Apple has refreshed its MacBook Air lineup, ensuring there is enough to enjoy for anyone who hasn’t upgraded in a few years. Powered by the company’s latest-generation M3 chip, the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs are being called the “world’s best consumer laptop for AI”, which means a lot if you have been following developments at Apple.
Even a few years ago, Apple didn’t use the term AI freely and almost always opted for machine learning. Second, it’s an interesting change because Apple didn’t mention that when it introduced the iMac with M3 in October, highlighting how Apple is competing well with new Windows laptops billed as “AI PCs”.
The new models are“up to 60 per cent faster” than the M1 MacBook Air, according to Apple, and offer up to 18 hours of battery life. Both models come with a Liquid Retina display and up to 500 nits of brightness, along with support for up to two external displays when the laptops are closed. Users will enjoy an upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E, which adds support for the 6GHz band and faster download speeds. Besides all that, the machines come with MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports as well.
With support for up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed, it’s easy to multitask across apps and spread out across two screens
The M3 chip is where the secret sauce lies. Released last year, it has an 8-core CPU combined with up to 10-core GPU.
“From college students pursuing their degrees, to business users who need powerful productivity, or anyone who simply wants the unmatched combination of performance, portability, and industry-leading battery life, all in a fanless design, the new MacBook Air continues to be the world’s best thin and light laptop,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, in a statement.
Needless to say, the laptops come with sharper 1080p webcams and also have a three-mic array for better voice clarity on calls.
But what is most interesting is the AI aspect. M3 includes a faster and more efficient 16-core Neural Engine, along with accelerators in the CPU and GPU to boost on-device machine learning, making “MacBook Air the world’s best consumer laptop for AI”. All the power and speed will help users to “enable powerful camera features, real-time speech-to-text, translation, text predictions, visual understanding, accessibility features, and much more”.
Here’s why it’s a big deal. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, to name two AI platforms, run in the Cloud and not directly on the computer.
On the MacBook Air M3 users can check their homework with AI Math Assistance in Goodnotes 6 to automatically enhance photos in Pixelmator Pro. Combined with the unified memory architecture of Apple silicon, MacBook Air can also run “optimised AI models, including large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image generation locally with great performance”. Of course, it also supports Cloud-based solutions. But imagine the power of the M3 chip.
On February 28, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company sees “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI, which is why we’re currently investing significantly in this area” at the annual shareholder meeting. All this AI talk may lead to major announcements later this year, especially when you consider the fact that Worldwide Developer Conference is only months away, probably in June; this is where the company typically unveils new software.
Games get even better on MacBook Air with M3, delivering incredible performance, breathtaking graphics, and features like Game Mode in macOS Sonoma
The two new models are arriving around nine months after the 15-inch M2 MacBook Air was launched. Of course, the new launches also mean bye-bye MacBook Air with the M1 chip, which launched in November 2020 and it continues to be a workhorse.
Apple reported $7.78 billion in Mac revenue during its fiscal first-quarter earnings report and the latest computers may help boost the company’s sales.
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at Rs 114,900 and Rs 104,900 for education, and the 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 starts at Rs 134,900 and Rs 124,900 for education. And you can lay hands on the machines on March 8. For the moment, pre-book.
MacBook Air M3 performance
Game titles like No Man’s Sky run up to 60 per cent faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M1 chip.
Enhancing an image with AI using Photomator’s Super Resolution feature is up to 40 per cent faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 15x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
Working in Excel spreadsheets is up to 35 per cent faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 3x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
Video editing in Final Cut Pro is up to 60 per cent faster than the 13-inch model with the M1 chip, and up to 13x faster for customers who haven’t upgraded to a Mac with Apple silicon.
Compared to a PC laptop with an Intel Core i7 processor, MacBook Air delivers up to 2x faster performance, up to 50 per cent faster web browsing, and up to 40 per cent longer battery life.
