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

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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.jpg

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.

Article Link: Apple Says Latest 13-Inch MacBook Air Now Supports Bluetooth 5.3
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/07/03/13-inch-macbook-air-bluetooth-5-3/
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Will be a software/firmware update - I suspect a hardware update would have required a new version to be registered with the FCCAlso I doubt they would change the product page if all laptops sold up to last month weren't BT 5.3.
 
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MacRumors said:
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.
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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.)
 
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EugW said:
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.)
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we have got a bunch of airports, ac extreme, express and n extreme.
all showing their age for sure with 10 devices connected.
went back to these though due to buggy google wifi!
 
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jezbd1997 said:
we have got a bunch of airports, ac extreme, express and n extreme.
all showing their age for sure with 10 devices connected.
went back to these though due to buggy google wifi!
Click to expand...
My Gen1 Google Mesh thingies are rock solid now.

When they switched from the standalone app, to the GHome app, there was about 18 months where they were completely inaccessible, but they still worked 🤪.

Finally the GHome app was updated so I could get back into them.

I have 6 of them running fine, for years and years.

What was your issue?
 
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mikethebigo said:
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
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could be, but WHY would BCOM and/or Apple release it with "old" firmware, doesn't really make sense but possible.
Do the 15 and the 13 have the same motherboard? or share a daughterboard?
could also be that the "older" chip has supply issues vs a newer version ...

I suppose when early 13 M2 MBA users find out that they now have 5.3, or not, we will know for sure
 
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dannyyankou said:
Cool. Now it would be great if we had a pair of AirPods that are capable of lossless audio to take advantage of it.
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You need serious audio equipment to tell a difference between 256 AAC and Lossless. And even then, many fail while doing a blind test. That is why Apple and the music industry prefers Dolby Atmos because then you really hear a difference.
 
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Anaxarxes said:
No. Apperantly thei FW update was made to select BC chips:

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com support.apple.com
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Imory said:
Lol. So even though the M1 generation has the same Broadcom chip and is capable of 5.3, Apple decided to solely provide the new FW to the M2 Air?
Click to expand...

"But the 2021 14" 16" have pretty good chance of getting driver update to gain 5.3 as well, just that Apple may not even advertise it or note it anywhere since they are already officially off shelf." Quote from above thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bt5-3-on-m2-air.2392606/post-32262507

This thread seems to indicate they might? I am no expert in this at all, so I'm just observing. lol. There may still be hope! :D

I heard Bluetooth LE is a big deal so looking forward to Apple utilizing that with 5.3.
 
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I believe this is just a software update but i'm still wondering and wanting to be sure if my macbook air m2 (from oct 22) will support bt 5.3 too?
 
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MacRumors said:


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.jpg

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.

Article Link: Apple Says Latest 13-Inch MacBook Air Now Supports Bluetooth 5.3
Click to expand...
Customers are rightfully upset when Apple is not forthcoming about what they are buying

Single NAND chips instead of two, leading to much slower SSD speeds…

Wi-Fi 6, rather than 6E, when ALL other Mac computers have the newer improved version…

BlueTooth 5, rather then the newer 5.3, without any mention of this in product materials…
 
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dannyyankou said:
Cool. Now it would be great if we had a pair of AirPods that are capable of lossless audio to take advantage of it.
Click to expand...
Next to no users would notice the difference from the current highest kbps that AirPods are capable of vs. lossless audio.

Meanwhile, lossless audio would drain battery much faster.

For these reasons, I highly doubt Apple is bringing it to AirPods anytime soon.

And if they do then I’d expect it to be a AirPods Max Gen. 2 exclusive for a good while as they’re likely to have the battery and audio drivers that could actually have lossless audio make sense.

My money is on Apple doing two new AirPods Max models, one affordable with a limited selection of new features, same iPad Air style finishes.

And then we also get AirPods Max Pro, with a ton of upgrades and lossless audio for the first time in AirPods, and coming in some premium finishes, reminiscent of iPhones Pro finishes.
 
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