appleThe 2024 spring launch is approaching, and just when everyone is still guessing which new products will be unveiled at this launch, Apple decided to try something new this year and directly updated the MacBook Air without any advance notice.

This morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook promoted the two new products on his personal Weibo. Cook said that the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air are equipped with a powerful M3 chip, and the performance is better than ever! Two perfect sizes, incredibly thin and light portable design, and all-day battery life.

Image source: Weibo

Considering that the spring conference is coming soon, Apple is eager to release new products, which shows that Apple, which is a step behind in AI hardware, is a little anxious. So, how did Apple's first answer sheet on AI hardware perform?

MacBook Air finally gets the M3 chip

Yes, that's right, the new MacBook AirmaximumThe change is that it uses Apple's self-developed M3 chip, which was a blockbuster product released at Apple's press conference last fall.firstIt is now installed on iMac and MacBook Pro. Five months later, MacBook Air finally uses this chip.

The M3 MacBook Air is equipped with an 8-core CPU andHighest10-core graphics processor,HighestSupports 24GB unified memory and 2TB solid-state storage.With the support of the M3 chip, the new MacBook Air will support dynamic caching function, which can dynamically allocate appropriate cache for different tasks, improve the efficiency of GPU utilization, and support mesh shading rendering and hardware-level ray tracing acceleration technology to achieve stronger graphics rendering effects in games, office and other scenarios.

This has greatly improved the productivity of the MacBook Air. Although it is slightly inferior to the MacBook Pro with M3Pro and M3Max, it is infinitely close to the M3 version of the MacBook Pro. This makes the positioning of the MacBook Air more three-dimensional, not only for light office scenes, but also for some professional scenes.

Image source: Apple

In order to give everyone a more intuitive experience of the M3MacBook Air's performance, the official directly brought out the M1MacBook Air as a reference. Compared with the M1MacBook Air, the performance of the M3MacBook Air has increased by about 1.6 times, and the graphics processing speed isHighestUp to 5.8 times.

While performance has been improved, the energy consumption control of MacBook Air has also been upgraded accordingly. The battery life of up to 18 hours is enough to support users' long-term work needs.

Stay true to your original aspiration

Still the familiar 8GB

The reason why Xiao Lei focused on the performance part is that the main upgrade of the new MacBook Air is the M3 chip, and the appearance, screen, interface, weight, etc. are no different from before.

New support has been added for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 technology, and external displays. We just need to have a general understanding of these features, because at best they can only be regarded as Apple’s self-breakthrough, and users have become accustomed to competing products of the same price on the market.

Image source: Apple

In terms of price, the new MacBook Air is now available in domestic stores and will be accepted for order at 9 am on March 6, and will be officially released on March 8.

The new 13-inch MacBook Air top configuration (8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16-core NPU/24GB+2TB) is priced at 17,999 yuan, and the prices of other versions are as follows:

8-core CPU/8-core GPU/8GB+256GB, 8999 yuan

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/8GB+512GB, 10,499 yuan

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16GB+512GB, 11999 yuan

The new 15-inch MacBook Air top configuration (8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16-core NPU/24GB+2TB) is priced at 19,499 yuan, and the prices of other versions are as follows:

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/8GB+256GB, 10,499 yuan

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/8GB+512GB, 11999 yuan

8-core CPU/10-core GPU/16GB+512GB, 13,499 yuan

If you need more storage space, Guozige said that you can solve it by adding money. Each additional 8GB of memory will cost 1,500 yuan, each additional 256GB of hard drive will cost 1,500 yuan, and a 70W charger will cost another 150 yuan.

In an era when mobile phone and computer manufacturers are frantically increasing storage, Apple is still maintaining its own pace.The entry-level Air, priced at RMB 8,999, still offers 8GB+256GB configuration, which shows that the previous controversy over the "golden memory" has no impact on Apple. It's not that 8GB+256GB will have a big impact on the performance of the MacBook Air, but Apple users will have some concerns when facing the large memory of competitors.

So this is Apple's answer to AI PC?

The performance improvement of MacBook Air is certainly surprising.However, the most eye-catching thing is that Apple called the new MacBook Air "mostAI consumer notebook”—this is AppleFirstThis is the first official mention of the AI laptop concept by Apple.FirstThis statement follows the trend of AI hardware.

Prior to this, Apple completely abandoned the car-making project and instead increased its investment in AI, making the outside world more looking forward to Apple's moves in AI phones and AI hardware.

2024 is the first year of AI PC. Leading computer manufacturers including Lenovo, Asus, and HP have launched their own AI PC products. The new MacBook Air is the product launched by Apple after it increased its investment in AI.FirstAI PC,However, compared to the name of AI PC, I prefer to call it AI MacBook.

AI MacBook is a new concept launched by Apple based on the M3 chip which integrates a 16-core neural network engine, a central processing unit and a graphics processor.macOS leverages the powerful performance of the M3 chip to provide users with real-time speech-to-text, translation, text prediction, visual understanding, accessibility, and other functions.

In addition, the AI MacBook has a rich AI application ecosystem, which assists in supporting AI-enabled applications and helps users better use these applications.For example, you can use Pixelmator Pro to automatically enhance photos, use the "AI Math Assistant" in Goodnotes6 to check your homework, or use CapCut to remove background noise in videos...

Apple officially stated that MacBook Air supports cloud-based solutions and runs optimized AI models locally, such as the Large Language Model (LLM) and the Image Generation Diffusion Model, allowing users to better leverage the powerful productivity and creativity of AI.

Previously, a Mac user imitated Chat with RTX and launched a Mac-exclusive framework: Chat with MLX. It allows Apple computers to run local large models and complete 7 open source large models such as local document summarization and YouTube video analysis. Although the effect is achieved, the complicated setting process makes ordinary users discouraged. Now that the official support for importing AI models will greatly reduce the cost of users using AI functions.

As the first experience of Apple's AI PC, the AI MacBook is remarkable in terms of the number of AI functions and the attitude towards AI applications. However, Apple has only opened the AI interface and still does not have its own official large model, which is slightly inferior to the progress of other manufacturers.

In addition, Microsoft has just launched the * Pro subscription service to provide users with AI functions. This service clearly puts forward new requirements for PC computing power and memory: the new Windows AI PC will need at least 40TOPS computing power and 16GB memory to meet the threshold of AI PC. According to this standard, MacBook Air cannot be considered an AI PC, at least the 8GB version is not.

Of course.Apple has a famous saying that "Apple's 8GB is equivalent to others' 16GB". In this way, it is hard to refute the claim that the new MacBook Air meets the AI PC "16GB" memory standard.

Final Thoughts

For consumers, with the support of Apple's M3 chip, the new MacBook Air has better performance while maintaining a compact body. It will also become the best computer in the current computer market that combines daily office work and light professional productivity.optimalOne of the solutions.

For Apple, the launch of the new MacBook Air is not only an iteration of hardware, but more importantly, it is a step forward in combining AI with hardware.FirstApple’s attitude shows that AI hardware is not a gimmick, but a battleground.

If the new MacBook Air is Apple's test of the AI field, then the upcoming WWDC developer conference may be the key to Apple's AI. After all, AI hardware is inseparable from software and hardware, systems and application ecology, and is supported by the cloud and terminals. While terminals are AI-enabled, the AI-enabled software system and application ecology are equally important.iOS18's update on generative AI has attracted much attention. It will be the foundation of Apple's AI hardware ecosystem and will directly affect AppleMost profitableThe iPhone business, which makes a lot of money, will also determine whether Apple can continue its leading position in the era of smart phones in the era of AI.

So, can Apple's new MacBook Air "use 8GB as 16GB" and is it a qualified AI PC? Lei Technology will provide a review as soon as possible. Regarding Apple's AI hardware and all AI hardware trends, please follow Lei Technology, which focuses on AI "hard" technology.