Apple’s Rumored Macbook Air M3 15-inch: What to Expect

Come explore the fascinating realm of the 15-inch MacBook Air, reported to be equipped with Apple’s powerful M3 CPU. We can only speculate about this laptop for the time being, but here are some things we may anticipate:

Many believe the M3 chip will revolutionize the industry. The state-of-the-art 3-nanometer technology used in its construction ensures lightning-fast performance.

With an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, the new MacBook Air has the potential to outperform its predecessor by as much as 60% and the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air by an astounding 13 times.

Apple MacBook Air (M3, 13-inch, 2024)

Price as reviewed	$1,499
Display size/resolution	13.6-inch 2,560×1,664 Liquid Retina LED backlit display
CPU	Apple M3 chip 8-core CPU
Memory	16GB unified memory
Graphics	Apple 10-core GPU
Storage	512GB SSD
Networking	Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax); Bluetooth 5.3
Operating system	Apple macOS Sonoma 14.4

Blazing-Fast Performance with M3

With its state-of-the-art 3-nanometer technology, the M3 processor enhances the MacBook Air’s performance and adds new features. The new MacBook Air has an 8-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory, making it up to 13 times quicker than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air and up to 60% faster than the one with M1. 1 Its battery life may last up to 18 hours, which is six hours more than that of an Intel-based MacBook Air.

1 Whether they’re editing photos or videos or creating software, users will experience the lightning-fast performance of M3 in all their endeavors. The new MacBook Air’s next-gen GPU, the M3, enables hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, which improve lighting, reflections, and shadows for gaming experiences that are incredibly lifelike. Better and faster-streaming video experiences are yours for the taking with the most recent media engine that supports AV1 decoding.

The same, but also better

The 13-inch Air with 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB solid-state drive starts at $1,099 (£1,099, AU$1,799), which is the same pricing as previously in the US. Starting at $1,299 (£1,299, AU$2,199), you can get the 15-inch Air with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Memory may be upgraded to 16 or 24 GB and storage to 512 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB from that point on. Eight central processing unit cores and eight graphics processing unit cores make up the standard M3 on the 13-inch device.

Apple will include the 10-core GPU M3 in the configuration if you add extra RAM or storage ($200 apiece), or you may upgrade to an M3 with 10 cores for $100. Additionally, the 15-inch dimension comes standard with this chip. To speed up artificial intelligence and machine learning operations, both variants of the chip have a 16-core neural engine. 

Considering the starting price of $1,099, the 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage seem to be rather little. Although 8 GB of unified memory works OK for the MacBook Air, it will severely restrict your capabilities and shorten the laptop’s lifespan. Memory, on the other hand, has no such choice; additional drives or cloud storage may always be used to strengthen storage. For an additional $200, I highly recommend getting 16 GB of RAM. 

The same, but also better

The 13-inch Air with 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB solid-state drive starts at $1,099 (£1,099, AU$1,799), which is the same pricing as previously in the US. Starting at $1,299 (£1,299, AU$2,199), you can get the 15-inch Air with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Memory may be upgraded to 16 or 24 GB and storage to 512 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB from that point on. Eight central processing unit cores and eight graphics processing unit cores make up the standard M3 on the 13-inch device.

Apple will include the 10-core GPU M3 in the configuration if you add extra RAM or storage ($200 apiece), or you may upgrade to an M3 with 10 cores for $100. Additionally, the 15-inch dimension comes standard with this chip. To speed up artificial intelligence and machine learning operations, both variants of the chip have a 16-core neural engine. 

Considering the starting price of $1,099, the 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage seem to be rather little. Although 8 GB of unified memory works OK for the MacBook Air, it will severely restrict your capabilities and shorten the laptop’s lifespan. Memory, on the other hand, has no such choice; additional drives or cloud storage may always be used to strengthen storage. For an additional $200, I highly recommend getting 16 GB of RAM. 

The M3 MacBook Airs retain all of the essential characteristics and design aspects that were introduced with the M2 makeover. The M3 Air comes with several features, including a fanless body constructed from recyclable aluminum, a stunning Liquid Retina display, a top-notch 1080p FaceTime camera, high-quality speaker systems, MagSafe 3 charging, and two Thunderbolt-USB 4 connections. Additionally, the colors remain unchanged: midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray. To further minimize fingerprints, the midnight finish is equipped with an anodization coating. 

On the other hand, it also implies that the same issues persist, such as the top-mounted camera notch, Touch ID on the keyboard instead of Face ID, and the cramped layout on the left side with the MagSafe connector and two USB-C ports, which prevent charging from the right side. I wasn’t expecting these kinds of changes since usually they don’t happen until there’s a big overhaul. Nonetheless, I still find them distracting. 

As part of the M3 chip upgrade, Apple added two features. The first is upgrading from Wi-Fi 6 to 6E, which, with a compatible router, means higher wireless rates. One other thing has changed: showing support. The original MacBook Air could only connect to a single external monitor.  Two external screens may be connected directly to the M3 MacBook Air’s Thunderbolt USB-C connectors, which also serve to power the device. 

Unfortunately, the display of the MacBook Air will be sacrificed in the process; to power both external displays, the lid must be closed. Unless you often use your laptop’s trackpad and keyboard with an external monitor, this may not seem like a big deal. The removal of Touch ID from the Air’s keyboard is the biggest drawback, in my opinion. You can use Touch ID just by opening and closing the cover, but I use mine all day long, so it would become old fairly soon. For optimal performance, consider purchasing Apple’s Magic Keyboard with Touch ID in addition to a Magic Trackpad or Mouse. 

What I like about the 15-inch M3 MacBook Air

The majority of the improvements to the M3 MacBook Air are on the inside, as I said before. Everything from the screen to the keyboard to the connectors to the camera to the weight and proportions have remained unchanged from the previous model.

Nonetheless, the latest 15-inch MacBook Air model has several redeeming qualities.

Faster gen-over-gen performance

The M3 MacBook Air, according to Apple, is 60% quicker than the M1 model. However, about the M2 MacBook Air, how is the M3 MacBook Air rated?

I debuted the Blender benchmark, which evaluates the performance of systems about creator-centric activities such as 3D modeling, animation, and more. Our tests show that the M3 MacBook Air outperforms the M2 by a margin of fifteen percent.

Using Geekbench 6, an additional benchmark that evaluates CPU performance, we found that the M3 MacBook Air was around 20% quicker than the M2 MacBook Air.

I don’t understand. The M3 MacBook Air should make quick work of your preferred creative applications. You can anticipate faster editing and rendering in your favorite creative apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and more.

M3 takes MacBook Air performance even further.

• Compared to the 13-inch MacBook Air equipped with the M1 CPU, games like No Man’s Sky may run sixty percent quicker.
• Customers who haven’t switched to a 1AC with Apple hardware may experience speeds up to fifteen times quicker for AI picture enhancement with Photomator’s Super Resolution function, compared to the thirteen-inch model with the M1 processor, which is up to forty percent faster.
• Customers who haven’t switched to a Mac with Apple hardware will see speeds up to three times quicker in Excel spreadsheets compared to the 13-inch model with the M1 processor and speeds up to 35 percent faster overall.
• Customers who haven’t switched to a Mac with Apple hardware should expect video editing speeds up to thirteen times quicker in Final Cut Pro, compared to the thirteen-inch model with the M1 processor, which is up to sixty percent faster.
• You can expect up to double the speed, 50% quicker web surfing, and 40% longer battery life from the MacBook Air when compared to a PC notebook powered by an Intel Core i7 CPU.

Better for the Environment

In a first for Apple, the new MacBook Air’s primary logic board is composed entirely of recycled copper. Other firsts include a 50 percent recycled content and an exterior made entirely of recycled aluminum. All of the magnets are also constructed entirely of recycled rare earth materials. The MacBook Air is designed to fulfill Apple’s stringent energy efficiency requirements while also being free of PVC, mercury, and brominated flame retardants. This decision gets Apple one step closer to its aim of eliminating plastic from all packaging by 2025 since the container is made entirely of fiber.

By 2030, Apple aims to achieve carbon neutrality across the entire manufacturing supply chain and the life cycle of every product, building on its current goal of carbon neutrality for worldwide corporate operations.

Conclusion

Apple’s rumored 15-inch MacBook Air M3 features a powerful M3 chip, built using cutting-edge 3-nanometer technology. The M3 chip offers up to 60% faster performance than the M1 model and is 13 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air. The laptop has up to 18 hours of battery life, six hours longer than an Intel-based MacBook Air. The M3 chip supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, providing more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for gaming experiences. The base model has eight CPU and eight GPU cores, while the 15-inch model starts at $1,299 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Both chip versions have a 16-core neural engine to accelerate AI and machine learning tasks.

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