Macbook Air M3 Is Finally As Fast As It Should Be
If you’re in the market for a new MacBook Air, you’ll be happy to know that the new $1,099 MacBook Air doesn’t have the glaring issues of the base M2 model. SSD speeds are finally fast enough for us to recommend the entry-level MacBook Air again. How fast? We’re talking about almost doubling read speeds and increasing write speeds by 33%. For one year this is a real leap.
What happened to the MacBook Air M2?
Unless you spend a lot of time reading Apple news online (we don’t blame you), you may not be aware of the small change Apple made to the base model M2 MacBook Air.
In the base 256GB MacBook Air M1, Apple used two 128GB NAND chips that ran in parallel. With multiple NAND chips, a MacBook can simultaneously perform read and write operations on those chips, effectively doubling data paths and increasing overall data transfer speeds. This is similar to having multiple lanes on a highway, allowing more traffic to pass at once compared to a single lane road.
The MacBook Air M2 switched to a single NAND 256 chip, essentially closing one traffic channel. But with the base MacBook Air M3, Apple has returned to using two separate NAND chips, and the results speak for themselves.
How much faster is the M3 MacBook Air?
According to tests conducted by Max Tech on the new base MacBook Air M3, the SSD is 33% faster in write speeds and nearly twice as fast (82%) in read speeds.
Read speed has increased from 1576 MB/s to 2889 MB/s, and write speed has increased from 1584 MB/s to 2108 MB/s.
These changes make a big difference, especially for the base MacBook Air, since the computer uses the SSD for RAM when it’s under heavy load. And when it comes to replacing RAM, those higher speeds really come in handy. Now there’s no need to upgrade to a 512GB model just to get faster SSD speeds.
Although the tests were conducted on the 13-inch MacBook Air, it’s safe to assume that they will extend to the 15-inch MacBook Air. This change, coupled with the fact that you can use two screens with a MacBook Air (with the lid closed), makes the base MacBook Air a great value proposition at $1,099. Wait for the sale and you can also buy it for the original price of $999.
If you want to know more about the performance differences between the MacBook Air M2 and M3, check out our detailed guide .