The M3 MacBook Air is gone for good — but the M2 is a survivor worth considering

By Willow Roberts Published March 7, 2025

With the introduction of the new M4 MacBook Air, it’s time to say goodbye to some of the older models. This time, both the M3 and the M2 MacBook Air will disappear from Apple Store shelves. Unlike the M3, however, the M2 isn’t being discontinued completely — it will still be available at certain retailers.

This gives people a chance to get an amazing laptop (the laptop I’m writing on right now) at a really good price. TechRadar has already spotted certain M2 MacBook Air configurations on Amazon selling for as low as $699. That’s 30% off MSRP and 30% less than the new M4 model.

If you’re unsure which model is best for you — I can vouch for the M2. If you’re a typical laptop user like myself who doesn’t do much more than browsing, word processing, video streaming, and some light programming, the M2 provides great performance and battery life.

If you’re not on a tight budget, the M4 will stay performant for longer and the new lower price is a great deal in my opinion — but there’s no need to stretch your budget to accommodate the M4 if you’d prefer not to.

As for the M3 MacBook Air’s untimely disappearance — this could be down to the general problems Apple encountered with this chip. From a user’s perspective, it performs well and there are no problems with the devices it powers, but industry experts believe that Apple had trouble with the first-generation 3nm technology the M3 uses. The company moved onto the M4 and second-generation 3nm tech quickly and could want to stop producing base M3 chips sooner rather than later.