Apple's new M3-powered MacBook Airs provide huge performance gains

Apple overhauls its hugely popular laptop, with the new 13- and 15-inch M3 MacBook Air promising more performance, support for up to two external displays, and video editing 60% faster than M1 models.

There were rumours that Apple was going to start to drop new machines via press releases rather than the usual in-person hooplalazoola, and thus it almost immediately came to pass.

The new M3 MacBook Air is billed as up to 60% faster than the model with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air. Interestingly, Apple also mentions a faster Neural Engine and that “MacBook Air continues to be the world’s best consumer laptop for AI” in the opening sentences of its announcement. In tandem with some of Tim Cook’s recent statements on AI, it really is setting up its stall for some major integrations in the next iOS and macOS releases.

The 3-nanometer M3 chip features an 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory. It also features up to 18 hours of battery life, which is up to six hours longer than an Intel-based MacBook Air. 

All that power lets it support hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, as well as offer more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for extremely 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.

Editing in Final Cut Pro and other NLEs just got faster

The result is that:

• Video editing in Final Cut Pro is up to 60% faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 13x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
• Game titles like No Man’s Sky run up to 60% faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M1 chip.
• Enhancing an image with AI using Photomator’s Super Resolution feature is up to 40% faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 15x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
• Working in Excel spreadsheets is up to 35% faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 3x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.1

The 3.6- or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display features up to 500 nits of brightness and support for 1 billion colors, while there is also now support for up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed.

AI = All In

Apple says that the new machines include a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine, along with accelerators in the CPU and GPU to boost on-device machine learning. It’s really leaning into this, saying that this makes “MacBook Air the world’s best consumer laptop for AI.” 

For now it has to reference third party apps here and talks about AI Math Assistance in Goodnotes 6, automatically enhancing photos in Pixelmator Pro, removing background noise from a video using CapCut, and so on. Then it gets interesting.

“Combined with the unified memory architecture of Apple silicon, MacBook Air can also run optimized AI models, including large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image generation locally with great performance,” it says. 

One of the many valid criticisms thrown at genAI has been a lack of privacy surrounding its use. But while Apple says that of course it supports cloud-based solutions such as Adobe Firefly, the mood music coming from that statement is that it’s going to give the keys to the technology back to the users and away from the data-scraping likes of ChatGPT.

Driving two monitors is going to be useful for many people

The new machines also feature Wi-Fi 6E, which delivers download speeds that are up to twice as fast as the previous generation. It also includes MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a three-mic array for enhanced voice clarity on audio and video calls, and an immersive sound system with support for Spatial Audio along with Dolby Atmos.

Lastly, the new Airs are also the first Apple products to be made with 50% recycled content, including 100% recycled aluminium in the enclosure, 100% recycled rare earth elements in all magnets and, in another first for Apple, 100% recycled copper in the main logic board. Even the packaging is 99 percent fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from all packaging by 2025.

Pricing and availability

Customers can order the new MacBook Air with M3 as of now in 28 countries and regions.

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1099 (education price $999), and the 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1299 with a similar education reduction. Both are available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray.

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 meanwhile drops to $999. Given the performance improvements with M3, that is probably not enough of a discount to be honest.