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This was published 6 months ago
The new MacBook Air is more powerful than ever, with a few extra tricks
By Tim Biggs
Apple’s latest MacBook Air packs the new M3 processor for a hint of Pro power in an otherwise familiar package while also bringing the company’s core laptop lineup into a tidy choice of four machines, all running on the same technology.
After the 2022 M2 MacBook Air’s radical redesign, making it slimmer than ever, and last year’s introduction of the line’s first large-screen model, the 2024 Air settles into an established Apple playbook: iterative upgrades under the hood, a familiar look, and your choice of big or small sizes.
The 13-inch model starts at $1800 and the 15-inch at $2200 – the same prices as the M2 machines sold for previously.
The standard M3 chip now supports two external 4K displays at once.
I’ve been testing a 15-inch model in the Midnight finish, and while it still noticeably picks up fingerprints, it’s not as egregious as last year’s machine, which Apple attributes to a new coating.
The huge screen and expansive touchpad still combine with the extremely thin and light body to make a compelling laptop, though side-by-side with last year’s M2 model, they’re practically identical.
So, what does the M3 bring to the table?
As we’ve seen in a number of other M3 devices, the new chip is not as big a leap from the M2 as the M2 was from M1. But since few people are likely to upgrade their laptops every year, that’s not a huge issue.
The biggest current MacBook Air (right) is thinner and lighter than the smallest current MacBook Pro (left).Credit: Tim Biggs
However, the M3 will be quite a noticeable upgrade if you’re coming from the M1, with a speed increase in everything from web browsing to Photoshop edits, and it is in an entirely different class if you’re still using an old Intel-powered MacBook. In fact, compared to the most recent Intel MacBook Air (the i7 model from 2020), Apple says the M3 is 13 times faster, with a battery life six hours longer on a single charge. The MacBook Air specifically is rated at up to 18 hours on a charge, and in my experience, that’s not an exaggeration.
One trick afforded by the M3 is the new Air’s ability to connect to two external displays at once. Ever since the M1, this is something that has only been possible with MacBook Pros featuring more powerful versions of the chips, and it will be appreciated by those with a home office setup or for businesses with hot desks. You do need to close the lid on the laptop for both screens to activate. M3 also supports Wi-Fi 6E, which means it can connect to 6GHz wireless networks – another win for high-tech office scenarios.
The MacBook Air with M3 is a capable gaming machine.
The new M3 is a fast and powerful laptop which may have some thinking twice about whether they need to pay extra for the Pro. Compared with the new Air, the heavier, entry-level 14-inch Pro (which also uses the standard M3) has a fan for better-sustained performance, a much nicer and brighter HDR screen, plus full HDMI and SD card slots. But it also costs $900 more, which makes the Air look pretty good. More performant Pros with the M3 Max or M3 Ultra can cost thousands more.
The M3 also has a significantly more capable graphics processor than the M2, which will be useful for 3D modelling and rendering or playing video games.
Apple’s dynamic caching makes graphics more efficient and allows system resources to be shared more effectively, while support for mesh shading and hardware-accelerated ray tracing makes it easier for complex games to be ported over from Windows. Current games like Lies of P, Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding run confidently on the new Air, and thanks to Apple’s MetalFX AI scaling, you can push them to decently high frame rates by console standards.
Speaking of AI, Apple used the term several times in revealing its new Air laptops, but that’s more a capitulation to the current chatbot hype cycle than any new direction the company is taking. Apple has used “machine learning” in its hardware and software for years, and all of its chips since the M1 have had silicon dedicated to its “Neural Engine”, which are both terms Apple has preferred over AI until now.
The expanded neural tech in the M3 means that AI tasks running locally – enhancing an image in Photomator, working with large language or diffusion models – is faster. But Apple still doesn’t have its own Chat-GPT competitor, and cloud-based AI like Microsoft’s co-pilot won’t benefit much from local capabilities, so anyone who isn’t a creative professional or developer might not notice.
Aside from the iterative upgrades of the M3, the main thing the new MacBook Air brings is a sense of equilibrium to Apple’s overall laptop lineup. It now has two options – the Air for portability and the Pro for performance – with each coming in two different sizes and all featuring variants of the M3.
For a budget option, and currently the least expensive computer with a built-in screen that Apple sells, there’s a 13-inch M2 Air starting at $1600. And they all share a consistent square-edged look; the iconic wedge-shaped MacBook Air has, finally, been retired.
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