The latest MacBook Pro barely announced with record autonomy, the next MacBook Air are already talking about them. And they are promised an even more impressive autonomy.
You’re hard at work, your laptop on your lap and it’s time for your battery to die. However, you were sure to have seen the 100% displayed not so long ago. A situation that many have experienced, as long as they work on slightly powerful PCs, rarely synonymous with great autonomy.
If there’s one problem that Apple’s MacBooks with an in-house Apple Silicon chip have solved, it’s battery life. Since the arrival of the famous M1, M1 Ultra, M2, M2 Max chips and others, the computers of the Apple brand shine with their endurance which easily exceeds 20 hours. From MacBook Air to MacBook Pro, all equipped with M chips, the result is in the same line. And it could go even further.
25 to 30% less consumption
If the 2022-2023 season is that of the M2 range already established in the Macbook Air and MacBook Pro launched last June, but also now in an advanced version on the recent MacBook Pro M2 Pro and M2 Max, rumors are already suggesting the next one. From the second half of 2023, the new M3 chip would therefore sign its arrival, according to DigiTimes.
In itself, this is not information. Each year its new chip at Apple, on MacBooks now as well as on iPhones. But this would have an important technological specificity: the transition to 3 nm engraving.
A feat targeted by all chip founders (manufacturers) such as Samsung Foundry (which supply Qualcomm) or TSMC -which is working on those thought out by Apple-, it is the ultimate of the moment in terms of possibilities offered to chips, these brains of any tech device. Burning the transistors present on a chip in 3 nm makes it possible to add many more on the same surface, thus offering more performance (+10 to 15%) with a reduced consumption of 25 to 30% possibly. This would then make it possible to have a more efficient MacBook Air, with above all a marked increase in autonomy.
The iPhone 15 Pro also affected
DigiTimes thus explains that the MacBook Air would have Apple’s preferences to take advantage of this new chip in order to bet on a more affordable product for the general public. This could even come with a new 15-inch screen diagonal in addition to the current 13.6-inch model.
In absolute terms, none of this seems impossible. TSMC has long explained that it is working on 3nm engraving, and a new, larger MacBook Air has been rumored for a long time. Apple redesigned its entry-level laptop last June with a new M2 chip, after seeing sales of the M1 models soar the previous year. And the next version will necessarily switch to the M3 chip, not needing the power of the M2 Pro or M2 Max.
And the MacBook Air would not be the only beneficiaries of a finer engraving carried out by TSMC. The next iPhone 15 Pro and their A17 chip would also exploit the technology, with the promise of even greater autonomy and an even greater number of calculations by the processors.
