Apple Announces New MacBook Air Models With M3 Chip

[krspkbl]

8/256 may be fine for the minimum of a modern consumer laptop, but I will wait for the schadenfreude when those specs are too low to effectively use Apple's future client LLM.

that crossed my mind too. 8GB is not going to be enough for any local LLM ai stuff.

16GB is generally considered the minimum and that's on PCs where RAM and VRAM are not unified so I guess 16GB might not even be enough. I really can't see Apple limiting features to 24GB RAM macs.... (fingers crossed)

as for storage. if a LLM is ~30-40GB (that's the low end) then that's a huge chunk out a 256GB drive.

 

[lindros2]

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.

wait - "sell" the MBA 15" or 13" base model?

 

[Ameer_1]

wait - "sell" the MBA 15" or 13" base model?

My 13" M2 MBA base model

 

[joeblow7777]

A couple of thoughts:

- I don't know why people are comparing it to the M2 and saying "meh". No reasonable person is replacing their laptop every 12-18 months. You're being ridiculous if you were expecting the M3 MBA to be a comprehensive upgrade over the previous model. Most people are likely buying this as an upgrade from a 4-5+ year old machine.

- Apparently for anything above 8GB RAM you have get the 10 core GPU configuration, and for anything above 256GB storage you have to get the 35W charger? I don't really understand why though? It would make more sense to me if for the 10 core GPU you had to get at least 16GB of RAM, not the other way around...

 

[joeblow7777]

No iPads? Damn. I was waiting for new Air 2 years.

I think it's a safe bet that more announcements are forthcoming.

 

[boak]

A couple of thoughts:

- I don't know why people are comparing it to the M2 and saying "meh". No reasonable person is replacing their laptop every 12-18 months. You're being ridiculous if you were expecting the M3 MBA to be a comprehensive upgrade over the previous model. Most people are likely buying this as an upgrade from a 4-5+ year old machine.

- Apparently for anything above 8GB RAM you have get the 10 core GPU configuration, and for anything above 256GB storage you have to get the 35W charger? I don't really understand why though? It would make more sense to me if for the 10 core GPU you had to get at least 16GB of RAM, not the other way around...

Anything other than 8/256 is 10-core. 8/256 + 10-core will have negligible sales volume.

 

[profcutter]

I would rather have M3 Air with closed lid and external display(s) than iMac M3.

Good surprise with this new Air, well done Apple, multiple externals was a very nice surprise.

I mean yeah. It really makes the iMac seem redundant at this point. The iMacs used to offer a performance premium with a unique display. Now they’re really MacBook airs with a larger screen.

 

[4743913]

Still only support for 1 external screen 😂

it's literally the headline of the PRESS RELEASE.

The world’s most popular laptop is better than ever with even more performance, faster Wi-Fi, and support for up to two external displays — all in its strikingly thin and light design with up to 18 hours of battery life​

 

[macos9rules]

What's weird is that Apple said that the MacBook Air M2 was "nearly 40 % faster than the previous generation and up to 15x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to Apple silicon." So how can the M3 be 60% faster than M1 AND 13x faster than Intel? If you do the math, the MacBook Air M3 should be 22.5 x faster than Intel, not 13 x.

 

[Patchwork]

Very nice. UK pricing is just too high for Apple products at the minute. They’re missing a trick not offering 0% interest for 12 months when they want £2k+ off us.

they are offering 2.9% over 12 months or 4.9% over 24 months, those as the rates are variable they may change in future if interest rates change. Considering the UK base rate is 5.25%, that pretty competitive and arguably better than 0% when the base rate was 0.5%.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

So they dropped the M1? Finally.

 

[drcre8tive]

"the best consumer laptop for AI": does this mean AI are buying laptops now?

 

[Rogifan]

It is funny but AI is the latest buzzword. AI has been thrown around as a selling point for a long time but it's really taking off now. With the upcoming AI push for iOS 18 there is no doubt Apple will be going hard with AI.

Most consumers will be familiar with AI compared to ML so gotta shake things up.

I care more about the products than the technology behind them. Show off a much better Siri and don’t even mention AI. Their constant use of AI now feels like they’re speaking to Wall Street not consumers. Just saying AI doesn’t mean anything. They need to show. Hopefully WWDC delivers.

 

[ric22]

It cannot, 60hz max.

Do we know what resolution it does support two monitors at 120hz? Apple are traditionally vague about this...

 

[CarAnalogy]

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

Great, and that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. 60% improvement on something widely considered great is a wonderful accomplishment.

But there are a lot of reasons besides the processor why the Intel MacBook Air they're talking about is a lot slower. My only point is that they are purposely choosing that stat because it sounds impressive but it's not quite what it appears. That's all.

 

[Killbynumbers]

I'm not upgrading. My 8GB, 512GB M1 Air is till good enough for me.

 

[Spock]

So they dropped the M1? Finally.

Nothing wrong with the M1, still a very capable machine.

 

[borek69188]

I recently pulled the trigger on apple certified refurb MBP M3Pro (11-14) (18/512), arriving today. I'm thinking whether I return it and buy M3 MBA 15" with 16/512 or not. Or even get refurb M2 MBA with further reduced price.

 

[6749974]

When the MacBook is closed....😂

"Please, Apple, let me just have two external display support with the lid closed."

"Its not going to happen, Apple is greedy!"

Narrator: Apple does what the people want.

People: 😂

 

[6749974]

Still can’t be leave 8/256 is still the base model, I mean 8 GM of memory and that shared with the graphics. Well I can believe it but I’ll pass again.

The glass is half-full. Apple made 16/512 a retail model.

That means Amazon/Costco/Best Buy, etc will have it on sale for $200 off, maybe more.

Not to mention Apple is no longer charging for the 10-core GPU upgrade—when you get more storage and/or RAM—so thats $100 off from last year.

So it seems the Ghost of Christmas Past visited Tim Cook in December and said, "Be nicer."

 

[technoholic]

Is there a chance the M3 Air will finally give us the ability to have higher HiDPI resolutions at 5k2k monitors? I don't think this was ever resolved on M1/M2 due to the limitations in the chips in the Air but maybe M3 will?

 

[joeblow7777]

Anything other than 8/256 is 10-core. 8/256 + 10-core will have negligible sales volume.

I get that, but I'm looking at it from the other way. I need more than 8/256 but I don't actually need a 10-core GPU. There's probably many people like me who can use more than the bare bones RAM and storage, but don't need extra graphic processing power. Strangely enough, this restriction doesn't exist for the M2 model.

 

[nachodorito]

If you do all your AI computing in the cloud maybe. I imagine trying to run an AI model locally on 8 GB is about as much fun as trying to drag-race a Prius.

unironically, some low level stuff flies even on the m1. vocal synthesizers are pretty fast!

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Any word on whether or not this gets the same smudge-less finish treatment that the darker MBP received?

Yes, you're getting the exact same chassis with the exact same coating/finish that was present on the M2 Airs. Also the same colors.

Wifi speeds being up to 2x faster, dual external display support, AV1 video-encoding, and the SoC being up to 1.3x faster than M2 are the only upgrades for MacBooks M3 Air over MacBooks M2 Air.

Everything else is exactly the same as M2.

Well, there also seems to be some vague-ish upgrades in terms of built-in microphones and speakers. And maybe a downgrade of sorts?:

Maybe Apple wants the already upgraded speakers on the 15" Air to seem even more worth it and push a bigger purchase? Idk. But I'm sure reviews and tear-downs will clear this up.

 

[boak]

I get that, but I'm looking at it from the other way. I need more than 8/256 but I don't actually need a 10-core GPU. There's probably many people like me who can use more than the bare bones RAM and storage, but don't need extra graphic processing power. Strangely enough, this restriction doesn't exist for the M2 model.

Probably just Apple’s way of reducing the number of SKUs and widen the price gap between the M3 MBA and the M3 MBP.

The M2 has the same restriction now.