4 things I want Apple to add to the M3 MacBook Air | Top Vip News

Since the transition from Apple Silicon, the MacBook Air line has been full of impressive laptops. Both the 13-inch and 15-inch variants of the MacBook Air M2 can still keep up with the best laptops on the market and are the default laptop recommendations for Mac users with a light or moderate workflow. However, Apple launched a new M3 system-on-a-chip last year and has already shipped an M3 MacBook Pro and an M3 iMac. It’s probably only a matter of time before the MacBook Air line gets a boost with Apple’s M3 chipset. As someone who has used both M2 MacBook Air models extensively, these are the four things I want to see in the next MacBook Air refresh.

4 New color and finish options.

Apple could finally fix the smudge problem on the MacBook Air M2

The current MacBook Air M2 lineup features four colors: Silver, Starlight, Space Gray, and Midnight. Of those colors, I’ve used the Starlight and Midnight versions, and the latter has a well-documented problem. It picks up fingerprints and smudges like no other laptop I’ve tried before, and you can see the difference between the smudges in the Starlight and Midnight colors in the photo above. That’s why I’d like to see new color and finish options available on the next MacBook Air. Apple should improve the Midnight finish or incorporate the Space Black color scheme of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

Apple already fixed this problem on those high-end models. The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models come in Space Black, and while this color is as dark as Midnight, it is less prone to fingerprints. Apple says this is due to “an innovative chemistry that forms an anodizing seal to greatly reduce fingerprints.” I’ve had hands-on time with the Space Black laptops and can confirm that smudging has improved significantly on the new MacBook Pros. I don’t expect Apple to add Space Black as an option for the MacBook Air (it’s not even available on the base model of the MacBook Pro), but I hope this new “anodization stamp” appears on the new MacBook Air finishes.

3 Wi-Fi 6E support

MacBook Pro already has Wi-Fi 6E, but MacBook Air has Wi-Fi 6

It’s a minor detail that casual users may miss, but the MacBook Air M2 still uses Wi-Fi 6 for wireless networking. In the next MacBook Air, I would like to see support for Wi-Fi 6E. Compared to the previous version of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6E offers faster connection speeds and lower latency. These speeds can actually affect daily laptop use, because Wi-Fi 6E can offer an additional 1200 MHz of Wi-Fi spectrum in the 6 GHz range than standard Wi-Fi 6. In practice, this can translate into transfer speeds that are more than 1 Gbps greater than Wi-Fi 6 under good conditions. Since Apple already added Wi-Fi 6E to the MacBook Pro, it should give the same treatment to the MacBook Air.

2 More ports

Won’t happen, but adding USB-C on both sides would be cool

Let’s get this out of the way first: There’s almost no chance Apple will add ports to the next MacBook Air. The current model has a MagSafe port for charging, two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. That’s probably enough for most people, but the MacBook Air is powerful enough for people with mid-range workloads and will get even better with the M3. Right now, if you need more than two USB-C ports, or want them on both sides, you should buy a MacBook Pro. It’s one of the key differentiators between the MacBook Air and Pro models. However, I’d still love to see a computer Ultraportable Mac laptop with more USB-C ports.

1 Performance improvements

I’m dying to use the M3 chip in the MacBook Air form factor

The biggest and most obvious change to the next generation of MacBook Air is the upgrade to the M3 chipset. It’s the upgrade I’m most excited about, because the M3 chip has some key advantages over the outgoing M2 processor. Specifically, Apple notably improved system-on-a-chip graphics performance with the release of the M3. I reviewed the iMac M3 last year and it outperformed the MacBook Air M2 by more than twice as much in a Cinebench R24 graphics test. Additionally, the M3 chip almost surpasses the M1 Max, which has more cores available.

If you’re curious, here are some benchmarks that might help evaluate what performance improvements would look like on the MacBook Air with M3:

Overall, my MacBook Air M2 handles most tasks well. However, intense workloads with many graphics-based tasks, such as photo or video editing, can cause the laptop to start stuttering or slow down. Since the MacBook Air is a fanless laptop with a lower thermal threshold than the iMac M3, we won’t see performance as good as that desktop. However, I hope that the upgrade to M3 means that even more users with mid-to-high performance demands will be able to purchase a MacBook Air instead of a MacBook Pro.

What will we really see in the next MacBook Air?

We won’t know for sure what Apple will change in the next MacBook Air until it’s officially announced. However, an upgrade to the M3 chipset is all but guaranteed, and I think there’s a high chance it will include Wi-Fi 6E support. Other than that, no major design changes or additional features are rumored to appear in the new MacBook Air models. While this may be a bit disappointing, the MacBook Air has a great design as is. Additionally, we expect Apple to update the larger and smaller MacBook Air models at the same time, which is good news.