Months after Apple upgraded the MacBook Pro to the new M3 chipset, the company gave the MacBook Air the same treatment. Though it's still a minor refresh, the addition of the M3 system-on-a-chip to the MacBook Air makes an already-great laptop even better. Best of all, both the 13-inch and 15-inch variants are getting the new upgrade. But with a refresh that's largely only a spec bump, not everyone will need to upgrade to the M3 MacBook Air. It's easy to always want the newest and best laptops, so we've put together a list that'll help you figure out if you really need to shell out over $1,000 for the new M3 MacBook Air.

4 You shouldn't buy an M3 MacBook Air if you use M2 already

M2 MacBook Air is a capable machine, and mostly identical to the new one

Apple says that the M3 chipset is roughly 15% faster than the outgoing M2 family of chips, and it is especially effective in graphical performance. For example, the M3 MacBook Air is the first-ever MacBook Air to feature hardware-accelerated ray tracing. While we've confirmed Apple's claims through our own independent testing, that doesn't mean you need to go out and buy the M3 MacBook Air if you have an M2 variant. The M3 MacBook Air performs similarly to the M2 MacBook Air in daily usage, and is slightly ahead of last year's model in benchmarks. You can check out our full suite of tests below.

There are two ways to look at these scores. If you want to use the M3 MacBook Air as an alternative to the MacBook Pro, it will definitely get closer to single-core performance than the M2 MacBook Air. But for most people that own the M2 MacBook Air, the M3 MacBook Air won't bring a noticeable difference. I've used the M2 MacBook Air as my main Mac laptop since release day in July 2022, and it has only started to slow down in one situation: virtualizing two Mac displays with Apple Vision Pro. I'd strongly recommend against upgrading from an M2 MacBook Air to an M3 MacBook Air unless you absolutely need the extra power.

3 You should upgrade if you have an M1 MacBook Air or older

It's especially true if you bought a laptop with low RAM and storage

Now, if you have an M1 MacBook Air or earlier, it's a different story. Users of nearly any Mac with an Intel processor will notice a massive leap going from their old machine to an M3 MacBook Air. A smaller, but still significant jump, can be had coming from an M1-equipped laptop. Apple says that the M3 chip's performance cores are 30% faster than those found in M1, with efficiency cores being 50% faster. That extra power, combined with a redesign, might be enough to entice M1 MacBook Air owners to upgrade to the M3 MacBook Air.

Although the M1 MacBook Air was an incredibly capable machine when it first debuted, it's easy to forget that the laptop's chassis dates back to 2018. In 2024, users of the M1 MacBook Air are daily-driving a laptop with a six-year-old design. Apple overhauled the MacBook Air's build with the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air in 2022, and it brought a bigger and better 13.3-inch display. That also brought along a MagSafe connector and a sleek, rectangular design. By upgrading from an M1 MacBook Air to an M3 MacBook Air, you get a significant redesign and two generations of chip upgrades in one go.

2 You shouldn't upgrade if you're on a budget

The M2 MacBook Air is sticking around as a cheaper alternative

Even if you have an old computer, we can't really say that the M3 MacBook Air is the best budget option. If you have the extra few hundred dollars to spend on the M3 MacBook Air, you should go with the latest model for future-proofing. It'll last longer thanks to improved performance, especially if you upgrade the RAM and storage to 16GB and 512GB, respectively. But the M2 MacBook Air is remaining in the lineup at just $1,000, and it's a killer deal. If you're a teacher or student, you can get the 13-inch model for as low as $900. Throw a trade-in device in the mix, and you could be looking at a brand-new MacBook for well under a thousand dollars.

For all these reasons, the M2 MacBook Air is a better option than the M3 MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro for budget buyers. It's now my default recommendation for a great-value MacBook, especially for casual users that might not need the minor performance advantages that come with M3. I might even go as far as to say that getting an M2 MacBook Air with 16GB of memory may be a better buy than an M3 MacBook Air with 8GB of memory — for around the same price.

1 You should upgrade if you need faster connectivity

The M3 MacBook Air now supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3

The other big change that Apple brings along with the M3 MacBook Air is faster connectivity. While the M2 MacBook Air uses Wi-Fi 6 and an older version of Bluetooth, the new model supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The new wireless specification can provide 1,200 MHz of greater Wi-Fi spectrum than regular Wi-Fi 6, specifically in the 6 GHz range. You can get up to 1 Gbps higher transfer speeds with Wi-Fi 6E in the right conditions. This isn't necessarily a reason to upgrade, especially if you don't typically use your laptop in spaces that have Wi-Fi 6E hardware. But if you do, this is yet another way the M3 MacBook Air gets closer in performance to the M3 MacBook Pro. You might also notice bigger connectivity gains coming from older MacBooks, which may not even support standard Wi-Fi 6.

The final verdict

Apple seems to be steadily improving MacBooks with Apple Silicon, and releasing new models faster than ever before. It's true that the M3 MacBook Air is faster than the M2 MacBook Air, but most people probably won't need that extra power. If you can get a good trade-in deal for your current Mac, or if you qualify for the education discount, you might be able to justify an upgrade to the M3 MacBook Air. I can also see a few reasons why M1 MacBook Air users might want to upgrade, but not everyone will. The general rule for Mac upgrades early in the Apple Silicon era still seems to apply. If you have an Apple Silicon machine, you probably don't need to upgrade. If you're still rocking Intel, there's never been a better time to get a new Mac.