the same as the M2, just a little better

Apple’s flagship ultra-portable computer is getting a very slight refresh this spring 2024, with a new in-house M3 chip, a bit more efficient, and new graphics capabilities. Small progress, without revolution..

With Apple, we sometimes have the impression of reliving the American Apollo missions from the beginnings of the conquest of space. While they fascinated the crowds and the viewers glued to their televisions during the very first launches, they ended up tiring of no longer being of interest and being the subject of only a simple brief in the newspapers despite the technical prowess. With MacBooks, it’s a bit the same thing. And even Apple no longer pulls out the glitter and party favors to announce the arrival of a new model.

It was thus in complete discretion, at the beginning of March that the MacBook Air, Apple’s ultra portable and “accessible” range, welcomed a new member into the family, equipped with an in-house M3 chip which thus succeeds the …M2 while waiting for…M4 announced for the end of the year. For the surprise effect, we will come back. And we understand why. On the program, few changes. An identical chassis, just like the screen, connectivity and battery. What evolves: the processor of course. A bit more efficient than in the previous version, but also the management of external monitors. We were able to test the new MacBook Air M3 in its 13-inch version for several days. Here is our verdict.

13-inch MacBook Air M3: an unchanged but still appreciable design

This new MacBook Air plays the continuity card. In other words, nothing changes regarding its design. Its size remains identical to that of its predecessor with its recycled aluminum chassis and retains all its compactness (1.13 cm thick) and its light weight of 1.24 kg. For our test, Apple provided us with the model in the “Starlight” color, in other words slightly golden, which has the particularity of being not only very elegant but also not very dirty. The firm seems to have made progress with the “Midnight” shade which disappointed us greatly during our test of the 15-inch MacBook Air M2 by retaining all fingerprints but from what we were able to observe in store, this is not the case. It’s not quite there yet.

So nothing changes. Too bad for the connectivity. You will still have to make do with the two Thunderbolt/USB4 ports placed on the left edge next to the MagSafe power jack and a simple 3.5 mm headphone jack on the right edge. It’s still too short and if you’re a fan of USB keys and devices, you’ll need an adapter or a hub.

What’s new with these Thunderbolt ports? You can now connect two external monitors (5K and 6K) whereas it was only possible to connect one external screen on the M1 and M2 models. But be careful, there is no question here of taking advantage of the MacBook Air’s internal monitor display. You will have to close the cover for the image to appear on the two external monitors.

The internal screen of this new MacBook Air remains impeccable. Bright as can be and benefiting from an effective anti-reflective treatment, it does not disappoint and allows you to work comfortably in almost all conditions. The notch at the top is still relevant and still does not allow facial recognition, a feature reserved for Pro models. You will need to use Touch ID (fingerprint) to unlock the device.

Note in passing that the keyboard is still as comfortable for typing and that the TouchPad remains as pleasant and fluid. In short, Apple isn’t changing anything in the design and that’s a good thing since the finishes remain impeccable and the whole thing doesn’t suffer from any design errors. Why change?

13-inch MacBook Air M3: increased performance, no surprise

Technical sheet

The big novelty of this MacBook Air 2024 therefore lies under the hood. Apple has thus equipped it with its new Apple Silicon M3 chip. Our test model features an 8-core M3 chip (4 performance cores and 4 energy-efficient cores) and 10 GPU cores. Apple indicates a speed multiplied by 1.6 compared to the M1 and multiplied by 13 compared to the MacBook Air of the generation before M1 chips equipped with quad-core Intel Core i7 processors at 1.2 GHz. Oddly, no comparison to last year’s M2 is specified. To be clear, we therefore compared the results to those obtained with the 15-inch MacBook Air M2 tested previously which adopts an identical configuration (8-core M2 chip and 16 GB of RAM).

As we can see with the tests under Cinebench 2024, the gain is mainly felt on the GPU work. The evolution of the CPU in both single core and multicore remains subtle.

Same observation with Geekbench 6. The GPU shows a slight improvement but not enough to jump to the ceiling either.

In daily use, this MacBook Air M3 does not shy away from the task. He even appears very comfortable in gaming. The hardware acceleration of ray tracing is eagerly awaited by players (games that take advantage of it on Mac are still a rare commodity). But with the titles we launched, the result was completely satisfactory.

Finally, let’s note a small development regarding the WiFi connection. Here we go from WiFi 6 to 6E. A nice improvement which allows you to benefit from significantly more advantageous flow rates. However, it is regrettable that Apple did not aim a notch higher. WiFi 7 is starting to emerge (the new Freebox offers it for example) and routers that offer this connection are also making their debut. Apple is therefore already a step behind with this MacBook Air M3.

13-inch MacBook Air M3: always comfortable battery life

The M1 MacBooks had been praised by critics for their phenomenal endurance. The M2 models failed to match them… and neither did this M3. With our Netflix streaming playback test from the Safari browser, our MacBook Air M3 lasted 14 hours 27 minutes thanks to its 52.6 Wh battery. A score that is said to be completely reasonable and comfortable which makes people envious in the PC world. So much so that you can easily envisage two good days of work without pushing the machine to its limits, without worrying about having forgotten your charger.

The charger precisely. Apple delivers with this model a 35 W dual USB-C connector charger. Practical, but slow. After half an hour of charging, we recovered only 28% of battery life and 57% after an hour. We had to wait 2h30 to refuel to 100%. It’s way too long. Connected to our 100 W Anker charger, the MacBook Air M3 regained color more quickly. 31 minutes was enough to regain 50% battery.

13-inch MacBook Air M3: should you go for Apple’s affordable laptop?

A smooth evolution of the range, this MacBook Air M3 brings slight improvements over its predecessor. However, not enough to rush for it if you already have an M2 model from last year. The performance gain, even if it is real, does not show dazzling progress. On the other hand, if you were missing the possibility of connecting your MacBook Air to two external monitors, this little subtlety provided by this M3 can tip the scales in its favor. If not, keep your M2. And if you’re still considering buying a MacBook Air, the M2 remains a very good deal, especially since its price is slightly lower (€100) than that of the M3. Better yet, if autonomy and price are more important to you than pure performance, the MacBook Air M1 still remains an excellent choice today, with a price of around 900 euros from the merchants who offer it! If you want to be tempted by an M3, we still recommend the version with 16 GB of RAM which will allow you to consider the future and possible more demanding applications more calmly.