Apple quietly announced the release of an updated compact MacBook Air laptop with an M3 processor. Like its predecessor, it is offered in two sizes. But you shouldn’t expect significant changes this year.
Apple MacBook Air in 13-inch and 15-inch versions is now equipped with an eight-core M3 chip with integrated ten-core graphics. The company claims that compared to the M1 model, performance has increased by 60%, and when compared with the latest MacBook Air with an Intel chip, the increase is even 13-fold. Another innovation is support for Wi-Fi 6E. This is where the differences from the previous generation end.
The smaller model uses a 13.6-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 2560×1664 pixels and a brightness of up to 500 nits, while the larger model has a 15.3-inch display with a resolution of 2880×1864. Both have up to 24 GB of RAM and a storage capacity of up to 2 TB. Battery life remained at 18 hours while watching videos on Apple TV.
In a number of countries, new laptops will be available from March 8, and pre-orders were opened on March 4. The 13.6-inch MacBook Air M3 starts at $1,099, while the 15.3-inch model starts at $1,299. At the same time, the 13-inch MacBook Air on the M2 has dropped to $999, but the 15-inch version of the previous generation has been discontinued. The original M1 MacBook Air is also no longer on sale.