Apple on Monday announced the new MacBook Air with the powerful M3 chip, taking its incredible combination of power-efficient performance and portability to a new level. 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.1 And with a faster and more efficient Neural Engine in M3, MacBook Air continues to be the world’s best consumer laptop for AI. The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air both feature a strikingly thin and light design, up to 18 hours of battery life,1 a stunning Liquid Retina display, and new capabilities, including support for up to two external displays and up to 2x faster Wi-Fi than the previous generation. With its durable aluminum unibody enclosure that’s built to last, the new MacBook Air is available in four gorgeous colors: midnight, which features a breakthrough anodization seal to reduce fingerprints; starlight; space gray; and silver. Combined with its world-class camera, mics, and speakers; MagSafe charging; its silent, fanless design; and macOS, MacBook Air delivers an unrivaled experience — making the 13-inch model the world’s bestselling laptop and the 15-inch model the world’s bestselling 15-inch laptop. Customers can order starting today, with availability beginning Friday, March 8.
“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, in a statement. “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.”
Blazing-Fast Performance with M3
Built using industry-leading 3-nanometer technology, the M3 chip brings even faster performance and more capabilities to MacBook Air. Featuring a powerful 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory, the new MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the model with M1 and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air.1 It also features up to 18 hours of battery life, which is up to six hours longer than an Intel-based MacBook Air.1 Users will feel the blazing speed of M3 in everything they do, from everyday productivity, to demanding tasks like photo and video editing, and software development. And with the next-generation GPU of M3, the new MacBook Air supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, offering more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for extremely realistic gaming experiences. It also includes the latest media engine with support for AV1 decode, providing more efficient and higher-quality video experiences from streaming services.
M3 takes MacBook Air performance even further:
• 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.
• 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.
World’s Best Consumer Laptop for AI
With the transition to Apple silicon, every Mac is a great platform for AI. M3 includes a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine, along with accelerators in the CPU and GPU to boost on-device machine learning, making MacBook Air the world’s best consumer laptop for AI. Leveraging this incredible AI performance, macOS delivers intelligent features that enhance productivity and creativity, so users can enable powerful camera features, real-time speech to text, translation, text predictions, visual understanding, accessibility features, and much more.
With a broad ecosystem of apps that deliver advanced AI features, users can do everything from checking their homework with AI Math Assistance in Goodnotes 6, to automatically enhancing photos in Pixelmator Pro, to removing background noise from a video using CapCut. Combined with the unified memory architecture of Apple silicon, 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.
World’s Most Popular Laptop
More people choose MacBook Air over any other laptop, and M3 raises the bar yet again with its phenomenal combination of performance, portability, and capabilities users love:
• Two perfect sizes in a super-portable design: With a durable aluminum enclosure that’s built to last, the 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air have fantastic battery life, are incredibly light, and are less than half an inch thin, so users can work, play, or create from anywhere. The 13-inch model provides the ultimate in portability, while the 15-inch model offers even more screen real estate for multitasking. There’s a perfect size for everyone, from students on the go to business professionals who prefer a larger screen.
• Gorgeous Liquid Retina display: MacBook Air features a brilliant 13.6- or 15.3-inch 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. Content looks vivid with sharp detail, and text appears super crisp.
• Support for up to two external displays: MacBook Air with M3 now supports up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed — perfect for business users, or anyone who requires multiple displays for multitasking across apps or spreading out documents at the same time.
• Versatile connectivity: MacBook Air with M3 features Wi-Fi 6E, which delivers download speeds that are up to twice as fast as the previous generation. It also includes MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
• Camera, mics, and speakers: With a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, users will look their best whether they’re connecting with friends and family, or collaborating with coworkers around the world. Users will also sound their best with a three-mic array and enhanced voice clarity on audio and video calls. MacBook Air features an immersive sound system with support for Spatial Audio along with Dolby Atmos, so users can enjoy three-dimensional soundstages for music and movies.
• Magic Keyboard and Touch ID: The comfortable and quiet backlit Magic Keyboard comes with a full-height function row with Touch ID, giving users a fast, easy, and secure way to unlock their Mac; sign in to apps and websites; and make purchases with Apple Pay — all with the touch of a finger.
Together with macOS, the MacBook Air experience is unrivaled:
• macOS Sonoma: Users can now place widgets right on the desktop, interact with them with just a click, and even access the extensive ecosystem of iPhone widgets on MacBook Air. Video conferencing gets more engaging with great features like Presenter Overlay and Reactions. Profiles in Safari keep browsing separate between multiple topics or projects, while web apps provide faster access to favorite websites. And gaming gets even better with Game Mode.
• Enhanced productivity: All users, including business professionals, can take advantage of the expansive display on MacBook Air with Split View, or spread out across screens with support for up to two external displays. Features like Stage Manager also help users like students focus on the task in front of them.
• Better with iPhone: With Continuity, MacBook Air works seamlessly across iPhone and other Apple devices. Features like AirDrop allow users to share and receive photos, documents, and more across nearby Apple devices. Universal Clipboard lets users easily copy images, video, or text from an app on one Apple device, and effortlessly paste them into another app on a nearby Mac. Continuity Camera makes it easy for users to scan or take a picture of something nearby with their iPhone and have it appear instantly on their Mac. And Handoff lets them start a task like answering an email on one Apple device and easily finish it on another.
• Wide array of apps: MacBook Air comes with powerful apps built in, including FaceTime, Freeform, iMovie, GarageBand, and Photos, as well as productivity apps including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, making it easy for users to create amazing work. And with thousands of apps optimized for Apple silicon, all of users’ go-to apps run incredibly fast in macOS — including Microsoft 365 and many of their favorite iOS apps.
Pricing and Availability
• Customers can order the new MacBook Air with M3 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 to customers, and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, starting Friday, March 8.
• The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at US$1,099 and $999 for education, and the 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,299 and $1,199 for education. Both are available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray.
• The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2, available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray, now starts at $999 and $899 for education.
• Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options, and accessories are available at apple.com/mac.
• With Apple Trade In, customers can trade in their current computer and get credit toward a new Mac. Customers can visit apple.com/shop/trade-in to see what their device is worth.
• When customers shop at Apple using Apple Card, they can pay monthly at 0 percent APR for their new MacBook Air when they choose to check out with Apple Card Monthly Installments, and they’ll get 3 percent Daily Cash back — all upfront.
• Every customer who buys a Mac from their Apple Store can enjoy a free Online Personal Session with an Apple Specialist, get their product set up — including help with data transfer — and receive guidance on how to get the most out of their new Mac.
MacDailyNews Take: This’ll move some MacBook Air units!
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They still start off with 8Gb RAM on both and $200 for 8 more.
Yeah, I agree that’s getting kinda old.
Well, I ordered mine with maxed out RAM and a 1TB HD in Midnight.
I’m glad they’re doing something to address the fingerprint issue with the Midnight, but I wish they’d boosted the brightness nits. I get that Apple would like the MBPros to have greater specs, but I think they could have boosted the Air to 750 nits and still let the MBPros have their 1000.
I’m fine upgrading from the M2 to the M3 on the basis of the 3 nano processor, but it’s strange Apple made no attempt to boost battery size or life. It’s been nearly 2 years since the M2 Air was released so I wonder why that clearly wasn’t a priority.
I’m surprised it’s not noticeably faster than the M2 too. It would seem the M3 would at least provide better battery life, if not a speed boost. So I’m not sure what it will feel like when I finally get mine.
And is it just me, but since Apple killed the AppleCar, does their languaging about AI sound a little rushed, or forced? “AI performance,” and “AI features,” just feel a bit “bandwagonny” to me when we have zero information about Apple’s AI plans.
AAPL is taking another big hit today. While there are some that are praising Apple’s reverse out of the EV market, it seems like fans and investors alike are hoping Apple has an AI Wow for us in June.
The VisionPro is very cool, but isolating. As spectacular as watching an Apple TV+ film on it is, my girlfriend doesn’t have one, so I don’t grab mine as often as I might. But even when I’m alone in my office, I still tend to lean towards watching my 65″ flat screen over the VisionPro. I’ve always been an early adopter, so this is an unfamiliar feeling for me.
I hope Timo can right the ship and get fans like us excited about something more than more of the same.
What would Jobs do? 🤔
The extra USB-C port on the MacBook Pros makes a big difference, I don’t see how I’d get my setup to work with any less than three. I even use a Satechi hub to turn one into two. That’s the biggest nickel-and-dime with the Airs for me (even on the new base MBP it’s only 2). I keep mine in clamshell mode 99% of the time so the notch, screen, brightness, keyboard, camera, Touch ID etc. are mostly irrelevant.
As an investor I’m not too satisfied. The Apple Car being axed is almost definitely the right move but it seems to have happened a few years too late. Apple Vision Pro is cool, but my demo left me underwhelmed, price aside there’s no clear value proposition. A future version that looks like regular glasses but delivers a similar experience is a pipe dream as far as I’m concerned. They will be goggle-like for years to come. Transformative software updates are the only thing to look forward to on the horizon and the expectations are so high that it’s hard to see how Apple gets even close to meeting them.
In Apple’s defense, the whole AI thing contains a ton of hype without a lot of clear benefits. It’s worth keeping in mind that Google itself is considered a latecomer to the party and they recently blundered with their AI image generation coming up with ethnic minorities in Nazi uniforms. I hope whatever Apple shows will offer some tangible benefit. I still cringe daily at Siri’s total incompetence outside of very basic, practiced questions that STILL fail at least 10% of the time because of some unclear connection issues between my HomePod and iPhone. This ongoing failure tells me that whatever we’ll see will have been developed less than a year before WWDC, hope they’re putting their cash pile to work.
@Nick, I agree with much of what you’ve said.
To each his own on USB C ports, but I save my MacStudio for any heavy work and travel nearly every day with the M2 MBAir. Even if it’s just across town, having a powerful, light, thin––but solid––13″ MacBook is delightful. Prior to the release of the surprisingly speedy, fanless M1 MBAir, I only owned Pro Mac laptops.
The MacBook is a different kind of work machine for me. I use it mostly for reading and writing. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky enough to finance two Macs for most of my computing life.
Mind if I mention again how much I love having an Apple CC and getting free 12-24 month financing (and 3% off) on everything I buy from Apple? 😁
Funnily enough, the only time I even needed 2 USB C ports was on a trip when my magsafe was failing (for no apparent reason) and I needed it to charge over USB C, as well as stream stuff in a hotel.
I, too, wonder why the AppleCar trundled along for so long. While it’s a benevolent spin to praise Apple for backing out of the EV market, it seems a particularly generous interpretation of recent history.
If Apple could convince a significant portion of the auto industry to run “CarOS,” [a name I made up for something significantly deeper and more expansive than CarPlay], it might make up for some of that. Or if hardware is still Apple’s mainstay, an AI windshield that gave us AR?… 🤷🏻♂️
Like you, Nick, I can’t see we Apple fans have any bragging rights around Siri’s accuracy or “intelligence.” I’ve turned her off on my Macs, but still use her for CarPlay, iPhone, and Homepods. And, it’s supremely annoying when I whisper a query in my iPhone only to have it grabbed by a HomePod 10-15 feet away and be told, “I can’t display that; please look at your iPhone.” 🤬
AAPL took another beating in the market today. Wedbush says “buying opportunity,” while Mizuho analyst Jordan Klein says Apple could get “slaughtered” if we learn that Warren Buffett is selling his largest position.
I’m really not sure what sort of innovation or new products we might hope to see from Apple in the future, and I keep wondering, “What would Steve do?…”