Apple hasn’t officially announced the MacBook Air M3, but with the latest chip already in the MacBook Pro and iMac its inclusion in the Air is inevitable. Rumor suggests we could see the MacBook Air M3 as soon as January.
MacBook Air laptops are arguably the best MacBooks for most people due to their slim lightweight design and affordability. To that end, we expect Apple will eventually release an updated model featuring the rumored Apple M3 chip.
Rumors are as thin as the laptop, but what we’ve heard sounds intriguing. Here's everything we’ve heard about the MacBook Air M3 so far.
MacBook Air M3: Latest news (December 7)
- A massive report suggests the MacBook Air will get the M3 chip next year
- M3 MacBooks tipped to launch next year — here's what we know
- An M3 MacBook Air 15-inch could already be underway
MacBook Air M3: Rumored release date
Recent reports are pointing to early 2024 for the release of the M3 MacBook Air, coming out alongside a new iPad Air and iPad Pro.
Shoring up our confidence, a shipment forecast published by DigiTimes suggested that Apple's latest silicon looks likely to ship in 2024. On top of that, according to prolific leaker Revegnus, TSMC, the Taiwanese chipmaker that Apple works closely with on several products, apparently can't produce enough M3 chips for updating the company's tablets, laptops and desktops. iPads and Macs with the new generation of silicon will instead only appear in 2024, Revegnus adds.
Gurman has updated his report about the MacBook Air, suggesting the lightweight laptop could now arrive in the Spring or Summer of 2024.
According to the reporter, Apple plans to launch MacBook Pros sporting the rumored M3 Pro and M3 Max processors in the first half of 2024 before following up with M3 versions of the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs. This could come alongside a beta release of macOS 15 at WWDC in June.
MacBook Air M3: Rumored specs
The rumored MacBook Air will allegedly pack the Apple M3 chip, which is itself still very much a rumor. The processor will reportedly use TSMC’s 3nm process. Apple would be the first company to use this advanced process node, if true. In practice, this would make the next Macs far more powerful than their predecessors whose chips use TSMC’s 5-nanometer technology.
In his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Gurman, citing developer logs, outlines the specifications of Apple's M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max and M3 Ultra chips along with which new Mac models they'll be found in. He notes that the actual specifications could change during the production process. The version consumers get their hands on may differ from what Apple's testing internally.
You can read our Apple M3 vs M3 Pro vs M3 Max vs M3 Ultra: The specs you need to know article to see a full breakdown. For the purpose of this article, we’ll detail the base M3 chip’s specs alongside the entry-level M2 for easier comparison.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Specs | Found on these Mac models |
|---|---|---|
| M3 | 8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores | MacBook Pro 13-inch, 13-inch MacBook Air, 15-inch MacBook Air, Mac mini, iMac |
| M2 | 8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores | MacBook Pro 13-inch, 13-inch MacBook Air, 15-inch MacBook Air, Mac mini |
As with everything in this piece, take the above with a healthy dose of skepticism. That said, if these rumored M3 specs are legitimate, the next MacBook Air will likely be the most powerful MacBook Air ever. If you own an older model like the MacBook Air M1 or even an Intel MacBook, you might want to hold off on buying a MacBook until the M3 chip arrives.
MacBook Air M3: Rumored design
We haven’t heard much about the rumored MacBook Air M3’s design but we don’t expect Apple will alter the laptop in any significant way given how its M2-driven predecessor already introduced a new design for the MacBook Air lineup.
Like the MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch released in 2021, both the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops feature a flatter, more utilitarian design. The M3 Air will likely keep this feature, along with MagSafe charging. Both of the M2 MacBook Airs come in four colors so it’s reasonable to expect the same for the MacBook Air M3.
Similarly, the MacBook Air M3 will likely also sport the same bright and colorful 13.6-inch (2,560 x 1,664) Liquid Retina display as the M2 model.
MacBook Air M3: Outlook
The MacBook Air M3 is still churning in the rumor mill, so it’s best to take everything written above with a grain of salt. That said, with the mounting reports of a delay to 2024, we're confident you'll have to wait just a little longer to see the new Airs.
Stay tuned for more updates as we get them.
