Apple has announced a new MacBook Air with an M3 chip. The company says the upgraded MacBook Air is up to 60% faster than the M1 version up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air making it, according to Apple, “the world’s best consumer laptop for AI”.
Battery life is reported as being up to 18 hours. There’s the inbuilt Liquid Retina display and support for up to two external displays. Wi-Fi also gets a 2x performance boost over the previous generation.
The new MacBook Air is available in four colours: midnight, which features an anodisation seal to reduce fingerprints; starlight; space grey; and silver. With a great camera, mics, and speakers, MagSafe charging, and a silent, fanless design the 13-inch model is the world’s bestselling laptop and the 15-inch model the world’s bestselling 15-inch laptop.
Built using industry-leading 3-nanometer technology, The M3 chip is made with 3-nanometer technology and features an 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory.
The new MacBook Air supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, offering more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for extremely realistic gaming experiences. It also includes the latest media engine with support for AV1 decode, providing more efficient and higher-quality video experiences from streaming services.
The new MacBook Air is the first Apple product to be made with 50% recycled content, including 100% recycled aluminium 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 is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants, and PVC. The packaging is 99 per cent fibre-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by 2025.
Pricing and availability for the new MacBook Air
You can order the new MacBook Air with M3 starting Tuesday, 5 March, on apple.com/au/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions, including Australia. It will begin arriving to customers, and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers, starting Friday, 8 March.
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at RRP A$1,799 inc. GST and RRP A$1,649 inc. GST for education, and the 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at RRP A$2,199 inc. GST and RRP A$1,999 inc. GST for education. Both are available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space grey.
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2, available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space grey, now starts at RRP A$1,599 inc. GST and RRP A$1,439 inc. GST for education.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.