An Apple battery has received a safety certification in South Korea, and the design and specifications indicate it could be destined for a future 13-inch MacBook Air model, possibly the model that will feature the first ARM-based Apple Silicon.
Apple announced its new Apple Silicon-powered Macs during this year’s WWDC keynote in June. At the time, the Cupertino firm announced the first Apple Silicon-based Mac will ship by the end of the year.
The battery certification was spotted by @yabhishekhd and reported by 91mobiles.
A MacBook Air battery with model number A2389 has received the Safety Korea certification this week. The same battery model with a capacity of 4,380mAh was spotted a few days ago on 3C and UL Demko certifications. At the time, the battery was speculated to be for the MacBook rather than an iPhone or iPad due to the voltage. Now, live image of the battery on the Safety Korea site confirms that it is indeed for an upcoming MacBook Air.
The battery’s specs are listed as 11.39V, 49.9W with a capacity of 4380mAh. This lines up well with the battery used in the 2020 MacBook Air, which it also physically resembles. However, there is no way to know whether a new MacBook Air will be powered by an Intel processor or by Apple Silicon.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said he expects the Apple Silicon 13.3-inch MacBook Pro to go into mass production in the last quarter of this year, and that we’ll see an ARM-based MacBook Air either in the same quarter or in the first quarter of 2021.
Although the battery is nearly identical to the one currently being used in the MacBook Air, Apple Silicon is expected to be significantly more power-efficient, so battery life should get a considerable boost.
