Apple MacBook Air 13″ (M3)

Apple · MacBook Air

MacBook Air 13″ (M3)

Released March 2024

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M3 is Apple's thin, fanless everyday laptop from 2024, suited to students and home or office users who value portability and long battery life and don't need more than one external display with the lid open.

Model history · 16 models, 2008–2024
  1. 2008MacBook Air (Original)Compare
  2. 2008MacBook Air (Late 2008)Compare
  3. 2009MacBook Air (Mid 2009)Compare
  4. 2010MacBook Air (13-inch, Late 2010)Compare
  5. 2011MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011)Compare
  6. 2012MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)Compare
  7. 2013MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)Compare
  8. 2014MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)Compare
  9. 2015MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015)Compare
  10. 2017MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017)Compare
  11. 2018MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)Compare
  12. 2019MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)Compare
  13. 2020MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020)Compare
  14. 2020MacBook Air 13″ (M1)Compare
  15. 2022MacBook Air 13″ (M2)Compare
  16. 2024MacBook Air 13″ (M3)
Size
13.6″
Display
IPS LCD, 60 Hz
Processor
Apple M3
Memory
8 GB – 24 GB
Weight
1.24 kg
Battery
18 h

What reviewers say

Reviewers praise the strong, silent fanless performance, the slim all-metal design and long battery life. Tom's Guide found only a modest gain over the M2 model; Notebookcheck regrets that both USB-C ports are on the left and found the bundled charger slightly underpowered, and PCMag disliked the screen notch and found peak brightness lower than expected.

From notebookcheck.net, pcmag.com and tomsguide.com

Display

Screen size
13.6″
Resolution
2560 × 1664
Panel
IPS LCD
Refresh rate
60 Hz
Brightness
500 nits
Touchscreen
No
Display type
Liquid Retina display; LED-backlit with IPS technology
Pixel density
224 ppi
Colour range
Wide colour (P3); 1 billion colours
Display features
True Tone

Performance

Processor
Apple M3
CPU cores
8
Graphics
8-core GPU or 10-core GPU
Memory
8 GB, 16 GB or 24 GB
Storage
256 GB to 2 TB
CPU
8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
GPU
8-core or 10-core GPU; hardware-accelerated ray tracing; Media Engine with H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW acceleration and AV1 decode engine
AI engine
16-core Neural Engine
Memory type
Unified memory
Memory bandwidth
100 GB/s
Storage type
SSD, configurable up to 2 TB
Cooling
Fanless

Battery and size

Battery life (maker's claim)
Up to 18 hours
Battery capacity
52.6 Wh
Weight
1.24 kg
Thickness
11.3 mm
Width × depth
304.1 × 215 mm
Battery life detail
Up to 15 hours wireless web; lithium-polymer battery
Charger
30 W USB-C adapter with the 8-core GPU model; 35 W Dual USB-C Port Compact adapter with the 10-core GPU, 512GB model
Fast charging
With the 70 W USB-C Power Adapter
Colours
Silver, Starlight, Space Grey, Midnight

Connections

Ports
2 × Thunderbolt 3, MagSafe 3, headphone jack
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth
5.3
Webcam
1080p FaceTime HD
Operating system
macOS
Port detail
2 × Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gb/s) and USB 4 (up to 40 Gb/s); MagSafe 3; 3.5 mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support
External displays
One at up to 6K 60 Hz alongside the built-in display; with the lid closed, a second at up to 5K 60 Hz
Keyboard
Backlit Magic Keyboard, 78 (US) or 79 (ISO) keys including 12 full-height function keys
Trackpad
Force Touch trackpad
Speakers
Four-speaker sound system; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
Microphones
Three-mic array with directional beamforming; Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes
Biometrics
Touch ID
In the box
13-inch MacBook Air, 30 W or 35 W Dual USB-C Port power adapter (by model), USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m)

Configurations

ProcessorMemoryStorage
Apple M3, 8-core GPU8 GB256 GB
Apple M3, 8-core GPU16 GB256 GB
Apple M38 GB512 GB
Apple M316 GB1 TB
Apple M324 GB2 TB

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Fanless design, 11.3 mm thick and 1.24 kg
  • Apple claims up to 18 hours of Apple TV app movie playback
  • Wi-Fi 6E, which Apple says is up to 2x faster than the previous generation

Cons

  • 60Hz, 500-nit display with no ProMotion or HDR brightness rating
  • Only two Thunderbolt 4 ports, with no HDMI or SD card slot
  • Launched with 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage as standard, and a second external display only works with the lid closed

Closest rivals

Model
SizeDisplayProcessorMemoryWeightBatteryReleased
13.6″IPS LCD, 60 HzApple M28 GB – 24 GB1.24 kg18 hJul 2022
13.6″IPS LCD, 60 HzApple M416 GB – 32 GB1.24 kg18 hMar 2025
13.6″IPS LCD, 60 HzApple M516 GB – 32 GB1.23 kg18 hMar 2026

Previous model: MacBook Air 13″ (M2). Newer model: MacBook Air 13″ (M4).

Sources

  1. support.apple.com/en-gb/118551
  2. apple.com/uk/newsroom/2024/03/apple-unveils-the-new-13-and-15-inch-macbook-air-…
  3. apple.com/uk/newsroom/2024/10/new-macbook-pro-features-m4-family-of-chips-and-a…

Photo: store.storeimages.cdn-apple.com

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