Apple has revealed the new MacBook Air with M3 chip, making it up to 60% faster than the model with the M1 chip and up to 13 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air.
The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air both feature a less than half an inch thin and light design, up to 18 hours of battery life, a Liquid Retina display, and new capabilities, including support for up to two external displays and up to two times faster Wi-Fi than the previous generation. With its durable aluminum unibody enclosure, the new MacBook Air is available in Midnight (which features an anodization seal to reduce fingerprints), Starlight, Space Grey, and Silver.
Combined with its camera, mics, and speakers, the computers feature MagSafe charging and ac silent, fanless design. Loaded with macOS, they will be available starting Friday, March 8.
The M3 chip features an 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory. The rated up to 18 hours of battery life is up to six hours longer than an Intel-based MacBook Air. It supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, offering more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for a realistic gaming experience. It also includes the latest media engine with support for AV1 decode, providing more efficient and higher-quality video experiences from streaming services.
M3 includes a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine, along with accelerators in the CPU and GPU to boost on-device machine learning. With a broad ecosystem of apps that deliver advanced AI features, you can do things like check homework with AI Math Assistance in Goodnotes 6, automatically enhance photos in Pixelmator Pro, and remove background noise from a video using CapCut. Combined with the unified memory architecture of Apple silicon, MacBook Air can also run optimized AI models, including large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image generation locally. In addition to on-device performance, MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions, so you can run productivity and creative apps that tap into the power of AI, such as Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, Canva, and Adobe Firefly.
The 13.6- or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display offers up to 500 nits of brightness, support for one-billion colours, and up to two times the resolution of comparable PC laptops. It offers support for up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed, ideal for business users, multitasking across apps, or spreading out documents at the same time.
MacBook Air with M3 features Wi-Fi 6E, which delivers download speeds that are up to twice as fast as the previous generation. It also includes MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The laptops come with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and a three-mic array with enhanced voice clarity on audio and video calls. MacBook Air features an immersive sound system with support for Spatial Audio along with Dolby Atmos, so you can enjoy three-dimensional soundstages for music and movies.
The comfortable and quiet backlit Magic Keyboard comes with a full-height function row with Touch ID.
The new MacBook Air models come loade with macOS Sonoma so you can place widgets right on the desktop, interacting with them via a click, and even access the extensive ecosystem of iPhone widgets on MacBook Air. Video conferencing gets more engaging with features like Presenter Overlay and Reactions. Profiles in Safari keep browsing separate between multiple topics or projects, while web apps provide faster access to favourite websites. Gaming is also improved with Game Mode.
Additional features that come with macOS Sonoma include Split View, Continuity for working with other compatible Apple devices, AirDrop, Universal Clipboard, Continuity Camera, Handoff, FaceTime, Freeform, iMovie, GarageBand, Photos, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and more.
Additionally, the new MacBook Airs are the first Apple products to be made with 50% recycled content, including 100% recycled aluminum in the enclosure, 100% recycled rare earth elements in all magnets and, in another first for Apple, 100% recycled copper in the main logic board. MacBook Air meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, and is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants, and PVC. The packaging is 99% fibre-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by 2025.
You can order the new MacBook Air with M3 starting Monday, March 4 and it will begin arriving to customers, and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, starting Friday, March 8. The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,449 in Canada and $1,299 for education, and the 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,749 and $1,599 for education.
With the new launch, the 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 comes down in price to $1,299 and $1,169 for education.