Apple Says Latest 13-Inch MacBook Air Now Supports Bluetooth 5.3

Monday July 3, 2023 9:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

While the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip initially supported Bluetooth 5.0 when it was released in July 2022, the laptop now supports the faster and more reliable Bluetooth 5.3 standard, according to Apple's tech specs.

MacBook Air M2 Chip Purple Feature
Apple updated the 13-inch MacBook Air's tech specs page to say Bluetooth 5.3 after introducing the 15-inch MacBook Air with Bluetooth 5.3 at WWDC earlier this month. The latest standard offers faster and more reliable connectivity with Bluetooth accessories, and improved power efficiency, which can contribute to longer battery life. More details about Bluetooth 5.3 are available on the Bluetooth website.

All new Mac, iPhone, iPad Pro, and Apple Watch models released since September 2022 support Bluetooth 5.3, as do the second-generation AirPods Pro.

Both the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air remain limited to Wi-Fi 6, while other new Macs support Wi-Fi 6E for faster wireless connectivity over the 6GHz band.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air

Tag: Bluetooth

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Top Rated Comments

orbital~debris

43 months ago

Is this a hardware change to new shipments or a software change to all past sold of this model?

Almost exactly what I was about to type.

Very unclear of MacRumors to post this without that important clarity.

Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)

cannono

43 months ago

Is this a hardware change to new shipments or a software change to all past sold of this model?

Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)

mikethebigo

43 months ago

Apparently the bluetooth module in the 13" MBA was always capable of 5.3, it just needed a firmware revision. So I don't think this is due to a hardware change.

Stolen info from another thread: The Broadcom 4387 (BCM_4387) which is the chip in all M2 MBAs does now support Bluetooth 5.3: https://device.report/broadcom/bcm4387

Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)

EugW

43 months ago

Both the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air remain limited to Wi-Fi 6, while other new Macs support Wi-Fi 6E for faster wireless connectivity over the 6GHz band.

I'm still on WiFi 5 / 802.11ac, using a bunch of Apple AirPort Extremes connected via a wired Gigabit Ethernet backbone. I think I'll stick with this as long as realistically possible. Current Apple devices still work beautifully with these, even roaming from AirPort Extreme to AirPort Extreme. For most home use I have not seen the need to go beyond a few hundred Mbps over WiFi, and furthermore, my home internet access maxes out at 500 Mbps anyway. (However, my main work machine is a desktop which is hardwired via Ethernet.)

Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)

macos9rules

43 months ago

Cool. Now it would be great if we had a pair of AirPods that are capable of lossless audio to take advantage of it.

In my opinion, Lossless audio is snake oil. I'm an audio engineer, multi-instrumentalist with perfect pitch, pro audio gear, and I really can't tell the difference between a lossless file and a high quality MP3 or AAC file. People around me who thought they could tell the difference always failed in blind tests. If you can tell the difference in a blind test, I'd be curious to know.

Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)