After almost two years, Apple decided to introduce the new Macbook Air. We immediately received the new product for testing and these are our first impressions, but we do not stop there and in the coming days you can of course look forward to a full-fledged review and comparison with its predecessors with Apple Silicone. But now we will look at what the novelty brings and what is actually new here. In the beginning, I will add that we have a larger 15″ variant for the test, but the device was also presented in a smaller 13″, which shares most of the equipment.
The MacBook Air hasn’t changed in terms of design, except for a better finish to reduce fingerprints. This is also helped by the star-white version itself, which looks very stylish.
Coincidentally, I’ve been using the previous model with the M2 chip as my primary computer for a long time, so the comparison is easy. From a design point of view, almost nothing has changed here. The notebook still looks the same and Apple has not changed the appearance, dimensions and even the weight of 1.51 kg has remained the same. It was the last generation that underwent a major redesign, so given Apple’s conservative approach, the changes weren’t even expected.
Equally thin and premium
The design is contemporary and the device is beautifully thin, light and portable, yet premium in build. Again, I am a bit sorry for the still rather small maximum opening angle. However, one thing has changed, but you won’t notice it from the product photos, even at first glance in person. Here, Apple used a new aluminum treatment process that it first introduced in the fall with the Pro models, which significantly reduced the adhesion of fingerprints, and it must be added that it is very noticeable. Especially the starry white variant tested by us.
The display has not changed here. Again, this is a 15.3″ IPS panel with a resolution of 2,880 × 1,864 pixels and a decent brightness of 500 nits, which is already sufficient for comfortable work even in direct light. A wide color range covering the DCI-P3 gamut is a matter of course for Apple. In particular, I have to praise the 15.3″ version we tested for the fact that Apple fit such a large display into a still excellently portable body, because the larger diagonal is significantly more comfortable to work with multiple windows, especially compared to the 13.6″ version. The cutout in the display already it’s almost iconic here, and the advantage is that in a lot of apps it’s covered by a black menu bar and you don’t even know it’s there.
The advantage of the new Air is the better surface treatment of aluminum, which does not leave as many fingerprints. Since it is a 15″ model, it has more pronounced edges around the keyboard. Thanks to the larger space, you can look forward to four speakers, unlike the 13″ version. There is also a keyboard backlight.
But the main novelty of the new MacBook Air is clearly the M3 chip. We already know it intimately from the autumn iMac computer. Of course, Apple boasts of a significant difference in performance, but you just need to be careful what it compares it to in its marketing materials. In practice, the difference is not so profound. We managed to try the first benchmarks here, but before the full review you can look forward to more tests and a direct comparison against the predecessor with the M2 and M1 chip.
More power and up to two external monitors
In our tested version, we have to praise the speed of the 512GB SSD, but also the 16GB of unified memory. However, keep in mind that if you buy the cheaper version with 256GB of storage, it will be significantly slower thanks to the single-chip SSD, just like the last generation. Thanks to the M3 chip, the Air also offers direct hardware support for the AV1 decoder for the first time. The new chip also offers more modern connectivity thanks to faster Wi-Fi 6E, but this is more of an upgrade on paper and the target audience of this notebook will definitely not know the difference.
In the thin body of the MacBook Air, Apple fitted a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports (USB 4), a MagSafe 3 connector and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.
But what made me the most happy about the MacBook Air is finally the ability to connect two monitors at once via a pair of Thunderbolt 3. None of the Airs with Apple Silicone could do that yet, and it was one of its biggest disadvantages, which sometimes limited me, for example. The main monitor can handle up to 6K resolution, the second at a maximum of 5K resolution, but both at a frequency of 60Hz.
However, this is no hardware change, the computer still only has two video controllers, the catch is that the two external monitors only work if the MacBook is closed. So it means that in this mode you definitely need an external keyboard and mouse/trackpad as well.
MacBook Airs have long been known for their long day-long endurance, and that applies here as well. We haven’t had enough time yet to verify the stated 18-hour endurance, but with the previous generation, the stated times corresponded to reality, and were even sometimes understated. We will tell you the exact times in the next review, but according to our first impressions, the durability should be excellent.
First editorial performance tests:
GeekBench 6, CPU (Multi-Core) 11,922 points GeekBench 6, CPU (Single-Core) 3,119 points GeekBench 6, GPU (OpenCL) 30,481 points GeekBench 6, GPU (Metal) 47,266 points
You’ll just have to get used to the MagSafe 3 charging magnetic connector, which is practical, but somewhat unnecessary in the age of USB-C. But you can rest assured that you won’t knock your computer off the table if you trip over the connected power cable. However, due to the slow 35W adapter, you will sometimes want to throw the computer out of the window due to the long charging time. Fortunately, the laptop supports up to 70W charging, so it is not a problem to buy a stronger adapter.
You can tell from our first impressions that we’re testing a higher configuration with an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory and a 512GB SSD. The price of CZK 49,990 corresponds to this. In the basic configuration, however, you would have already bought the laptop for 12,000 cheaper. Just count on concessions especially for memory and SSD speed. Considering the minor changes, it is also evident that Apple is targeting completely new users or owners of older Macbook Airs, at least with the M1 chip or even with processors from Intel. After all, the transition from the last model to the support of two external displays does not even make any sense.
2024-03-08 07:45:07
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