M3 MacBook Air Review: Redefining Portable Performance – CNET

That’s not to say the M3 silicon isn’t also an improvement over the M2, because it is. It’s just that the performance differences are overall modest, but graphics performance does get a notable bump, similar to the 14- and 16-inch M3 MacBook Pro models we reviewed last year. In fact, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro has the same M3 chip that’s standard on the updated 15-inch MacBook Air and an upgrade on the 13-inch. And while creators looking for a big power boost will likely want an M3 Pro or Max chip, the regular M3 is well-suited for the Air’s eminently portable design, and it absolutely trounced my Intel MacBook Pro. 

The rest of the M3 MacBook Air is great too and pretty much the same as the M2 models — another reason those with M1 and earlier models will want to consider upgrading. 

Read more: Best M3 MacBook Air Deals

The same, but also better

The new Airs start at a similar US price as before: $1,099 (£1,099, AU$1,799) for the 13-inch Air with 8GB of unified memory and 256GB solid-state drive. The 15-inch Air, also with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD, starts at $1,299 (£1,299, AU$2,199). From there you can increase memory to 16GB or 24GB and storage to 512GB, 1TB or 2TB. The base M3 on the 13-inch model has eight CPU and eight GPU cores. You can upgrade to an M3 with a 10-core GPU for $100 or, if you add more memory or storage ($200 each), Apple also the 10-core GPU M3 to the configuration. This chip is also standard on the 15-inch size. Both chip versions have a 16-core Neural Engine to accelerate AI and machine learning tasks. 

The base 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage seem stingy given the $1,099 starting price. While, in our experience, the MacBook Air runs well on 8GB of unified memory, it will limit what you can do and the overall performance longevity of the laptop. Storage can always be bolstered with external drives or cloud storage, but there’s no such option for memory. If you can afford the extra $200, get 16GB of memory. 

Apple did make two feature additions with the M3 chip update. One is a move from Wi-Fi 6 to 6E, which translates to faster wireless speeds, assuming you have a router that supports it. The other change is to display support. Prior models of the MacBook Air supported extending to only one external display.  With the M3 MacBook Airs, you can connect two external displays directly to the Thunderbolt USB-C ports, which will also power the MacBook. 

However, doing this comes at the cost of the MacBook Air’s display; the lid must be closed in order to drive both external monitors. On the surface, this doesn’t seem like much of an issue, unless you typically use your laptop’s keyboard and trackpad while working on an external display. For me, the bigger hiccup is the loss of Touch ID on the Air’s keyboard. You can just open and close the lid to use Touch ID, but I use mine so much during the day that that would get old really fast. The better option is to get Apple’s Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, and while you’re at it, pick up a Magic Trackpad or Mouse to complete the package. 

JetStream2 (JavaScript and WebAssembly benchmark) in Chrome

Apple MacBook Pro (M3, 14-inch, 2023) 710Lenovo Slim 7i (14-inch 2024) 628Apple MacBook Air (M3, 15-inch, 2024) 591Apple MacBook Air (M2, 15-inch 2023) 552Apple MacBook Air (M3, 13-inch, 2024) 541Apple MacBook Air (M1, 13-inch, 2020) 449Apple MacBook Pro (Intel, 16-inch, 2019) 384

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