Apple unveils latest 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with the powerful M3 chip: an even faster and more energy-efficient version of the portable laptop. Thanks to the M3 chip, the MacBook Air is up to 60% faster than the model with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than the fastest MacBook Air with an Intel chip.¹ The Neural Engine of the M3 chip is also faster and more efficient. The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air both have a strikingly thin and light design, a battery that lasts up to 18 hours¹ and a nice Liquid Retina display. In addition, they offer completely new possibilities, such as support for up to two external displays and up to 2x faster WiFi than the previous generation. The new MacBook Air has a sturdy aluminum unibody enclosure and is available in four beautiful colors: midnight, starlight, space gray and silver. The version in midnight color is also anodized, which should prevent fingerprints. With a camera, microphones and speakers of excellent quality, a MagSafe charging port, a quiet fanless design and macOS, the MacBook Air is a striking device. That is why, according to Apple, the 13-inch model is also the world’s best-selling laptop and the 15-inch model is the world’s best-selling 15-inch laptop. The new MacBook Air can be ordered from today and will be available from Friday, March 8.

Lightning-fast performance with M3

Built using 3-nanometer technology, the M3 chip makes the MacBook Air even faster and more versatile. The new MacBook Air contains an 8-core CPU and up to 10-core GPU and supports up to 24 GB of central memory. This makes it up to 60% faster than the model with M1 and up to 13x faster than the fastest MacBook Air with Intel chip.¹ The battery also lasts up to 18 hours, six hours longer than a MacBook Air with Intel chip.¹ Thanks to the advanced GPU of the M3 chip, the new MacBook Air supports mesh shading and ray tracing with hardware acceleration. These ensure true-to-life lighting, reflections and shadows, which produces more realistic images in games. The chip is also equipped with the latest media engine with support for AV1 decoding, allowing videos to be streamed more efficiently and in higher quality.

M3 makes MacBook Air even faster:

• Games like No Man’s Sky run up to 60% faster than on the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M1 chip.¹

• Improving an image with AI with Photomator’s Super Resolution function is up to 40% faster than on the 13-inch model with the M1 chip and up to 15x faster than on a Mac without Apple silicon.¹

• Working with Excel spreadsheets is up to 35% faster than on the 13-inch model with the M1 chip and up to 3x faster than on a Mac without Apple silicon.¹

• Video editing in Final Cut Pro is up to 60% faster than on the 13-inch model with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than on a Mac without Apple silicon.¹

• Compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor, the MacBook Air is up to 2x as fast, you can surf the internet up to 50% faster and the battery lasts up to 40% longer.¹

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Good consumer laptop for AI

Since the switch to Apple silicon, every Mac is an excellent platform for AI. M3 includes a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine, in addition to accelerators in the CPU and GPU that on-device machine learning give it a boost. This makes the MacBook Air a very good consumer laptop for AI. This unprecedented AI performance enables intelligent macOS features that increase your productivity and creativity, such as powerful camera features, text prediction and accessibility features.

So you can benefit from an extensive ecosystem of apps that use advanced AI features. Think about this when you check your homework with AI Math Assistance in Goodnotes 6, automatically enhances photos Pixelmator Pro or remove background noise from a video with CapCut. In combination with the central memory of Apple silicone You can also run optimized AI models on MacBook Air, including LLMs (large language models) and diffusion models to generate images locally. In addition to the on-device performance, MacBook Air also supports cloud-based solutions. This way you can use powerful productivity and creativity apps that use AI, such as Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, Canva and Adobe Firefly.

Popular laptop

More and more people are buying a MacBook Air instead of another laptop. The M3 chip raises the bar even higher, delivering the performance, capabilities and portability users are looking for:

• Two nice sizes in a very portable design: The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air have a sturdy aluminum casing and a battery that lasts all day. They are very light and only a little over an inch thick, so you can carry them anywhere.

• A beautiful Liquid Retina display: MacBook Air has a very nice 13.6 or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display with brightness up to 500 nits, support for 1 billion colors and up to 2x the resolution of comparable PC laptops. All content is therefore clear and sharp, and text looks very sharp.

• Support for up to two external displays: MacBook Air with M3 now supports two external displays when the laptop is closed. Ideal for business users and anyone who works with multiple displays to multitask with different apps or documents.

• All kinds of connection options: MacBook Air with M3 features Wi-Fi 6E, which is up to twice as fast as the previous generation. The device also has a MagSafe charging port, two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories and a mini-jack connection.

• Camera, microphones and speakers: With the 1080p FaceTime HD camera, you’ll always look your best when connecting with friends and family or collaborating with colleagues around the world. And thanks to the three microphones, you also sound great and your voice can be heard clearly during audio and video calls. MacBook Air features an audio system that really immerses you, with support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos. With music and films you can completely immerse yourself in a three-dimensional soundstage.

• Magic Keyboard and Touch ID: The Magic Keyboard types comfortably and quietly and is equipped with backlighting, a row of full-height function keys and Touch ID. This allows you to quickly, easily and securely unlock your Mac, log in to apps and websites and pay with Apple Pay using just your fingerprint.

The magic of macOS

In combination with macOS, MacBook Air is a device like no other:

• macOS Sonoma: You can now simply place widgets on the desktop and just click on them. And on MacBook Air you even have access to all iPhone widgets. Video meetings become even more engaging with features like Presenter Overlay and Reactions. Profiles in Safari let you tailor browsing sessions to different topics or projects, while web apps make it easier to access your favorite websites. And with Game Mode, gaming becomes even better.

• Higher productivity: Business users and anyone needing space can make the most of MacBook Air’s large display with Split View, or put everything on multiple screens with support for up to two external displays. Features such as Stage Manager are also useful for students who want to focus all their attention on one task.

• Better with iPhone: Thanks to Continuity MacBook Air works seamlessly with iPhone and other Apple devices. With features such as AirDrop, you can easily share photos, documents and other files with nearby Apple devices. With Universal Clipboard, you can easily copy images, videos, or even text from an app on one Apple device to another app on a nearby Mac. Continuity Camera makes it easy to scan or photograph something with your iPhone and it’ll be right there on your Mac. And with Handoff you can, for example, start an email on one Apple device and finish it on another Apple device.

• A wide range of apps: MacBook Air includes a slew of built-in apps, like FaceTime, Freeform, iMovie, GarageBand, and Photos. Productivity apps such as Pages, Numbers and Keynote are also ready to use, so you can get started right away. And there are thousands of apps, all optimized for Apple silicon. All the apps you use most often run very quickly in macOS, including Microsoft 365 and many of your favorite iOS apps.

Better for the environment

The new MacBook Air is the first Apple product made with 50% recycled content, including 100% recycled aluminum in the chassis, 100% recycled rare earths in all magnets and, in another first for Apple, 100% recycled copper in the motherboard . MacBook Air meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants and PVC. The packaging is 99% fiber, bringing Apple one step closer to its goal of eliminating plastic from packaging by 2025.

Currently, Apple’s global operations are carbon neutral and by 2030 the company plans to make that carbon neutral across its entire manufacturing supply chain and the life cycle of each product.

Prices and availability

• The new MacBook Air with M3 can be ordered from Monday, March 4 at apple.com/nl/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including the US. The new MacBook Air will be available in stores from Friday, March 8, and customers can expect the device at home.

• The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 is available from €1,299 and more beneficial for education customers. The 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 is available from €1,599 and cheaper for education customers. Both are available in midnight, starlight, silver and space gray.

• The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2, available in midnight, starlight, silver and space gray, is available now from €1,199 and more beneficial for education customers.

• More information about technical specifications, configuration options and accessories can be found at apple.com/nl/mac.

• With Apple Trade In you can trade in your current computer for a discount on a new Mac. Go to apple.com/nl/shop/trade-in to see what your device is worth.

• Every customer who purchases a Mac from an Apple Store is entitled to a free personal online session with an Apple Specialist to set up their new product and transfer data. They also get tips on how to get the most out of their new Mac.

1. Testing conducted by Apple in January 2024. For more information, visit apple.com/nl/macbook-air.