Apple working on high-end MacBook Air, bringing back SD card slot and more to the MacBook Pro range

For fans of Apple hardware, 2021 is shaping up as a big year in terms of new hardware announcements across the board. However, the range most likely to see the biggest revamps will be Apple’s Mac line as the company looks to take advantage of the thinner and lighter designs made possible by its outstanding new Apple silicon for Macs. We already knew that Apple is looking to introduce new designs for its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, but it is now also looking to introduce redesigned high-end MacBook Air as well.

Although Apple updated the MacBook Air range late last year with the new Apple M1 SoC, it stuck with the current design. The redesign will be more high-end and feature a display with much narrower bezels. It will also be thinner and lighter and include four USB 4 ports, up from the two that are included on the current model. As with the forthcoming MacBook Pro range, it will also reintroduce a MagSafe charging solution. It will retain a 13-inch display size, although Apple did consider also introducing a 15-inch model as well before putting that idea on ice. Expect to see the new MacBook Air model in the second half of 2021.

As we recently reported, the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models due in the middle of the year will be dropping the controversial Touch Bar, picking up a MagSafe connector while also regaining a range of ports. Bloomberg is now also reporting that one of these new ports will be an SD card reader that was included in MacBook Pro models prior to the 2016 USB-C only redesign. While the USB-C port on the MacBook Pro models (which also included the versatile Thunderbolt 3 standard built into it), are incredibly versatile, many MacBook Pro users of 2016 models onwards have been forced to carry unsightly multi-port dongles around with them to help maintain their regular workflows.

Buy the Apple M1 MacBook Air from Amazon.