Last year’s 13-inch MacBook Air now supports Bluetooth 5.3, Apple says

Good news for prospective buyers of the M2-based 13-inch MacBook Air: the machine, which was specced with support for Bluetooth 5.0 when it was released in July 2022, has been retrospectively bumped up to Bluetooth 5.3.

MacRumors noticed that the wireless section of the device’s tech specs page now contains a reference to Bluetooth 5.3, matching the specs of the newer 15-inch MacBook Air. The site also noticed that this section still reads “Wi-Fi 6” for both sizes of Air, even though other new Macs have been upgraded with Wi-Fi 6E support.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 that was launched at the same time still offers only Bluetooth 5.0, according to the tech specs listed for that machine.

It isn’t clear, however, how this change has come about. Have the units now on sale been physically upgraded with superior hardware? Or has Apple achieved the new spec via a software or firmware upgrade, which would mean the higher spec will also apply to models bought last year, provided they install available updates? In fact, the answer might be a third option: that the 13-inch M2 Air always had the wherewithal to support Bluetooth 5.3, yet Apple held back on saying so for reasons known only to itself.

We suspected that the fact that the M2 MacBook Pro still sports Bluetooth 5.0, according to that machine’s tech specs, indicated that this is a quiet hardware update for the MacBook Air. However, Apple has updated the specs for both the M2 MacBook Pro and M2 MacBook Air on sale in its Refurbished Store to also read Bluetooth 5.3, so it does seem to be a firmware update.

We await official confirmation on which of these is the case.

What we do know is that while the differences are unlikely to be earth-shattering, you’re better off with a device that supports Bluetooth 5.3 than one which offers Bluetooth 5.0 only. Version 5.3 adds upgrades relating to power saving, data transfer efficiency, smoothness of connection and protection against interference (those are four very important areas, but the changes in each will be minor), but you’re also gaining the upgrades added in versions 5.1 and 5.2. What Hi-Fi has a good rundown of the changes.

Bluetooth 5.3 isn’t the very latest standard, by the way. Bluetooth 5.4 was released earlier this year.

Author: David Price, Editor

David has loved the iPhone since covering the original 2007 launch; later his obsession expanded to include iPad and Apple Watch. He offers advice to owners (and prospective owners) of these devices.

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