• iStore South Africa has begun alerting local consumers about the pre-order availability of the new M3 MacBook Air.
• Both the 13″ and 15″ variants are available for pre-order right now, with devices expected to by on 15th March.
• iStore has also added a once-off payment or order deposit option at its pre-order checkout.

This week Apple unveiled a new laptop in the form of its M3-powered MacBook Air, with the device already available to purchase in the United States. For local Apple fans, the new device has been made available to pre-order from today.

This as iStore South Africa has begun alerting consumers via email that pre-orders for the 13″ and 15″ variants of M3 MacBook Air are live on its site.

“The power of the M3 chip comes to MacBook Air, bringing even greater capabilities to this super-portable laptop. No matter which model you choose, you’ll get up to 18 hours of battery life,
so you can work, create and play all day long,” reads said email, with links to learn more, pre-order, as well as compare the new model to previous iterations.

Speaking of which, the new M3-powered flavour, “is up to 60 percent faster than the model with the M1 chip and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air,” according to Apple.

“With a faster and more efficient Neural Engine in M3, MacBook Air continues to be the world’s best consumer laptop for AI,” the Cupertino-based company adds, with several laptop makers already earmarking AI capabilities as key features on the latest hardware being rolled out in recent weeks.

As for the M3 chip, which is the beating heart of this new laptop, it features a 3nm architecture, 8-core CPU, up to 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory. This combination is paired with a battery that can deliver up to 18 hours of life, the manufacturer advises.

How much will it cost you to pre-order the new M3 MacBook Air?

The 13″ variant is listed from R25 999, while the larger 15″ option starts from R30 499.

Looking at the highest specifications you can configure for each, the 13″ laptop can cost up to R40 498 (512GB SSD, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB unified memory, iCare Plus). The highest specced version of the 15″ option is fairly similar in price at R44 498 (512GB SSD, 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB unified memory, iCare Plus).

iStore also has a seemingly new payment option, which allows customers to either pay the full price once-off, or pay a percentage as a deposit and the remainder at a later stage to fulfil delivery.

Both models are expected to ship to customers on or by 16th March, the pre-order pages detail.