It is Friday, March 8 in New Zealand and Australia, which means customers who pre-ordered one of the new machines in those two countries are receiving their MacBook Air models.
Introduced on Monday of this week, the updated 13.6-inch and 15.3-inch MacBook Air models are equipped with the same M3 chip that was introduced in the MacBook Pro late last year.
There are no external changes to the MacBook Air, with Apple instead focusing on internal updates. The M3 chip is up to 30 percent faster than the M2 chip in terms of CPU performance, and there are notable GPU improvements with Apple adding support for Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and support for AV1 decode.
Other improvements to the MacBook Air include support for two external displays when the machine is used in clamshell mode, support for Wi-Fi 6E, enhanced voice clarity for audio and video calls, and a new anodization seal to reduce fingerprints on the Midnight finish.
Apple retail stores in Australia are selling the new MacBook Air machines, and there is plenty of stock for walk-in customers. Apple does not operate stores in New Zealand, so customers in that country need to order online.
Following New Zealand and Australia, sales and deliveries of the new MacBook Air models will launch in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and finally, North America.
We'll be sharing a hands-on review of the new M3 MacBook Air in the morning after picking up one of the new devices.
