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New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

apple.com

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Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#21

Post by scrlk »

elthran wrote: post #19
zuhsetaqi wrote: post #6

Most interesting change: > Support for up to two external displays: MacBook Air with M3 now supports up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed …

Apple Cynic/Windows user here with a genuine question - why is this interesting? I'm currently looking at my wife's old corporate-issued windows laptop, which is running 2 external monitors as well as it's own display - am I missing something here, or is this just a case of Apple being held to different standards to other manufacturers in terms of feature parity?

M1/M2 MBAs are limited to one external display.

The M3 MacBook Air relaxes this restriction by allowing two external displays.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#22

Post by addandsubtract »

retskrad wrote: post #3

I can't tell the difference between my new M1 Max MacBook Pro and the new M3 Max Macbook Pro. Corporations have become pros at exploiting our human psychology. Their ads can make you believe that the smallest bump in improvements will make your older computer appear useless in comparison. That's why it's for the best if you avoid ads as much as possible.

The M2 and M3 are more evolutions of the M series. If you already have an M1 machine, there's no real need to upgrade. But if you don't, the M3 seems like a great device to get.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#23

Post by addandsubtract »

marban wrote: post #12

"MacBook Air can also run optimized AI models, including large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image generation locally with great performance."

Worthless PR. Further down, another selling point is "MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions, enabling users to run powerful productivity and creative apps that tap into the power of AI, such as Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, Canva, and Adobe Firefly."

Wow. Until they support CUDA or more ML/AI implementations on their chips, this is just marketing speak.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#24

Post by bstchn »

asplake wrote: post #20
karmakaze wrote: post #18

Looking at this list comparing the M3 with M1 doesn't motivate me to want the M3. It seems most gains are GPU related. The M2 was underwhelming, and it seems the M3 isn't much better than the M2 so comparing against M1. > M3 takes MacBook Air performance even further: > Game titles like No Man’s Sky run up to 60 percent faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M1 chip. > Enhancing an image with AI using Photomato…

Speaking of video, I’m on my second MacBook Air and have been very happy with them both except for one consistent concern, their unreliability with regard to external displays. It bothers me sufficiently for me to bring my Apple TV with me when delivering training, which is kinda ridiculous. I think my next one will be a Pro. That’s a pity really – I like the Air form factor and I don’t really need the extra power. I…

What exaclty are these unreliabilities?

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#25

Post by JohnBooty »

retskrad wrote: post #3

I can't tell the difference between my new M1 Max MacBook Pro and the new M3 Max Macbook Pro. Corporations have become pros at exploiting our human psychology. Their ads can make you believe that the smallest bump in improvements will make your older computer appear useless in comparison. That's why it's for the best if you avoid ads as much as possible.

For sure, capitalism requires a certain level of consumer savvy to remain sane.

For most real-world users, the M3 really is about 30% faster in single-core and 100% faster in multicore. That is really significant for a lot of us, especially software engineers. But the really big speedups mentioned in Apple's marketing are more niche and it takes some savvy to recognize that.

(I'm plenty content with my M1 Max for now and I expect I'll continue to happily use it for a few more years)

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#26

Post by asplake »

bstchn wrote: post #24
asplake wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of video, I’m on my second MacBook Air and have been very happy with them both except for one consistent concern, their unreliability with regard to external displays. It bothers me sufficiently for me to bring my Apple TV with me when delivering training, which is kinda ridiculous. I think my next one will be a Pro. That’s a pity really – I like the Air form factor and I don’t really need the extra power. I…

What exaclty are these unreliabilities?

Failure to drive those displays, big TVs or projectors for the most part

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#27

Post by JohnBooty »

elthran wrote: post #19
zuhsetaqi wrote: post #6

Most interesting change: > Support for up to two external displays: MacBook Air with M3 now supports up to two external displays when the laptop lid is closed …

Apple Cynic/Windows user here with a genuine question - why is this interesting? I'm currently looking at my wife's old corporate-issued windows laptop, which is running 2 external monitors as well as it's own display - am I missing something here, or is this just a case of Apple being held to different standards to other manufacturers in terms of feature parity?

Well, it's definitely "interesting" because it was a weird and user-unfriendly restriction on previous M1/M2 Airs and now it's gone. So that is interesting for sure.

Perhaps more to the point, you're right -- Apple doesn't deserve to be lauded for removing something that was a dumb restriction in the first place. But it is interesting considering this is the most popular laptop in the world.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#28

Post by seuraughty »

asplake wrote: post #26
bstchn wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exaclty are these unreliabilities?

Failure to drive those displays, big TVs or projectors for the most part

I thought they could drive up to 6k or something crazy - surprised to hear it struggles with TVs and projectors that I imagine are 4k.

Re: New 13- and 15‑inch MacBook Air with M3 chip

#29

Post by dagmx »

karmakaze wrote: post #18

Looking at this list comparing the M3 with M1 doesn't motivate me to want the M3. It seems most gains are GPU related. The M2 was underwhelming, and it seems the M3 isn't much better than the M2 so comparing against M1. > M3 takes MacBook Air performance even further: > Game titles like No Man’s Sky run up to 60 percent faster than the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M1 chip. > Enhancing an image with AI using Photomato…

I’m sure they know most people aren’t upgrading yearly so it makes more sense to target people two gens or more behind.

Regarding your last point, it’s because of the video accelerators on the M series chips which is why they mention Final Cut. The latter comparison to Intel laptops also has to take into account that it’s been ~4 years since Apple shipped that.

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