Apple is rolling out new models of its wildly popular MacBook Air with M3 Chip in 13-inch and 15-inch versions. These laptops are powerful enough for most people on the planet, with the looks and battery life to match.
“MacBook Air is our most popular and loved Mac, with more customers choosing it over any other laptop. And today it gets even better with the M3 chip and new capabilities,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“From college students pursuing their degrees, to business users who need powerful productivity, or anyone who simply wants the unmatched combination of performance, portability, and industry-leading battery life, all in a fanless design, the new MacBook Air continues to be the world’s best thin and light laptop.”
13-inch MacBook Air with M3 next to 15-inch version
You’ll obviously get far better performance than the M1 model (60 per cent faster), faster Wi-Fi 6E, and support for two external displays but there’s a catch. You can only use two external displays when the laptop lid is closed. This won’t be a problem for most people using it in a dual-display office setup. But if you were hoping to operate three screens, including the laptop display, you’re out of luck.
The new MacBook Air M3 models support two external displays when lid is closed
All Macs, even the ‘entry level’ models can do what equivalent PCs can’t. And that’s edit video competently. Video editing in Final Cut Pro is up to 60 per cent faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 13x faster for those still using Intel chips.
The 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory is built to handle the demands of AI. M3 includes a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine, along with accelerators in the CPU and GPU to boost on-device machine learning, making it AI ready.
The MacBook Air features a 13.6 or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display with up to 500 nits of brightness and support for 1 billion colours.
Pricing and Availability
- Customers 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.