In a surprising turn of events, Apple this morning updated the world’s most popular MacBook Air with the latest M3 chip that was introduced in both the 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac last October. Thanks to the M3 chip, the new MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the MacBook Air with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air. With the latest technologies in AI coming out this year, the MacBook Air is going to be a great laptop for AI thanks to the next-generation Neural Engine that’s built into M3. You’ll enjoy the same battery life of up to 18 hours depending on usage and configuration, and thanks to the AV1 decode engine, you’ll get better efficiency when streaming content on streaming services.
In addition, the MacBook Air now has Wi-Fi 6E for faster download speeds. We’ve seen the rest of the Mac lineup adopting this new standard, so it’s nice that it made its way to the Air. But what’s new with the MacBook Air is that it can support up to two external displays with the lid closed. Previous generations of MacBook Air with Apple Silicon could only support up to one external display. This is the first for a standard M-series chip*, so it’ll surely resolve that limitation that many customers have criticized.
The MacBook Air both comes in 13-inch and 15-inch sizes, and it still comes in the same four gorgeous colors as the M2 – silver, space gray, starlight, and midnight, which uses a breakthrough anodization seal to reduce fingerprints similar to that on the Space Black MacBook Pros.
So with the introduction of the new MacBook Air, here’s the current lineup of standard configurations:
- M2 13-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/8c GPU/8GB UM/256GB SSD) for $999
- M2 13-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/10c GPU/8GB UM/512GB SSD) for $1,199
- M3 13-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/8c GPU/8GB UM/256GB SSD) for $1,099
- M3 13-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/10c GPU/8GB UM/512GB SSD) for $1,299
- M3 13-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/10c GPU/16GB UM/512GB SSD) for $1,499
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/10c GPU/8GB UM/256GB SSD) for $1,299
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/10c GPU/8GB UM/512GB SSD) for $1,499
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air with (8c CPU/10c GPU/16GB UM/512GB SSD) for $1,699
As you can see, Apple discontinued the M1 MacBook Air after being in the market for over three years. It was such a noteworthy product because it was one of the first Macs that was introduced with Apple Silicon. However, the M2 13-inch Air has taken the former’s place, so it now starts at under $1,000. The M2 15-inch MacBook Air is also discontinued.
When comparing specs for specs, it looks like the 15-inch model is now $200 more expensive than the 13-inch model when configured with the same specs. Previously, it was only a $100 upgrade on the larger screen size for the M2 lineup.
What’s even more worth pointing out is that you can now get a MacBook Air with 16GB unified memory as a standard configuration, so you’ll certainly see a lot of sales for that model in the coming months. (The biggest complaint for the M3 MacBook Pro is that it starts with 8GB of unified memory.)
You can order the new MacBook Air today, and it’ll be available on March 8 at Apple Retail Stores and Authorized Resellers.
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*Apple has confirmed with 9to5Mac that the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro will also support up to two external monitors when the lid is closed via a software update (most likely macOS Sonoma 14.4)
