Apple has officially unveiled the new MacBook Air with the company’s latest silicon. It retains the same design but is now more powerful than the previous-generation model. Additionally, the latest models also come with some minor improvements here and there.
MacBook Air M3 is here
Apple is continuing to offer the MacBook Air M3 in 13 and 15-inch screen sizes. This time the Cupertino-based tech giant has announced the latest generation in two variants simultaneously unlike the M2 Air. The newly announced offerings retain the same design with a flat-edged chassis and a display notch.
The MacBook Air M3 13 and 15-inch variants can now connect to two external displays instead of a single on the previous models. However, there’s a slight caveat here as this can only work when the laptop’s lid is closed. If the Air’s screen is on, it can connect to only one external display. Both models still have Liquid Retina screens and 500 nits peak brightness.
Under the hood, the new MacBook Air is equipped with the company’s M3 processor which consists of an 8-core CPU and up to 10-core GPU. There is also a faster 16-core Neural Engine. Apple is touting the new MacBook Air as “the world’s best consumer laptop for AI”. The latest offering is claimed to deliver 60 percent more performance compared to the M1 model which is nearly four years old now. It is also said to be 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBooks. The Air M3 also delivers a realistic gaming experience with hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing. There is also support for AV1 decoding.
Apart from the chipset upgrade, the new MacBook Air also comes with WiFi-6E which is said to offer twice as faster speeds compared to the previous generation. There is voice isolation and wide spectrum microphone modes, enhanced voice clarity in audio and video calls. The laptops have a 1080p Facetime camera, three microphones, and support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.
The MacBook Air M3 is offered in midnight, starlight, space gray, and silver colors. The midnight option now features an anodization seal to reduce visible fingerprints that were prominent on the M2 Air.
MacBook Air M3 pricing and availability
The Apple MacBook Air M3 starts at $1,099 for the 13-inch variant whereas the 15-inch model carries a starting price tag of $1,299. In India, the prices begin at Rs 1,14,900 and Rs 1,34,900 for the same models. It is up for pre-orders starting today with shipments commencing March 8.
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