I am what one would call a "digital nomad," and I've been using a 16-inch MacBook Pro as my main work machine for the past five years. These machines were/are absolute beasts that enabled me to make a living writing words, editing photos, and producing videos on-the-go, from tradeshow floors to coffee shops, airport lounges to capsule hotels.

Here's the thing: I have always found the 16-inch MacBook Pro too heavy, especially since I am always running around town on foot or public transport. I figured I didn't have a choice, because I edit videos for a living and thus needed the "Pro" power, and I find 13-inch screens too cramped as a main work machine.

But after testing Apple's new M3-powered 15-inch MacBook Air, I am very likely going to make it my on-the-go work machine going forward, because it offers a large-enough screen size, is noticeably lighter and thinner than the 16-inch Pro, and surprisingly, the M3 chip is powerful enough to handle my level of video editing. Of course, video export times are longer, and I occasionally see the notorious spinning rainbow wheel when I'm jumping between apps (I almost never see it on my M3 Max MacBook Pro), but it's an acceptable compromise for a lighter carry. This is absolutely one of the best mainstream laptops in the world right now,

About this review: Apple provided me with a 15-inch M3 MacBook Air for review. The company had no input in this article.

MacBook Air (M3, 2024) Pricing and Availability

The M3-powered MacBook Air comes in two sizes, with the base 13-inch model starting at $1,099 and maxing out at $2,299; the 15-inch model I'm testing starts at $1,299 and maxes out at $2,499. The base model machines come with 8GB of unified memory and just 256GB of internal storage. You'll likely want to at least double the storage, which adds another $200 to the price. The 15-inch model I'm testing has 16GB of unified memory and 512GB of storage and is priced at $1,699.

Hardware and design

Very familiar look and feel

The M3 MacBook Air brings back the exact same outer hardware as the M2 models. This means other than the new chip and color options, the 15-inch M3 Air I have is identical to the 15-inch M2 model that came out just eight months ago. So you still have a 15-inch 2880×1864 LED display with a notch in the middle housing a 1080p webcam. The screen reaches 500 nits of max brightness and looks perfectly fine to my eyes, but if I nitpick, the bezels are slightly thicker than the MacBook Pro's bezels, and the LED display tech here is inferior to the MiniLED used in the MacBook Pro or OLED panels used by some Windows machines. Basically, this MacBook Air screen can't quite produce deep blacks. I suppose if you watch a lot of movies, you may consider this a noticeable flaw, but I use my laptop mostly for productivity work, so I have no complaints.

The machine comes with two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and MagSafe charging port. The two USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 4 and can output to two external monitors, which previous M1 and M2 powered MacBooks could not do. Do note that the MacBook lid has to be closed to output to two monitors. If you open the lid, then you can only power one external screen.

The hinge is sturdy and does not wobble even when I'm pounding at the keyboard on a wobbly table, and you can also open the lid with one hand. There are new color options, including "midnight," this matte deep grey color that made its debut with the MacBook Pro from a few months ago. This color uses an "anodization seal" to give it a matte coating that reduces smudges and fingerprints, but I find that it only does so slightly. I can still see smudges on the laptop lid after a day of use.

The laptop weighs 3.3lbs and measures 0.4-inches thick. Because I've been using the 4.8lbs/0.6-inch thick 16-inch MacBook Pro for five years, I think this machine feels light and thin. Cutting 1.5lbs in weight may not sound like much, but it adds up in a bag that's also carrying a camera, microphone, tripod.

The keyboard and trackpad remain unchanged, so if you've seen a recent MacBook, you know what to expect. There's a fingerprint scanner in the upper right corner of the keyboard, alongside a row of F keys that also double as shortcut buttons for controlling things like volume and screen brightness. Pretty standard stuff. I am a very fast touch typer (105 words-per-minute) and I can reach my peak speed on this keyboard without issues. The trackpad, too, is the best in the business in my opinion. I find that with Windows machines, the trackpad often mistakes my swipes as a "tap," which ends up clicking something. This doesn't happen with MacBook trackpads.

The big upgrade is, of course, the chip inside the machine: the M3 silicon, built on 3-nm architecture, which brings a 20% faster CPU and GPU over the M2. This isn't a lot, to be honest, so I don't think anyone with a M2 machine should upgrade to this guy. But the M3 is a noticeable jump from the M1 and Intel-powered MacBooks. I'll share benchmark scores and more impressions later. Do note the 15-inch model M3 chip has two extra GPU Cores than the 13-inch model, bumping the count to 10.

Elsewhere, the six-speaker setup is great, while the 1080p webcam is fine. Overall, this is a very practical and functional laptop that may not look exciting, but is a joy to use and carry around.

Software

MacOS Sonoma is polished and plays so nice with other Apple products

The laptop ships with MacOS Sonoma 14.4 out of the box. This latest version of Sonoma introduces new emojis and the ability to read the text of a podcast episode within the Podcasts app. Overall, Sonoma is a beautiful OS that brings the MacOS aesthetic closer in line to iOS and iPadOS, so there are more rounded corners in the menu pages, and the ability to run iOS widgets.

Although I use a Mac full time, I am not fully immersed in Apple's ecosystem. I carry an Android phone most of the time, I do not use iMessage (I spend most of my time in Asia where we use dedicated chat apps like WhatsApp or WeChat), and I use Spotify over Apple Music. So there are a lot of cool Apple eco-system things I miss out on. For example, I only just realized during this review period that MacOS Sonoma's widget selection page shows me available widgets from all my iPhone's apps. This is not something I actively "set up." MacOS just knew what apps are on my iPhone because they're signed into the same iCloud account. This is very cool.

One Apple ecosystem feature I do use, and it has come in clutch a few times when I'm on the road and needed to find a file, is the fact that MacBook desktop screen can be an iCloud drive folder. This means on any Apple device, I can find files stored on the homescreen of my MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air. Just yesterday, I was able to grab a file off my MacBook Pro directly on the Vision Pro. It's little things like that, that does make Apple's software feel seamless and cohesive. (I still think Chinese Android phone cameras are too far ahead for me to jump to an iPhone full time though).

Performance

So powerful, I am tempted to give up the Pro

As mentioned earlier, I have always found the 16-inch MacBook Pro bulky and heavy, but I didn't think I had a choice due to my lifestyle: I am always on-the-road, editing videos working out of coffee shops and hotel rooms. I need a bigger screen and "Pro" power. Back when MacBooks still ran on Intel processors, the gap in performance between Air and Pro models were big, because the latter has a fan. But ever since Apple moved to its self-developed ARM-based silicon that's much more energy efficient, the fan has become a rarely used luxury. On my M3 Max MacBook Pro, I only hear the fan turn on when I'm exporting videos or playing games. The other 95% of the time, the fan doesn't even get used.

So when I got this 15-inch MacBook Air for testing, I decided to try editing videos on it. I loaded multiple tracks of 4K/30 footage, with captions and some effects (but no color-grading), and I was able to scrub through the timeline with zero stutter. I then exported the files to Apple ProRes 422, and the render times were acceptable — it took about 12 minutes to export a 10-minute video. It's slower than my M3 Max MacBook Pro for sure (that machine rendered the same video in three minutes), but considering the difference in price, weight, silicon cores and memory (my MacBook Pro has 128GB of unified memory compared to this Air's 16GB), I think the results are acceptable. I did notice that when I have Final Cut Pro open in middle of a video editing session, if I jump on Safari with over a dozen tabs opened, I will occasionally see the rainbow spinning wheel for a few seconds. But so far, nothing has frozen on me, I haven't had to force quit anything.

Keep in mind, my work flow is heavier than the average person. For the majority of people who use their laptops for typing/reading words and video calls? They are not going to see any performance issues with this guy. Battery life is extremely good as has been the case with Apple silicon. I am writing this review on the MacBook Air right now, and in nearly three hours of writing and photo editing, my laptop dropped from 100% to just 83%. Even when I'm editing videos, a two-hour editing session only drains about 55% battery. Just the fact I can get at least 3.5 hours of video editing completely on battery power is something Intel machines could not do.

I am not really a benchmark guy, but benchmark scores are below for reference. We can see the M3's single-core performance is very impressive.

I also played NBA 2K24, a somewhat graphically intensive game, on the MacBook Air, running on battery power, and I only saw occasional framerate stutters. This machine handled the game mostly fine. Essentially, the MacBook Air can actually handle all my needs. Apple silicon has made the fan almost pointless for all but the most professional of video editors or graphic artists.

There's also some AI stuff that Apple's marketing team was keen to show off in demos, but to be honest, Apple's sudden pivot to mentioning AI is the company uncharacteristically showing FOMO more than anything. Basically, this MacBook Air has a 16-core Neural Engine that can run some generative AI tasks on-device. The app Freechat, for example, can answer complex queries on device, without the internet. But the M2 machines could already do this. I say this not as a diss to the current M3 MacBook Air, but Apple silicon has always had a capable Neural Engine, so Apple suddenly framing this as an "AI computer" is pure marketing speak.

Should you buy the M3 15-inch MacBook Air?

You should buy the M3 15-inch MacBook Air if:

• You want a large-screen MacBook that's lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro
• You want the best mix of performance, screen size, and portability in a laptop
• You are digital nomad who needs a do-it-all work machine with superb battery life

You should not buy the M3 15-inch MacBook Air if:

• You already own the M2 15-inch MacBook Air
• You do professional level video editing with color grading — the MacBook Pro is still better for that
• You are fine with a 13-inch MacBook

The M3 MacBook Air is one of the more straightforward MacBook refreshes in years, and the fact this machine is coming just eight months after the M2 MacBook Air is really odd timing. So if you already own the M2, you absolutely do not need to get the new M3 model, as the performance boost is not enough to justify a whole new purchase. But for anyone who's on an M1 MacBook Air or older, or perhaps someone like me who went for a 16-inch MacBook Pro and now find it too heavy, the M3 MacBook Air, especially the 15-inch model, is worth a look.

For me, this machine satisfies my need for a larger screen while offering enough power and battery life for me to work on-the-go. Of course I'd still rather use my M3 Max MacBook Pro if I'm at home, but when I'm running trade show convention centers or walking 15,000 steps a day in Tokyo, my back will thank for me carrying the MacBook Air instead of the MacBook Pro.