13- and 15-inch M3 MacBook Air laptops reportedly on track for a familiar release window
New laptops ahoy!
Apple's 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops are the best Macs for a whole lot of people and Apple is working towards releasing new versions of both, and a new report claims that development is well on the way.
The new laptops are both expected to feature the next generation of Apple silicon with the M3 chip built on TSMC's 3nm manufacturing process. That's the same process that was used to build the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro chip which bodes well for the future Macs' performance.
The report also suggests that we can look forward to the updated MacBook Airs arriving in a familiar timeframe — one that Apple has used for its MacBook Air announcements before.
The M3 MacBook Air is coming
The report in question comes via Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter. In it, Gurman says that the new MacBook Airs will likely arrive after the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, with a launch likely to be around spring or summer.
"Those waiting for a new MacBook Air will likely need to hold on a bit longer," the report says. "I’m told that the 13-inch and 15-inch M3 models have just reached the EVT stage, or engineering verification test, which would put them on schedule for between spring and summer of next year at the earliest."
That could mean that Apple intends to announce the updated Macs during its WWDC 2024 event, with a June timeframe being the traditional one for its annual developer get-together.
The move to an M3 chip is likely to be the biggest change in this release, although that could be a big change on its own. Improved power management and faster performance are likely, making the 15-inch MacBook Air in particular a great buy for people who want a big screen but don't want to spend the money needed to get a 16-inch MacBook Pro.
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Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.