Apple is very discreetly renewing its entry-level portable Macs by equipping its 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chips and some small, welcome improvements. A nice little spring refreshment.
For once, the rumor preceded the reality very little. And, above all, she was right! In fact, just a few hours after the predictions of Mark Gurman – “Guruman”, the famous Bloomberg journalist always very aware of Cupertino’s secrets –, who announced an upcoming burst of small new features at Apple, the Apple firm unveiled part of its spring 2024 collection. A discreet presentation, without fanfare, that is to say without a Hollywood keynote, made via a simple press release this Monday March 4, in parallel with the updates main site and Apple Store up to date. A way of implicitly emphasizing that it is not a revolution, but rather a refresh.
MacBook Air M3: an interior change
And that is indeed the case. Because this new livery, the first of the year, only concerns Macs – Gurman mentioned new iPads in his predictions – and, more precisely, two entry-level portable models, namely the small 13-inch MacBook Air and its big brother, the 15-inch MacBook Air. No exterior change, however: the two Macs retain the same design and the same dimensions as their predecessors: we therefore find the ultra-thin all-metal chassis (1 cm), the 13.6 and 15.3 inch Liquid Retina screens, the unchanged connectivity (two USB4 compatible Thunderbolt ports), the FullHD webcam (1080p) with notch, the minijack audio jack, the MagSafe power jack and the Touch ID fingerprint reader, which is used for biometric authentication instead and place of the Face ID facial recognition system reserved for Pro models. Never change a winning team.
The new thing is inside. And mainly at the processor level, since the M2 of the previous generation logically gives way to the M3. A more modern and, above all, more powerful chip, with an 8-core CPU, a 10-core GPU and a 16-core NPU Neural Engine. In its official press release, Apple places great emphasis on the capabilities of this neural processor in the field of artificial intelligence, not hesitating to present the MacBook Air as “the best consumer laptop for AI”. A timely communication on a very fashionable theme – Intel and Microsoft are doing the same – but which will make some observers smile to the extent that the Apple firm has fallen far behind its competitors in AI.
Of course, Apple also puts a lot of emphasis on the performance gains that the M3 chip brings, promising up to 1.6 times better than the M1 MacBook Air and even up to 13 times better than the fastest processor-based MacBook Air. Intel, but, curiously, without referring to the M2 chip model, which remains in the catalog.
No change however on the RAM side, of 8, 16 or 24 GB, just like on the SSD storage, of 256, 512 GB, 1 or 2 TB. depending on the configuration chosen, On the other hand, it should be noted two small appreciable improvements: firstly, support for two external screens via USB4 compared to just one on the M2 model, up to an impressive definition of 5K at 60 Hz, but on condition of closing the laptop cover to deactivate its internal screen; then, the transition to Wi-Fi 6E instead of just Wi-Fi 6 on the previous generation, which should make wireless communications more fluid.
Finally, Apple always highlights the strong point of its laptops: excellent battery life, up to 18 hours in the best case. We expected nothing less!
MacBook Air M3: prices without inflation
The good news is prices. The new MacBook M3s are no more expensive than the models they replace. Thus, the 13-inch model starts at 1299 euros in its version with 8 GB of Ram and a 256 GB SSD, a sufficient configuration today, but which will quickly show its limits with future updates of the system and applications. Better to go straight away for the 16 GB Ram version with a 512 GB SDD at 1759 euros, or even with 1 TB of storage, at 1989 euros, which still represents a good sum. The same goes for the 15-inch model, sold for 1599 euros in its basic version (8 GB – 256 GB), and 2289 euros in a comfortable configuration (16 GB – 1 TB), much more suited to facing the future. Note that orders are open on Apple’s website since March 4, for general availability from March 8, including at other resellers.
Other good news, the M2 version remains in the catalog with a slightly lower price: 1199 euros for the basic version, with 8 GB of Ram and 256 GB of storage. A reasonable choice for starting out in the Apple world, especially as it should be the subject of various promotions in the weeks and months to come. Better yet, as stocks are not yet empty, we should see MacBook Air M1 (2020) sold off at many merchants. And even if the M1 is much less powerful than the M3, it still constitutes an excellent upgrade solution for anyone who owns a Mac based on an Intel chip.