In 2022, the MacBook Air received a brand new design and a new M2 chip, last year the 15-inch model with the same processor was released. From March 8, 2024, the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air will be available with an M3 chip. What has been updated, and is it worth choosing an M3 processor?
The 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip is available with a starting price of € 1599, while the 13-inch model costs € 1299. Good to know, the 13″ MacBook Air with M2 chip is now the entry-level model for € 1,199. Is it a worthy successor and is it interesting to pay the extra price? You can read an overview of the differences and some details below.
Differences between MacBook Air with M3 and M2
The differences below are new for the MacBook Air with M3 chip or improved compared to the M2 model from 2022. We will explain the differences further later in this article.
- M3 chip based on 3nm manufacturing process
- AV1 decoding engine
- Three beamforming microphones with Voice Isolation and Broad Spectrum microphone modes
- Clearer voice during audio and video calls
- WiFi 6E (802.11ax)
- Support for up to two external displays
- The midnight color is anodized, which limits fingerprints
Differences between 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air
The differences below are exclusive to the 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip or an improvement compared to the 13-inch model. Naturally, the 15-inch MacBook Air is slightly larger and heavier than the 13-inch Mac.
- Larger 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display
- Six speakers and force-cancelling woofers (four for 13-inch)
- Standard 10-core GPU (8-core for 13-inch)
Furthermore, both MacBooks are the same, such as design, colors, performance, processor, battery life, etc.
Design MacBook Air 2024
The design of the MacBook Air has been copied one-on-one from the previous model and therefore no changes have been made. For example, the Mac still contains a 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display with a brightness of (only) 500 nits. The Wide color reproduction (P3) and TrueTone can be found on both models. The screen has a thin black edge with rounded corners and a notch for the 1080p FaceTime HD camera. The keyboard features black keys on a black background and 12 full-height function keys.
Extra powerful thanks to M3 chip
The MacBook Air 2024 uses the M3 chip. Like the A17 Pro for iPhone 15 Pro (Max), this processor is designed using a 3nm manufacturing process. This is an advanced manufacturing technology used to make semiconductor chips. A 3nm process means that the transistor gate is only 3 nanometers wide, this article explains what is so special about it.
The GPU is faster, more efficient and uses the new Dynamic Caching technology. In addition, thanks to this GPU, new features such as ray tracing and mesh shading with hardware acceleration are possible for rendering on Mac for the first time. The rendering speed is now up to 2.5 times faster than with the M1 chips and 20% faster than the M2. This is especially a big plus when gaming on a Mac.
The CPU’s performance cores and efficiency cores are 35 percent faster than M1 and 20% faster than M2, respectively. The Neural Engine is 60 percent faster than that of the M1 line. Furthermore, there is a new media engine that supports AV1 decoding, so that images from streaming services are displayed more efficiently and in higher quality.
M3 processor specifications
Thanks to the M3 chip, the MacBook Air has great computing power and can complete tasks in no time. Below are the specifications of the processor:
- 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
- up to 10-core GPU (standard for 15.6-inch MacBook Air)
- Up to 24 GB memory (standard 8 GB)
- 16-core Neural Engine
- Ray tracing with hardware acceleration
- 100 GB/s memory bandwidth
- Media engine: H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW with hardware acceleration
- ProRes encoding and decoding engine
- choice of up to 2 TB of storage (standard 256 GB)
Two external displays
For the first time, the MacBook Air supports up to 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. When the Mac is open, you can only link one screen.
Three beamforming microphones
The MacBook Air is equipped with three beamforming microphones. Thanks to improvements, they now also support Voice Isolation and Broad Spectrum. This gives you a significantly clearer voice during audio and video calls.
WiFi 6E
The new MacBook Air supports Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), which is up to twice as fast as the previous generation. Although the 11ax protocol and therefore the theoretical speed of 9.6Gbps remains unchanged, the bandwidth and range are greater with WiFi 6E. As a result, the speed will be higher in practice than with WiFi 6.
Conclusion
The MacBook Air with M3 chip is a beautiful machine with a stylish and modern design. At 1.13 cm thick and 1.24 kg, it is thinner and lighter than ever before. In general, the M3 chip is 20% faster than the M2 processor. Compared to the M1 chip, this is 35% (CPU) to 65% (GPU). You will achieve the most profit if you switch from an Intel Mac, which is worth every euro.
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip is the new entry-level model, but for € 100 more you can get the latest version and it is still recommended to choose this model. Please note that the M2 Mac is now available at a lower price from other web shops.
Availability of MacBook Air with M3 chip
The new MacBook Air with M3 chip is now available for purchase and will be delivered from March 8. The newer generation MacBook Air has a starting price of €1299 for the 13-inch model and €1599 for the 15-inch Mac. The MacBook Air with M2 chip still remains for sale with a starting price of € 1199.
The MacBook Air will soon also be available at other web shops such as Bol.com, Coolblue, MediaMarkt, Amazon, Paradigit and Yorcom.