Two weeks on from the iPhone 16e bombshell, Tim Cook lit the fuse on another Apple announcement week with a video on X stating: “There’s something in the AIR.” So we weren’t surprised to see the new (and previously rumoured) iPad Air with M3 and MacBook Air with M4 both announced this week.
In less predictable fashion, however, another double drop saw an updated Mac Studio with M4 Max – and the all new lightning quick M3 Ultra, the fastest Mac chip ever released. Without further ado, let’s unbox the goods…
MacBook Air finally gets the M4 treatment
The arrival of the new MacBook Air with M4 chip brings with it faster performance, an upgraded camera and a brand new colour. Like with all the new and updated Macs that have been announced since October 2024, Apple Intelligence is also built in.
Here go the specs:
- M4 chip:
- 10-core CPU and up to 10-core GPU
- Support for up to 32GB of unified memory
- According to Apple, it’s 2x faster than the M1 model
- Neural Engine tasks are up to 3x faster
- Available in 13” and 15”
- Up to 18 hours of battery life
- Available in new Sky Blue colour which replaces Space Grey
- Upgraded 12-megapixel Center Stage camera – automatically keeps users centered in the frame as they move around during video calls
- Supports Desk View – simultaneously displays the user and a top-down view of their desk
The M2 and M3 MacBook Air models have now been discontinued, but the new M4 model actually comes in at a lower starting price.
M3 Ultra and a new Mac Studio
In a flurry of midweek announcements, Apple casually dropped its fastest chip ever: M3 Ultra. This chip is essentially the product of two M3 Max chips bonded together using ‘UltraFusion’ technology – proving all last year’s doubters wrong. Now onto the specs:
- Up to a 32-core CPU
- Up to an 80-core GPU
- 32-core Neural Engine
- 24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores
- Supports up to 512GB of unified RAM and provides up to 819 GB/s memory bandwidth
- Up to 1.5x faster than the M2 Ultra chip
- Up to 1.8x faster than the M1 Ultra chip
M3 Ultra makes its debut in the brand new Mac Studio, simultaneously announced alongside the chip. It comes in the same familiar shell but packs unprecedented performance. Also featuring M4 Max, it’s being coined by Apple as ‘the most powerful Mac ever made’. Not a bad way to mark the first Mac Studio refresh since it was updated with M2 Max and M2 Ultra in June 2023.
Speaking of the Mac Studio, it can now handle the most demanding professional workflows:
- Supports Thunderbolt 5
- Four ports on configurations with the M4 Max chip
- Six ports on configurations with the M3 Ultra chip
- Provides up to 120 GB/s data transfer speeds
- Up to 512GB of unified memory
- Up to 16TB SSD
Last but not least, the iPad Air with M3
The all new iPad Air with M3 marked the first of the week’s announcements. The new chip should inject this latest model with up to 20% faster performance compared to the previous-generation with M2.
For the gamers, the M3 chip brings hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the iPad Air for the first time, providing improved graphics rendering. It also comes with a new Magic Keyboard featuring a larger trackpad, new function keys, a USB-C port and magnetic Smart Connector without the need for Bluetooth.
Entry-point power
The M4 chip may have first launched in Macs last October, but for entry-point models like the Macbook Air, does it really matter that it’s taken over three months to get the upgrade? Probably not…
Affordability, availability, and the capability to effortlessly complete everyday workflows and activities without a hitch – these are the qualities that most MacBook Air users look for. Now, the M4 model ticks all those boxes and more, coming in at a lower starting pricepoint with all the power you’d ever need for a wide variety of uses.
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