Good news for potential buyers of the M2-based 13-inch MacBook Air: the machine, which came with Bluetooth 5.0 support when it was released in July 2022, has been retrospectively upgraded 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 new 15-inch MacBook Air. The site also noticed that this section still reads “Wi-Fi 6” for both Air sizes, even though other new Macs have been upgraded with Wi-Fi 6E support.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 that launched at the same time still only offers Bluetooth 5.0, according to the tech specs listed for that machine.
It is not known, however, how this change occurred. Have the units currently on sale been physically upgraded to higher quality hardware? Or did Apple reach the new spec via a software or firmware upgrade, which would mean the higher spec would also apply to models purchased last year, provided they install the updates. updates available? In fact, the answer could be a third option: that the 13-inch M2 Air always had the means to support Bluetooth 5.3, but Apple refrained from saying so for reasons known only to itself.
We suspected that the fact that the MacBook Pro M2 still sports Bluetooth 5.0, according to that machine’s tech specs, indicated it was a quiet hardware update for the MacBook Air. However, Apple has updated the specs of the M2 MacBook Pro and M2 MacBook Air on sale at its refurbished store to read Bluetooth 5.3 as well, so it appears 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, it’s better to use a device that supports Bluetooth 5.3 rather than one that only offers Bluetooth 5.0. Version 5.3 adds upgrades related to power saving, data transfer efficiency, connection smoothness, and interference protection (these are four very important areas, but the changes in each will be minor), but you also get the upgrades added in 5.1 and 5.2. What Hi-Fi has a good overview of the changes.
Bluetooth 5.3 isn’t the latest standard, by the way. Bluetooth 5.4 was released earlier this year.
