 2015 MacBook Air, namely that it could come with a fanless design and fewer ports on the sides, equipped with new Type-C USB connections. Past reports have also suggested that the new machines will also come with Intel’s Broadwell line of processors, which should offer a bit of a performance boost, as well as one heck of a battery life boost.

The new Broadwell Core M processors are designed to run at a ridiculously-low 4.5 watts, which if you don’t know a lot about how much power processors use, 4.5 watts is just crazy low. Thus, these new chips are destined for the next-generation fanless MacBook Air.

Likewise, these new chips run at lower frequencies, which means they’re a little slower than what most mid-tier processors run at, but the trade-off is way better battery life.

However, a recent report suggested that Apple could ditch Intel in favor of its own in-house processor, perhaps the A10X. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple’s A-series processor will reach a level of performances that’s comparable to Intel’s Atom and Core i3 lines within the next couple of years. Kuo says that using in-house processors for MacBooks will allow Apple to have more control over the release cycle for its laptops.

This makes perfect sense, as 2014 was a rather lackluster year for the MacBook, as both the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro only received minor upgrades, and Kuo says that it’s because there were delays on Intel’s Broadwell CPUs. If Apple had been using its own A-series chips, the company wouldn’t need to rely on third-party manufacturers when deciding on a release timeline.

Whether or not this actually happens is up in the air, but Kuo has been spot on with many of his Apple reports, so while we’re taking this one with a grain of salt, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple make a move like this.

Production for the 2015 MacBook Air is rumored to have already begun, as it’s said that suppliers have started to accelerate the manufacturing of the various components, essentially putting the 12-inch MacBook Air on a release timeline that could be ahead of schedule, aimed for March or around that time window.

The new 2015 MacBook Air is expected to come with a 12-inch Retina display and will likely replace the existing 11-inch MacBook Air, suggesting that the new 12-inch model will be the new entry-level MacBook Air, while the 13-inch MacBook Air will continue to sell in Apple Stores.

Of course, there are some details that we don’t know about yet, even through rumors, including the price point, but if Apple does indeed replace the 11-inch model with the new 12-inch MacBook Air, it could be fairly inexpensive.