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Surprisingly, Apple released an update to the MacBook Air a little earlier than expected, and this time without much fanfare, the spring event was announced. Both the slim MacBook Air 13-inch and 15-inch models have updated the Apple Silicon M3 chipset, but that's not all.
There's a surprising new feature in the mix that can have a big impact on the purchase decision: support for multiple displays with the display turned off. Since this was the main complaint of the previous generation MacBook Air, this change is quite a problem. While it still only supports two screens, it's a positive change for those who want to connect two large external displays for work.
The M3 chipset offers the speed boost typically found with newer generation processors. According to Apple, the 13-inch M3 is 35% faster than the old M1 when working in Excel. Apple Final Cut Pro is up to 60% faster. Photomator's super-resolution feature is up to 40% faster when using AI to enhance images.
This is thanks to Apple's move to the 3nm process, which improves efficiency while improving performance. Each M3 performance core (the number of cores between M2 and M3 remains the same) is 30% faster than M1 cores and 15% faster than M2. The M3 is available in 8-core CPU (quad-performance, quad-efficiency) and 8-core GPU versions, as well as 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU versions. All versions have the same 16-core Neural Engine and are faster than the previous version, which may be the reason for the aforementioned AI improvements.
We tested the M3 chip in the latest iMac, and it has a significant boost over the M2. Considering the smaller chassis of the MacBook Air, it may not be as fast, but in Cinebench R23, the M3 iMac delivers 26% better single-core performance and 25% better multi-core performance. Do the math, the M2 version should have about 16% more single-core performance and 5% more multi-core performance compared to the M2 MacBook Air 13-inch.
Apple also heavily promotes the Neural Engine as well as CPU and GPU accelerators that will accelerate AI features on the device. This is in line with both Intel and AMD's industry-wide AI push to include neural processing units (NPUs) in their latest chipsets.
While the M3 may offer a meaningful upgrade in terms of CPU performance, the magic happens with the GPU. Apple has introduced several new GPU features that are sure to improve graphics performance drastically. Dynamic caching is an in-memory architecture that makes the unified memory execution of the architecture more efficient, improves GPU utilization, and accelerates the performance of games and applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro, which can use GPUs in a variety of demanding tasks. Mesh shading is now supported in hardware, which is a major boon for gamers, and M3 GPUs also support hardware-assisted ray tracing.
While the M2 MacBook Air is a fast laptop, the M3 brings Apple's thinnest machine to speed, especially when it comes to GPUs. This is very important for the rest of the year, especially with Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X Elite ARM chip, which is said to be even faster than the M3. In addition to the external display enhancements mentioned above, the new model also upgrades wireless connectivity from the old Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 6E.
Other than that, the MacBook Air 13 and 15-inch models remain the same. The same incredibly thin and light body, the 13-inch model is only 044 inches and a weight of 2The 7-pound, 15-inch model has a thickness of 045 inches and a weight of 33 lbs.
The current M2 model has been reduced in price, with the base model starting at $999 with an 8-core CPU 8-core GPU MGB RAM and a 256GB SSD. This model can be upgraded to an 8-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, MGB RAM, and a 2TB SSD** for $2,199.
The M3 is priced the same as the original M2, with a 13-inch base model of $1,099 and a 15-inch base model of $1,299. Fully upgraded to a maximum of 24GB RAM and 2TB SSD storage, the 13-inch costs $2,299 and the 15-inch costs $2,499.
For those on a budget or who aren't gamers or creators, the M2 model will offer exceptional performance in an attractive **.
If you want to connect multiple external monitors, then the M3 MacBook Air is the way to go.