Ángel Jiménez from Luis USA

USA

Updated Thursday, March 7, 2024-9:23 p.m.

Last Monday Apple presented the new version of its most popular laptops, the Macbook Air with 13 and 15-inch screens and,

on the outside, they are practically identical to the versions that were on sale until now,

to the point that Apple I could have reused the photos.

It's understandable.

With the redesign at the end of 2022, the laptop has achieved a functional and attractive design that fits into most scenarios.

There's little to complain about beyond the fact that the two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports it has are on the same side.

The big difference in these new machines is inside.

These are the first MacBook Airs equipped with the

M3 chip announced in October last year

and which until now was only available in MacBook Pros and iMacs.

I have been able to test it in recent days and

the jump in power is significant,

especially in some scenarios, although the model with M2, which is still on sale in the 13-inch version at a lower price, is also perfectly recommended.

The M3 gives the Macbook Air a more than decent jump in power, especially when compared to the M1 (it doesn't make much sense to jump from the model with M2 to this one, although it is certainly somewhat more capable).

With eight CPU cores and 10 graphics cores, plus support for ray tracing, it's a machine that can even run some visually stunning games,

like Death Stranding: Director Cut or Baldur's Gate 3,

respectably .

It is not a gaming laptop and the Mac may not be the best platform for it, but it helps make the MacBook Air a computer that is

easy to recommend to any non-professional user in practically any scenario,

from entertainment to editing. video.

Few 1.2 kilo laptops (I have tested the 13-inch version) and without a fan can boast of doing a fraction of what this MacBook moves with ease.

In addition to the new chip, there are some more changes that are worth highlighting.

The MacBook Air can now finally

connect to two external monitors instead of just one,

although with limitations.

The M3 still only has two display controllers, so if two external monitors are connected, the integrated display cannot be used and the laptop has to remain closed (requiring an external keyboard and mouse or trackpad).

As was the case with previous models, multiple monitors can also be used with an intermediate hub without so many limitations, which alleviates the situation a bit.

Another interesting change is that these MacBook Airs have

support for WiFi 6E,

which improves the speed of wireless transmission if a compatible router is used.

Finally, a long-awaited change is that the midnight color model (a very dark blue) now has the same anodized coating as the MacBook Pro, which helps prevent

fingerprints from being visible on the case as much.

It doesn't eliminate them completely, but it mitigates them quite a bit.

Otherwise, it's the same MacBook Air as the last two years:

reliable, light, attractive and powerful.

A safe setting.

It has a

very good screen and an autonomy that easily lasts two days of moderate use

(Apple estimates about 18 hours of continuous video playback at 50% brightness and in my tests it is a realistic estimate).

It charges via USB-C or Magsafe and if you use a 70-watt adapter instead of the 30 that comes in the box, it has fast charging.

The

biggest drawback

I've found is that the base model still comes with 8GB of unified memory and 256GB of SSD storage.

Unified memory - integrated into the processor itself - is a little faster than traditional RAM but 8 GB, in the year 2024, is a bit scarce.

Furthermore, the laptop

cannot be expanded once purchased,

so choosing a configuration with more memory from the beginning is practically a requirement, especially for those who are going to make more intensive use of video editing or design applications, which They usually benefit from a greater amount of memory.

The MacBook Air

is not a cheap computer (it starts at 1,299 euros) but it is difficult to go wrong with it.

It does everything well and makes everything easy.

For those looking for something cheaper within the Apple universe, the alternative, now, is the MacBook Air with an M2 processor, which is still on sale at a price that starts at 1,199 euros but which is not unusual to see on sale at an even lower price.

It's not as powerful but the M2 is still amazing, especially when compared to the X86 architecture used by competing PCs and especially when comparing fanless machines in the same weight class.