Apple unveils the new MacBook Air with the M3 chip

The newest MacBook Air with the M3 chip is finally here. 

Apple’s next upgrade for the MacBook Air has finally been revealed. The San Cupertino-based company drew the curtains back on the brand new MacBook Air model, which now comes with the brand new M3 chip. A new chip, of course, means faster performance, which Apple boasts about in its press release, but they’re also touting its other features like its support for two external displays and faster wi-fi.

[Hero image: Apple]

The rundown on the new MacBook Air with the M3 chip

With the M3 chip, Apple boasts that this new MacBook Air is “60 percent faster than the model with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air”. Switching from Intel-based Macs to those running on Apple’s own chips has proven to be a vast difference in performance in the past but whether it will be worth it to switch from an M1 Mac to this current model is yet to be seen.

Much like Apple’s other devices, there’s not a lot of change externally. The usual two models are still there: 13-inch and 15-inch, and the MacBook Air remains thin and light. It comes in four colours: midnight, starlight, space gray, and silver. 

Another thing Apple is touting for this new M3 MacBook Air is gaming. According to its press release, the new GPU of the M3 “supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing”. It even specified No Man’s Sky as a game that runs 60 percent faster than on a 13-inch M1 MacBook Air.

Apple has also cited that the Apple silicon chips are a great platform for AI. The press release specified Goodnotes 6’s AI Math Assistance and enhancing photos on Pixelmator Pro as some of the things users can do with AI when powered by Apple silicon. As for the M3 specifically, Apple says that it “includes a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine” which makes the “MacBook Air the world’s best consumer laptop for AI”.

The MacBook Air with the M3 chip is already available in select regions starting at USD 1,099. No word yet on when it will launch here in Thailand and what its starting price will be.