New MacBook Air specs revealed

20 Oct 2010

Ahead of the impending launch of the new 11.6-inch Macbook Air at the ‘Back to the Mac’ event in Silicon Valley, specifications have surfaced on the internet for the new device.

Apple is rumoured to be planning to launch an 11.6-inch MacBook Air as well as new software like GarageBand ’11, iMovie ’11, iPhoto ’11 and the next version of Mac OS X 10.7 (tentatively called Lion).

Popular consumer tech website Engadget has quoted a trusted source who had a working model in their possession for a few minutes and gleaned the following information:

  • Smaller 11.6-inch display.
  • 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (with a 2.33GHz option possible).
  • 2GB of memory in the base configuration.
  • No optical drive, naturally.
  • Mini DisplayPort, USB, and SD card reader along the left-hand side and USB and power on the right (that’s 2x USB).
  • The trackpad has been updated to match that of the new MacBook Pros.
  • Although smaller due to the 11.6-inch display, it’s still about the same thickness as the current MacBook Air.
  • A black power key now sits immediately to the right of a smaller eject key on the MBA’s keyboard – the round aluminum power button is gone. A design decision that might support the MBA’s rumoured instant-on capabilities though the source didn’t see this functionality exhibited (possibly because it was running OS X 10.6.4).

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com