Apple’s new MacBook Air laptops are here as predicted, and while the upgrades are only on the inside, they’re quite notable.
The new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air now both feature Apple’s M3 chip, which the company says is up to 60 percent faster than the model with the M1 chip (Apple doesn’t compare with the M2 chip, likely because the differences aren’t that big).
The M3 chip offers some additional benefits, such as faster Wi-Fi (thanks to support for the Wi-Fi 6E standard), as well as being able to connect the laptop to two external monitors, though only if the lid is closed. The M3 also has a 16-core Neural Engine, which translates into faster performance for AI-related tasks.
The external design of the new MacBook Air hasn’t changed compared to the previous version.
Credit: Apple
Other specs of note include 18-hour battery life, up to 24GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage for both the 13-inch and the 15-inch variant (none of these have changed compared with the previous models).
On the outside, the new laptops look exactly the same as the previous variants, and have the same dimensions.
The new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air start at $1,099 and $1,299 respectively, and are both available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray. The new laptops go on sale on March 8 in Apple Store locations and at Apple Authorized Resellers.
Notably, you can still buy the M2 version of the MacBook Air from Apple, but only the 13-inch variant, which starts at $999.
