2011 MacBook Air Sandy Bridge Processors Listed by Intel Already

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The new MacBook Air could be available in black later this summer, but that’s not the first thing I would look at. What I’m interested in, and I’m sure you are too, is what the new MacBook Airs will pack under the hood.

We’ve seen plenty of MacBook Air rumors lately, but we’re yet to offer you a complete rundown of specs and features. We do know the Air will come with Sandy Bridge processors, Thunderbolt I/O support and Mac OS X Lion on board, but that’s pretty much we have on these new laptops.

But we do appear to have more details about the new Sandy Brige processors Intel is going to provide Apple for Air usage. In fact we’re looking today at pricing details for three new ULV (ultra low voltage) Intel chips which we’ve seen mentioned in a previous rumor: the Core i7-2677M, the Core i7-2647M and the Core i5-2557M. Here are more details about each of them:

• Core i7-2677M: dual cores running at 1.8 GHz (peaking to 2.9GHz), 4MB cache, listing for $317
• Core i7-2637M: dual cores running at 1.7GHz (peaking to 2.8GHz), 4MB cache, listing for $289
• Core i5-2557M: dual cores running at 1.7GHz (peaking to 2.7GHz), 3MB cache, listing for $250

These new CPUs are going to require 17 watts as opposed to 25-35 watts which other Sandy Bridge processors found in MacBook Airs require. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see Intel pitch the same processors other ultra-thin laptop venders. After all the Air spawned a new type of mobile device that’s catching on quick: ultra-portable, ultra-light laptops, ready for a lot of computing on the go.

I for one can’t wait for Apple to reduce the size of the current MacBook Pros too and make them a lot more similar to current Air models. Because the fact that the Air stops at 13-inches is a good reason for me not to actually consider purchasing one just yet.