Once again, the MacBook Air takes a step forward with better performance. The breakthrough was when Apple decided to start shipping these with 16 GB of RAM standard, starting October 30th, 2024 – along with the discounted M2 model. This M3 is still rated around 15 hours of battery use, and aside from a new chip, the entirety of the rest of this computer is looks 1:1 to the predecessor.

Long gone is the familiar wedge shape introduced with the original MacBook Air, a design which carried all the way through to the M1 model. The A2681 was a monumental shift in design, and the screen is just about a 16:10 rather than a Late Intel’s/M1’s 16:9 screen aspect ratio.

Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing

The M3 chip introduces Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing. It is a technique used in computer graphics to create highly realistic lighting and shadows by simulating the way light interacts with objects in a scene. Unlike traditional rasterization, which processes polygons and textures to render images, ray tracing follows the path of rays of light as they travel through a scene. The idea is to create realistic shadows, detailed reflections, and make gaming more life-like without as much of a performance hit.

What You Need to Know

• If you’re someone who’s transitioning over from an Intel Mac, or will be using Intel Mac apps, Apple has an app called Rosetta 2 for Apple Silicon Macs. Once installed, this isn’t something you directly interact with. Rather, you may simply open an Intel app, and it’ll open. Rosetta 2 does an Intel to Arm “ahead of time” translation, using an instruction set in the M3 chip. The first time the Intel app launches it’ll be noticeably slow, as Rosetta caches and stores code. Once this process is done, the App should work just as normal.
• These ‘Books shipped with 8 GB of RAM up until 10/29/2024. This is fine for basic tasks, but is increasingly impractical these days. For a serious speed boost, opt for used one with 16 GB of RAM, and more storage. Multiple NANDs allow for parallel processing/RAID, increasing Read/Write speeds.
  • As of 10/30/2024, the M3 MacBook Air comes standard with 16GB.

Closed Lid Mode: All ‘Books support “lid closed” (or clamshell) mode, which leaves the built-in display off and dedicates all video RAM to an external display. To use closed lid mode, your ‘Book must be plugged into the AC adapter and connected to an external display and a USB or Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (you might also want to consider external speakers). Power up your ‘Book until the desktop appears on the external display and then close the lid. Your ‘Book will go to sleep, but you can wake it by moving the mouse or using the keyboard. The built-in display will remain off, and the external monitor will become your only display.

To resume use of the internal display, you need to disconnect the external display, put the computer to sleep, and then open the lid. This will wake up your ‘Book and restore use of the built-in display.

Battery life is claimed to be 15 hours of wireless productivity, 18 hours Apple TV App movie playback.

Details

• Announced 2024.03.04
• Model Identifier: Mac15,12
• Model: A3113 (EMC 8611)
• Order Number: MRXV3LL/A (Midnight, 8GB, Early 2024)
  • MRXT3LL/A (Starlight, 8GB, Early 2024)
  • MRXQ3LL/A (Silver, 8GB, Early 2024)
  • MRXN3LL/A (Space Gray, 8GB, Early 2024)
• On October 30th, 2024, Apple bumped the standard “base” configuration, with new order numbers:
  • MC8K4LL/A (Midnight Blue, 16GB)
  • MC8J4LL/A (Starlight, 16GB)
  • MC8H4LL/A (Silver, 16GB)
  • MC8G4LL/A (Space Gray, 16GB)

Mac OS

• Requires macOS Sonoma 14.4 (Build 23E214) or later for Early 2024 8 GB model
  • macOS Sequoia 15.1 for 16GB Late 2024 refresh

Core System

Legend: L1i = L1 Instruction Cache, L1d = L1 Data cache, SLC = System Level Cache

• CPU ($1099): 8 Cores, 4x 4.05 GHz “M3” High Performance Cores: 768K L1i, 512K L1d, 64MB L2, 8MB System Level Cache
  • 4x 2.75 GHz “M3” energy efficient cores: 512K L1i, 256k L1d, 16MB L2, 8 MB SLC
• 16-Core Neural Engine
• 8/16/24 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR5-6400 SDRAM
  • 100 GB/s Memory Bandwidth
  • 24GB (+$200)

Video

• Integrated Apple M3 with 8/10-Core Metal 3 Hardware Accelerated GPU
• 16:10 13.6″ TFT IPS LED-Backlit LCD, 2560 x 1664 @224ppi, 500 nits
  • P3 Color
  • True Tone
  • Support for 1 Billion colors
• Simultaneous support for: internal display @native resolution and:
  • a single 6K60 display
• Simultaneous support for 2 external displays if you use the ‘Book in clamshell mode
  • Close the MacBook Air
  • 1x 6K60 + 1x 5K60 simultaneously

Drives

• Drive Bus: 256GB PCIe SSD ~3.3 GB/s, 2x 128GB NANDs in Parallel
• Configurable to: 512GB (+$200), 1 TB (+$400), and 2 TB (+$800)

Expansion

• 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E
• Bluetooth 5.3
• Two USB-C style Thunderbolt 3 Ports
  • Support for: USB 4 (up to 40 Gb/s), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Up to 15 hrs battery life
• 52.6 W/h Li-Ion battery
• Touch ID Sensor
• Magsafe 3 for charging
• 1080p Facetime HD Camera with/ Advanced image signal processor
• 3x Mic array w/directional beam foaming
• 4-speaker sound, support for Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos

Physical

• size: 0.44 x 11.97 x 8.46″ ( 1.13 x 21.5 x 1.24 cm)
• Weight: 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg)
• Power supply: 30W USB-C charging Brick
  • Configure to order:
  • 35W 2x-USB-C port Power brick (Default for 10-core GPU MBA)
  • 70W USB-C charging brick
    • MacBook Air M3 is fast charge “capable” with the 70W brick.