Apple has treated its most popular portable workstation to a significant performance boost thanks to building the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops around its latest silicon, the M3 chip announced last year.
The M3 chip rocks the same processing and graphics cores as the M2 before it but is built using a 3-nanometer process and is reportedly faster and more efficient – with Apple noting that this could translate to a 60% speed boost compared to the M1 and a 13x zippier performance than the fastest Intel-based Air.
A 16-core Neural Engine also enables the Air to "run optimized AI models, including large language models and diffusion models for image generation locally with great performance." Meanwhile the chip's built-in GPU supports mesh shading and ray tracing for "more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for extremely realistic gaming experiences."
The fanless Apple workhorse can be had with up to 24 GB of unified memory integrated within the new silicon – which Apple boasts is faster and more efficient than traditional RAM – plus up to 2 TB of SSD storage.
The Air comes with either a 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display at up to 500 nits of brightness, and there's a 1080p FaceTime webcam partnered with a triple mic array plus onboard Dolby Atmos speakers for immersive audio. The laptop can support two external displays when the lid is closed, there are two Thunderbolt ports and a 3.5-mm headphone jack, and Wi-Fi gets a speed bump too, to 6E. Per-charge battery life is the same as before at 18 hours per charge, topped up via MagSafe charging.
With an eye on the environment, the company has made use of recycled aluminum, recycled rare earth elements and recycled copper – which crowns the new Air as the first Apple product constructed using 50% recycled materials.
"MacBook Air is our most popular and loved Mac, with more customers choosing it over any other laptop," said the company's SVP of Global Marketing, Greg Joswiak. "And today it gets even better with the M3 chip and new capabilities. 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 M3-powered 13-inch MacBook Air starts at US$1,099, while the 15-incher starts at $1,299 – each comes with a $100 discount for education users. You can order now, with availability pegged for March 8.
Product page: MacBook Air