A new MacBook may be on the way, but I will not buy it until Apple has emptied Intel of its own chip.

Apple has finally sent invitations to its biannual fall event which is expected to lead to new products: a brand new iPad Pro with USB-C, slim cases and a Face ID. We could also see a new Mac mini supposedly aimed at business users, updated iMacs and a new low-cost MacBook.

Even though an updated Mac mini is the kind of version of flying pigs that I believe when I see it, I'm more intrigued by the MacBook. Since the era of polycarbonate, the original iBook G4 and MacBook, Apple has sold a low-budget laptop. Of course, the current MacBook Air is priced at $ 999, but it has many compromises: a screen without retina, an obsolete processor and aging ports. And above is the ordinary MacBook, which is not a bargain with its starting price of $ 1,300.

IDG / Apple

And there is reason to believe that the new MacBook will not be just a cheaper version of the current MacBook. According to a report released in Bloomberg early this year, the new laptop will be a brand new model with MacBook Air styles and improved specifications:

The new laptop will look like the current MacBook Air, but will feature thinner frames around the screen. The display, which will remain about 13 inches, will be a higher-resolution "Retina" version used by Apple on other products.

It certainly looks attractive. Assuming it starts at $ 999 (Apple's definition for lower-cost laptops), a super-thin Retina powered laptop with lean hulls and USB-C will be an adorable machine that will surely fulfill the needs. 39, empty space under many trees. this Christmas.

As much as I would like to see the second coming of the affordable MacBook, I will not buy it. Why? As it will continue to use an Intel processor, it will at least wait another generation to know the true future of the Mac, without Intel. But it may be closer than we think.

Vision 2020 for the Mac

A report from Ming-Chi Kuo, very accurate, claims that Apple is designing its own A-series chip for the Mac, with an eye on the first machines arriving by 2020. According to 9to5Mac, Kuo claims that TSMC has already been used to make new chips, with the main benefit of being "out of the Intel processor release schedule". This means that Apple will not only be able to control the design of new chips, but also when they are ready.

Now, there is not necessarily a problem with Intel chips The high-end Apple range – MacBook Pro, iMac Pro and Mac Pro – has incredibly powerful processors, able to handle everything you can throw them. Even the old Mac Pro is a workaholic, with Intel Xeon E5 chips up to 12 cores.

Leif Johnson / IDG

But the low end is another story. The $ 999 MacBook Air has a 1.8 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, while the MacBook is powered by a 1.2-generation, dual-generation, 1.2-generation Intel Core m3 processor. These are already a few years old and the situation is even worse when it comes to graphics: Air uses an Intel HD Graphics 6000 card and the MacBook equipped with the Intel HD Graphics 615 unit.

If you buy the MacBook for anything other than light tasks, you will certainly feel a major difference between a MacBook and a MacBook Pro. Okay, he should Make the difference between a computer costing 999 dollars and another two times more expensive, but in the current state, Apple's low-end laptops are extremely undernourished. Heck, there is Chromebooks just as powerful.

And whatever the new versions of MacBook, the next versions of Apple will probably bring the same thing. Of course, the more modern MacBook Air chassis will look great, but the speed and graphics are likely to be as halted as in today's models. It is unlikely that we will see the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 processor in an economical model. So you can bet on a 8th generation m3 with (hopefully) the new Intel HD Graphics 620 card.

The anticipation makes me wait

It would not be a bad $ 1,000 MacBook, but with rumors that a brand new A-series laptop would arrive in the next 18 to 24 months, I would much rather wait. On the one hand, we've already seen the kind of senseless gears and graphics power that Apple can offer with its custom silicon for iPhone and iPad, and Apple fans are salivating under the specter of ## 147 ## 39, a custom Mac chip for years. Now it is possible that Kuo is mistaken, but since Bloomberg launched this rumor in April, there is a lot of credible smoke not to have a fire.

Dan Masaoka / IDG

A Mac series A would greatly increase the bar of what Apple can do with the Mac. Obviously, there is performance, but there is also battery life, seamless cross-compatibility with the iPhone, AI integration with Siri, identification of the face, the AR – the list is long. And that's not even talking about what it means for OS X and the Marzipan project. Of course, Apple can easily check many of these boxes using Intel's chips, but again, it seems unlikely that it will not bother him if he's already working hard on a post-PC. PC.

So unless Apple is shocking the world with a MacBook equipped with the A13 later this month, I will not talk about this one. And probably the refresh of next year too. I would rather wait a year or two than get stuck in a slow machine when the real revolution comes.