Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New M3 MacBook Air Models Expected Around March 2024
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I got tired of waiting for 32 inch imac with updated specs that didnt come, so i got the mmini m2 pro w 16g, and upped the hd to 1tb, a nice 32 inch lg display, and satechi hub dock with another internal 1tb on board, used the $100 apple money back for buying to pay for 1/2 the extended black Apple keyboard, so my dual core 09 24' imac will be put out to pasture soon as i transfer all things over and it served me well all these years. I was seriously considering a mac air as an additional mac to have. Looking at the costco offering of $750 for the m1 air still on sale, and i think they had the m2air at $899 at one point with a 512 or 16 on board. Thats my only gripe with these machines, bump the ram to 16 on base model, or hav the HD be at least 1TB. So i might just pick up a referb next year if the price is right and the specs.
And I have 16GB and 1TB. I have zero interest in getting the M3. Because likely, the only difference from the 2023 15” will be a move to M3. From what I’ve read, the M3 brings almost nothing to the table over the M3 for MY use case, because I don’t have a graphics heavy workflow. Of course if you do, then maybe the M3 is enough of an upgrade over the M2, although I’ve got to imagine that if heavy graphics are your absolute requirement, then you’re going to go for the MBP and Max/Ultra.
I like the form factor of the 15” MBA. Could it be improved? Sure, make it lighter, maybe boost battery life even more, but I doubt that will happen for the 2024 15” MBA. I’d consider the 15” M3 only if there’s some BIG improvement like OLED, extra ports, including on the right side, 16/512 as base etc. But I don’t believe any of that is likely, and instead it’ll only be the swap of the M2 for the rather anemic M3.
Look, as far as the chipset goes, the really huge jump was from Intel to AS. But going from M1 to M2, and the even more meh M2 to M3…? Meh, I’ll pass. So I’ll hang on to my M2 for quite awhile, and then maybe one day the jump to… oh, I don’t know, say M8 may feel big enough to justify scratching the “I want a new toy” itch if the chipset is the main deciding factor, that is, barring something else that’s huge, like maybe micro-LED or something equally must have.
Bottom line, I just bought my 15” M2 16/1 (in starlight, natch) and am experiencing ZERO FOMO with this announcement (and btw. it remains to be seen if the M3 even drops in March, personally I wouldn’t be surprised to see it only in June… way too long to wait for so little).
I'm not in the market for a new Mac any time soon, after my battery fiasco with my 14" MB1 Pro, they ended up upgrading me to the M2 Pro base model since they were out of stock lol.
Sales are down across PC/Windows markets too. It’s got nothing to do with you.
It might be worth you getting an M2 Air refurb with 16GB of ram.
You will normally get “one upgrade for free” going the refurb route. For my wife I got her the 16GB/512 upgrades through the refurb store. It’s a great config.
Dude. You’re talking about the entry level model. If you want more than 8GB of ram then just buy it.
Apple ain’t going to give you 16GB of ram in an entry level model for the same price as the 8GB model. You’re dreaming if you don’t think that the price of the entry model won’t just go up.
We have an interior designer sharing our office running an 8GB/256GB M1 iMac. Indesign, Sketchup, Archicad, Mail, Word, XL, Safari. I asked her how much ram she uses and she had no idea how much ram was even in her computer. I showed her how to find out and it was only 8GB!
She is a professional interior designer making a full time living with an 8GB ram iMac, who said she’s never noticed her computer being slow. Go figure.
While great, it is a shame that M-series Apple Silicon is not seeing the same kind of huge performance steps forward that the A-series got us used to.
Retired? M1 still very highly capable and only major benefit will be some GPU related grunt. Not a massive difference for day to day work.
A series is now more of a slow steady annual trickle than the major annual jumps that we used to get. M series proving no different although there's not a bad machine in the entire line-up. Apart from the base M3 MacBook Pro, obviously.
I am not the poster you replied to, but there’s MagSafe and the new form factor. And I am more than a little tempted by the 15” screen of the larger MBA as well. 🥹
…Which is 15% faster than the current MBA, has a bigger and better screen and is only 18% more expensive for the 8/512 configurations.
Last edited:
The M1 MacBook Air has the advantage over the M2 Air insofar as it does not have an ugly notch. I'm hoping that the M3 gets rid of the notch, and then I will upgrade again.
Nice to see but it’s not going to be anything exciting - just a spec bump
With the notch, I expected FaceID. So amazed they didn't put it in there even by the time the m3 is out.
I have Windows Hello (Face ID for windows) on a Microsoft Surface Book I bought for $100 when my company closed. I do not like that laptop. The low power processors were not great back then. But I like signing in with my face! I only use it for web browsing and I don't think this old Surface book is great at that in 2023.
Hardware is nice, if overly complicated. Touchpad is great (for windows).
Yep. It's not 'just' one year, it's one MORE year. We're sitting at ten and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple moves heaven and Earth to keep 8GB as the base stat to ensure that $200 USD upgrade cost for 8 GB more.
Personally, I still really hope that Apple offers an improved SoC cooling system on the 2024 MacBook Air models with both the 13.6" and 15.3" versions. (I've been asking for this for some time). That way, the MacBook Air will suffer a lot less on thermal throttling issues, an issue that's uncommon with the MacBook Pro due to its active cooling fans.
I'm not asking for active cooling. I'm asking for improved passive cooling.
You asked for less thermal throttling
Apple has solved for that (with active cooling on the Pro laptops) and they want to sell you a more expensive machine
I agree with your request for even better passive cooling
Tim Cook Apple is usually more interested in getting you to just buy something more expensive.
They aren't really financially incentivized to make the Air's any better than they already are.
Last edited:
I agree the new Mini should have no fans and also no throttling. But it doesn’t need to be bigger for that, it just needs its case to function as a passive radiator (not plastic like Pi). It’s OK if it gets hot on the outside because it won’t be on your lap, it will be sitting on a desk.
With the introduction of the M3 MacBook Air which of the existing MacBook Airs will be retired? The M1 version? The M2 version? Both the M1 and M2 versions?
I think a 12-inch MacBook Air combined with a 32-inch LG display is a much better choice than a 32-inch iMac (if it existed). It's the best of both worlds: the most portable Mac and the largest screen Mac. Also, if you were to later get a newer 12-inch MacBook Air, you could continue to use the 32-inch LG display.
