Apple announces new MacBook Air with M3 chip starting at $1099

Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M3 chip starting at $1099. The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip now supports up to two external displays and Wi-Fi 6E, up to 2x faster Wi-Fi than the previous generation. It comes with the same aluminum unibody enclosure and is available in four colors: midnight, starlight; space gray; and silver.

Built using 3-nm technology, the M3 chip comes with a 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory. It also features up to 18 hours of battery life. Thanks to the next-generation GPU of M3, the new MacBook Air supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing. Also, the updated media engine supports AV1 decode for more efficient and higher-quality video experiences. The M3 also comes with a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine. Apple even claims that MacBook Air is the world’s best consumer laptop for AI, which is a questionable claim given the availability of numerous Windows laptops that offer better AI performance than M3 MacBook Air laptops.

The new MacBook Air with M3 will be available beginning Friday, March 8 in 28 countries. The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,099 (U.S.) and $999 (U.S.) for education, and the 15?inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at $1,299 (U.S.) and $1,199 (U.S.) for education.

Apple’s MacBook Air refresh addresses clear market demand for lightweight yet powerful laptops. This positions the Air to capture significant market share, potentially cannibalizing some MacBook Pro sales where raw power is less critical than portability and price.