48 Hours With the M3 MacBook Air Base Model: Has Anything Changed?

This is the 13in M3 MacBook air, it looks exactly the same as the 13in M2 MacBook air, but there’s a few key differences. I’ve got both in my hands right here, so let’s talk about it.

Affiliate Links to Products Mentioned in Video:
M3 MacBook Air: https://amzn.to/43e26S5
M2 MacBook Air: https://amzn.to/3wPJKuJ
M3 Pro MacBook Pro: https://amzn.to/49NloAa

Physically, almost everything about the M3 2024 version of the MacBook air is exactly the same as the one released in 2022. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell I was using M2 MacBook air footage mixed into this if it wasn’t a different color. The only difference is the M3 Chip, and a new anodization method Apple is using to make the finish on the Midnight color way less fingerprinty. For context, the M2 MacBook air in Midnight is such a fingerprint magnet. If the FBI wanted to match fingerprints, they’d only have to look to see if the suspect ever touched a midnight macbook air. It’s that bad. The M3 air is supposedly better, but I only have the M2 version here. That being said, I warn everyone interested in the midnight version of this laptop, to consider how the area around the ports will hold up, because plugging in charging cables, or accessories could wear them down, revealing the raw metal underneath. Again this is on the old version, so I have no idea how these will wear on the new anodized midnight color, but time will tell. But besides that, everything else about the M3 Macbook Air feels just like the M2 Macbook air. Speakers sound similar, screens look similar, webcam looks similar, keyboard and trackpad feel similar. The list goes on.

So instead of focusing on what’s the same, let's talk about what the M3 brings to this laptop, it’s a little faster than the outgoing model, and plays games a little bit better. That’s really the main advantages here.

Performing general everyday tasks on the M3 Macbook air feels similar to the previous model. Everything works as intended, things open fast and for my general productivity tasks, it works great, until you really start to push it in more intense tasks, in video editing I see hitches here and there for a 4K workflow.

I don’t recommend this for gaming, just due to how few games are currently supported on macbooks, but the air does okay for a thin and light laptop while gaming. The SSD in the M3 MacBook air starts 256GBs and the 256 GB SSD itself is slow, just like the M2. The 8GBs of ram is not great to be honest and because of that, if you do more intensive tasks, including gaming which needs ram for both the cpu and gpu, the machine goes into swap, which means it uses its SSD as extra ram. But SSDs are significantly slower than ram, and the SSD in the M3 Macbook air already isn’t super fast, and SSDs wear down over time. My suggestion for this laptop, is to try to get 16GBs of RAM if you can. I don’t believe in extreme futureproofing. But these M series MacBooks have had a good history of staying really good for a long time now. I’d recommend it, if you want to have a good time with this machine in 4-5 years from now. That being said, Apple doesn’t make it easy to get that 16gbs of ram. Their default configuration, the models that ship the fastest, require you drop $1600 to get the M3 Macbook air with 16GBs. You could do a custom config that keeps the 256gb SSD and bumps the price $200 for the extra ram, but that takes more time to ship. Also, major retailers like Best Buy do not sell custom Apple configs and only the default ones. But I noticed that you can get the custom configurations from more niche retailers like BH Photo or Adorama. So just some food for thought.

The last thing to note is that with this M3 chip, the M3 MacBook air is now able to use two external displays at the same time if the lid of the laptop is closed. Previous versions of M series Macbook Airs did not. If you open it up, it will default to just a single external display and the macbook’s display. So if you can’t decide between the 13in and 15in MacBook air and you primarily use external monitors. You might want to save $200 and just get the 13in. The 15in is more valuable for people who need the extra screen real estate on the go, and if that’s not you, you can save a decent chunk of change.

Видео 48 Hours With the M3 MacBook Air Base Model: Has Anything Changed? канала Jimmy Tries World