Apple has announced a MacBook Air refresh, packed with the new M3 chip which we saw in the iMac and the MacBook Pro models back in October of 2023. While the new MacBook Air does sport some changes over the M2 MacBook Air from last year, are they enough to justify an upgrade or even consider buying it over last year’s model? Let’s answer that question and help you in deciding.
MacBook Air M3: Price, Availability
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at Rs 1,14,900 and Rs 1,04,900 for education, and the 15‑inch model of the same starts at Rs 1,34,900 and Rs 1,24,900 for education. Both are available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space grey colours. The price for the top-end 13-inch model can go up to Rs 1,54,990 while the same 16GB Unified Memory + 512GB SSD Storage trim for the 15-inch model can cost Rs 1,74,990.
The MacBook Air M3 will be available beginning March 9.
MacBook Air M3: Specifications
With M3, MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the model with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air. Both the models feature up to 18 hours of battery life, which is up to six hours longer than an Intel-based MacBook Air, also thanks to the new chip.
And with the next-generation GPU of M3, the new MacBook supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, offering more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for 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.
Similar to last year, the MacBook Air sports a 13.6- or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display with up to 500 nits of brightness, support for 1 billion colours, and up to 2x the Resolution of comparable PC laptops. Then, the new MacBook Air now supports up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed.
In addition, MacBook Air with M3 features Wi-Fi 6E, which delivers download speeds that are up to twice as fast as the previous generation. also includes MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories, along with a 3.5mm Headphone jack.
At the front, there’s a 1080p FaceTime HD camera along with a three-mic array, and support for Spatial Audio along with Dolby Atmos through the speaker system. The Magic Keyboard on the M3 MacBook Air comes with a full-height function row with Touch ID. As for software, it is powered by the MacOS Sonoma.
MacBook Air M3: Should You Upgrade From M2 MacBook Air?
The MacBook Air M3 is definitely a more powerful laptop than the M2 MacBook Air and that seems to be the only major difference between the two. Apart from that, the new MacBook Air gets you a faster Wi-Fi 6E module compared to Wi-Fi 6 on the M2 model and we don’t think that’d make much of a difference in daily use. Further, it supports up to two external displays when the lid is closed while the M2 model supports only one.
What’s slightly disappointing though, is that the new MacBook Air also gets you only 8GB unified memory and 256GB storage in the base model. A comparable Windows laptop could easily offer 1TB storage and around 16GB RAM or even more in some cases.
Long story short, if you have an M2 MacBook Air, we don’t think there’s any need for you to switch to the latest model as your laptop is still quite capable to this date and will remain so for the coming years.
Even if you are a new buyer, you can consider the M2 MacBook Air as it has now been discounted and starts at Rs 99,900 which makes it a much more appealing purchase. You may get the M3 MacBook Air only if you want all that power of the new chip and support for two external displays. If you can make do without it, M2 model of the MacBook Air would be a much better choice even today.