Apple Announces New MacBook Airs

Today Apple has announced updated 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models, now with the M3 System on a Chip. According to Apple, the M3 processor in the MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the M1 model, and up to 13 times faster than the last Intel-based MacBook Air.

The 13-inch M3 MacBook Air starts at $1099, with an 8-Core CPU, 8-Core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine, and 256GB of storage. The 15-inch model offers the same specifications, except for the 15-inch screen, is $200 more and starts at $1299. You can configure up to 24GB of unified memory, and 2TB of storage.

The M3 MacBook Air does come with a three new features. The first is the AV1 decode engine built directly in the chip, making decoding even faster. This is not present in the M2 MacBook Air. The second feature is support for Wi-Fi 6E, which can result in faster Wi-Fi connections with the right access points.

The last, and arguably more meaningful feature for many users, is the ability to connect two external displays. This is more than the single display you could connect previously. The M3 MacBook Air can support the internal display and one external display up to 6K. In order to use two external displays, you will need to have the MacBook Air lid closed. This second display can be up to 5K resolution running at 60Hz.

You can order them today and they will be available starting this Friday, March 8th, 2024.

The 13-inch M2 MacBook Air remains on sale and now starts at $999 for an 8-core CPU, 8-Core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB of storage. You can still configure the M2 MacBook Air with up to 24GB of unified memory, and 2TB of storage.

Source: Apple Newsroom