Apple has updated its popular MacBook Air line, with the strikingly thin and light 13" and 15" models now imbued with the powerful Apple M3 chip. The new model has faster Wi-Fi, up to 18 hours of battery life, and supports up to two external displays.
The new Apple silicon M3 chip is up to 60% faster than the M1 chip, and up to a staggering 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air. Yet, more power doesn't necessarily mean lesser battery life - the M3 includes a more efficient neural engine, and brings up to 18 hours of battery life despite being more powerful than ever before, having 2x faster Wi-Fi than the previous generation, and still being stunningly thin and light.
It also brings new capabilities, including support for up to two external displays. The MacBook Air continues to be available in four colours - midnight, starlight, space grey, and silver. Midnight now features a breakthrough anodisation seal to reduce fingerprints, and continues to include Magsafe charging, a fanless design, and a high-quality camera, mics, and speaker.
The brand new 13" and 15" MacBook Air M3 models can be ordered now, with availability beginning on Friday 8 March 2024.
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“MacBook Air is our most popular and loved Mac, with more customers choosing it over any other laptop. And today it gets even better with the M3 chip and new capabilities,” said Apple senior VP worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak. “From college students pursuing their degrees, to business users who need powerful productivity, or anyone who simply wants the unmatched combination of performance, portability, and industry-leading battery life, all in a fanless design, the new MacBook Air continues to be the world’s best thin and light laptop.”
The new M3 chip has been built using industry-leading three-nanometre technology, with an eight-core CPU, up to 10-core GPU and support for up to 24GB of unified memory. It delivers excellent buttery-smooth speed and performance in everyday productivity, demanding tasks like photo and video editing, software development, and virtualisation. Plus, with the next-gen M3 GPU it supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing to give more realistic gaming experiences and media creation.
Some specific numbers:
- Game titles like No Man’s Sky run up to 60 per cent faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M1 chip.
- Enhancing an image with AI using Photomator’s Super Resolution feature is up to 40 per cent faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 15x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
- Working in Excel spreadsheets is up to 35 per cent faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 3x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
- Video editing in Final Cut Pro is up to 60 per cent faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 13x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
- Compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor, MacBook Air delivers up to 2x faster performance, up to 50 per cent faster web browsing, and up to 40 per cent longer battery life.
The 16-core neural engine, plus CPU and GPU accelerators, means the new MacBook Air with M3 is ready for AI, with powerful camera features, real-time speech-to-text, translation, text predictions, visual understanding, and much more.
Compatible apps that deliver AI features include AI Math Assistance in Goodnotes 6, photo enhancement in Pixelmator Pro, and background video noise removal in CapCut. It can run optimised AI models, large language models, image generation diffusion models, and more. As well as on-device apps, the MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions with powerful productivity and creativity apps like Canva, Adobe Firefly, and Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.
The new MacBook Air models continue to have a gorgeous liquid retina display, features Wi-Fi 6E, includes Spatial Audio support along with Dolby Atmos, along with its quiet backlit Magic Keyboard with a full-height function row with Touch ID.
The new MacBook Air is also the first Apple product to be made with 50% recycled content, including 100% recycled aluminium in the enclosure, 100% recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100% recycled copper in the main logic board. The packaging is 99% fibre-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by 2025.
The new MacBook Air with M3, 13" and 15", is available for order now, and will begin arriving in stores and to customers from Friday 8 March 2024.
The 13" MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,799, and $1,649 for Education. The 15" MacBook Air with M3 starts at $2,199, and $1,999 for Education. The existing 13" MacBook Air with M2 has now been repriced to $1,599, and $1,439 for education. Trade-in options are still available for credit towards a new Mac.