Apple today 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. 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.
A few quick things that jumped out at me reading all of this:
- It sounds like the fingerprint-happy Midnight finish is now getting the same coating the Space Black MacBook Pro gets to help reduce smudges.
- Don’t miss the entire section dedicated to how the new machine performs at AI-related tasks. I did have a chuckle at Apple boasting the notebook “supports cloud-based solutions.” Ah yes, browsers.
- There’s a business push in this press release too. Apple boasts how fast this new notebook is for “working in Excel spreadsheets,” whatever that means.
- Wi-Fi 6E support is sweet.
Additionally, the new MacBook Air bring good news on the display support front:
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.
That is going to make a bunch of people happy.
The M3 MacBook Air goes on sale today and the M2 13-inch Air now anchors the bottom of Apple’s notebook line, starting at $999. Both the 15-inch M2 and 13-inch M1 MacBook Air models are gone.