Apple improves its fabulous MacBook Air with M3 chips

I continue to be so very excited at the rapid evolution of Apple Silicon and the fantastic Macs we now get to enjoy so I really wanted to mention that the company has introduce new 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air models equipped with the powerful M3 chip.

This is such great news for Mac users. Particularly as the 15-inch M2 MacBook Air is already a superb machine for most people.

But it’s not just the processor Apple has improved, the company has beefed the offer up with faster Wi-Fi 6E, and support for up to two external displays, all packed inside a totally totable product with up to 18-hours battery life.

So, what’s new in the world’s best-selling 13” and 15” notebooks?

Speed is the big improvement

Citing tests it conducted in January, Apple said: “With M3, MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the model with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air.”

Apple tells us the M3 chip in MacBook Air provides up to an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU and support for up to 24GB of unified memory.

The new chip is up to 60% faster than the M1 MacBook Air and 13 times faster than the fastest MacBook Air with an Intel chip (do you remember those?). I think that’s impressive. Do you?

The inclusion of support for two external displays should please many Mac users, while the Wi-Fi improvement – it’s up to twice as fast as before – should also make a difference.

Apple’s environmental push

The new MacBook Air is the first Apple product to be made with 50 percent recycled content, including 100 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets and, in another first for Apple, 100 percent recycled copper in the main logic board.

MacBook Air meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, and is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants, and PVC. The packaging is 99 percent fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by 2025.

Apple by 2030, plans to be carbon neutral across the entire manufacturing supply chain and the life cycle of every product.

What Apple said

“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 Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“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.”

What’s in the M3?

The GPU inside M3 is a big improvement. It means these MacBook Air models support hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, for more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows. It also includes the latest media engine with support for AV1 decode.

What this means in performance terms is that most of what you need to do gets a lot faster. Here are the statistics Apple shared:

• Game titles like No Man’s Sky run up to 60 percent 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 percent 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 percent 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 percent 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.¹

• Compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor, MacBook Air delivers up to 2x faster performance, up to 50 percent faster web browsing, and up to 40 percent longer battery life.¹

Apple wants you to build AI on Macs

Apple is pulling no punches on its journey to AI. It knows the 16-core Neural Engine inside these Macs makes them great machines for building and using AI – and this is far ahead of the competition. That space is one too watch as Apple gets things ready for its big AI related announcements across the rest of the year, (we think).

MacBook Air can also run optimized AI models, including large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image generation locally with great performance. In addition to on-device performance, MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions, enabling users to run powerful productivity and creative apps that tap into the power of AI, such as Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, Canva, and Adobe Firefly.

Additional specifications

• Liquid Retina display with up to 500 nits of brightness, support for 1 billion colors, and up to 2x the resolution of comparable PC laptops.
• MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
• 1080p FaceTime HD camera
• Three-mic array and enhanced voice clarity on audio and video calls.
• Sound system with support for Spatial Audio along with Dolby Atmos
• Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
• macOS Sonoma with

Pricing and availability

The new MacBook Air with M3 will be available starting Monday, March 4, on apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the U.S. It will begin arriving with customers March 8.

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,099 (U.S.) and $999 (U.S.) for education, and the 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,299 (U.S.) and $1,199 (U.S.) for education.

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2, available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray, now starts at $999 (U.S.) and $899 (U.S.) for education.

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