Apple M3 MacBook Air (13-inch & 15-inch) Review

Apple’s latest MacBook Air solidifies its reign as the default laptop for nearly everyone, blending silent, fanless performance with an impossibly thin design. With the M3 chip now powering both the 13-inch and 15-inch models, the line between consumer ultraportable and pro-level creative tool becomes deliciously blurred. This is the refinement that pushes the boundaries of what we expect from an everyday machine.

The MacBook Air’s design language is now a settled and confident one. Unchanged from the M2 generation, both the 13-inch and 15-inch models sport the flat-sided, unibody aluminum chassis that feels incredibly rigid and premium. The Midnight color now benefits from a new anodization seal to reduce fingerprints—a small but welcome fix for a nagging issue. At its core, this is still the archetype of the modern ultrabook: impossibly thin, impressively light, and built to a standard that few competitors can match. The larger 15-inch model remains a standout, offering significant screen real estate without a commensurate penalty in weight or bulk, making it a fantastic choice for those who need to manage multiple windows on the go.

At the heart of this refresh is the M3 chip, built on a 3-nanometer process. While day-to-day tasks like web browsing and document editing feel just as instantaneous as they did on the M2, the real advancements are in graphical and specialized workloads. The M3’s new GPU architecture introduces hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading, features previously reserved for high-end dedicated GPUs. While this won’t turn the fanless Air into a hardcore gaming rig, it makes it a surprisingly capable machine for entry-level 3D rendering and modern gaming titles. More practically, the updated Neural Engine accelerates AI-based features in apps like Pixelmator Pro and Final Cut Pro. The key caveat remains thermal management; the fanless design ensures complete silence but will throttle performance under sustained, heavy loads. For bursty creative work it’s a champ, but marathon video exports will still be faster on a MacBook Pro.

Beyond the main chip, Apple has made two key functional upgrades. The first is the long-awaited support for dual external monitors, a significant limitation of previous Apple Silicon Airs. The catch is that it only works with the laptop lid closed (in “clamshell mode”), but for desk-based users, this transforms the Air into a much more versatile workstation. The second is the move to Wi-Fi 6E, providing access to the less-congested 6 GHz band for faster speeds and lower latency on compatible networks. Otherwise, the user experience is familiar excellence. The Liquid Retina display is bright and color-accurate, the keyboard and Force Touch trackpad remain the industry gold standard, and the speakers, especially on the 15-inch model, are shockingly full-bodied for such a thin device. The lack of ProMotion for a 120Hz refresh rate is perhaps the most obvious feature separating it from the Pro line.

The M3 MacBook Air’s value proposition is a nuanced one. It’s not a compelling upgrade for M2 owners, as the real-world performance gains for typical users are modest. However, for anyone coming from an Intel-based Mac or even an M1 model, the leap is substantial. The primary hurdle remains the base configuration. With 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD, the entry-level model can feel constrained for anyone pushing beyond basic productivity. The 16GB memory upgrade is the single most important investment for future-proofing and smoother multitasking, and we’d recommend it to almost everyone. When configured this way, the M3 Air is a near-perfect machine for a vast majority of users—from students to professionals—who demand portability, silence, and performance without compromise. It’s the definitive ultraportable, now with just enough “pro” power to keep things interesting.

Where to Buy:

Check it out on Amazon