Don’t buy a MacBook Pro - MacBook Air M3
Summary
TLDRThe new MacBook Air with the M3 chip offers significant performance improvements over its M2 predecessor, particularly for tasks like gaming and video editing. While the design remains largely the same, the M3 chip brings better efficiency and supports two external displays, albeit with some limitations. The laptop's speakers and display quality are solid, and it boasts impressive battery life, outperforming its predecessor in both casual and productivity tasks. However, the price is higher than the M2 model at launch, prompting potential buyers to consider their usage needs and the value offered by previous models.
Takeaways
- 💻 The new MacBook Air features the upgraded M3 chip, offering better efficiency and performance compared to its M2 predecessor.
- 🔌 The laptop includes a 30W USBC power adapter, with the option to upgrade to a 70W charger for faster charging.
- 🔗 The MacBook Air has two Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports, but no additional USBC ports on the other side like some MacBook Pros.
- 🎧 A headphone jack is present, and the laptop lacks additional hardware improvements despite the updated M3 chip.
- 🖥️ The M3 MacBook Air supports two external displays, unlike the M2 Air which supports only one.
- 🔇 The M3 chip provides better performance for gaming and heavy workloads, but may thermal throttle during extended gaming sessions.
- 💼 The laptop is silent during operation, which is a significant advantage over many Windows laptops.
- 🔋 The M3 MacBook Air boasts improved battery life, even outperforming the M2 model in stress tests.
- 🖱️ The keyboard and trackpad experience is similar to the M2 model, with no significant changes noted.
- 🎥 The display remains the same 13.6-inch IPS screen with a wide P3 color gamut, but without high refresh rate or HDR support.
- 💰 The M3 MacBook Air is $100 more expensive than the M2 model at launch, but offers better performance for certain tasks like video editing and 3D rendering.
Q & A
What is the main upgrade in the new MacBook Air compared to the previous model?
-The main upgrade in the new MacBook Air is the new M3 chip, which offers better efficiency and performance compared to the M2 chip in the previous model.
What are the display specifications of the new MacBook Air?
-The new MacBook Air features a 13.6-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2560 x 1664 and 500 nits of brightness. It supports a wide P3 color gamut but does not have a high refresh rate or HDR like the MacBook Pros.
How many external displays can be connected to the new MacBook Air, and what is the limitation when using two external displays?
-The new MacBook Air can support two external displays. However, when using two external displays, the laptop display cannot be used as it is being mirrored out through a display output, and not an additional display controller is provided.
What is the battery life performance of the new MacBook Air with the M3 chip?
-The new MacBook Air with the M3 chip has improved efficiency, leading to better battery life. In an endurance test, it lasted 12 hours and 30 minutes, which is suitable for more than one and a half workdays of continuous use, such as watching YouTube videos.
How does the new MacBook Air perform in gaming and extended workloads?
-The new MacBook Air will provide slightly more frames in games compared to the M2 model but will not match the performance of the MacBook Pro M3. For extended workloads, like gaming for more than 45 seconds, thermal throttling may occur, but the M3 chip's extra GPU cores and cooling fan make a significant difference compared to previous models.
What is the扬声器 design in the new MacBook Air, and how does it affect the sound quality?
-The speakers in the new MacBook Air are designed to fire sound out from the side, creating a bouncing effect towards the user. This design results in solid sound quality, but the MacBook Pro models have better speakers.
How does the new MacBook Air compare to Windows laptops in terms of display and performance?
-While the new MacBook Air offers a fairly color-accurate display and good performance, Windows laptops are starting to catch up and, in some cases, surpass Apple's offerings. However, Apple's MacOS still provides excellent color management and a high level of performance with less noise.
What are the Wi-Fi capabilities of the new MacBook Air, and how does it compare to Wi-Fi 6E?
-The new MacBook Air supports Wi-Fi 6E, which offers faster speeds than standard 5 GHz Wi-Fi. However, the actual improvement in real-world usage may not be significant, as tests showed speeds of around 500-700 Mbps for both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E.
What are the packaging contents of the new MacBook Air?
-The packaging of the new MacBook Air includes the laptop itself, a 30W USB-C power adapter, a MagSafe cable with Type-C on one end and MagSafe on the other, and a charger brick. Users can upgrade to a 70W single-port charger or a dual-port 35-watt charger for an additional cost.
What are the recommendations for users considering purchasing a MacBook Air?
-For users who require high performance in tasks like video editing or 3D rendering, the new MacBook Air with the M3 chip is a good choice. However, for users who mainly browse the web and consume media, the M2 MacBook Air or even the M1 MacBook Air at a lower price point may be sufficient.
How does the new MacBook Air's keyboard and trackpad compare to the previous model?
-The keyboard and trackpad on the new MacBook Air are reportedly similar to the previous model. The keyboard feels solid and the trackpad maintains a nice large size suitable for the class of laptop. Any differences are minor and may be attributed to the new model being fresh out of the box.
Outlines
💻 Unboxing the New MacBook Air M3
The video begins with the unboxing of the latest MacBook Air featuring the advanced M3 processor. The packaging is praised for its simplicity and the absence of plastic, highlighting the inclusion of an Apple sticker and a charger brick with a 30W USBC power adapter. The MagSafe cable with a Type C on one end and MagSafe on the other is noted, along with the option to upgrade to a higher wattage charger. The MacBook Air's ports are discussed, including the MagSafe charging port, two Thunderbolt 3/USB4 ports, and a headphone jack. The laptop's design is appreciated, and the focus shifts to the new M3 chip, which offers improved efficiency and performance, AV1 decoding, and hardware ray tracing capabilities. The ability to support two external displays is mentioned, although with limitations compared to Windows laptops. The segment concludes with a brief mention of the MacBook's quiet operation and a segue to a sponsor's product, a mechanical keyboard.
🖥️ MacBook Air M3 Display and Audio Features
The video continues with an examination of the MacBook Air M3's display, noting its 13.6-inch size, resolution, brightness, and color gamut. The presence of the display notch is acknowledged, and the audio quality is discussed, with a slight difference in sound compared to previous models. The MacBook Pro's superior speakers are mentioned, but the Air's audio performance is still solid. The display's color accuracy and the MacOS's color management capabilities are praised, even as Windows laptops are noted to be catching up in display quality. The lack of HDR and high refresh rate is mentioned, but the overall visual experience is deemed pleasant.
🚀 Performance and Productivity Benchmarks
The video concludes with a focus on the MacBook Air M3's performance, particularly in gaming and productivity tasks. The M3 chip's additional GPU cores and cooling fan are highlighted as they contribute to better gaming performance, although thermal throttling is still a concern for extended gaming sessions. The laptop's silent operation is emphasized, and the battery life is discussed, with the M3 model showing improved efficiency and endurance in tests. Productivity tasks such as video editing and 3D rendering in software like Blender are explored, with the M3 chip outperforming the M2 model but not as much as the M3 MacBook Pro. The importance of RAM for heavy workloads is noted, and the laptop's Wi-Fi capabilities are tested, with mixed results on Wi-Fi 6E. The video ends with a recommendation on which MacBook Air to purchase based on the user's needs and budget, acknowledging the M3's performance improvements but also considering the cost-effectiveness of previous models.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Macbook Air
💡M3 processor
💡Thunderbolt 3/USB-4
💡Wi-Fi 6E
💡External Displays
💡Battery Life
💡Gaming Performance
💡Productivity
💡Color Accuracy
💡Price Comparison
💡Thermal Throttling
Highlights
The new MacBook Air features the advanced M3 processor, offering significant performance improvements for most users.
Apple has updated its packaging, no longer using plastic and now including a 30W USBC power adapter and a MagSafe cable with USB-C on one end and MagSafe on the other.
The MacBook Air now supports up to two external displays, a notable improvement over the previous M2 model which only supported one.
The new MacBook Air maintains the same sleek design and color options, including the popular 'sexy colors' from the M2 model.
The M3 chip offers better efficiency and performance, with support for AV1 decoding and hardware ray tracing, enhancing the user experience for gaming and content creation.
The MacBook Air now includes Wi-Fi 6E support, allowing for faster Wi-Fi connections when paired with a compatible router.
The keyboard and trackpad experience remains consistent with the previous model, providing a solid user experience.
The display remains high quality with a 13.6-inch IPS screen, 2560 x 1664 resolution, and 500 nits brightness, although it lacks a high refresh rate.
The speakers have been slightly improved, offering a more distorted sound compared to the M2 model, but still providing good audio quality.
In terms of gaming performance, the M3 MacBook Air can deliver more frames than the M2 model, but thermal throttling may occur during extended gaming sessions.
The M3 MacBook Air is silent during operation, a significant advantage over Windows laptops that often require fans.
Battery life has seen improvements due to the efficiency of the M3 chip, with the MacBook Air M3 outperforming the M2 model in stress tests.
For productivity tasks such as video editing and 3D rendering in software like Blender, the M3 MacBook Air shows substantial performance gains over the M2 model.
The M3 MacBook Air supports faster Wi-Fi speeds, but the real-world improvement may not be as significant as expected.
The M3 MacBook Air is $100 more expensive than the M2 model at launch, which may influence purchasing decisions based on the user's needs and budget.
The M1 MacBook Air is still a viable option for users who primarily use their laptop for web browsing, watching videos, and basic photo editing, and can be found at a lower price point.
Transcripts
I'm going to say something controversial
it shouldn't be controversial but a
bunch of you in the comments are
probably going to say it is but if
you're in the market for a Macbook this
is probably the one you should buy this
is the new Macbook Air with fancy topof
thee line M3 processor and realistically
for most people this is more than you
need as with most Apple packaging simple
and sweet oh hey it's not plastic
anymore we've got typical propaganda
also still with the spacer though like
what is this look look at how much empty
space there is in there we've got wait
wo whoo wo there we go stickers thank
you I was worried for a second the day
that Apple stops including Apple
stickers in their packaging is the day
that um we know we have failed as a
society we've got charger brick also in
a glassing bag what is this this is a 30
W USBC power adapter and then the cute
little sleeved mag safe cable type c on
one end mag safe on the other I did get
confirmation for 20 bucks us you can
upgrade to a 70 W single port charger uh
or a dual Port 35 watt charger depending
on what you prefer I would go with the
70 wat because faster
charging on this side we've got the mag
safe charging port for the cable I
showed you earlier along with two USBC
ports these run at Thunderbolt 3 or USB
4 so 40 gig on those there is no
additional USBC ports on the other side
uh like some MacBook Pros uh and it is
going to be the same same configuration
if you have the 13 or 15in air we've got
a headphone jack here which I like to
see on the bottom feet for those that
are interested free of charge ooh I
forgot the M2 air was with the sexy
colors look at that same
iio that hey look same iio damn this is
some this is the same laptop but faster
I guess let me Crack him open hey look
same
laptop I can tell you already the moral
of this story is going to be to buy a
used M2 MacBook or a Reverb maybe or
apparently Walmart has M1 MacBook airs
for like 700 bucks as for on paper
they're not obviously the same laptop
the big thing you're getting here is the
new M3 chip now we've gone into the
details far more extensively in the
MacBook Pro M3 video but the main
differences are little bit better
efficiency really good performance as
before but even a little bit more better
we've got av1 d coding but not end
coding and uh right Hardware Ray tracing
if you game on your MacBook a or maybe
in in blender I don't know if it
supports it yet but that that could be a
use case and then other than that specs
wise you're looking at pretty much the
same laptop aside from the Wi-Fi 6E
support that they added as well so it'll
be fast on Wi-Fi if you also happen to
have a Wi-Fi 6E router and fast internet
that can take advantage of it oh I
almost forgot there is one more
important Hardware thing on the m2a air
you could have an external display but
only one on the M3 you can now have two
external displays but there isn't really
any hardware Improvement it's still a
single display controller so when you're
using two external displays you can't
use the laptop display that's because
they're mxing the normal laptop display
out through a display output and not
actually giving you an additional
display controller um it is technically
better than the M1 air in terms of
flexibility but not better in in terms
of supporting more displays it's the
same amount they're just giving you the
ability to use the laptop display output
on a separate monitor so it sucks it's
still technically like better than they
had before but but come on on a Windows
laptop you can have like four display
outputs if you want what you can't get
on a Windows laptop is this much
horsepower without the noise at least
that's what I'm expecting unlike you who
didn't expect this segue to our sponsor
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theory the keyboard and trackpad should
be the same but let's uh try them out
where is like a notepad app in here
notes my name is Jake and I think this
keyboard is pretty solid it feels really
similar but almost like maybe it's just
because this one is new like this
feels clicker this feels like a just
slightest bit mushier I don't know I
think it's just because it's used and
one is not hard to say trackpad feels
the same it's a nice big size for the
class of laptop everything there looks
the same and is still good we've got the
same display with the notch thought we
were past this thing Apple but all right
why not a dynamic Island H H it's the
same 13.6 in IPS display 2560 X 1664 500
nits brightness not high refresh rate
but a wide P3 color gam it let me do
some
[Music]
speaker they sound a little different am
I crazy come here Belle it's okay like
don't get me wrong it is very similar
but like ever so slightly just the
tiniest bit different and it almost just
sounds more distorted on the
[Music]
left
yeah actually it is I did notice on the
specs page on the M2 they listed Wide
Stereo Sound and said the M2 sounds
better and they don't list it on this
one I don't know that it's better it
it's it's like so close that you're not
really going to be able to tell the
difference aside from if you were doing
this the one thing I will say you are
losing out compared to a MacBook Pro is
MacBook Pro speakers are obviously a
little bit better the these are still
solid for I mean where even where did
the speakers come from they fire the
speaker out of like here so it it like
bounces at you it's a good design it
works I mean it sounds pretty solid like
and it has sounded pretty solid on this
one too as usual the display is pretty
close to as they specify it seems like
it's a tiny bit brighter uh color
tracking is very accurate that being
said Apple's not really in the position
they once were where they just led the
class Windows laptops are starting to
catch up and in some cases even surpass
Apple but you do at least know that
you're going to get a fairly color
accurate display buying an Apple laptop
not to mention that Mac OS does a really
good job of color management it doesn't
have HDR like the MacBook Pros because
there's no local dimming uh and it's
only 60 HZ which probably doesn't matter
to you realistically it does look nice
on the eyes though well let's talk
performance then what do we got here in
games it is a bit faster you can and
will get slightly more frames than your
friend with a MacBook Air M2 you won't
get more frames than your friend with a
MacBook Pro M3 that's for sure but it
also has two extra GPU cores on that M3
chip and a cooling fan which is going to
make a big difference if you plan on
gaming for more than 45 seconds you are
going to run into a situation where you
will thermal throttle similar to all the
previous mbased MacBook airs if you
think about it in your day-to-day your
web browsing you're never going to
notice that however gaming extended
workloads it does make a difference
there are ways to get around it you know
you could get a a laptop cooling pad or
when you're editing in Premiere and
close the lid and have your two monitors
now haha screw you MacBook Air M2 dude
but it is still worth mentioning that
being said it does also mean that this
machine is silent now don't get me wrong
I would probably use a Windows laptop if
the battery life didn't suck and you
know a couple other things but God damn
Apple really has the leg up when it
comes to that here let's look at the
battery life the efficiency is better so
you are getting even better battery life
in a stress test interestingly the
MacBook Air M3 actually scored better in
the stress test and that's probably
because it's thermal throttling so it's
drawing less power it's not a huge
difference but I guess if you consider
the larger battery it's pretty
noticeable when you're in 12 hours 12
and 1/2 hours in an endurance test
you're already into a situation where
you can't even really complain about it
like like let's be real here that's more
than one and a half work days of
consistently watching YouTube videos now
let's talk productivity in blender uh we
actually couldn't run our typical
blender Barbershop test because it runs
out of memory on these 8 gig models you
actually just can't render that complex
of a scene anymore so if you're planning
on doing anything a little more serious
like video editing regularly let's say
or blender rendering or or whatever you
might want to look at getting more RAM
although the M3 chip does have a
substantial leg up in blender uh they
implemented that months ago already and
so it's widely supported and we can see
it in the numbers the M3 laptops
absolutely Stomp the M2 air and
presumably the pro although we didn't
test that here uh in cine bench little
bit of a performance Improvement kind of
expected to see that in nukex which is a
nearly hourong test depending on what
laptop you have again the fan makes a
huge difference not thermal throttling
makes a huge difference in pett bench
which is a lot shorter of a test sort of
in Photoshop you can see you're getting
pretty much the same performance and
that's because any sort of high load is
typically going to be for short bursts
which the kind of thermal mass of the
chassis of this laptop can absorb when
you go into Premiere which is video
editing where you're going to have a
sustained load well now there's a big
difference especially if you go to
render like a 30 minute long video it'll
go pretty fast and then it'll slow down
and it's also somewhere where having
extra Ram will definitely help you um it
is still faster than the air M2 sure
don't get me wrong but an M3 Pro it's a
lot
faster but overall I mean this is It's a
fast laptop let let me do a Wi-Fi speed
test hey look at this all right open
Speed Test all right 500 500 that's not
bad let me try speed test speed test and
see if it's any different oh look at
that upload speed let's go it faster
than open Speed Test that's weird all
right seems like we're getting around
500 down 500 to 700 up depending on
which service I use for whatever reason
and then let's try WiFi
6E
500 600 it's not really looking that
much better I'm going to be honest with
you I mean 600 600 it is faster than the
5 gig Wi-Fi try the local open Speed
Test see how that goes still about the
same 600 down a little bit faster look
the Wi-Fi on the laptop it's just it's
pretty fast it's not the fastest I've
ever seen but also I tried it on my
phone and it wasn't faster so maybe the
AP is just um I don't know having a day
let's be honest this is a pretty
iterative update do I like it yes it's
still faster if you do blender yeah
probably upgrade but if you do blender
you should probably buy a pro as well uh
it is 100 bucks cheaper than the M2 was
at launch mind you when the M2 air
launched uh we were in a little bit of
of a different Global Supply Chain
situation and that could maybe be a
justification for it but as of right now
it's $100 more than the M2 if all you do
is web browsing and watching memes and
YouTube videos and basic photo editing
like buy an M2 you'd be kind of silly to
buy this it's it's pretty much the same
other than in the situations I laid out
honestly buy an
M1 you don't get the cool colors on the
m and the M3 with the M1 but you can buy
it at Walmart for 700 bucks which is 300
bucks cheaper than the M2 to buy new and
400 bucks cheaper than this one so yeah
if you like this video hit the like
button it's a it's a nice laptop I don't
I don't have anything bad to say about
it it's still realistically expensive in
the grand scheme of things but not that
expensive for what you're getting
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