Especially if an M3 variant will power Apple’s first-gen mixed-reality glasses. We must account for TSMC’s ability to manufacture the M3 in enough quantity to make an M3 15-inch MacBook Air launch possible before WWDC.įinally, Apple might want to give the M3 a proper launch at WWDC 2023. Furthermore, an April or May launch would also suggest Apple will use the M2 chip instead of M3. That implies Apple might be using the same M2 SoC. On the other hand, previous rumors said that Apple has already started manufacturing the 15-inch MacBook Air. The 15-inch MacBook Air should at least match the 16-inch Pro battery life, if not surpass it. To put things in perspective, the M2 Pro/Max 14-inch MacBook Pro has an 18-hour battery life estimate. And that would be a massive advantage over other laptop vendors. This would further increase battery life. Add the M3 to the mix, and the 15-inch MacBook Air would benefit from the extra energy savings.

The 13-inch model has a quoted battery estimate of 18 hours. The M3 will allow Apple to march ahead with computer chip development at a pace that rivals Intel and Qualcomm can’t seem to match. Now that the M2 Pro and M2 Max are also out, sticking with the M2 for the 15-inch upcoming MacBook Air seems implausible. The M2 chip is indeed a stopgap processor, but it has no rivals in the field. That would make a lot of sense: The M2 chip was always designed as a stopgap processor ahead of the M3, which will mark the first time Apple is moving from 5-nanometer chip process technology to a 3-nanometer design in the Mac.īut if Apple is launching the 15-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models around the same time, using the M2 chip inside the bigger model wouldn’t make sense. So it’s plausible that Apple is gearing up for at least the new 13-inch model to be an M3 machine. Therefore, Apple must use the M3 chip to at least one of the new 2023 MacBooks:

But a brand-new M2 13-inch model would not be as compelling. He speculated that a 15-inch model with an M2 chip may still be exciting. Gurman couldn’t say whether the upcoming 15-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models will feature M2 or M3 chips. Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

Instagram app macbook air