Apple’s brand-new M3 MacBook Air features a significantly boosted 256GB SSD hard drive that rectifies one of the biggest drawbacks of the M2 MacBook Air, its read and write speeds.
In the M2 MacBook Air, Apple used a single higher-density NAND chip for its 256GB SSD storage option. Upon release, it quickly became apparent that the benchmark scores for the chip were significantly lower than Apple’s old M1 MacBook Air, one of the best MacBooks the company has ever made. Apple claimed, "While benchmarks of the 256GB SSD may show a difference compared to the previous generation, the performance of these M2-based systems for real-world activities are even faster.”
Despite defending its decision to adopt the single-chip configuration at the time, Apple has reversed course with the new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Air models, opting for two 128GB chips instead. Because our M3 MacBook Air review features a 512GB model, we’ve not been able to run tests, but data from Max Tech confirms the new SSD is significantly faster than its predecessor.
M3 MacBook Air SSD speeds
According to Max Tech, the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air with 256GB of storage delivers sequential read and write speeds of 2,880.2 MB/s and 2,108.9 MB/s respectively. That’s a commendable write speed increase of 33% over the M2’s 256GB capacity and an eye-watering 82.7% increase over the read speed.
The boost is great news for prospective M3 MacBook Air customers who don’t want to fork out for extra storage just to get the best hard drive speeds possible from the latest MacBook Air.
Unveiled March 4 and released March 8, the new M3 version retains the popular design of the previous M2 model while delivering significantly faster day-to-day computing thanks to the M3 chip. The latest generation of Apple silicon boasts power and efficiency bonuses over both the M1 and M2 models. Apple also debuted both a 13 and 15-inch model together for the first time, cementing the lineup for the foreseeable future.
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