The 2020 MacBook Air with the original M1 chip is the laptop that proved Apple Silicon — silent, all-day battery, and faster than most Intel laptops at its price. Apple discontinued it in March 2024 when the M3 MacBook Air launched. These are the current options that pick up where it left off.
Newer M2 and M3 MacBook Airs have brighter displays (500 nits), MagSafe charging, a thinner enclosure, and significantly faster GPUs. They support two external displays (with the lid closed on M2, natively on M3). The M1 Air remains snappy for everyday tasks but lacks ProRes, AV1 hardware decode, and Apple Intelligence.
The MacBook Air M1 was discontinued in 2024. Newer M2 and M3 MacBook Airs have brighter displays (500 nits), MagSafe charging, a thinner enclosure, and significantly faster GPUs. They support two external displays (with the lid closed on M2, natively on M3). The M1 Air remains snappy for everyday tasks but lacks ProRes, AV1 hardware decode, and Apple Intelligence. If you find one new or refurbished at a deep discount, it can still be a sensible buy — otherwise the alternatives below offer meaningful upgrades for the same money.
Newer M2 and M3 MacBook Airs have brighter displays (500 nits), MagSafe charging, a thinner enclosure, and significantly faster GPUs. They support two external displays (with the lid closed on M2, natively on M3). The M1 Air remains snappy for everyday tasks but lacks ProRes, AV1 hardware decode, and Apple Intelligence. Manufacturers typically retire a flagship after two to three generations to focus engineering and software updates on newer hardware.
Based on our scoring, the Apple MacBook Pro is the strongest direct Apple successor — see the full list below for scoring and price details.
Apple typically provides software support for several years after retiring a product, but new feature rollouts (such as on-device AI capabilities) are generally exclusive to the newest hardware. Check Apple's official support pages for the current update window.
Compare every model we've scored — sortable by price, score and release year.
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