Are these the specs of the upcoming refresh of the MacBook Air? (Updated)

Looking forward to the refreshes of Apple’s MacBook Air? If you have, you will be interested to know that specs of the upcoming MacBook Airs have been leaked, which could possibly be rumors or the real thing, but we’ll let you decide that for yourself.

For starters, most of us probably know that the refresh of the MacBook Airs will most probably be featuring OS X Lion, and some have speculated that the delay in the refresh was due to Apple wanting to wait for OS X Lion to be finalized before installing them on the new MacBook Airs. Other common speculations have also been about how the new MacBook Airs will feature Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, which seems to make sense as the Core 2 Duos are practically ancient. It has also been speculated that the new laptops will feature a Thunderbolt port along with backlit keyboards, a feature that was missing in the previous generation’s MacBook Air.

According to 9to5 Mac who quoted Mr X., who is supposedly a reliable source, the new MacBook Airs will feature:

11.6 inch models:

• The base model will include a 1.6 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 64GB of flash storage.
• The more expensive standard configuration also includes a 1.6 GHz processor but upgrades the RAM to 4GB and the storage space to 128 GB.
• A built to order model will also be available from the online store. This option includes a 1.8 GHz processor (first for an 11.6 inch MacBook Air), 4GB of RAM, and for the first time in an 11.6 inch MacBook Air, 256 GB of flash storage.

13.3 inch models:

• The base standard configuration includes a 1.7 GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128 GB of flash storage
• The more expensive standard configuration also includes a 1.7 GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, but upgrades the storage to 256 GB.
• A built to order option will also be available and this includes a 1.8 GHz chip, 4GB of RAM, and 256 GB of flash storage

Naturally this is merely speculation, and it could be false for all we know. Given that OS X Lion will be hitting the stores today, many seem to think that the new MacBook Airs will not be far behind, but for now, this is pretty much all that we have to go on for now. Since it’s impossible to call these facts, for the sake of discussion purposes, what is your take on the supposedly new hardware?

Update – As it turns out, Mr. X was indeed correct. The base model of the 11.6-inch MacBook Air will cost $999 while the more expensive model will go for $1199. The 13.3-inch base mode will cost $1299 with the more expensive model going for $1599. For those wondering about the graphics, both models will feature the Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with 256MB or 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Computers, Rumors
Tags: Intel, Laptops, Leaked, Macbook, os x lion, thunderbolt