Rumor has it that the 15-inch MacBook Air will not come with a brand new M3 chip at all; the laptop is reportedly set to be equipped with the M2.
This comes from a Korean Naver blog user “yeux1122” and industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Both claim the initial plan was for the new 3nm chipset to make its debut at WWDC. However, production has been pushed back, and the new big-screen Air will have to settle for the pre-existing option.
To M3 or not to M3? That is the question
It’s been a twisting and turning tale of events, so let me catch you up. It started with the rumblings around the M3 chip itself, as reports appeared about this new version of Apple silicon being built on the 3nm process. Not only that, but the Cupertino company had snatched up 100% of the initial supply of these chips from TSMC.
These rumors grew alongside those of a new 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and most interestingly, a 15-inch Air. All seemed to be going to plan (reportedly), but then came a Mark Gurman report that seemed to be all over the place with its predictions.
It seemed to corroborate these three laptops were indeed coming, but that any announced at the June 5 WWDC event would “probably” not feature M3 chipsets. With that in mind, I made my prediction that we only see the 15-inch Air at the late Spring event. And thanks to these two leaks, it turns out I may have just been proven right.
Do you think we see M3 MacBooks at #wwdc23? 🤔April 20, 2023
Outlook
This is all building up to my logical deduction (if I’m to get all Sherlock on you), which is that we won’t be seeing the M3 MacBooks until at least an event towards the end of the year. WWDC is prime territory to drop the 15-inch MacBook Air, but with M2 only, it is a bit of a short-term stop gap to the new 3nm chipsets.
That is by no means a bad thing, as you can read in our M2 MacBook Air review, the chip is mightily impressive in terms of power potential and efficiency — slowly sipping that battery juice. Now imagine that with the bigger cell of a 15-inch laptop, and I’m bamboozled just thinking about how long it could possibly last on one charge.
But it is fair to say that some will be disappointed if this is what gets announced. I’m still torn on whether M3 will make its appearance at WWDC, just like M2 did. What do you think? Let us know on the poll above.
