M3 MacBook Air: Time to upgrade?

Initial impressions of the 15" M3 MacBook Air
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[@eddyh8572]

I have a 2016 15 inch MacBook Pro that pulled me through high school and university. Back then I had to do a few projects involving some simple video editing so I went for the “Pro” at the time for power. But honestly these M chip MacBook airs are probably way more powerful than the intel chip MacBook Pros from back then that I think the MacBook Pro isn’t necessary for students nowadays that might only need a bit of power for light video work.

[@ohmyAdas]

Photographer here, m2 air, clicked to see if I need to upgrade to m3. Thanks for saving me some money :)

[@relaxedguy]

I'm kind of kicking myself for going with the M2 Air from a 2018 i9, but I wanted to mess around with LLM's and having a functioning keyboard is always nice. Oh and no more weird Function key strip either. Oh and the battery life. Guess it was a good upgrade for me after all.

[@dedysby48]

Do you use 8 or 16gb of ram?

[@relaxedguy]

@@dedysby4824 or none at all.

[@relaxedguy]

@@dedysby48 I'll never buy less than 24gb again.

[@DanteS-119]

definitely not lol 16gb for sure at least for photography trust me

[@ocorir]

Buy a refurbished M2 with 16gb ram.

[@gurugamer8632]

Ssd ?

[@adequatequality]

@@gurugamer8632 If you can get 512GB, get it but if not, there's always iCloud or using external hard drives. The RAM is not upgradeable and doesn't have an alternative so it's more important

[@senseiwu4804]

@@MoonshotNatehow can I get this membership

[@damirs1690]

Doesn’t the m2 have slower ssd speeds

[@adequatequality]

@@damirs1690 For the base model yes, the M3 256GB is faster but the upgraded 512GB model speeds are comparable for either

[@baxslatton]

The plus side of Apple rolling out new chips so fast is that the M1 Pro and Max MacBooks are starting to go for crazy good prices used now

[@brandknewme]

Thanks Tyler. Very helpful as always.

[@GrahamFielder]

Man this was a solid review. Level headed, and real use case to the point. Thanks Tyler!

[@stalman]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@NoahKalina]

Shout out to that halogen lamp in the back. Bring the 90s back!!!

[@sarahzhao7564]

Super helpful video, would love to see a M3 comparsion video!

[@heapolis]

Hi I would like to state this... I am subscribed to a lot of tech review channels, I am in awe with your LR presets you apply to your videos. Your videos look soft on the eye and it has a calming effect. Please make a video on how you edit your videos giving detail on every step it would be a banger video. Ppl like your edits.

[@PeresD]

I got an M1 two weeks ago ,love. Great battery ,great screen ,great iconic shape, love it. See no need for anything else . People go crazy running after the newest thing . The new Mac Air is just slightly faster than the M2 iteration .

[@barbancourt69]

I have a M2 15" with 24GB/1TB, and don't see the need to upgrade to a M3.

[@nicolasb.henry294]

​@@barbancourt69Same here M2 base MBA and it kills I really don't need to upgrade. I will wait for M4 or M5

[@dcny69]

Must suck to be poor

[@thenightowls2804]

​@@dcny69copium

[@PeresD]

I know you aren't rich. I'm not poor but I'm not foolish with my money. That is why you will always be poor. You won't impress anyone by buying this ,it looks the same, no kudos from Steve Jobs he's dead Lol. I have a maxed out desktop (self built) 32 gb ram and an AMD Ryzen 9 processor ,I have an Asus 15 ZenBook ,and of course my MacBook ,iPads ,Apple watch, air pods I'm intertwined in the ecosystem .My Air is fine ,no need to upgrade. @@dcny69

[@videoeventjakarta]

Watching this video using Macbook Pro i7 16GB 2011 (Upgraded to SSD and OpenCore) here. lol I'm glad I'm not rushing to buy M1 now that M3 are available.

[@tsizzle]

Flex that X100💪

[@cadenchurchill4296]

Interesting. I use my M1 7 core GPU Air with an external 4K 60Hz display and I've never had any issues. Runs everything super smooth. My previous laptop could handle 2 displays along with the internal one, but only does 4K at 30Hz 😬🤷‍♂

[@Robertking1996]

What camera do you use? The quality is insane

[@jdpst20]

really glad you did this video... I'm HOLDING my breath for the M3 iPad pro, however I'm REALLY intrigued on the M3 MB Air. I know I know two different platforms. I edit now on a PC from 2016 and although it can easily edit my R5C 4k footage, It does bog down a bit with LR and C1 on both the R5C raw files and my newly acquired Hasselblad X1Dii. I plan to keep my PC for more of a archiving photos and video but I'm looking for that on the go simple yet powerful device. I think in the end handling them side by side I just really enjoy the iPad user experience. I'm literally refreshing apples website daily... I'm not worried about internal storage however If I get the iPad I would be ok with 512gb as I have a fast USB-C external 4TB

[@user-le9kr7fb8q]

Have you had any experience with video editing on iPad Pro ?

[@jdpst20]

@@user-le9kr7fb8q no but I’ve watched countless hours of people editing on DAVINCI on iPad m2 pro without any issues. They keep having app updates making it even better. I’m not looking for or to act as a major production studio, just toss some short family videos and travel shots together. I can also edit from external drive which is great. FC pro also looks good.

[@user-le9kr7fb8q]

@@jdpst20perfect thanks for the heads up. I’ve seen some Final Cut Pro videos on it as well and I’m waiting for the 2024 iPad pros as well because I’d rather that for drone editing videos than a MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro is just to much.

[@Dynamics416]

Wish he mentioned the specs of the M3 MBA he was using when it came to editing.

[@latinreuben]

I Have still in box m2 air 15 16/1tb bought at 1500. Should i return to get m3 15 air 16/512 at 1600? Slight improvement over M2 but i like thats 2 more years of OS support

[@emmetkowler]

M1 Air with 8GB of RAM - agree with your assessment of whether it’s “enough”. LR and Resolve projects work well enough for about an hour, but eventually start to chug. LR especially likes to build a very large cache if you’re batching out RAW. Anyone beyond a “dabbler” in those kinds of apps would do well to look to the Pro series or make sure to budget for the RAM upgrade.

[@definingslawek4731]

I don't get how you can do lightroom on 8gb of ram. I had the m3 pro macbook pro base (18/512) which I returned because It was getting laggy for me in lightroom with a small catalogue. 18gb is still ram starved so 8 is just a famine.

[@maeend4658]

Just bought the M3 15", how do I set it up with my two monitors? Do I need to get a DisplayLink that others have mentioned?

[@heyramineni]

Anyone else notice this video is artificially sharp? For some reason I see Stalman's face is weirdly sharp.

[@levidimarzio6721]

I bought an M2 as soon as M3’s were announced.

[@joecab1]

Thanks again for a great non-hyperbolic review that lays everything out perfectly. I'm still frozen between trying to decide if I was 16gb or the 512 SSD (to avoid getting that slower 256) for $200 more.

[@oliverlison]

Last year, I went for a MBA M2 16GB and 256 SSD. It is plety fast enough. Get an external a 1TB SSD external SSD, get a hub and DisplayLink Software and you can use multible screens at home too. Apple's pricing for storage is rediculous. insulting and from beyond yesterday. I went for 16GB to be future proof for a bit. You also can put everything on the cloud. RAM and SSD should be upgradable.This is also a non-sense and only benefits Apple and not the consumer.

[@joecab1]

@@oliverlison Thanks very much. Plus early reports are that the 256 SD is no longer the slower one they used in the M2s so I think your advice is the way to go 👍🏼

[@HDRPC]

What 4K footage you are testing?

[@sebin9060]

I recently replaced my 2015 15" MacBook Pro equipped with quad core i7 2,8-4,0GHz 16GB ram with M3 MBA 15" 16GB ram. Ran some tests and simple architectural rendering in Archicad is over 3,5 times faster. Web pages loads 2-3 times faster. Laptop is cool and lasts 4-5 times longer on battery compared to old model. I run some Windows x86 software via VMware fusion and windows 11 on ARM too so now it is perfect replacement. On old one fans could go wild even with simple tasks due to older CPU.

[@chrisannecy6638]

The mac book pro allows SD card. does it realy make a big difference ? there are different ways to connect your camera to your laptop. thx

[@j45393]

I'm a Dell Windows user thinking of switching to the MacBook Air. Is it possible to still use the laptop's keyboard while using two external displays (with the laptop display off)?

[@joshcalvetti]

aight cool, it's another macbook, but what's the sweet jacket you're wearing?

[@main.regotube]

I was thining of getting M2 Air with 512GB storage because of slow SSD speed on the 256GB, but after reading some articles, I realized that M3 Air with 256GB has the same speed as 512GB, so I''m going for the base M3 Air 256GB. $100 cheaper than getting M2 Air with 512GB!

[@courtneykallen]

Future proof your device get the 512

[@tc102167]

Anyone who needs multiple displays is doing more intense type of work even if it;s just a lot of multi-tasking which is a major reason for multiple displays.

[@SEAN518848]

An audio guy in China found out the M3 Air basically has the audio performance of MacBook Pro, ie M3 now has the power to drive high-end headphones, which could be important to some.

[@anshulchowdhury9749]

Hey, I have been on the fence on getting a base macbook air. I usually work in figma will 8 gb be ok, for storage I am thinkng of buying an external ssd.

[@arpitvrm]

Same question

[@manuelaburrini]

Hey, Im planning to buy a computer to use for college, and I’ll probably have to use stuff like excel, do u think a MacBook is a good choice? Another think, I just use computer for basic things, I don’t have a lot of documents in it, which storage do you recommend? Thanks for the video

[@aisatsen102]

mcbook is a safer choice, even if you don't use a pc much. it will last you ages, even the cheapest used one.

[@jakejoyride]

Not ages. Support is only for 7 years and then you can't install anything else on it

[@njpme]

​@@jakejoyride7 years is a long time in computer years

[@emmanuelemman7699]

JUST GOT A M2 REFURB WITH 16GB AND 512 SSD. worth possibly returning im still a couple days to get a m3 base model or should i just stick with this ?

[@stalman]

Only return it if you can get a better deal, it’s still a great machine

[@JuanOzuna]

I feel like this Air could totally replace my 2016 MBP with a 2.7Ghz quad-core Intel i7 and 16GB of RAM (which I still edit on), and that's wild to me. I used to totally avoid Airs because I didn't think they were powerful enough, but now that seems like it's changed. Time to upgrade?

[@Harigan]

The M1 air beats the 2016 MBP lol

[@chidorirasenganz]

@@Hariganhandily 😂

[@kevinaraneda6236]

Recomiendas mejorar a 16ram o 512ssd ???

[@StreamlineSRG]

Want to upgrade my m1 air but extra 400 for 1tb storage and 200 for 16gb makes no sense. I hope base m4 Will have at least 12gb and 512 storage

[@alittleshepherd]

I'm still using my 13" Intel Macbook Pro (2017) and looking to finally upgrade this year. What I noticed is that right now, at least where I live, the 14" MBP M1 Pro and 13" Macbook Air M3 are the same price with the same configuration (16GB memory, 512GB SSD). Between the two, which one would you recommend more?

[@jakejoyride]

Remember that lack of fan in Air cause throttling which none of those paid KZbinrs never mention

[@alittleshepherd]

@@jakejoyride Fair point. Thanks for replying!

[@tonyburzio4107]

There are two more TSMC M3 variants coming with new technology.

[@andyH_England]

Yes, this year, there is the N3E and N3P. The former will be used in the base iPhone 16s (A18) and the latter in the Pro models (A18 Pro). Qualcomm will be using the N3E for the SD8G4.

[@nasdoc1]

Why isn't anyone talking about the ssd speed of the 256gb version on the M3?

[@user-gg7vx2mx4c]

Best colour is Space Grey

[@hussi125]

Does the m3 have the same ssd nand issue with 256gb that m2 had?

[@TheStopwatchGod]

No, the SSD speeds are back to pre-M2 values

[@relaxedguy]

20% faster than my M2 Air with 24 gigs of ram is not enough to warrant upgrading. I'll probablty go for the 2026 M7 Pro Max 17" Air.

[@ethanball7807]

I want to output on 2 monitors should I buy the M2 and get a dongle (if so which one) or just get the M3

[@Acromenta]

get the m3

[@cinematools9621]

By the time smartphones will be coming with 64GB RAM, Apple will still make base models with 8GB and charge $200 for another 8 gig. 256 SSD is also a joke.

[@camkill131]

Can someone with more technical experience than me explain why my crap 3 year old HP work laptop can handle two external monitors with the lid open but a brand new MacBook cannot? I don’t really need/use external monitors on my current MacBook setup and I’m planning to upgrade to the M3 MacBook anyway but I’m legitimately curious.

[@deeepraveen]

8gb not enough, I am struggling with my m1 air, with 20 tabs open on brave using swap around for 2gb.

[@migueltoledo1884]

I’d say if you have any of the M-series MacBooks (especially the Air) it’s not worth upgrading to the M3 Air.

[@game2572]

I bought the 15in for Christmas so i won't be buying a M3. Maybe by the time M5 I will be ready for a new computer

[@tusharnaidu6920]

Will the M2 macbook air get dual monitor support in the future ?

[@stalman]

Nope

[@arielovalle4777]

Base model good enough for a student?

[@saucedaboss8881]

Yes

[@Bookishthingss__]

Base model is more than enough

[@Bl0ckHe1d]

Still using a 2013 MacBook Pro…

[@EXPERTISE]

MacBooks really need a bare minimum of 12gb of RAM because MacOS uses a lot of it. The problem with 8/256 is that the swap isn't that great either because of the single nand, so there really needs to be some changes. If they could do 12gb and 256gb with two 128gb nand chips that would significantly improve the base models.

[@andyH_England]

They can do that with the M4 as now the Core Ultra comes with a minimum of 16GB, which means the prices of premium Windows ultrabooks have shot up; XPS and Book4 Ultra now cost £1600. Last year, they could not, as XPS and Book3 Pro had 8GB models around the £1100 mark, and Apple had to compete. As M3 was released before the new pricing, Apple had already decided the model skew. I expect M4 will go to 6GB RAM modules like the Pros, so 12GB base and 24GB version for say $300 more.

[@p.eriickk]

I have a m2 13 inch in midnight but cannot bare the fingerprints on it, I’m going to trade it in and get 860$ would it be better to spend a 250$ extra to get the m3 in space black or get the m2 for only 100$ more. Although sounds dumb it’s a personal opinion.

[@kylelangley8818]

You can buy a matte finish DBrand skin to stop the finger print smudges.

[@Kor_And]

it's called "greed". It’s one thing when you make an expensive product and include all the new technologies in it and for 5 years you can forget about updating the gadget. It’s another matter when they deliberately (artificially) stretch out modernization (including programmatically limiting the capabilities of equipment) in order to add some little thing every year and sell it to those who are ready to spend money on minor upgrades every year.

[@hummersd]

People need to get over the two-display issue, which is no longer an issue. Get a Pro if that’s what you need; as indicated when talking about memory. And while on that topic, same thing, people need to get over it. Has memory pricing changed? It’s always $200 per level. Get it, or don’t. It’s your $. If at this point you don’t know how to save such as trade-in, refurb, business expense, or discounted gift cards, that’s on you.

[@VelcorHF]

Going from 8gb of ram to 16gb is literally a 20-25$ difference in parts. Going from a 256gb ssd to 512gb storage is 10-20$ in parts. The lowest price mac is not sustainable long term because it wears their ssds prematurely with constant swap usage. 8GB of ram is fine until you start using a few programs then you are back to slower swap memory. The prices of upgrades are soul crushing and prevent more widespread adoption. Raising the base sizes would solve all of those issues and people would pay for the difference.

[@Borodin410]

Just got my M2. Time to upgrade? LOL.

[@bucheli2273]

M2 is amazing i have it and will upgrade until i cant use this thing anymore, i dont use it for heavy works so it is amazing

[@tonyburzio4107]

Depends, do you play games? an M3 = M2 + 20% speed up + 3D graphics

[@nathanthomson777]

Absolutely not if you’ve just upgraded 😂

[@robertp457]

$200 for 8GB more RAM or 256GB more storage is outrageous at a time when you can buy 2TB of the fastest and longest lasting NVME drives for less than $200.

[@laurikvo]

Totally agreed! I don’t mind that the base specs are so low but the upgrades are too damn expensive. I consider 16/512 bare minimum for my usage (photoshop, video edit, lightroom etc) and that drives the price up $400 or around $500 in the Europe! Right now I would lean more into buying used higher spec Macbook than newer but lower spec one if I had to choose. If you need more displays you can always pick up the used Macbook Pro M1 14/16” model and use those for years to come. The also have better selection of ports too.

[@andyH_England]

If you upgrade from 8GB to 16GB, you also get a free upgrade (usually $100) to the 10-core GPU. So, the cost for an extra 8GB is only $100, which is better than the anti-Apple mob claim in the comments sections. For most people, 256GB is enough, as you can use an external drive. I use 44GB on my laptop and keep stuff on an external Thunderbolt drive and/or the cloud.

[@FoodTechLife]

What I want to know is if you’re reviewing the Fuji X100VI 😊

[@stalman]

That’s my next project

[@AnandaGarden]

Thumbs up to Apple for the amazing things they do. The iPhone 15 Pro has been a joy, using a cheap rig with cheap USB 3 hub and Shure MV 88+ mic to shoot ProRes Log. Sigh, wish I could like MacOS. Tidy file freak here, wish Apple would devote a tiny portion of its billions to find a way to keep those . dot and .tmp files hidden. Okay, slam me, I'm ready, but I don't think you'll manage to dent an 82-year-old who still thinks WordStar was the last and only real word processing app.

[@gcocatre]

Is it just me, or the main camera shots with Tyler facing the camera, are strangely choppy?

[@kalpakkhemka5200]

Yes, feel more like a stop motion.

[@stalman]

Yeah its 30fps footage on a 24fps timeline, I had my camera on the wrong setting

[@gcocatre]

@@stalman Thank goodness, it was driving me crazy 😅 Yes, I have issues.

[@jakejoyride]

No point upgrading

[@DanDanilyuk]

Apple gaming relationships. You mean Epic Games right...

[@sharkflower123]

I can glue a 2Tb SSD to the back of the display, but as long as 16Gb RAM is an upgrade, I keep my wallet closed...

[@JohnXWayne]

8gb of ram is totally fine for 90% of people, that are not doing programming, video editing or anything that’s putting the fans on. If your air is heating up and slowing down, then the air is not the product for you…

[@feelsgoodkoi4185]

base model with 8gb ram and 256gb is a scam in 2024.

[@robertp457]

The starting price should be for 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Apple, stop being so effing cheap.

[@NumberOneBlackGuy]

Thank you. This isn't a pro but 16gb Ram should minimum for that price

[@leebeeskee]

But then 16gb seems too much for a base model. Stop assuming everyone has the same needs as you. My friends and family with 8gb RAM machines don't give a crap and get on just fine. Even the base model Air has awesome performance and quality for the price. It got better but got cheaper. Imagine going back 20 years and looking at the specs for the price and tell them what you're whinging about today smh

[@NumberOneBlackGuy]

@@leebeeskee someone is mad 🤔. But if you like to be taken advantage of as a consumer then be my guest. Couldn't be me.

[@feelsgoodkoi4185]

i agree, not everyone needs that. but it sure should be much cheaper then! atleast to upgrade.@@leebeeskee

[@MrSolidair]

0:37 2023* ... again a poor mistake

[@Zero]

this video should have been like 5 mins lol like very minor changes between m2 to m3.

[@AonghasAnderson]

0:37 2023*

[@stalman]

Yup, good catch

[@user-jp9ig5wg7n]

M3 Pro Max base is $3,199 with ed discount. Just do it! Thank me later.

[@richieb74]

well they already shit all over it with the release of m4, why even bother with m3 at all???

[@grokker99]

Its funny how every Tech KZbinrs use video editing examples to show performance when 99% of regular people could give a rats ass about video editing.

[@stalman]

What features do you care about?

[@robertp457]

I don’t care if it can handle most things with 8GB of RAM for 256GB of storage it’s about Apple being so cheap!!! RAM and storage hasn’t been cheaper than it had been in the last few years.

[@andyH_England]

Remember the base Galaxy Book 4 Pro with 16GB/512GB and the XPS 14 with that configuration, costing circa £1600? So if you spec the MB Air 13 M3 to the same, it costs £1500, which means it is cheaper. The difference is that Samsung and Dell mark up the RAM and storage within the price, whereas Apple is transparent with the cost. Also, Apple gives people the option to buy a new MB Air M3 for just £1100, but the cheapest Galaxy or XPS is £1600. Why is Apple not doing better for the consumer? Please explain why you think Apple is not doing better here?

[@cbi6334]

apple is a looter