Apple gives MacBooks processor upgrade

Apple has upgraded its 12″ MacBook with Intel’s Skylake-generation processors and faster RAM and storage. The battery life has been improved, according to the company. The MacBook Air models will not receive a processor upgrade.

Apple will ship the MacBook with Intel Skylake processors from Tuesday. The cheapest version gets an Intel Core m3 with a clock speed of 1.1GHz and boost to 2.2GHz. The more expensive version gets a Core m5 with a clock speed of 1.2GHz and boost to 2.7GHz. Both models can also be equipped with the Core m7 at 1.3GHz and with boost to 3.1GHz. It appears to be Intel’s Core m3-6Y30, m5-6Y54 and m7-6Y75 with slightly increased default speeds.

The update also ensures that the graphics capacities have been improved: the GPU of the chips is the HD Graphics 515. This is a GPU of the ninth generation with clock speeds from 300MHz to 1000MHz, which according to Intel performs a lot better than the HD 5300 from the Broadwell generation of Core m. Simultaneously with the processor update, the MacBooks get faster memory: it concerns 1866MHz lppddr3 with an amount of 8GB.

According to Apple, the PCI-e flash memory is also faster, without giving details about this. The company states that the laptop’s battery life is now ten hours when surfing the Internet and eleven hours when watching movies on iTunes, an hour longer than the previous MacBook, but it is not known in which scenario these values ​​were measured exactly. Prices have remained the same: the cheapest version with Core m3 and 256GB flash storage costs 1449 euros, while the Core m5 variant with 512GB storage has a price of 1799 euros. Also new is that the laptop is also available in pink.

Interestingly enough, the MacBook Air laptops do not get a processor upgrade. However, Apple does report that the 13″ versions now have 8GB of memory as standard. This feeds the rumors that the MacBook Air models are slowly being phased out by Apple.