Apple recently announced the new 15-inch MacBook Air at its WWDC 2023 event with an M2 chip. The machine has received positive reviews in the tech community. Externally, the MacBook Air features the same design as the 13.6-inch variant but comes with a bigger chassis and display. Furthermore, it features a bigger battery but it delivers the same output as its smaller counterpart. The company is now expected to upgrade the machines soon with a powerful M3 chip based on TSMC’s 3nm process. A new report suggests that Apple will debut the M3 chip with the MacBook Air and iMac later this year.
Apple to announce new 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and iMac in October power by its custom 3nm M3 chips
Mark Gurman from Bloomberg writes in his latest Power On newsletter that Apple plans to launch the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro in September. However, the analyst also speculates that the company is also planning another event in October. Apple usually hosts another event to announce the upgraded Macs and iPad models. This means that the company could launch M3 Macs later this year instead of 2024. Gurman expects that the company will update the smaller 13.6-inch MacBook Air, 13.3-inch MacBook Pro, and the 24-inch iMac.
Since the company just announced the 15-inch MacBook Air, it is highly unlikely that the company will launch another model with an M3 chip. The smaller variant was released last year with an M2 chip and it is due for an upgrade. What this means is that to streamline the lineup, the company could upgrade the 15-inch model with an M3 chip sometime next year, potentially at the Spring event.
The 24-inch iMac will miss out on the M2 chip and instead jump on the M3 bandwagon alongside the smaller MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. However, the higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will not be upgraded to the M3 series of chips just yet. Apple’s M-series chip follows a trend to be available on the MacBook Air and other devices first before the ‘Pro’ and ‘Max’ variants of the chips are ready for the higher-end models. Gurman notes that Apple will upgrade the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models next year with the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips.
The M3 chip will bring significant performance and battery life gains on all Macs. The chip is fabricated on TSMC’s 3nm process which will deliver advanced computational and graphical performance. The company announced at its WWDC event that it is working to bring major gaming titles to the platform and the chip will potentially serve as a great canvas to play around on. The company could also announce a new version of the iPad Air with Apple’s M2 chip later this year.
