Apple M3 MacBook Air review: Powerful processors with lower price tag

Latest device is a good option for those with an older MacBook who plan to upgrade

Apple promised "no tricks, just treats" when it unveiled its latest M3 silicon chips at its pre-Halloween event last October.

The iPhone maker's most powerful laptop processors yet are now on the MacBook Air, bringing even more speed to the device.

Here, we take a closer look at the 13.6-inch version of one of Apple's most popular devices.

Form: Remains in shape

The M3 MacBook Air retains the refreshed look from the M2 version – an all-around equal build.

While the famous original Air design – where it gradually slims down from one end to the other – was its most popular, in the past two years the model has moved closer in look to the MacBook Pro.

You still get two Thunderbolt 3 ports (USB-4 to the general public) and a 3.5mm audio slot, plus MagSafe charging, which was reintroduced in the M2 version. Again, we cannot overstate enough how glad we are to see MagSafe return, freeing up a valuable Thunderbolt slot.

You also get the notch back, housing the FaceTime camera and nestled within the menu bar. There's a variety of ways to hide this, including going full screen, using a dark wallpaper to allow the notch to blend in, or the use of a third-party app.

Having used the M2 MacBook Air before the M3 came along, the notch won't be an issue in the long run. It's just a black hole in the middle of the menu bar, anyway.

The four colours from the M2 make a return, as well – midnight, silver, space grey and starlight – and starlight gets our nod.

What's new in the M3 MacBook Air?

Not a whole lot, from the perspective of design. However, the hardware is the biggest deal again – specifically (and obviously) the M3 chip.

Apple created a stir when it introduced the first M chip in 2020 and, so far, performance-wise, it's lived up to its billing. The M3, in particular, promises that it is up to 60 per cent and 20 per cent faster than the M1 and M2, respectively, and 13 times speedier than the last Intel-based MacBook Air in 2020.

But note that the new MacBook Air comes only with the base M3. The M3 Pro and M3 Max are available with the latest MacBook Pros, which also have bumped-up hardware.

The M3 also now has hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing. In layman's terms, this provides even more realistic scenarios in computer graphics and are particularly key in gaming, which Apple is aiming to push further.

Apple also says the M3 "unlocks workflows previously not possible on a laptop, such as AI developers working with even larger transformer models with billions of parameters".

We're taking this as something leading up to Apple's anticipated plans for generative artificial intelligence.

As for what's missing from the new MacBook Air, Face ID is still absent, which kind of makes it an outlier when compared with the iPhone and iPad, and considering it has Touch ID on its keyboard.

We're batting for Face ID in the next iteration, as it would be convenient for unlocking your MacBook, and approving set-up changes and purchases.

One new thing that could fly under the radar, but is crucial, is that the M3 supports Wi-Fi 6E, compared with its predecessor's Wi-Fi 6, which allows faster wireless speeds – provided, however, that you have a compatible router to support it. Thankfully, Wi-Fi 6E hardware has been around since 2022.

A key point to note is that Apple has dropped the new MacBook Air's price. It now starts at Dh4,599 ($1,250) for the 8-core, 8GB/256GB base model in the UAE, compared with the M2's Dh4,999 in 2022. Max out your hardware and it'll cost you Dh9,639.

How long does the battery last?

For the third iteration running, the new MacBook Air has up to 18 hours of battery life. It's good to last for an entire day mixing every app you'd want to use.

Apple does say each new MacBook is more power-efficient than the previous version, and it could be argued that this doesn't necessarily need to be measured by battery life. Power efficiency is meant to maximise the use of energy to make other functions better, which is what the newer versions of the M chip is all about.

In our standard one-hour YouTube-at-full-brightness (500 nits) test, the device lost 13 per cent of battery, a hair lower than the M2 version's 14 per cent loss.

Charging, on the other hand, presents similar options to the M2: you still get a 30W adapter for 8-core models and the 35W dual USB-C port adapter, which lets you charge two devices at the same time, with a 10-core version with at least 512GB of storage. The USB-C-to-MagSafe cable retains its braided, tangle-free design.

If you need an even bigger boost, you can get a 70W, 96W or 140W charger (all sold separately). Keep in mind, however, that Apple recommends using out-of-the-box or Apple-approved charging cables for optimal results. Apple's standard charging claim for the MacBook Air (from the M2 in particular) is up to 50 per cent in half an hour, using at least a 70W charger.

For the M3 version, using the 35W dual USB-C power brick in the box, we were able to go up to 33 per cent in 30 minutes and 55 per cent in an hour. This was done while the device was offline, so these times will vary depending on how much you still use it. Do remember as well that you can swap that 35W charger for a 70W brick during purchase, at no extra cost.

The verdict

Really no surprises here. The M3 MacBook Air stands out as a really fast and capable machine, and is arguably the best in the line-up, boosted by the fact it's more affordable.

Sure, the M2 version's price tag has already gone down, as is custom when a new version is launched, but if you're upgrading after a good number of years holding on to an older MacBook, it would make sense to grab the latest.

We're also wondering whether Apple will at some point in the future consolidate its MacBook Air and Pro line-ups, given that both share the same architecture and now look similar. Was the M2 redesign a hint?