Apple Announces New MacBook Air Models With M3 Chip

[uptownnyc]

Curiosity... can I ask why you never went for a M1 Air or M2 Air?

15" MBP was still working fine for what I needed it to do. Battery life was the only real pain-point, but had no real justification to spend on a new device since the one I'd been using was working fine.

 

[8CoreWhore]

11 years ago, 8GB RAM was the entry point. Still is. It's insulting.

 

[Ameer_1]

You already know theres no difference when Apple announce a new product without a presentation.

 

[Lioness~]

So have they fixed the fingerprint issue on the Midnight colour?
Anyone heard anything?

 

[IG88]

Apple even listened and is offering 16 GB RAM at a better price.

How so? The 16/512 is $400 more than the base 8/256. Those two upgrades have been $200 / $200 for awhile.

The only difference I notice is that the $400 extra now includes the 10 core GPU.

 

[snipr125]

Instant-buy. Jumping from a 2015 MacBook Pro to the 15" M3 Air.

Yes same. Going to wait for Amazon to stock the 16/512 model with their usual 10% discount and that will be my Mac finally upgraded after 9 great years lol.

Edit. If im not mistaken, the 15 Air has had a £100 price drop in the UK which makes things even better.

 

[lindros2]

So have they fixed the fingerprint issue on the Midnight colour?
Anyone heard anything?

It claims “… and a more fingerprint-resistant finish with the Midnight color option.”
Does anyone read the article?
Does it support 4 external displays? /s

 

[Jim Lahey]

Wait. Did they just release a MacBook Air with better external display support than the MacBook Pro?

 

[Duncan-UK]

I sincerely hope (but have my sounds) this is the last time Apple feels the need to compare with the speed of Intel Macs.

Why? What about those people happily still using intel Macbooks? if you have an AS MBA then there’s absolutely no need or relevance to upgrading, so if you are in the Mac ecosystem then growth is going to come from the enormous intel installed user base.

I’ve got a MBP that I bought in December 13. It still works well but the new M3 MBA is the first time I’ve felt tempted to upgrade.

 

[Ludatyk]

EDIT: The new MacBook Air is finally offered with 16GB of RAM in one of the predefined configurations! No need to build to order for those that need 16GB of RAM!

And it starts with 512GB… I‘m hoping that this is an indication of what comes with the new iPad Pro, 512GB gets 16GB RAM.

 

[SW3029]

Lots of pretty dumb comments about this being a 'meh' update, no difference from the M2 (except of course all the differences), complaints about comparisons to the Intel generation (which will be their prime source of upgrade customers)...

WTF got up everybody's backsides today? Do you expect monumental changes every 12 months? Do you not read the specs before complaining about the specs?

Most buyers of the M3 Air are going to be Intel MacBook owners - not M1 or M2 Air owners. I don't know who people thinks is out there buying a new laptop every 2-3 years, but it's not 90% of Apple's laptop customers.

Those comments are from people who bought the 15-inch M2 MBA less than a year ago. They're trying to convince themselves with their comments! 🤣

 

[Ameer_1]

Those comments are from people who bought the 15-inch M2 MBA less than a year ago. They're trying to convince themselves with their comments! 🤣

If I could sell my MBA M2 base model for $1000 I wouldn't mind upgrading. I usually upgrade my iPhone each year and sell it back on ebay for around $950 🙂 Apple is basically Toyota.

 

[johnnytravels]

No announcement on Apple's German Website so far. So just M3 and no other changes at all?

Probably Apple listening to their US fans and pulling out of the EU like so many here demanded 😂

On the product itself: They should have gone for 128GB SSDs because who doesn't have everything in the cloud nowadays anyway /s

With that being said, I'm on an M1 with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD that I bought off of eBay for 1100 in 2021 with half a year of warranty and will probably replace it once that config becomes the norm (or it somehow breaks from the additional planned obsolescence load that new macOSes will put on it).

 

[morphineseason]

And it starts with 512GB… I‘m hoping that this is an indication of what comes with the new iPad Pro, 512GB gets 16GB RAM.

The $1,099 model is 256GB still.

 

[Icelus]

11 years ago, 8GB RAM was the entry point. Still is. It's insulting.

No, 4GB was the entry point.

 

[matrix07]

Yeah, go ahead and downvote logic. Why not compare it to M1? Because then they don't get to say things like 13x faster.

They actually compare it to M1 (60% faster). 🙄

 

[Onimusha370]

I see we're still being screwed over here in the UK regarding the price which is an eye-watering £1300.
So....all the people who defended Apple's UK pricing in 21/22 on weak GBP and strong dollar, where are you all now that the exchange rate is back up to £1.27 per $? For those of you who can't add up that means a base M3 MBA should be £865.35 + VAT (aka purchase tax), which is currently 20%, so £1,038.

Absolute crazy pricing. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.

The 15 inch is £1300, the 13 inch you’re comparing to is £1100, so it’s £1038 vs £1100.

I agree they’re still rounding up rather than rounding down, but these prices are a decent improvement from a few months ago. We’re now at £1=$1, whereas for the last year or so we’ve been closer to $1=£1.10

 

[krspkbl]

yeeeeeees

got my order in for 15" M3 Air. 16GB/512GB. plenty enough for me.

so happy yey

 

[IJBrekke]

Speculating here, but I bet Apple “unlocks” this dual-screen support for the base M3 MBP. No reason not to.

 

[Ludatyk]

The $1,099 model is 256GB still.

Yeah, but I’m looking at how Apple plans to do with the storage and RAM configurations on the upcoming iPad Pro. 1TB is the only way to get 16GB RAM, I wonder if that changes.

And we should get some news regarding that some time this week (fingers crossed).

 

[matrix07]

You might want 3 displays I guess? Also, Touch ID.

There‘s a Touch ID on external keyboard.

 

[IllegitimateValor]

Apple too has jumped on the AI bandwagon " World's best Consumer Laptop for AI"

They haven’t jumped on the bandwagon. They’ve had “neural engine” performing AI tasks in the background of devices for years. They’re just adjusting terms in marketing to current trends

 

[Jack Burton]

Got an m3 pro for the 2 display support, lol. At least I got 36 GB of ram out of the deal!

Looks like a great little machine, especially with 2 display support. That was a big reason I couldn't get the base MBP.

 

[MrGunny94]

Still 8GB RAM base models... Guess we'll wait for M4 Since those RAM Prices in Europe are crazy.

 

[techno-Zen]

2 external displays is pretty huge.

Still happy with my M2 MacBook Pro I just bought w/ TouchBar. Love the Touch Bar, fight me if you disagree lol