Disappointed that Apple said nothing about the MacBook Air, iPhone SE, or iPad during all the hubbub back during the Apple Event in October? It won’t be long now until Apple releases the latest iterations of all of them, if rumors are to be believed.
We know Apple is working on them, and given their histories of release dates and the intervals at which they were last updated, we can expect Apple announcements for all of them to begin trickling in any day now. Here’s what’s on the platter to be served up in the next few months.
macbook air m4
We knew it was coming, but Apple rarely releases new Air and Pro lineups at the same time, and so it was the Air this time that had to wait. Everybody’s been clamoring for a MacBook Air with Apple’s in-house M4 chip ever since the MacBook Pro M4 lineup was released on November 11. People were out dispatching search and rescue helicopters to look for it, plastering its photo on milk cartons asking “Have you heard any news?”
Most people who don’t work with intensive programs, such as video or photo editing software, get by just fine with a MacBook Air rather than the heavier, bulkier, pricier Pro, and it becomes easier and easier to say that because every year Apple releases a more powerful version for roughly the same price.
Tom’s Guide’s benchmark tests show how damn fast the MacBook Air M3 was, and obviously the M4 will be even faster than that. Final details on when it’ll be announced or released are yet to come, but inline with most of the tech press, 9to5 Mac guesses the release will come in or around March, given that the MacBook Air M3 released on March 4 of last year.
11th-generation ipad
You’re right. You didn’t hallucinate a whole slew of new iPads for 2024. We got refreshes of the iPad Air, iPad Pro, and iPad Mini. But don’t forget there’s also the iPad, the base version in Apple’s tablet lineup. We know, it gets confusing.
We’re not expecting fireworks. Just a pleasantly acceptable update to the budget tablet whose current, 10th-generation iteration was released in October 2022 and is priced at a reasonable $350. The successor’s price is unknown as of yet, but we’d be surprised to see it raise much, if any, above that. Apple can’t have it cannibalizing sales from the $600 iPad Air.
Details are few. Surely it’ll have a faster chip, although which specific chip and how much faster, we don’t know. And it’s about time it got 8GB of RAM to help it speed through the glut of Chrome tabs people with poor tab discipline (people like me) tend to maintain, especially if Apple wants to roll out Apple Intelligence onto it.
iphone se 4
Citing reports from Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley and his colleagues during their visit to Asia to meet with “various electronics manufacturers and suppliers,” MacRumors says they’ve confirmed reports that the iPhone SE 4 is set to launch towards the end of Q1 2025. So, in or around March.
The budget iPhone will reportedly come with an Apple-designed 5G modem, so those looking for a more affordable Apple talk box won’t be stuck on old 4G LTE any longer. The rumored specs for the SE 4 are surprisingly beefy: 6.1-inch OLED screen, FaceID, a 48-megapixel camera (rear-facing), a USB-C port (so long, Lightning cable), 8GB of RAM, and support for Apple Intelligence.
By the time the iPhone SE 4 comes out, the current SE 3 will be three years old. Even back in March 2022 when it was announced, we felt its feature lineup was lacking and partly outdated. No FaceID and thick bezels weren’t attractive. It looks like Apple has wisened up to the fact that some folks do want a cheap iPhone, as long as it doesn’t scream cheap.
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