Why You Should Wait For Apple’s Next MacBook Air

Updated January 30: article originally posted January 27.

Apple has established the latest generation of MacBook Pro laptops, yet there is a far more interesting choice we should all wait for.

October 2023 saw Apple launch the M3 Apple Silicon chipset, as well as three new MacBook Pro models, all sporting M3. The professionally focused 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models ship with M3 Pro or M3 Max variants, offering more I/O functionality and significantly more RAM and storage options.

The consumer-focused 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with the vanilla M3 chipset, offering fewer I/O features and smaller memory and storage options.

Crucially, the internal design of the consumer MacBook Pro is utterly unlike that of the M3 Pro and M3 Max-equipped MacBooks. While they are sold on the same page, these machines are very different. And that has implications for those looking to buy a macOS laptop.

Now, look back at the M1 and M2 versions of the MacBook Pro. These were released as the M1 and M2 silicon debuted but also debuted alongside the M1 and M2 MacBook Airs. Here, the internals were almost the same, the crucial difference being the addition of a cooling fan on the M1 and M2 MacBook Pro laptops. This allowed the Apple Silicon chipset to run slightly hotter, offering a performance game of up to twenty percent.

While we don’t yet have an M3 MacBook Air, what we can assume is the internal design of the new Air… all we need do is strip the fan out of the M3 MacBook Pro, and we have our MacBook Air. Now, it will show a little less performance as it relies on passive cooling, but each generation of Apple Silicon has shown a significant uplift in performance and endurance.

Update: Sunday January 28: Writing for the Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman picks out the MacBook Air’s upcoming refresh. The reliable report names the end of March for the next iteration of the Air with the M3 chipset.

Crucially, Gurman quotes both the smaller and larger display models of the MacBook Air will be updated. In the previous generation, the 13-inch version of the MacBook Air M2 was released in July 2022. It was the debut machine for the entire M2 platform. The 15-inch Air did not arrive for eleven months until June 2023.

Gurman also states that the laptops are already “deep in production overseas” to build up stock on the popular consumer-focused laptop, and this time around, consumers won't have to wonder if a larger display is coming in a year’s time. The choice will be in front of them.

When the M1 provided sufficient performance for the average consumer, the M2 provided around eighteen per cent increase in CPU performance over the M1; the M3 showed a fifteen per cent increase over the M2.

That’s the increased capability the M3-powered MacBook Air will deliver when it arrives (which is expected to be announced in late March to ship in early April). Adding a fan should offer another ten to fifteen percent, but the vast majority of consumers don’t need that excess power. If they did, the marginal gain over the Air is not value for money. If you want performance, you should be looking at the M3 Pro and M3 Max laptops.

If you must have the word “Pro” on your consumer-focused laptop, go right ahead with the M3 MacBook Pro For everyone else—the vast majority—all you need to do is wait till April for the MacBook Air to arrive.

Update: Tuesday January 30: Jason England takes a closer look at the timings, both those suggested by the current wave of details about the new products and also looking back at the historical tempo around Apple’s hardware release.

The first date to deduce is the launch event. Whether this is an in-person event on the Apple Campus, a hand-picked location somewhere in the world, an online PowerPoint-esque video presentation, or a bunch of press releases posted on the main website, England has called out Tuesday, March 19.

Apple likes to run a short pre-order window, in which case that could open at any point after the launch, but Friday 22 would follow convention, allowing for shipping and a retail release the following Friday, March 29.

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