It looks like the MacBook Air 2016 will miss out on Intel's seventh-generation processor. A new report claims the laptop will be powered by the Intel Skylake.
According to IHS Markit Technology director for tablet and notebook PCs Rhoda Alexander, Apple began the production of the laptop during the second quarter of the year.
Around that time, the Intel Kaby Lake was not available yet, which means that the MacBook Air 2016 will still have the Skylake under its hood.
"Given the timing of the start of production, inclusion of Kaby Lake chip appears unlikely," Alexander stated during an interview with Forbes.
The publication pointed out that if this will be the case, the new MacBook Air will fail to benefit from the better graphics performance that the Intel Kaby Lake has to offer.
Meanwhile, Alexander also claimed that the MacBook Air 2016 will come with the same 13.3-inch display size and will be released this month or October, with Forbes saying the latter is more likely.
On the other hand, Bloomberg reported that the MacBook Air 2016 will come with multi-functional USB-C port technology. It is also expected to come with models powered by AMD Polaris graphics cards.
The notebook will also benefit from the new macOS Sierra operating system, which, among others, finally brings the Siri digital assistant to the Mac and allows Apple Pay transactions on the web.
The rest of the MacBook Air 2016's specifications and features remain under tight wraps for now, although fans can count on tweaks on the design and the build. However, only small changes were made, seeing that the MacBook Air is updated yearly, unlike the MacBook Pro, which will receive a drastic makeover seeing that it is four years since it got a refresh.
Bloomberg also claimed that the MacBook Air 2016 will be launched next month along with the new MacBook Pro and iMac, as well as a 5K standalone display that Apple developed with LG.
