M3 MacBook Air review roundup: light and powerful AI machine
The first reviews for the new M3 MacBook Air are in, and overall they are a rave for how Apple's lightweight portable performs.
Apple's new MacBook Air is the same outside, but much faster inside
its new 13-inch M3 MacBook Air and 15-inch MacBook Air on March 4, 2024, and multiple reviewers have commented on how little time they've had to examine it. Just ahead of the first pre-order buyers getting their devices, the first full reviews and preliminary overviews have been published.
Ars Technica
"Apple's efficient M3 MacBook Airs are just about as good as laptops get," says the Ars Technica review. It does then describe the update from the M2 model as being "the laptop's first 'boring' refresh in several years,' but also that there was no need for more exciting external changes that rock the boat.
"But that's fine, as it's a pretty good boat that doesn't need to be rocked," continues the review. "The Air is not designed for heavy-duty workloads, though it is nice to know that it's usable for them in a pinch."
Tom's Guide
Tom's Guide did put the New MacBook Air through some heavy-duty workloads, and while praising the results, is one of the sites emphasizing how little time they've had to test it.
"[As]you can see from our results [so far,] the M3 is definitely faster than the M2," it says. "However, they're not quite as fast as the latest Intel Windows 11 laptops, as the Acer Swift Go 14 and Dell XPS 14 were both at least a few seconds faster than either M3 Air."
"And neither of Apple's new M3 Airs could cut video faster than any recent MacBook Pro," continues the review, "not even the M2 MacBook Pros Apple released over a year ago."
That's the closest any of the reviews get to a criticism, with one outlier exception to do with audio.
The M3 processor makes all the difference
ZDNet
ZDNet likes the device enough to describe it as a "light 'pro' laptop."
"The thin, light, and compact design of the M3 MacBook Air make it a great ultraportable laptop that is easy to carry and easy to slip into virtually any bag or backpack," says the review. "And with the fact that the M3 chip now packs more power than ever makes this a machine that is as powerful as the fastest pro laptops from just a couple years ago."
"[Based on benchmark scores, it] essentially matches or exceeds most of the numbers of that MacBook Pro," says ZDNet, "which was an absolute performance beast in recent years."
The publication is convinced that "M3 lineup looks like it is purpose-built to handle AI workloads." As Apple has yet to reveal its promised AI improvements, the reviewer suspects that "the full value of these machines may not be completely transparent to us yet."
However, there is that audio criticism. ZDNet says that if you go from the MacBook Pro to the new MacBook Air, "you get a much inferior set of built-in speakers."
Mashable
As if to just prove that some things are entirely subjective, Mashable has a slightly different take on the MacBook Air's audio. "Matching the 15-inch M2 MacBook Air," says the review, "the new 15-inch M3 MacBook Air has a six-speaker sound system that sounds absolutely divine."
"I literally said the words 'ooh, yeah!' -- like I'm the Kool-Aid Man bursting through the wall," continued the reviewer, "when I experienced my first typing session on the new 15-inch M3 MacBook Air."
T3
T3 is another site that stresses how it is still testing the machine. However, in a quite short piece, the site willing to say it thinks the new MacBook Air is a winner.
"I tried the new MacBook Air M3," it says, "it totally crushes my M1 Air as a great upgrade."
iJustine
YouTuber iJustine may never be anything less than enthusiastic about the Apple devices she's provided. But in this case she concentrates on the practical differences between the new machine and her current MacBook Pro -- and comes away impressed.
"Honestly, it is so incredible to see such a powerful performance on such light and portable computers," she says. "You can do almost everything that you would want to or need to and you will not be having to sacrifice performance."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
There's always the advice you could give potential buyers, but since there is such a wide spectrum of workloads and buyers, advice can't be distilled into neat little bits of advice. Given that, I do think I've settled on the advice of not letting $200, $400 prevent you from getting the upgraded components. Over the lifespan of ownership that $200 to $400 difference is minuscule price compared to the benefits of having more RAM and more storage. So, the minimum configs for me would be:
$1400 M2 MBA13 16/512
$1500 M3 MBA13 16/512
$1700 M3 MBA15 16/512
$1800 M3 MBP14 16/512
If you need more, get more, but having 16/512 should be the minimum for most people. If you know you can get by with less, great, but for non tech nerds? Seems having 16/512 would result in a minimum of fuss and improves the all around experience.
There are factors to narrow things down. I got my then 17yo an M2 MBA13 16/512. It's a backpack machine and less was more there. If you are a stationary user but just web browse, do office stuff, I would go MBA15. I would only step up to the MBP14 if I watched movies or other things that would make use of the display or the fan. The fan makes for a cooler to the touch machine, and that's valuable to some people. So, there are factors that will drive your choices.
I'm saving my dollars for an iPP13 OLED 2TB with cellular. $2500 for that, ouch, but it will be my personal machine for video watching, drawing & writing with the Pencil, web stuff, etc.