Battery Likely for New MacBook Air Again Spotted in Certification Listings

Rumors suggest an updated MacBook Air could be launching sooner rather than later, and we've already seen certifications for a possible ‌MacBook Air‌ battery recently filed in China and Denmark. Now the same battery has appeared on Safety Korea Certification, along with an image of the battery that strongly suggests it's for a new ‌MacBook Air‌ model (via 91mobiles).

The current ‌MacBook Air‌ has a 49.9Wh battery, which is matched in this new model type (A2389) featuring a 4380mAh capacity. The model number A1965 has been used in the last few ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌ generations.

We're still none the wiser about exactly when a new ‌MacBook Air‌ might launch, because regulatory bodies sometimes approve and test new hardware months before a new product comes out. However, several rumors have suggested that the ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌ will be one of the first Macs to get an Apple Silicon chip, and the new Arm-based machine could come before the end of 2020.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ will be one of the first Macs to be updated with an ‌Apple Silicon‌ chip, with an update set to come in the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021. DigiTimes also believes the Arm-based ‌MacBook Air‌ will be released in 2020.

Apple has confirmed that it will be transitioning to its own custom ‌Apple Silicon‌ processors, and said we can expect new Arm-based Macs before the end of the year, but it didn't give away which Mac model would be the first Apple Silicon-powered machine.

Apple already updated the ‌MacBook Air‌ in March 2020 with more internal storage, 10th-generation Intel processors, and a more reliable scissor-switch keyboard, but it's not out of the question that a second update could come this year given the swap to ‌‌Apple Silicon‌‌ chips.

In addition to performance benefits, ‌Apple Silicon‌‌ chips are expected to be much more power efficient than the current Intel chips used in the ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌ lineup. That could see the same 49.9Wh battery improve upon the current ‌MacBook Air‌'s 11 hours of battery life when browsing the web and up to 12 hours when using the Apple TV app for watching movies.

For more on what we're expecting for the next ‌‌MacBook Air‌‌, check out our MacBook Air roundup, and for details on Apple's transition to ‌‌Apple Silicon‌‌ chips, read our in-depth guide.