In the Air line, Apple offers two sizes that are equipped with the M3 chip: 13.6 and 15.3 inches. In the Pro line, the company only has 14.2-inch versions, with the 16.2-inch options reserved for the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. The biggest difference between the notebooks is in the construction and some internal components. Specialized websites point out that, in terms of performance, laptops with standard M3 are on par. Check out the main similarities and differences between MacBook Air and MacBook Pro below.
The MacBook Air is a little smaller and lighter than its brother, measuring 30.41 x 21.5 x 1.13 cm and weighing 1.24 kg. In turn, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 has the following dimensions: 31.26 x 22.12 x 1.55 cm and 1.55 kg.
In terms of other internal components, the two Apple laptops are very similar. Both have options for 8, 16 and 24 GB memory, in addition to up to 2 TB of internal storage. As previously stated, websites specialized in benchmarking indicate that the performance of the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro is equivalent, when both use the standard M3 chip.
Composed of a total of 25 billion transistors, the M3, the most basic chip in the family, has 5 billion more than its predecessor, the M2. The processor features an eight-core CPU, made up of four for performance and four for efficiency. As a result, it can reach speeds 35% higher than the company’s first generation processor chip. The GPU, in turn, has a total of ten cores, which promise 65% faster graphics performance compared to the M1.
M3 chips are also equipped with an improved neural engine to accelerate machine learning models. This is the M3’s Neural Engine, which handles artificial intelligence (AI) tasks, being up to 60% faster than M1 chips. Additionally, all three chips in the new series feature an advanced media engine that provides hardware acceleration for the most popular video codecs, including H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW.
