'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
Apple launches 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air with M3 chip. Here's what's new
Apple today has unveiled two new MacBook models: the 13- and 15-inch Air with M3 processors. Both laptops look about the same as their predecessors, with notched displays encased in aluminum unibody enclosures, the same quartet of colors (Midnight, Starlight, Space Gray, and Silver), and the latest M3 chipsets for improved performance and efficiency.
Both models will cost the same as their previous versions, too, with the 13-inch MacBook Air starting at $1,099 and the 15-inch MacBook Air starting at $1,299. They'll be available for preorder starting today and officially arrive in stores on March 8, this Friday.
Also: I went hands-on with Apple's M3 MacBook Air and 3 features stood out the most
"MacBook Air is our most popular and loved Mac, with more customers choosing it over any other laptop. And today it gets even better with the M3 chip and new capabilities," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a Monday press release.
With the latest models, the big headline revolves around the M3 chip powering the units. Apple's 3-nanometer processor features an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU, and works with up to 24GB of unified memory, allowing the updated MacBook Airs to be up to 60% faster than their M1 counterparts and up to 13 times faster than the highest-configured Intel-based Air models, according to the company.
The M3 chip also gives the new MacBooks support for hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, two invaluable features for 3D graphics and game design. On the AI front, the M3 includes a 16-core Neural Engine that should improve the on-device machine learning of the MacBook Air. The efficiency gains can best be leveraged in services within video calls, real-time speech and text, translation, accessibility features, and more.
As for the rest of the specs, the new MacBook Airs both sport Liquid Retina displays with up to 500 nits of brightness, and can now extend onto two external monitors when the laptop is closed, an ideal upgrade for business users, content creators, and others who rely on multiple workflows and displays. The M3 MacBook also gets a bump up to Wi-Fi 6E (from Wi-Fi 6) for faster, more reliable download speeds.
Also: What is Wi-Fi 7 and just how fast is it?
It's worth noting that Apple will still be selling the 13-inch MacBook Air (M2) but for $100 less than its original price. ZDNET named that model the Best Product of 2022 and the new low price makes it an even better value.