Wait for MacBook Air M4 or buy M3 now?

[Burbulator]

I am looking to purchase a Macbook Air and I am doubt now: should I buy existing model with M3 or wait for M4 (Q1 2025)?
From one side I will use it mostly for web browsing, watching movies and YouTube and a little bit gaming; maybe some small software dev just for fun. And for this M3 should be enough.
From another side, M4 promises (at least on paper) significant boost for future AI features and maybe it is better to wait for M4 on Air and have a longer support for newer MacOS versions...
I can't decide: does it worth to take all these AI hype into consideration or just focus on CPU power and then M3 should cover my needs for many years ahead

 

[jb310]

The M3 MacBook Air should be enough for all the things you do, and Apple is behind on AI to the point that if you're really interested in it, you'd be better off turning to other companies and third-party services if that's a huge deal for you.

Longer support for new MacOS versions is a good consideration, but unless you know that you're not going to upgrade in the next 6-7 years, I don't think it's a huge concern. 🤷‍♂️

I'd suggest getting the M3.

 

[bodonnell202]

If you need something now the M3 (with 16 GB RAM) will be fine, however if you plan to keep your Macbook for a long time and can wait until (probably March) 2025 the M4 is probably worth the wait.

 

[Macperson23]

I am in the same predicament… leaning towards just getting the 15” MBA. Microcenter has it 10% off right now which helps the decision

 

[richmlow]

I am looking to purchase a Macbook Air and I am doubt now: should I buy existing model with M3 or wait for M4 (Q1 2025)?
From one side I will use it mostly for web browsing, watching movies and YouTube and a little bit gaming; maybe some small software dev just for fun. And for this M3 should be enough.
From another side, M4 promises (at least on paper) significant boost for future AI features and maybe it is better to wait for M4 on Air and have a longer support for newer MacOS versions...
I can't decide: does it worth to take all these AI hype into consideration or just focus on CPU power and then M3 should cover my needs for many years ahead

I would wait for the M4 Macbook Air.


richmlow

 

[blufrog]

Wait. For the sake of a couple of months, and knowing it is on the way, it's the best option.

Broadly speaking, it never pays to buy last gen technology. This is true for anything (exception is where the new model is worse in some way, like rubbish display tech, poor build quality, or loss of a critical function).

Take Intel...you'd be mad to buy any of their 13th/14th gen. CPUs, or their latest junk level processor Ultra. Buy AMD instead. Older Intel are fine. An example of a previously good company producing rubbish because they can't keep up.

At this point I'd argue Apple silicon is the second CPU manufacturer next to AMD.

 

[Thirio2]

As always, if you need it now, buy it now. If you don’t need it now it might be worth the wait. That being said, I don’t think the upgrade will be that much. It will probably still have TB4, not 5, WiFi 6E, not 7, there may be a slight bump in memory bandwidth, and maybe be upgradable to 32Gb instead of 24.

 

[ubinko]

I would personally get the M4 air, if you can wait. Otherwise, I'd get the M3 air during black friday, which is in 26 days from now.