On March 8th, Apple's latest powerhouse lightweight laptop, the M3 MacBook Air, made its debut, offering two sizes: 13-inch and 15-inch, with prices starting at 8999 CNY and 10499 CNY respectively.
The highlight of the new Apple MacBook Air is undoubtedly the inclusion of the M3 chip, which marks the industry's first 3nm process PC chip. In benchmark tests, the M3 shows a single-core task performance improvement of about 17% and a multi-core task performance improvement of about 21% compared to the M2 chip.
For comparison, the M3 MacBook Air boasts a speed boost of up to 60% compared to the MacBook Air featuring the M1 chip.
Thanks to its brand-new GPU architecture, the M3 boasts industry-leading dynamic cache functionality. It also introduces hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to the Mac for the first time, along with support for AV1 video decoding.
Moreover, the new M3 MacBook Air finally allows users to connect two external displays simultaneously: one at 6K 60Hz and another at 5K 60Hz+.
It's worth noting that while the Windows camp is pushing 32GB+1TB storage configurations, the Apple M3 MacBook Air still starts at 8GB+256GB.
Furthermore, continuing the tradition of "Apple RAM costs more than gold," adding 8GB of memory will set you back an additional 1500 CNY, while 16GB will cost you an extra 3000 CNY.
It's reported that the M3 MacBook Air maintains consistency with its predecessor in terms of design, weight, screen material, ports, speakers, and even color options remain unchanged.
Overall, the M3 MacBook Air focuses mainly on enhancing performance rather than introducing new features. Compared to its predecessor, it's considered a minor upgrade, suitable for consumers who already own an older MacBook Air (M1 or Intel version) or those who are new to the MacBook Air lineup.
