2023 MacBooks

2023 is almost here and so are the 2023 MacBooks with loads of models to expect but I think the real question is:                  Can they still compete with the windows equivalents?

Considering that the design won't be changing and considering that these windows models will be getting loads of updates including the new RTX 4000 series of GPU-Z.

So here's every upcoming MacBook model in 2023 and how they would stack up against the competition.

1) M1 MacBook Air:

At number one we have the M1 MacBook Air at 999 dollars

but I do believe that there is an extremely high chance that this model will get discontinued once the M3 air launches as it's already been out for two years already. 

2) M3 MacBook Air:

So, let's jump straight to the M3 MacBook Air which will have the same design as the M2 model

                 Credit: Zoneoftech
but with the M3 chip. Now this is said to be based on a smaller three nanometer manufacturing process down from five and we've actually seen a report back in 2021.

So it is quite an old report but it did claim that "The manufacturing for the three nanometer process M3 chip would begin in late 2022." and although we haven't really had any major updates and thanks to this the biggest improvements that we will see will be in terms of the poor consumption which will be lower.

                     Credit: Zoneoftech
Which means that we could see up to a 20 hour battery life potentially on the new Air compared to the 18 that we have now. Of course if the M3 chip increases the core account even more it will likely stay at 18.

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Now we don't actually have any news on the court count just yet and if the M1 error doesn't need to get discontinued I do expect the price of this new M3 air to be $999 so same price as the old M1. In the best case scenario or if not maybe $1099 down from $1199.

Competitor:

But how will this competes to the windows offering. Well the best competitor right now is the "Dell XPS 13"

and this is very likely to still be the case in 2023 and the Dell does have some advantages over the air.

For example:

• It is even lighter at 1.17 kg compared to 1.22kg.
• It has much thinner bezels.
  
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• No notch just uniform bezels.

And a camera that is built inside a tiny bezel. And of course it is also cheaper at 999 dollars. Right now compared to $1099 or so which is about the M3 air would very likely be but of course the M3 air does have some advantages too

For example: 

• It will be much more powerful than the dell the M2 model already is double in terms of the super performance compared to the Dell XPS 13.
  
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• It will also have better battery life the current model has 18 compared to 13 hours and 18 minutes. 
• When it comes to web browsing then the display is also better on the air.
• We have a 1920 x 1200 display on the Dell compared to 2560 x 1664 on the air.
  
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• And then the air also has much better color reproduction.

Now you can configure the Dell with an OLED panel 4K as well which is gonna surpass the one inside the MacBook Air but it will also cost you way more. There's also the Dell XPS 13 plus which is more expensive at $1200 the same price as the current M2 air and  that one comes with an even more modern design with even thinner bezels.

           

                                       Credit: Zoneoftech

So yeah I do believe that the M3 Air with even more performance and potentially even more battery life can still definitely compete and surpass a lot of Windows laptops in 2023. 

3) 15 inch MacBook Air:

At number three we have the 15-inch MacBook Air.

This is said to be a new Macbook that would launch in the first quarter of 2023 and essentially be a larger version of the 30 inch model just with the M3 chip. In a way it would kind of bring back that 15 inch MacBook Pro design style which was pretty thin. It was very light. It did suffer from thermal issues and you know the horrible keyboard but these would both be fixed with the new 15-inch air and if you think about it the lineup would make way more sense like this. If you take a look at the iPhone the non-pro model comes in two sizes and then the pro model also comes in two sizes and this would also apply to the MacBooks a non-pro model the air which is the more portable one would come in two sizes and then the pro the professional laptop would also come in two sizes.

Credit: Zoneoftech
Competitor:

Now its best competitor would be the "LG Gram 16."                        credit: Zoneoftech

Which does already offer quite a number of advantages the main one being the weight 

The 16-inch LG gram is actually lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air and that's because it uses a magnesium alloy chassis.

               Credit: Zoneoftech 

And it also has more ports it has an HDMI port two USB A on top of the two. Thunderbolt 4S and one micro SD card slot.

(Credit: Zoneoftech) 

It also has more storage of 512 gigabytes compared to 256.

And also a better battery life for you at 20.5 hours compared to 18 on the MacBook Air.

Of course this is a 13 inch model the 15 inch should have a better battery light possibly the same as the LG gram if not even better. On top of that there are also other advantages to pick the M3 15-inch MacBook Air.

For example:

• The chip will be much more powerful. The M2 Chip is already more powerful than the one inside the LG gram the Intel 12 gen although the LG does have a fan for active Cooling and sustained performance.
  
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• The air also has a higher PPI of 224 compared to 188 and the 15 inch air could have an even higher PPI.
• The air is also thinner with a 13 inch measuring at 1.12 centimeters compared to 1.68 on the LG gram 16. 

If the 15 inch air keeps the same same size it would be the thinnest 15 inch laptop in the market.

But will it be able to compete?

Well it depends if you're looking for the most portable 15-inch laptop. I wouldn't really say that a 15-inch air will be bad. Now because of its weight it will not be the lightest. If you're looking for just better performance than the LG Gram 16 there are other 15-inch laptops that have dedicated GPU-Z. Which of course are thicker and heavier but they do offer better performance but I do think that the MacBook Air 15 will be the Best of Both Worlds.

• Very thin design. 
• Great battery life.
• Incredible performance in a very thin form factor.

Even if that weight will be substantially higher than what LG has to offer with the gram 16.

4) M3 MacBook Pro:                    Credit: Zoneoftech 

Then we have the M3 MacBook Pro which unlike the M1 air. I do believe that Apple will still keep this MacBook Pro around just because this would be the in-between device Bridging the Gap between the air and then the 14 inch pro with the only change being the M3 chip and likely starting from the same $1300 price point.

But can it compete?

No, absolutely not. It's not even compared to the M3 Air especially if that drops in price compared to Windows laptops. You do get more performance at this price point but you also get a very outdated design literally a 2016 design at 70 years old.

You know the points of release in 2023 like imagine HP selling a seven-year-old laptop would update its effects like "No one would buy that thing."

Credit: Zoneoftech 

5) M2 Pro and M2 Max:

Next up we have the M2 Pro and the M2 Max 14 inch MacBook Pro. This will have the same design as we have now but with the M2 Pro and the M2 Max chip options. That means 12 CPU cores up from 10 and up to 38 GPU cores from 32 on the M1 Max model. 

                               Credit: Zoneoftech

On top of these shifts would also be manufactured on a smaller three nanometer process. Which means that they would have a lower power consumption. Now this doesn't necessarily mean that the battery life will be improved as the core counts are getting increased.

So we'll have to wait and see but yes these chips will also be based on a smaller three nanometer process.

So will the 14 inch 2023 MacBook Pro be

able to compete?

Well absolutely the closest competitor would be the Razer Blade 14 which is actually very similar in size and features now the Razer Blade 14 does have quite a few advantages.

For example:

• It has a higher refresh rate of 165 Hertz.
• It is also much better for gaming since it has a dedicated GPU an RTX 3060 on the base model which can be bumped up to a 3080 Ti. and it also has more storage one terabyte compared to 512.
  
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But then the MacBook Pro 14 will have even more advantages.

For example:

• Much better CPU performance.

Fun Fact:

The Ryzen 9 6900 HX was actually very close in performance to the M1 Pro chip of the base model of the 14 inch. 

• Then we also have a much better display which is high resolution and also mini LED compared to LCD.
  
                                       Credit: Zoneoftech 
• The MacBook Pro is also thinner and lighter at 1.59 kilograms compared to 1.78.
• Not even to mention the speakers which are much better.
• The improved battery life 17 hours right now compared to 11 and then of course we all know that the MacBooks are much better at content creation with those dedicated media engines.
  
                      Credit: Zoneoftech

So, can we still compete? 

Absolutely I think in terms of content creation like I said there's no match at all in terms of gaming. It's still not viable on the Mac and I should also mention that there are a few apps that actually work faster on Nvidia GPU-Z.

Competitor:

So, there are still a couple of extra advantages when it comes to getting the Razer instead of the 14 inch and then when it comes to the 16 MacBook Pro pretty much the same idea here new Chips same design. The closest competitor would be actually two of them performance wise it would be the Razer Blade 17 and then the overall competitor would be the Dell XPS 17.

      Credit: Zoneoftech

Interested to Razer Blade 17 this would actually be a very similar comparison as between the 14-inch Razer and the 14 inch MacBook Pro the only difference is being that the 17-inch Razer has a high refresh rate display 360 Hertz and also a much more powerful version of the RTX 3080 Ti. But the Dell has some advantages too.

• It has a much better design.
  
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• Also a larger display in what is essentially almost the same four Factor as the 16 triangle Pro.
• We also have much better GPU performance with a dedicated RTX 3050 or 3060 so you can also game on this.
• And again we also have better performance and apps that do prefer Nvidia cards and you can also replace the RAM and the SSD whenever you want. 

All right the MacBook Pro 16 has a mini LED panel compared to LCD you also get better CPU performance. It is also lighter at 2.1 kilograms compared to 2.21 and like I said before much better when it comes to content creators with those dedicated media engines.

So can I compete? 

Yes 100% For creators gaming wise nope and design wise I would still say no. Just because the Dell looks in my opinion 10 times better and you also need to keep in mind that next year we would see the RTX 4000 series of laptops with even more performance in professional apps and gaming.

                Credit: Zoneoftech

Since, we do know that Apple's planning to bump the prices of their MacBooks even more next year especially the Pro Models. Well, maybe these comparisons would be a bit hard to justify in favor of the MacBooks but let me know what you guys think in terms of everything mentioned.