Apple to refresh MacBook Air lineup with minor speed bumps on Tuesday: Report

Apple is to have started shipping slightly updated versions of its MacBook Air laptops across its showrooms in large quantities, with the intention to launch it on Tuesday in a mid-cycle refresh.

The news comes from a leaked image highlighting the purported specification bump in the 13-inch MacBook Air line up. The update is said to be focussed on the new series of slightly faster Intel Haswell processors. While the existing 13-inch MacBook Air comes with a 1.3GHz Intel Core i5 processor with a Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz, the upcoming model is said to come with the same processor but clocked at 1.4GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz, as per 9to5 Mac, which also reported the Wednesday release, citing multiple sources.

The yet-to-be announced MacBook Air refresh is said to retain the existing model's design and weight. In addition, a similar bump is expected across the standard MacBook Air lineup with models sporting 1.7GHz processors to reach 1.8GHz in the refresh. The new MacBook Air lineup is also expected to feature slightly different SSD configurations from the current generation.

Earlier this month, Apple was said to be readying a new, slimmer 12-inch MacBook Air, and a more affordable iMac to introduce it at its upcoming Worldwide Developer's Conference 2014. As per Ming-Chu Kuo, a Taiwan-based KGI Securities analyst, the new and thinner MacBook (which might or might not be called MacBook Air) will have a Retina-class display similar to Apple's higher-end MacBook Pro line-up. Kuo adds the new MacBook will come with even fewer ports for peripherals and expansion. It could be as light as the current 11-inch MacBook Air, but would feel more productive.

Kuo had added that Apple might also ditch its clickable trackpad in favour of a slimmer version with no moving parts on the new 12-inch MacBook, which is also expected to use a low-power Intel CPU, and might even be able to run without a fan.