Sometimes you don’t need an hour-long presentation to tell your customers about an upgrade. Apple quietly announced that the MacBook Air range will receive an upgrade to the company’s latest M3 chipset. The move is utterly unsurprising, of course, but it’s also now official.

The announcement happened via a release rather than a presentation, which is how you can tell that there’s not too much else going on with the Air range in this upgrade. There’s a new chipset and… that’s about it. That hasn’t stopped Apple from going on about its portable computer lineup’s Wonderful Features™, of course.

Reupping the MacBook Air

Both the 13in and 15in MacBook Air range will see the M3 processor inside, with the corresponding jump in performance and price this presages. Apple claims a 60% speed boost over M1 notebooks but, as with the original M3 product announcement, hasn’t drawn any comparisons with its M2 hardware. Make of that information what you will.

All of the other M3 benefits apply. Programs will open fast, the battery will last longer, Excel spreadsheets and video editing will see improvements. Basically, you won’t be annoyed that you upgraded to an M3 Air. Except if you bought an M2 notebook last week because Apple is also offering a price drop on the previous generation in launch markets.

The M3 MacBook Air will step into the previous price bracket, at the same price in the US and 28 other markets. At the moment, South Africa doesn’t seem to be on that list. Since MacBook pricing isn’t exactly stable here at all, it’ll be difficult to tell if we benefit from a price drop when the M3 Air turns up in SA.