Apple has pushed back the next-gen MacBook Air to later in 2022, and no more high-end MacBook Pro launches are expected until next year – but there will be a Pro 13-inch overhaul, or at least that’s the latest word from the rumor mill.
All this comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a well-known Apple leaker, who broke this latest speculation via his newsletter (as flagged up by MacRumors).
Gurman asserts that it was Apple’s original intention to launch the fully redesigned MacBook Air powered by a next-gen M2 chip at the end of last year, or early in 2022, but obviously that didn’t happen (the refreshed Air was certainly a strong tip for Apple’s most recent launch event – but didn’t show up).
Apple hasn’t been able to stick to this original timeframe, apparently, and so is now planning on launching the MacBook Air in the second half of 2022.
As for other MacBooks, we won’t see any new MacBook Pro 14-inch or 16-inch models this year, so Apple will not be debuting anything in that category until 2023, Gurman observes. When those refreshed higher-end MacBook Pro versions do turn up, they will likely sport M2 Pro and M2 Max SoCs.
However, the Apple leaker believes that we could see a revamped MacBook Pro 13-inch – the base model – turn up at some stage this year, and that could sport the M2 chip which is also destined for the next MacBook Air as mentioned.
Of course, with the MacBook Air being so strongly rumored in recent times, it’s a good bet that it’s still in the cards to appear from Apple, and the most likely launch slot would be at a big Apple event in the fall. This ties in with another heavyweight Apple leaker, Ming-Chi Kuo, predicting that the redesigned MacBook Air could hit mass production in Q3 (or maybe late Q2), and so would be launched not too far down the line after that.
Elsewhere on the grapevine, inside sources who spoke to 9to5Mac have theorized that we will see a new MacBook Air and fresh MacBook Pro 13-inch later in 2022, both with M2 chips – echoing the forecast just provided by Gurman.
So, this latest prediction backs up what has been floating around via the rumor mill already, and seemingly underlines the likelihood of seeing at least the new MacBook Air at some point later this year. And of course maybe a Pro 13-inch refresh, as mentioned, on top, which could run with a pretty basic overhaul (just pepping up the processor to an M2 model, and that’s about all).
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Read MoreIntel has cautioned Alder Lake CPU owners that those with non-K (locked) processors shouldn’t try to overclock them, even though this might be possible with certain motherboards, as it could result in damage to the chip. If you’ve been following this story over the course of this week, expert overclocker Der8auer has been experimenting with majorly ramping up the clocks on non-K models like the Core i5-12400 (we’ve also seen a Core i3 world record), which should not be open to overclocking officially – Intel’s ‘K’ CPUs are the products which are unlocked and meant for overclocking. Even though it is technically possible to overclock a non-K Alder Lake processor, using the unlock BCLK feature in the BIOS of some (higher-end and upper mid-range) motherboards, Intel warns against doing so. The chip giant told Tom’s Hardware: “Intel’s 12th Gen non-K processors were not designed for overclocking. Intel does not warranty the operation of processors beyond their specifications. Altering clock frequency or voltage may damage or reduce the useful life of the processor and other system components, and may reduce system stability and performance.” So, in short, applying an overclock will void the warranty on your non-K chip, and could result in an unstable system, and perhaps damage the CPU and reduce its expected lifespan. Of course, we knew this about overclocking anyway. Overclocking is, at its heart, a balance between seeing how hard you can push clock speeds up, without affecting system stability; or rather, enthusiast or extreme overclocking is. Many PC owners can be much more conservative in their overclocking endeavors, and just plump for smaller bumps in clock speed and performance, which aren’t likely to affect stability or reliability of the chip at all. However, the whole point of ramping up a non-K 12th-gen chip, as Der8auer has been doing, is to turn a relatively lowly and affordable CPU into a value-packed monster. And, of course, the additional point Intel is making here is that these processors are not designed to be overclocked, so will (presumably) suffer more when being pushed beyond their normal capacity. The danger is you could end up with a short-lived Alder Lake CPU, and of course no warranty protection if it does go up in smoke. Interestingly, as Tom’s points out, Der8auer has also just let us know that one major motherboard maker is working on a cheaper B660 board which supports DDR4, and has the functionality for a non-K overclock to be applied. It was previously feared that only B660 motherboards with DDR5 support will work – with that new memory standard being an expensive proposition, running against the whole point of using a cheaper non-K Alder Lake CPU to get a big overclock and much better performance. But with Intel’s warning pouring cold water on this whole idea somewhat, many punters will now likely be steering clear of this route anyway. The fact is that now Intel has come out and made its stance clear on the idea of non-K overclocking, Team Blue is even more likely to do what we predicted in the first place – patch out this overclock capability, likely sooner rather than later. Rumor has it that the presence of the unlock BCLK feature for overclocking could’ve been an error on Intel’s part anyway – a mistake in the microcode – which future BIOS updates are likely to correct, by the look of things.
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Hong Kong customs authorities have reportedly seized around 300 Nvidia CMP 30HX cards that were apparently being smuggled into the country for use in large cryptomining farms.
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