M3 MacBook Air Review: Should You Upgrade?
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- The new M3 MacBook Air brings a familiar design, with improvements under the hood like the latest M3 Chip, Dual Display Support, and a fingerprint resistant Midnight version. You know exactly what this machine is, so who should upgrade?
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My 2020 M1 MBA still going strong and power is impressive for everyday use.
lol my 2015 MBP still going better
My 2013 MBP still works. Perhaps time to upgrade though.
Yeah. My current upgrade standard is when the software no longer updates it is time just because it becomes a security issue at that point. We have a 2015 MacBook air that still receives security updates but I believe this is the last year for MacOS monterey support. @@AndrewUKLondon
2010 iMac here running just fine but I don't give a shit anymore I need a new mac whatsoever. These machines feels immortal
Macintosh user here still going strong. Maybe its time for an upgrade
Yes, the M3 is the best out there for the Air models, but no, if you are a general user with basic use (like only regular Word, Excel or PowerPoint work, light video or picture editing, light audio editing, and you are not a heavy user like a program developer and around that vicinity), and you have no issue with your current M1 or M2 MacBook air, don't try to make sense to upgrade to the new M3 because you would think it would "help" improved your productivity. Your M1 and M2 is still a powerful device. Save your money, get yourself great food, donate to the needy and etc.
C'mon Apple, it's 2024. EVERY MacBook should start with 16GB/512GB. Especially at these prices!
16GB 256GB is enough for people consume less storages
@@Niasyy My photo library alone takes up almost 200 GB.
Yeah it would be nice but honestly 95% of people should be okay with 8gb of ram. The storage can be supplemented with externals but that's the worst part.
Can be enough, but at these prices is literally mind blowing. Sorry but 256gb for laptop is a joke and at price 1299 is just an afftont @@Niasyy
Get real. At these prices a computer should have more storage than a phone. Duh
Always amazing reviews with all the information you need. Brian is a G.
Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your day.
Another great video Brian, but my happiness trumped your recommendation with the 13' Air being my go to device, I needed to upgraded room the M2 to the M3 to have the best version. Same 8/10/16 specs but bumped up to 1TB storage. Now for hoping the next iPad Pro will be lighter than the current version. Cheers!
I'd go for the 13" , but would consider the ram to 16gb
The opening is beautiful!🌟
Damn nice. I should upgrade
the deliberate left ear " Yes" for the matching color stickers
I have been rocking the M1 iPad Pro 12.9” with the Magic Keyboard and have never felt the need to get a Mac…I plan on upgrading to the M3 iPad Pro that will hopefully come out this year but once you have an iPad Pro you don’t really need any other computer unless you plan on specializing in specific pro work cases..
M3 Is 🔥
I will not upgrade my m1 until Apple give the base model 16/512 GB.
You’ll have a long wait then.
What is the difference if Apple started at 16GB/512GB or now when you upgrade config to 16GB/512GB if both cost $1500? You need to look at the base models as Apple doing demand-side economics where they give lower-priced options for those of us who either want a cheaper MB or those that 8GB/256GB is fine. I cannot understand why you have that conclusion!
@@davidjacobs6244 I will wait then. My M1 still runs so fast.
I bought a 15in M2 MacBook Air a month ago, which I don't even regret, due to the insane discount it had at Best Buy
They did have some crazy good discounts a little while back. I found some of their deals better than Amazon refurbished.
I got a 15 air m2 during Black Friday. Got a good deal directly from Apple and I don’t regret it either. TBH the upgrades aren’t that big. I don’t need to plug in two screens, so not needed by me.
I would love to see a buying guide from Brian on MacBook Pro M3 vs MacBook Air M3. Needing to upgrade from an Intel MacBook Pro and not sure what would be best. Screen size, ram size, hhd size…? I need Brian to bless us with wisdom. Thank you for all your videos.
The stickers, I chucked those away first thing!
intel based MacBook Pro here! definitely upgrading. can't wait!
We have a 2015 MacBook air and are currently exploring upgrading to solely an iPad Air M1, a MacBook air, or waiting for the next gen iPad air to come out with that 12.9 display. We really only use our computer for video calls, watching videos, basic document editing, and basic photo/video editing things like that so I think an iPad Air would be enough for us.That use for AI is simple but more than enough for what we would use it for.
Question: Would the benchmark numbers and the exporting times be affected when running the external displays? Always wondered about that.
I ran them without the displays connected.
I have an M1 2020 MBP and I have no desire to upgrade until probably 2027. I would likely get a Mac Mini in the interim though, hopefully by the time the M5 comes out the base M5 Pro will support three displays. Or else I will have to splurge on the on a base M5 Max Studio when that comes out.
I thought about an m2 but the mic improvements with the m3, better gaming and other improvements (ray tracing, mesh shading, dynamic caching, AV1 decode etc makes the m3 more future proofed.
256gb is more than enough for me. On a phone I want more but a laptop I’m always using in a WiFi area - and using cloud storage and cloud media 256gb is great. 8gb ram is fine for my uses but I can see some people would want 16gb (and have that option).
Thing I would really like to know is what benefits the m3 over the m2 for Apple’s upcoming AI infused MacOS (and iOS) changes. Like a lot of people my AI use has snowballed over the past several months and that’s accelerating.
I need to upgrade my Mid-2012 and Mid-2020 MacBook Pros asap
should definitely go for that 15 inch Air with M3 chip inside...it'll carry out most of the hard works that we need...
Not only more storage but better starting storage. Solid majority of the Macbook's on Facebook marketplace right now have 256gb of storage.
Nope base configs are still 8/256 - same as previous M2s - they gave Pete the juiced ones with 16/512 to review. 400$/£/€ extra for those.
@@brucekennedy5274 sorry. I was speaking to when Brian mentioned wanting to see a 4TB storage option. In addition to more storage at the top end, I hope at some point they raise the starting config.
@@AaronHope_Sow ah I see, gotcha - agreed.
For longer and more intensive tasks the test results for 15" MBA should be a little bit better?
I am a graduate student and most of the time I do tons of papers, worksheets, extensive research and some video or audio visual presentations (using Final Cut pro) and photo editing. Which RAM should I get, 16 or 24 GB? with your recommended RAM, I am hoping that the M3 MacBook Air won’t overheat or throttle with the work that I do.
I have a mid 2014 15inch MacBook Pro. I was going to get a 16 GB/one terabyte 15 inch M3 MacBook Air. Then I saw that Best Buy has the M2 version of the same spec and size for $1499 versus $1899. Yes I could save $400 and go with the M2 version but my main concern is longevity. Unlike my phones I plan to use my computer until it stops getting software support or it falls apart, whichever comes last. And since the M2 chip is almost 2 years old I’m wondering if that might come back to bite me later on. Any thoughts?
With the 16gb and that bigger storage, you are boosting the performance quite a bit real-world from the base. I’d personally say the saving vs the small performance boost on the M3, I’d probably take the saving and buy some nice accessories (or food, or rent etc 😂) the only other diff I can think of is gaming will be a bit better on the M3, but you could buy a console or a Switch with the savings anyway.
Someone that has never had a Mac and thinking of going to the dark side… would this be a fantastic machine to start with or spend a smaller amount and get an M2 chip Mac book air ?
It all depends on what you’re planning to do with it.
Thanks for the video update / comparisons Brian, We are very close to purchasing a Macbook Air (M3 16GB Ram to replace out older iMac 2015 home computer, (mentioned is that Apple is comming out with an M4 chip this fall on an ipad?) and macbook ars to get them in early 2025 (unablre to wait that long.. urgh.. they change their chips too fast!, I know all about AI .. still kinda frusterating)
I upgraded from the M1 macbokk air to the 15 inch M3 in starlight and was absolutly blown away when I got it out of the box and opened it up!Its absolutely stunning!SO glad I upgraded!
Were you able to support 2 displays with Thunderbolt daisy-chaining on the M2 Air?
You can run dual monitors from an M2 Air using a dock that costs about $100 and a bit of software (forget the name) there are several RUclips’s on it.
@@brucekennedy5274 thanks for the tip 👌
I am still on my last gen intel core air thinking if I should switch
I just bought M2 base spec (midnight) in January. But I don;t really care about the smudges or finger prints. But sad that M3 came out shortly after. 😭
Talk about missing some important points like when you have a dual screen you have to use a seperate keyboard and mouse and also keep the screen of the laptop off. “Conveniently” missed that didn’t ya. Apple rear ender
Are you ok? You're really fired up about that one verly specific point.
So the video clips of it being closed, because the lid has to be closed and using an external mouse and keyboard in the video and showing it in multiple shots was t enough for you?
You took it so personally
Is this a good upgrade from a 13 inch M1 macbook pro?
I agree 100%. 16 gig.
M series chips are insane. Totally agree Brian only worth upgrading it your on the intel CPU’s. Would love to see apple bring FaceID and light that apple logo back up 💡🎉👏
People need to start showing these vs something like the 2019 MacBook pro. I dont care about newer device comparison because i dont have a newer device. I want to see more realworld comparisons with 5 year old macs and if there's actual advantages upgrading
What do you do with your computer? Do you need to see a model that performs roughly 13X faster, but close to the same for email and web surfing?
Im a programmer that works in unity and Xcode alot. But i dont feel like shelling out 4k to match my previous configuration with a newer 16" MacBook Pro vs my 16" maxed out 2019. I want to know how thermals handle under devops environments. On paper the 24gig with 1tb drive is a really fascinating deal. But im worried about pro apps not keeping up. At the same time im not sure what the actual benchmark between an older i9 and the M3 is. Performance might be enough. And i think people these days like me are really ceriouse about this. Can a MacBook air do what i need it to do.. Yes i can buy one but i dont want to pay the restocking fees lol.@@briantong
@@briantongemail and light web surfing people would be fine even in an iMac 2010 whatsoever
Can you list the RAM on your benchmark scores? I used two M2 MacBooks but one had 8GB and the other one had 24GB. It’s the same chipset but I noticed that the 24GB RAM ran quicker… 🤔
I normally include that slide but I show it so much, that I want sure people wanted to see it every time in every video
Can anyone help me in regard to the best option for a hub to use 2 x displays for the mac air M3, once I plug in two displays via 2 x usb C outlets. This wouldn’t leave any spare ports for hard drives, thumb drives, SDCards, etc.
Ive ordered the 15 inch air with 16g and 1T hard drive, popped into the apple store today and they couldn’t provide a good solution
14:17 such a beauty
I would like a MacBook Air / Mac Studio combo. The best of both worlds rather than just having a MacBook Pro and spread the purchase of the 2 Macs over 2 years to avoid sticker shock.
Still have the 2015 MacBook Pro 13”. I refuse to upgrade until they come with 16gb of ram and 512gb storage as standard.
Fingerprint issue?
The thing that I hate about my pro is the weight 😢it’s way too heavy.
So what kind of lotion do you use on hands?!👀
One review I wish I could find, but doesn’t seem to exist, is a real world comparison of the last Intel MacBook Pro and an M3 MacBook Air/Pro. And by real world, I mean no video rendering, no Xcode compilation, just basic day-to-day use. I’m assuming that those still on an Intel MacBook Pro, like myself, are still there because we use Microsoft Office, Mail, our browser of choice, and little else. I still have full OS support, all of my apps are still updated and run quite fine on an Intel chipset. I don’t know that there will be a compelling reason to upgrade until Apple cease supporting intel based Macs for new MacOS builds.
And on MacOS support ending for intel based Macs, I know it’s imminent - indeed will probably be a point of discussion at WWDC this year.
Surprise, surprise, Apple once again sends out non-base models to early reviewers. At least they actually offer a 16/512 configuration that isn't BTO now.
Yeah I thought that. Sneaky Apple. And Brian kinda glides past that point a little too swiftly. A tad misleading if you don’t know your Apple nerfed-specs game.
The only difference is a tiny spec update. It is not worth upgrading IMO.
Only if you have a 2018 MacBook Air
I don't know. The speed metrics don't mean very much since the Silicon Macs only run MacOS. They only run Windows X86 and Linux under emulation. I suppose if you are a youtuber who does a lot of video encoding, the metrics are important. I do a lot of work in the enterprise space and the Silicon Macs are not an obvious first choice.
Why they don’t send a review model with 8 megabyte and 256 terabyte? Will the review be worse?
Basically yes.
M1 still working like a house on fire. 🔥
Noone gives a shit about exporting video speed except for the 100 people on Earth that are RUclipsrs.
Well I'll make sure to show how it boots up, launches a web browser, email, and launches photos at the same speed instead just for you.
It's just a benchmark that shows where there might be some difference and if it's meaningful or not to the user. Relax. It's the weekend.
My old old MBP 2017 easily handle two monitors, why is a thing now ? 🤔 ( pardon my silly question 😞😞😞)
coz urs is a pro whereas now the airs can do it too
In clamshell mode? Idk coz I don't own a MBP. M3 Air would be my second mac after iMac 2010
It’s a shame - great performance from the M3 MacBoon Air. For about 5 minutes under serious load. And then thermal throttling.
I feel I have the best MacBook Air right now in - the original M1 with 16Gb of RAM and 512Gb SSD. 😢
M1 is still a straight GOAT piece of machine. Most of the people should be perfectly fine with the M1
But 5 mins is enough for 99% of intensive apps to get the job you are doing done, so unless you are running benchmarks for hours this fact is totally irrelevant. Anyone doing maxed-out work for more than 5 minutes regularly would buy a laptop with a fan, as common sense is always a bonus.
I have the M1 MBA with 16gbs of ram and 1TB of storage. I made the investment.
@@andyH_England Yeah, because price and budgety has no bearing on this at all, right?
I'm an astrophotographer. It's not unusual for me to be mobile - away from my desk/office - and finding mysef with a need to process a bunch of data. That's at least a 45 minute usually multiple hours task, with all CPUs running flat out, along with all memory. Is my use case normal, no? Most people will be fine, as you say.
A vibe to this video/thread is that the M3 is not the clear winner over the M1 - it is over the M2 because they made such a mess with the M2 MBA.
How the Mac air 8gb with 256gb? Mainly using for MP3’s transferring on usb sticks ?
Surely you just use streaming music ?
@@AndrewUKLondon no, downloading music and transferring files
Heeelp!! M2 8gb, 512 or M3 8gb, 256 ??? Pleeease🙏(Price will be the same for me)
Nobody comments on how these machines feel compared to an old Windows 10 laptop, just assume I'm coming from an intel based Mac 😔
Oh well, I'll see when my M3 gets here next week! 😆
Yoooo is this leaked ? Apple hasn’t even made an announcement event?? Did I miss it ?
Newsroom on Apple website
They didn’t make an announcement they just put it on the website
It’s interesting that apple always send the 16gb variant to all reviewers, I wonder why 🤔
This is sickening: Apple should have a 16GB and 512 SSD as a base model. So this is just garbage Apple...
The 512 MacBook Air is the one to get but in saying that the 14 inch pro is a better value for money proposition.
I‘m just worried that I‘d regret buying an M3 an then Apple will release an M4 with a much better NPU and better AI or even exclusive AI features like Apple GPT and then I miss out 😢
High chances are there that you'd also regret buying M4 just because launch of M5 would be just around the corner with God level performance. But then again you'd also regret buying M5 ain't you? 💀
Yes, and when you buy an M55 you will regret that in 55 years as the M56 will be even better!
I prefer the space blue MacBook Air
256gb storage on a laptop lol. even phones have more storage than that and youre paying for the wrong side since the notch is taking away an inch of screen that you paid for.
I only use 45GB on my Macs as I run in the cloud or on an external drive so I can swap that with my other devices.
Quite a misleading (factually incorrect?) commentary on the neural engine. That generative AI filter in Photoshop is running on an Adobe server in the cloud, not locally. Disconnect from the internet and try hitting that button..
That's a GOOD Apple!
m2 Pro with 16GB is much better option, unless all you do is work on docs and surf the internet. :p
Myself - a Linux guy, running EliteBook G10 835 7840U/32GB/2TB Samsung 990 Pro, costing ~USD1,650 and damn ok.
Buy an external ssd if you want more space then 2TB
The day they launch Face ID as a feature on the Mac will probably be the day I get my first Mac.
Nice upgrade from an M1.
I rather want a max'ed out 10" or 11" MacBook to replace my Intel 16" MacBook Pro 8Tb...
How can ever other laptop maker figure out how to put a 1080p camera in the laptop without a notch yet apple with all its money cannot? It’s so ugly with a notch. I have a M1 MBA because I didn’t want a notch. I’ll be keeping it for many years. Apple probably won’t go notch free ever. Dumb designs.
@Brian, I would like to purchase MBA 15 inch with 16g memory and 512g for its to use for next 10 years or so. Is that a good enough for just storing pictures, install iTunes and watching streaming site? We have an iMac from 2015 and still good but it’s really slow in starting up.
512gb or more storage is the move, the ram COULD matter if you have a lot of apps active at the same time: otherwise the ssd memory swap will be fine with that you listed. But 512 or more storage matter more
If you want to keep it over 5 years you should get 24 GB and 1 TB. It’s what I just ordered. 😉 My wife has an M1 with 16 GB and 1 TB. We regularly max out the ram now and the ssd is already half way full so a 512 GB would have a lot of challenges. 😂
@davetravels9273 thank you for your information. We have a iMac with 1 TB and we barely make a dent it. We only used 171.44 GB of it for almost 9 years.
@@dacoolistthank you. The information helps me understand it more. I do play a game that uses up a lot of memory. I’m going to get the MBA 15 inch. I never owned a MacBook Air or the Pro one. I have a Dell 17 inch laptop for 5 years and it’s driving me crazy with all the updates. Thanks again.
@@Chenmok anytime! For sure go with the 16gb ram for the gaming
I went with the 16 - M3 Max. Upgraded to 128GB & 8TB. I wanted to avoid overheating issues, lag and some slight future proofing. Hoping for at least a year. I push it hard as I use it daily
for E-Mail, RUclips and some light porn on the weekends.
Thanks for telling us.
@@davidjacobs6244 Welcome Billy.
These reviews are useless, I am sorry to say, as the ones you tested were 16GB RAM upgraded models, which are not what Apple sells starting off. Stop selling 8GB Ram machines, Apple, you are creating a lot of e-Wastes.
Agreed 100%
Plenty of 8GB reviews out there, so what is the problem? But the facts remain that Apple's best seller is the base 8GB version as it is priced well and demand is price-sensitive. If Apple sold 16GB/512GB base then prices would still be £1500 as otherwise Apple would lose between $0.5-$1 billion in profits which would be unacceptable to shareholders.
Brian did flag they gave him the ‘good ones’ but I agree it’s a bit skewed and a tad misleading if you missed bat detail.
@@andyH_England You are forgetting that if Apple sell DECENT spec MBAs at reasonable prices, they will sell WAY MORE than what they sell now and, thus, create more profits to shareholders.
@@innnews6299 I remembered that. If you look at the market, Windows is a natural monopoly, and in the last 10 years, Apple has rarely exceeded 10% of the market share, so the demand side curve is very shallow with regard to prices. That would mean that dropping prices would mean nominal extra sales but a significant fall in profits. For example as some suggest here, if they reduced by $400 for 16GB/512GB that would likely lead to a $0.5 to $1 billion drop in profits. As about 40% upgrade they would no longer need to.
This could apply to Dell, Samsung, MS, LG, etc, all of which have 512GB/16GB at around £1600. Why do you not flex on those reviews that they should reduce their prices by $400? Because if all did it, the net impact in sales would be zero, but each OEM would lose billions! A pointless, stupid business plan that would get the CEO's sacked by their shareholders ASAP.
Finger prints. No one cares. Absolutely a ridiculous talking point. Get to the performance.
Single core and multi core test scores? I never heard of a singe core MacBook anything. Arn't they all multi-core?
Can’t wait for the Mac studio🔥🔥🔥