I remember like it was yesterday when Steve Jobs took the first Air out of a paper envelope. I was even more delighted with the second generation of these computers. MacBook Airs have come a long way, as exemplified by the latest line of these computers, because we have gone from 11 to 15 inches. I had the opportunity to test such a 15-inch MacBook Air with an M3 processor over the last few weeks.
Be like Pro and light like Air
When reviewing the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro processor, I wrote that I really like the current line of Apple laptops and the fact that the company has moved away from the pursuit of thinner and thinner computers. The latest MacBook Pro series has gained some body, and the same applies to MacBook Air. And it's not only about the thickness of the central unit itself, but also the size of the screens. This text concerns the MacBook Air with a 15.3-inch display. So what does this computer look like?
When I took it out of the box and opened it, I had the impression that it was a MacBook Pro, mainly due to the size of the screen. Its diagonal determines the size of the entire computer, which is 1.15 cm (height), 34.04 cm (width) and 23.76 cm (depth). The 15-inch MacBook Air is no longer as light as, for example, my worn-out 13-inch Air from 12 years ago. The weight of the new computer is 1.51 kg. However, it is slightly lighter than my 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. It wasn't just the size of the 15-inch MacBook Air that gave it the impression that it was a MacBook Pro, but also its overall form. This impression persisted throughout the entire testing period of this computer.
Of course, if we put the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air from the latest line next to each other, the differences will be visible. The 15-inch MacBook Air I tested is thinner (lower) than the Pro model, mainly due to the central unit and not the lid. The casing under the MacBook Air keyboard is not black, and there are no speakers on its sides. Finally, MacBook Air is equipped with only two USB-C ports, a MagSafe charging port (though of course you can also charge the computer via any USB-C port) - located on the left side - and a headphone jack, located on the right side of the computer.
For testing, I received a computer in a color called "midnight", which I like very much. It is noticeably darker than space gray. The only disadvantage of a dark casing is that it shows fingerprints much more clearly. Of course, this does not mean that a computer with a "midnight" casing is more dirty, it is just that the fingerprints are simply more visible. This, in turn, means that I cleaned it more often than my 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro with a space gray case.
Display
The display in the current line of MacBook Airs, similarly to MacBook Pros, has a characteristic notch located centrally at the top edge, which houses the FaceTime camera and the light sensor. The presence of the mentioned indentation is a bit questionable, especially if one uses multiple applications nested in the top bar. Due to the limited space on it, there may be problems with displaying all the icons, although of course the larger the screen, the smaller the problem (or the problem doesn not exist at all). Visually, the notch itself looks interesting, but I don't really like the fact that the screen bar covering the notch is turned off when working with applications in full-screen mode. That's why I admit that I'm waiting for models in which Apple will manage to pack the FaceTime camera, light sensor (and perhaps someday also the FaceID scanner) directly into the black screen frame. The 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display has a resolution of 2880 x 1864 pixels, which gives a density of 224 ppi. Its maximum brightness declared by Apple is 500 nits.
Keyboard
The keyboard in the tested MacBook Air works virtually identically to that in my own MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro (that I tested a few months ago). A huge advantage is that the described MacBook Air uses full-size function keys - this also brings associations with the MacBook Pro. When it comes to keyboards in the new MacBook Pro and Air lines, in my opinion Apple has achieved perfection here. There's nothing to complain about and I admit that I don't know if there is any room for improvement.
Computer for music listening
The 15.3-inch MacBook Air with an M3 processor is equipped with six speakers with force-cancelling woofers. It also supports surround sound in Dolby Atmos technology. All this translates into really good quality sound that outperforms many wireless speakers, not to mention external screens. Listening to music on this computer is a pleasure. The sound is selective and not distorted even at the highest volume levels. The surround sound is also impressive (Apple Music has a lot of songs with separate mixes for Dolby Atmos). It lacks the lows a bit, and the sound stage is not very wide, but you have to remember that it is a laptop after all. In my opinion, it is one of the best laptops at reproducing music and sounds, maybe right after the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro (or M3 Max) processor.
It is also worth mentioning here that the tested 15.3-inch MacBook Air is equipped with a three-microphone system with directional acoustic beamforming technology, and there is also a voice isolation or wide voice collection mode. I tested it during corporate conferences and it performed very well.
The computer I tested was equipped with 16 GB of unified RAM, a 1 TB SSD drive, and of course the M3 processor, which consists of an 8-core CPU (four efficient and four energy-saving cores), a 10-core GPU and 16 -core Neural Engine system.
Efficiency
I tested the computer in various circumstances, both coding smaller and larger projects in the Xcode, as well as editing simple concert videos of my metal band in the iMovie or playing the Resident Evil Village game.
The tested 15.3-inch MacBook Air performed excellently in all tasks. During more demanding projects, and while gaming, it became noticeably warmer than the previously described 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro processor, although it never got hot, as it happened to my 16-inch MacBook Pro with the Intel processor. The fact that the computer heats up a little more than current Pro models is certainly the result of the lack of fans to dissipate heat from the computer. MacBook Air with an M3 processor is equipped with passive cooling. Overall, however, the computer performed very well in all tasks. I could work with it in Xcode without any problems, and projects, even large ones, built comparably to my 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro processor (the differences were 1 - 2 seconds in favor of my MacBook Pro).
This computer performs very well when operating on a 66.5 Wh battery. Performance drops were minor. Importantly, the computer offers a really long operating time on a single charge. Apple declares that this is up to 18 hours of video playback in the Apple TV application or up to 15 hours of wireless Internet browsing. However, few people can endure 18 hours of continuous watching even their favorite series, so I will share with you not dry benchmark numbers, but my own experiences. In my case, when I worked on this computer as much as usual (in the applications mentioned above), played a little, listened to music, the energy in the battery was enough for two days - after disconnecting it in the morning of the first day, I connected it to charge in the afternoon of the next day). There is enough battery power to work on this computer on a long train or plane trip. If you forget the power supply when going to work, it shouldn't be a problem, and the battery should have enough energy to get back home.
When mentioning battery operation, it is worth to mention the 35 W power supply. It is equipped with two USB-C ports with this power. So you can charge a MacBook Air and, for example, an iPhone at the same time. It takes about two hours to fully charge the computer.
A computer for almost everyone
The new 15.3-inch MacBook Air with an M3 processor is a computer that offers performance that allows for comfortable work and entertainment for almost everyone. You can work on it both at home/office and outside (e.g. while traveling), you can also have fun, watch movies, play games (at least those available in App Store), listen to music or browse the web without worrying that a ball will appear on the screen beach ball - but this is a feature of the architecture of all computers with Apple M series chips.
Of course, MacBook Air - due to its form, after all, it is a light computer (though not like air) - has some limitations. The already mentioned passive cooling system and a less efficient processor compared to the M3 Pro or Max systems, in certain situations - extreme situations (e.g. a really powerful film project in Final Cut X or very large programming projects where the build time may take more than 10 - 15 seconds) - may cause overheating of the system and, consequently, a decrease in performance due to the so-called thermal throttling. However, from my experience in several weeks of tests, nothing like this occurred, or at least I didn't notice it during work. If someone works with more than one external monitor with the laptop lid open, they should also choose a MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro or Max. However, if one only need one external monitor with the laptop monitor turned on, the MacBook Air M3 is definitely a better and cheaper option.
Without a doubt, the new 15.3-inch MacBook Air with an M3 processor is a universal, lightweight laptop for a variety of applications.