Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
Both of these offers are available from Amazon. The discount applies to all color versions of either laptop. Colors include Midnight, Silver, Space Gray, and Starlight.
Apple MacBook Air M2
Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch (M2, 16GB, 256GB)
Thin, light, and powerful
The MacBook Air with an M2 chip brings the thin and lightweight design you’d expect from an Air, but with all the might of the M2 silicon.
The Apple MacBook Air M3 may be the latest and greatest, but we usually recommend the M2 version to most people. We feel it offers much more bang for your buck. Most won’t notice the upgrades that come with the newer model, and it will save you a good chunk of change, striking the perfect balance between quality and value.
Apple’s M2 chip is plenty powerful. I actually got this specific model over the holiday season, and I have used it to edit RAW photos and 4K videos. I have encountered no slow-downs or hiccups. Multiple of our co-workers here at Android Authority and our sister site, Sound Guys, have a similar experience.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
The Apple MacBook Air M2 and M3 actually have more similarities than differences. In fact, the design is identical. This computer has a metallic construction, an excellent backlit keyboard, a large glass trackpad, and a battery life of up to 18 hours. Even the screen is the same, featuring a 13.6-inch display with a 2,560 x 1,664 resolution. This panel can also reproduce the DCI-P3 color gamut, which makes it a great option for creatives, media consumers, and anyone who cares about color accuracy.
At just $799, this is definitely the better deal for most people. Most won’t even notice the upgrades in the M3 model, and you can save yourself $100 to get something else.
The only real difference, aside from the chip, is that the newer model has Wi-Fi 6E instead of this model’s Wi-Fi 6, but again, that is something most users won’t even notice. There are also some microphone improvements, as the newer model has voice isolation and enhanced clarity.
Apple MacBook Air M3
Now, if you really want to upgrade to the M3 model with 16GB of RAM, you’ll be rewarded with improved performance. This could be a nice plus if you are constantly running more resource-intensive tasks, such as editing and playing games.
Additionally, it gets upgraded to Wi-Fi 6E, as opposed to Wi-Fi 6. Then again, most people won’t notice the difference unless they have a Wi-Fi 6E route, the much better internet speeds, and actually do things that require that much bandwidth. Wi-Fi 6 is already very fast. Oh, and there are some improvements to the mic, as the newer model has voice isolation and enhanced clarity.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Otherwise, the laptops are pretty much the same. You get the same aluminum design, thin profile, excellent portability, outstanding backlit keyboard, large glass trackpad, MagSafe charging port, display, and 18-hour max battery life.
Is the $100 worth the difference? We would say not to most people, but some users may need that extra boost in performance. There are also the non-tangible benefits, like knowing you have a newer device that will likely be supported for a year longer.
These Apple MacBook Air deals went away for a bit right after the holidays, so it’s nice to see them return. That said, we would advise that you act quickly if you want to get one of these MacBook Airs at a good discount. We don’t know when the pricing will jump back up.
