With the launch of two new MacBook Air models, Apple hopes you feel the need for speed and upgrade to these M3 laptops. But there’s a far better offer lurking in the shadows of the Store…
Apple’s two new laptops are the highly-anticipated updates to the MacBook Air range. Outside of the obvious difference in their displays, the 13-inch and 15-inch models are broadly similar in specifications, with some choice in the broad numbers; you choose an 8-core GPU or 10-core-GPU, you can have 8 GB, 16 GB or 24 GB of RAM; and storage options from 256 GB up to 2 TB.
Both new laptops come with the Apple Silicon M3 chipset, offering an increase in performance of between 17 and 21 per cent compared to the M2 chipset. It’s here where there is a special offer if you want to find it.
With the launch of the M3 MacBook Air laptops, the rest of the portfolio moves down a step to accommodate the expensive new options. When Apple released the M2 MacBook Air, it kept the M1 MacBook Air in the portfolio, allowing the M2 price to stay higher. Four years after the release of the M1 AIr, Tim Cook and his team have finally decided to retire the first Apple Silicon Air to the great big Genius Bar in the sky.
This means the M2 MacBook Air can move down the portfolio and pick up the totemic $999 price for the first time. Apple. Thanks to its iterative upgrade approach, the differences between the M2 and M3 Air laptops are few and far between; you have the same memory and storage options and no issues around software compatibility between the two models.
The only practical difference is in the M2 and M3 silicon specifications. While the latter does over more performance and potential, you must consider how much you need. As many will testify, the M2 MacBook Air has an excess of power for the average consumer—uprating that by twenty percent will offer reassurance to those who want to buy “the best” but if they wanted the best, then they would already be looking at the higher end MacBook Pro laptops with the superior (yet more expensive) M3 Pro and M3 Max chipsets.
Do you want to pay $100 more for 20 percent more power? It doesn’t seem that much of a difference, and I’m sure Apple will comfortably upsell those walking into the Apple Stores to the new M3 MacBook Air. Still, for those on a budget in these difficult times, the M2 MacBook Air at $999 is a special offer to consider.
Now read how Jony Ive wanted to reinvent the MacBook…
