MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) vs MacBook Air 13-inch (M2)

Put the two side by side and you can’t tell them apart: the same 0.44-inch case, the same four colors, the same keyboard and display. That flat design arrived with the M2, announced on 6 June 2022. The M3 version, announced on 4 March 2024, changed only what’s inside.

Side by side

Spec	MacBook Air 13-inch (M3)	MacBook Air 13-inch (M2)
Announced	4 March 2024	6 June 2022
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)	Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Bluetooth	5.3	5.3
External displays	One up to 6K at 60Hz; a second up to 5K at 60Hz with the lid closed	One up to 6K at 60Hz
CPU	M3, 8-core (4 performance, 4 efficiency), 100GB/s	M2, 8-core (4 performance, 4 efficiency), 100GB/s
GPU	8-core or 10-core, hardware ray tracing	8-core or 10-core
Memory	8GB (to 16GB or 24GB) or 16GB (to 24GB)	Same
Storage	256GB, up to 2TB	Same
Screen	13.6-inch Liquid Retina, 2560 × 1664, 224 ppi, 500 nits	Same
Battery	52.6 Wh; up to 18 hours movie playback, 15 hours web	Same
Weight	2.7 lb (1.24 kg)	Same
Ports	MagSafe 3, headphone jack, two Thunderbolt / USB 4	Same
US launch price	$1,099	$1,199; $1,099 from June 2023

Wi-Fi 6E is the main upgrade

The M2 has Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.3. The M3 keeps Bluetooth 5.3 and moves to Wi-Fi 6E, which adds the 6 GHz band. If your router has no 6 GHz radio, the M3 connects the way the M2 does. If your home or office has moved to Wi-Fi 6E, the M3 is the one of these two that can use it.

Neither has Wi-Fi 7 or Apple’s N1 chip; those came on a later Air.

A second monitor, but only with the lid closed

The M2 supports one external display at up to 6K at 60Hz. The M3 does the same with its lid open, and when you close the lid it can drive a second external display at up to 5K at 60Hz. What neither does is run two external screens and the built-in one at once; later Airs added that with the lid open.

If you only ever plug in one monitor, this changes nothing for you, and the M3 comes down to Wi-Fi 6E. Neither has HDMI or an SD card slot, so monitors connect through the two USB-C ports.

The chips and microphones

Both CPUs have eight cores, four performance and four efficiency, with a 16-core Neural Engine and 100GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU starts at 8 cores on both, with a 10-core option, and the M3’s adds hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which matters only in apps and games that use it. Apple doesn’t give a speed comparison between the two in either laptop’s specs.

The M3’s three microphones list Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes by name; the M2’s three are described by their directional beamforming.

Everything else is the same

Both have a 13.6-inch LED-backlit Liquid Retina screen at 2560 × 1664 and 224 pixels per inch, rated at 500 nits, with 1 billion colors, wide P3 and True Tone. There’s no touchscreen, ProMotion or 120Hz refresh rate on either.

The fanless aluminum case measures 0.44 × 11.97 × 8.46 inches (1.13 × 30.41 × 21.5 cm) and weighs 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg), in silver, starlight, space gray or midnight. Sky blue came on a later Air.

Both have a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, not the 12MP Center Stage camera of later models, so replacing an M2 with an M3 doesn’t get you a better webcam. The four-speaker sound with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, the Force Touch trackpad and the Touch ID keyboard are shared as well.

The ports match: MagSafe 3, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and two USB-C ports that run Thunderbolt 3 and USB 4 at up to 40Gb/s. The charger in the box depends on the configuration: a 30W USB-C adapter with the 8-core GPU, or a 35W Dual USB-C Compact adapter with the 10-core GPU and 512GB of storage. Both fast-charge with a 70W USB-C adapter through the USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable.

Memory and storage options are identical. Memory comes as 8GB, upgradable when ordered to 16GB or 24GB, or as 16GB, upgradable to 24GB; it’s soldered, and neither offers 32GB. Storage starts at 256GB and goes to 512GB, 1TB or 2TB, with no 4TB. An 8GB M3 is not an upgrade on a 16GB M2.

Nor has the battery changed. Both carry 52.6 watt-hours with the same ratings, 15 hours of web browsing and 18 hours of Apple TV app movie playback, and Apple tested them identically: the M2 in May 2022 and the M3 in January 2024, each with an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB and 256GB, on 25 websites at eight clicks above the lowest brightness.

What they cost

At its 6 June 2022 announcement the M2 cost $1,199, or $1,099 for education; orders opened on 8 July 2022 and stores had it from 15 July 2022. A price cut in June 2023 took it to $1,099, and $999 for education. The M3 launched at $1,099, so after that cut the two started at the same price, with the M3 adding Wi-Fi 6E.

Both are earlier models now, sold used, refurbished or through education channels unless Apple still lists them. A refurbished M2 with 16GB and 512GB can be a better buy than a base M3 with 8GB and 256GB, so compare configurations and current prices before you buy.