The MacBook Air M3 is now available. This update to both the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 and the 15-inch MacBook Air is powered by the current Apple M3 chip and promises enhanced performance over the previous model. Aside from the specs increase, the laptops maintain the same design as their predecessors, making them among the lightest machines in the same size category.

With the release of the MacBook Air M3 on March 8, the MacBook Air M1 is no longer sold in online stores and has officially disappeared. Apple's most affordable laptop has been a part of our Best MacBooks and Best Laptops list since its launch in 2020 because of its value, although there doesn't seem to be room for the M1 MacBook Air now that the MacBook Air M2 is $999, It should be able to be found at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy for a while.

While the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs are the newcomers, the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 is currently Apple's cheapest notebook. So, if you have a MacBook Air M1, should you upgrade to a MacBook Air M3? Below, we detail the reasons why you should and should not upgrade.

The most obvious reason to upgrade from an M1 MacBook Air to one of the new M3 models is the power offered by the M3 chip.

According to Apple, the new MacBook Air is 60% faster than the MacBook Air M1 and up to 13 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air. According to Apple, the MacBook Air with the M3 chip, which has a 10-core GPU, is 65% faster than the M1 in graphics performance. It also has an 8-core CPU (Performance 4, Efficiency 4), which is 35% faster than the M1 in computing performance; the M3 chip supports up to 24 GB of unified memory (16 GB for the M1 Air).

The M3 features an enhanced Neural Engine for faster machine learning (ML) models. According to Apple, this Neural Engine is up to 60% faster than the M1 series; the M3 processor also includes an advanced media engine that provides hardware acceleration for video codecs such as H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW The media engine provides hardware acceleration for video codecs such as H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW. The media engine also supports AV1 decoding for better video streaming.

Thanks to the M3 GPU, the new MacBook Air supports hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing for more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows in games. 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 As we showed in our review, these features make games like Lies of P and Baldur's Gate 3 look stunning on Apple's hardware.

The M1 chip offers a significant increase in power over the older Intel MacBooks, but as the M2 benchmark demonstrated, there was not much difference between the M1 and M2 chips. However, there is a much larger difference between the M3 chip and the M1 chip. If you want the most powerful MacBook Air, you should upgrade from the MacBook Air M1 to the M3.

The next reason to upgrade from the M1 MacBook Air to the M3 Air is the new design: while the M1-powered laptop is not unpleasant to the eye, the once iconic tapered design now seems like a relic of a bygone era. In contrast, the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs feature the sleek, minimalist build introduced in the 2021 MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch.

The M2 and M3 MacBook Air 13-inch are 20% smaller than the previous Air in terms of volume, but have larger 13.6-inch displays thanks to thinner laptop bezels; the Air M3 has a notch at the top of the screen that extends below the menu bar and is not aesthetically pleasing, which may bother some people.

The 2.7-pound unibody aluminum chassis strikes a balance between durability and lightness, and the M3 laptop comes in four color variations: Starlight, Silver, Space Gray, and Midnight. The latter features fingerprint-resistant technology introduced in last year's MacBook Pro 14-inch M3 Pro and MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max laptops.

If you want a more modern notebook, you should upgrade to the MacBook Air M3.

Like its predecessor, the new MacBook Air M3 has a 13.6-inch (2,560 x 1,664) Retina display, which Apple claims reaches 500 nits of brightness. In laboratory testing, the Air M2's average brightness was 489 nits, peaking at 495 nits for HDR content. It also recorded 107% of the sRGB color gamut and 75.9% of the more demanding DCI-P3 color gamut. Apple has not said anything about an upgrade panel for the M3 Air, so we suspect the results will be similar to the M2 model.

The former MacBook Air M1 has a 13.3" (2,560 x 1,600) Retina display. Colorimeter tests show that it displays 114.3% of the sRGB spectrum and up to 365.8 nits of brightness; the Air M1 reproduced a bit more of the sRGB gamut, but the Air M2 is clearly brighter. The new laptop also has a higher pixel count due to its larger screen.

We are not saying that the M1 Air display looks bad. But given what we know about the M3's panel, the M3 should provide a better viewing experience.

Based on our tests, the M3 chip certainly performs better than the M1. If that is a priority for you, you should consider purchasing the new M3-equipped 13" and 15" laptops. However, if you don't need the performance boost provided by the M3, you may want to stick with the MacBook Air M1 you currently own.

The MacBook Air M1 is still great for general use, such as writing, working, video streaming, and light gaming. the M1 chip is not new, but its performance is sometimes better than the best Windows laptops in its price range. Nearly 15 hours of battery life surpasses even the latest Windows machines.

In summary, if you want a laptop with enhanced hardware, more power for AI-enabled tasks, and a sleeker, more modern design, upgrade to the MacBook Air M3. Conversely, if the MacBook Air M1 is good enough for you, stick with the MacBook Air M1; if you're new to MacBooks, the $999 MacBook Air M2 is a great entry-level model.

We will be posting reviews of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops soon. At that time, we will see if these machines deserve an update to the lineup. We will update this article accordingly, so stay tuned.