MacBook Air M3 After 3 Months: Value You Won't Believe!

Summary

In this video, Kyle Erikson shares his 3-month experience with the M3 MacBook Air, comparing it to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro. He discusses design, performance, and battery life, highlighting the Air's thin and light form factor, its two USBC ports, and fanless design. Kyle finds the Air's performance impressive for productivity, coding, and creative workflows, with only minor GPU differences noticed in GPU-intensive tasks. He also praises the MacBook Air's battery life and overall solid performance, concluding that it meets the needs of most users, except for those with very specific advanced requirements.

Takeaways

• 😀 The M3 MacBook Air has been used daily for 3 months for various tasks, including productivity, coding, and creative workflows.
• 💻 The MacBook Air is often underrated due to its thin design and fanless nature, which some people may perceive as underpowered.
• 🔧 The 13-inch model in midnight color has a new anodization process to reduce fingerprints, but they are still visible and prone to wear.
• 🔌 The MacBook Air has only two USB-C ports, which might limit versatility compared to the MacBook Pro but hasn't been a significant issue for the user.
• 🖥 The Liquid Retina display on the M3 MacBook Air offers a high-quality viewing experience, suitable for photo and video editing.
• 🚀 The M3 MacBook Air's performance has been comparable to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro for most tasks, with minor differences in GPU-intensive applications.
• 💾 The user's configuration has 16GB of memory and a 500GB SSD, which provides a noticeable performance bump from the base model.
• 🔋 The M3 MacBook Air has excellent battery life, easily lasting a full workday with light to moderate use.
• 🔧 The MacBook Air's SSD speed and memory bandwidth are high, but the user has not noticed a significant difference in everyday use compared to other Macs.
• 🌐 External SSDs are used by the user for most workflows, as internal SSD speeds are rarely a bottleneck.
• 🔄 The MacBook Air's fanless design can get warm but does not throttle performance noticeably, even during heavy tasks.

Q & A

How long has the author been using the M3 MacBook Air?

The author has been using the M3 MacBook Air for 3 months.

What are the primary use cases for the M3 MacBook Air as mentioned by the author?

The author uses the M3 MacBook Air for productivity, coding, and creative workflows both at home and while traveling.

What is the author's perception of the MacBook Air's design?

The author thinks the MacBook Air is an underrated laptop with a thin and fanless design, which some people might perceive as underpowered, but it is more capable than given credit for.

How does the author describe the build quality and durability of the M3 MacBook Air?

The author mentions that the M3 MacBook Air, despite being thin, has held up well even with frequent use and travel, showing minimal signs of wear around the USB-C ports.

What are the limitations of the M3 MacBook Air's port selection compared to the MacBook Pro?

The M3 MacBook Air only has two USB-C ports, which limits its versatility compared to the MacBook Pro that offers more port options.

How does the author utilize the HyperDrive USB 4 SSD enclosure in their workflow?

The author uses the HyperDrive USB 4 SSD enclosure with an NVMe drive like the Samsung 980 Pro for high-speed data transfer, which often outperforms the internal drive of the MacBook Air.

What is the author's experience with video editing on the M3 MacBook Air?

The author finds video editing on the M3 MacBook Air to be smooth, with export times and performance being almost identical to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro, despite the latter having a more powerful GPU.

How does the author's M3 MacBook Air configuration compare to the base model?

The author's configuration has 16GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, an 8-core CPU, and a 10-core GPU, which is a significant upgrade from the base model with 8GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, and fewer GPU cores.

What is the author's opinion on the M3 MacBook Air's performance for coding and graphic design?

The author finds the M3 MacBook Air to be very smooth for coding and graphic design tasks, with no noticeable difference in performance compared to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro for regular usage.

How does the M3 MacBook Air perform in terms of battery life according to the author?

The M3 MacBook Air has excellent battery life, easily getting through a full workday and more with light use, and only needing to be charged once or twice during a week-long trip.

What is the author's stance on the importance of SSD speed in the M3 MacBook Air?

The author does not consider SSD speed to be a bottleneck or a deciding factor for purchasing the M3 MacBook Air, as they have not noticed a significant difference in SSD speed between Mac models during actual use.

Outlines

00:00

💻 MacBook Air Experience After 3 Months

The speaker shares their experience using the M3 MacBook Air for three months, comparing it to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro. They discuss the design, performance, and versatility of the MacBook Air, highlighting its thinness, light weight, and fanless design. The speaker also mentions the use of an external SSD enclosure by Hyper, which provides high-speed data transfer capabilities. They note that despite having fewer ports, the MacBook Air has been sufficient for their needs, including productivity, coding, and creative workflows. The video is sponsored by Hyper, and a discount code is provided for viewers interested in their products.

05:02

🔋 Performance and Battery Life Insights

The speaker evaluates the M3 MacBook Air's performance, particularly in video editing and other creative tasks, comparing it to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro. They note that the performance difference is minimal for most tasks, with the Air only showing a slight disadvantage in GPU-intensive applications like Blender. The MacBook Air's battery life is praised as being sufficient for a full workday, with only a slight reduction in battery life when running at high CPU or GPU usage. The speaker also addresses concerns about keeping the MacBook Air plugged in constantly, stating that there has been no noticeable battery degradation.

10:03

🛫 MacBook Air for Travel and Everyday Use

The speaker reflects on the MacBook Air's suitability for travel and everyday use, noting its portability and robustness. They mention the lack of an SD card slot as a minor inconvenience but overall find the MacBook Air to be a solid machine for various tasks, including video editing, coding, photo editing, and graphic design. The speaker also expresses interest in upcoming ARM-based chips from Qualcomm and their potential performance in comparison to the MacBook Air. They conclude by encouraging viewers with a MacBook Air to share their experiences and uses for the device.

Keywords

💡M3 MacBook Air

The M3 MacBook Air is the subject of the video, representing the latest model of Apple's lightweight laptop. It is defined by its thin and fanless design, which has led to perceptions of being underpowered despite its actual capabilities. The script discusses the user's experience with this device over three months, highlighting its performance in various tasks such as productivity, coding, and creative workflows.

💡Productivity

Productivity in the context of the video refers to the efficiency and effectiveness of the M3 MacBook Air in performing routine tasks such as document editing, email management, and other daily computing activities. The script mentions that the MacBook Air has been used for everything from productivity to coding, indicating its versatility and reliability in handling a range of tasks.

💡Coding

Coding is a specialized form of productivity that involves writing and modifying software code. The video script uses coding as an example of a more demanding task that the M3 MacBook Air is capable of handling, suggesting that its performance is sufficient for developers and programmers.

💡Creative Workflows

Creative workflows encompass a variety of tasks that require the use of creative software for tasks such as photo and video editing, graphic design, and other artistic endeavors. The script mentions that the M3 MacBook Air has been used for creative workflows, indicating that it can handle the processing demands of such applications.

💡Performance

Performance in the video refers to the speed and responsiveness of the M3 MacBook Air when executing tasks. The script discusses the laptop's performance in depth, comparing it to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro and noting that there is minimal difference in everyday use, suggesting that the M3 MacBook Air is a powerful device.

💡Fanless Design

A fanless design is an engineering approach where a device is cooled without the use of a fan, relying instead on passive cooling methods. The script mentions the MacBook Air's fanless design, which contributes to its slim profile but also leads to concerns about overheating and performance limitations, despite the device proving capable in daily use.

💡USB-C Ports

USB-C ports are a type of universal serial bus connector that supports various functions including data transfer and charging. The video script notes that the MacBook Air has only two USB-C ports, which is a limitation compared to other models but does not significantly hinder the user's experience due to the use of a dock for additional connectivity.

💡Liquid Retina Display

The Liquid Retina Display is a marketing term used by Apple to describe its high-quality IPS (In-Plane Switching) screens with a 60 Hz refresh rate. The script discusses the display of the M3 MacBook Air, emphasizing its excellent contrast ratio and color uniformity, which makes it suitable for tasks like photo and video editing.

💡Video Editing

Video editing is the process of manipulating and combining video clips to create a cohesive sequence. The script describes the user's experience with video editing on the M3 MacBook Air, pushing the device to its limits and finding that it performs well, with export times being almost identical to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro.

💡Battery Life

Battery life refers to the amount of time a device can operate on a single charge. The video script praises the M3 MacBook Air for its outstanding battery life, which allows it to last through a full workday and more, even with heavy use.

💡External SSD

An external SSD (Solid State Drive) is a storage device that connects to a computer via an external interface, such as USB. The script mentions the use of an external SSD for workflow, which can provide additional storage and potentially faster data transfer speeds than the internal drive of the MacBook Air, especially for tasks involving large files.

Highlights

Switching to M3 MacBook Air from M3 Pro MacBook Pro and using it for various tasks over three months.

The M3 MacBook Air is fanless, thin, and lightweight, which might lead to misconceptions about its performance and overheating.

The 13-inch Midnight MacBook Air has a new anodization process to reduce fingerprints, but they still show up easily.

The MacBook Air's durability has been good, even with frequent use and travel.

The MacBook Air's two USBC ports limit versatility compared to the Pro, but a dock can provide additional ports.

Hyper's Hyperdrive USB 4 SSD enclosure and Thunderbolt 4 Hub offer high-speed connectivity and power delivery without a power brick.

The M3 MacBook Air's Liquid Retina display offers excellent contrast and color uniformity for photo and video editing.

Performance of the M3 MacBook Air with 16GB memory and 512GB SSD is comparable to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro for most tasks.

The base model of the M3 MacBook Air is suitable for basic use like productivity and media consumption.

The M3 MacBook Air handles video editing, photo editing, graphic design, and coding smoothly.

Memory usage in video editing software sometimes leads to plugin crashes, but it's not a consistent issue.

Battery life of the M3 MacBook Air is outstanding, lasting through a full workday with light to moderate use.

Continuously plugging in the MacBook Air at a desk does not seem to affect battery health negatively.

The M3 MacBook Air is a solid choice for most users, except those needing heavy GPU processing or advanced workflows.

Upcoming comparison between the new Microsoft Surface laptops and the MacBook Air is anticipated.

For 95% of users, the M3 MacBook Air is sufficient for their needs, including front-end web and mobile development.

Transcripts

it's been 3 months since I switched to

the M3 MacBook Air from the M3 Pro

MacBook Pro and after using it daily

over that span there's a lot worth

discussing during that time I've been

using the M3 a for everything from

productivity to coding and more creative

workf flows both while at home and while

traveling and it's given me a fairly

good idea of what to expect from it

today I want to dive into what that

whole experience has been like what the

2024 MacBook Air does great what's maybe

not so great and just my general

thoughts after using it every day that

hopefully provide you with some value it

should at the very least give you a

reference point if you're unsure if the

M3 air is going to work for you so if

that is the case or if you just want to

see what the last four months have

looked like with my own use stick around

and let's get into

[Music]

it this video is sponsored by hyper hey

everyone Kyle Erikson here for the past

few Generations I think the MacBook Air

has been a pretty underrated laptop and

it's more capable than a lot of people

give it credit for which I think stems

from a couple of things one is the

design this is the thinnest MacBook

available it only has two ports and it's

fanless which I think leads people to

believe it's going to overheat or it's

underpowered and that really bleeds into

the other main reason which is the

perception of lack of performance

especially with the bass versions the

one that I have here is not the Basse

version and we're going to get into

performance in a few minutes but let's

just come back to the design first the

version that I have here is the 13-in

model and is midnight in color Apple

says that there's a new anodization

process on these to reduce fingerprints

but they still show up relatively easily

the good news is it doesn't seem to be

overly prone to wear around the USBC

ports there's virtually no difference

from when I got it new even though these

ports see a ton of use now I'm pretty

careful with my gear and if you're hard

on your laptops that might be a

different story but I know for me even

when traveling it's held up really well

I've taken this with me on both short

and long trips and with the air coming

in at 0.44 in thick and weighing in at

2.7 lb it's about 28% thinner and 23%

lighter than the 14-in MacBook Pro which

is a little more convenient but it does

come with some tradeoffs the MacBook Air

only has two USBC ports so you don't get

the same versatility as the pro with

Port selection but I can probably count

the times on one hand where that's been

a pain point for the most part I'm just

using this around the house are at my

desk and anytime it has been at my desk

it's in a vertical stand plugged into a

dock and my studio display the dock

gives me all that I need in terms of SD

Thunderbolt and USBC ports and it'll

power the MacBook Air and all my

accessories the main being my external

USB 4 nvme SSD enclosure that I've had

at my desk for the better part of a year

which just so happens to be made by this

week sponsor hyper their hyperdrive USB

4 SSD enclosure combined with an nvme

drive like my Samsung 980 Pro gives me

USB 4 and Thunderbolt speeds that often

outperform the internal drive on my

MacBook Air on top of that they have a

thunderbolt 4 Hub that is really unique

which I am going to feature later on in

another video but the great thing about

this is not only do you get four

Thunderbolt 4 ports capable of 40 GB per

second speeds you've also got 96 Watts

power delivery that will power any

MacBook and the best part is there's no

external power brick which I've

personally never seen before all the

Thunderbolt hubs or docks that I've seen

regardless of size have a giant power

brick attached to them or this has an

integrated Gan power source so this is a

lot easier to place or carry around with

you if you're traveling they also have a

bunch of other great travel gear all of

which will be linked in the description

and right now if you use code hyper Kyle

15 at checkout you can get 15% off

anything here so please check that out

if you're interested because it's all

great stuff now one other thing that's

related to the design that's often

somewhat underrated is the display the

M3 MacBook Air has a liquid Retina

display in both the 13 and 15in models

which is an IPS backlit screen with a 60

HZ refresh rate so no mini LED promotion

display like in the MacBook Pro but in

all honesty it's still fantastic the

contrast ratio in my own testing far

exceeds a standard IPS panel and you get

virtually no backlight bleed with great

uniformity and color I've edited a ton

of photos and videos on this thing and

like all Apple products it looks pretty

much the same on this display as it does

on an iPhone iPad Studio display you

name it well except maybe this thing the

point being for the majority of people

even if you do have some Advanced

workflows it's still more than capable

speaking of video editing that's

probably what I've done the most of on

here just in terms of pushing the M3 air

to its limits and that's where I want to

start while getting into the performance

side of things so the configuration that

I have here has 16 gigs of memory and a

500 12 gig SSD with an 8 core CPU and 10

core GPU so this is a noticeable bump

from the base model that comes with a

256 gig SSD 8 gigs of memory and two

less GPU cores I'm not going to sit here

and talk about how the base version is

useless and why no one should buy it

because I definitely think there is a

place for it especially for lighter use

I had the base 15-in M2 air for 6 months

and was quite impressed with it for

basic use so don't sleep on it for basic

things like productivity and consuming

media I got this particular config

because this is what I would actually

buy if it were just me looking for

something as a consumer considering

everything that I would do with it and a

big part of me buying this was also to

see how much I would notice the

difference coming from the M3 Pro

MacBook Pro and the answer was not much

working on these videos every week

Everything feels virtually identical I

don't really notice any difference in

terms of speed or processing power the

M3 Pro might be a little more Snappy say

if I have a super long clip and and I go

to do some kind of heavy processing on

it but by and large it hasn't felt like

I've ever sacrificed anything sure the

air does get warmer with a fanless

design but I've never noticed it

throttle performance to the point where

it's perceivable outside some Niche GPU

heavy tasks and there is a lot of chips

that are arm-based like the M3 that

don't use fans so that's never really

been a concern for me speaking of arm I

did pre-order one of the new Microsoft

Surface laptops that claim that they are

better than the new Macbook Air for

around the same price

so if you guys want to see how those

stack up against each other make sure

that you're subscribed and drop a

comment down below if there's anything

that you would like to see between the

Surface and the air anyway scrolling

around the timeline and adding effects

on the M3 feels indistinguishable

compared to the M3 Pro and because it is

exactly the same encoding and decoding

engine on both machines export times are

almost identical just a side note one

area I wonder about here is with memory

usage where if I'm working on my

timeline for an extended period of time

I'll often get plug-in crashes in Final

Cut Pro but if I restart it doesn't seem

to be an issue any longer I don't recall

this ever happening on my 32 gig memory

desktop machines that I've had in the

past and it does happen on my MacBook

Pro that has 18 gigs I can't say for

certain if that's a memory issue or what

is going on there but developer should

be responsible for properly managing all

of that anyway and depending on what

happens at WWDC this year I might just

completely move away from Final Cut

outside of that though things also feel

very very smooth with photo editing

graphic design and coding I know there

might be outliers here with huge

projects and batch processing but

regular usage is very Snappy on the M3

air and working on a number of software

projects of my own both in web and

mobile things rarely ever like one area

that I mentioned where there is a

noticeable difference between the M3 air

and the M3 Pro MacBook Pro is when you

start taxing the GPU where FS like

blender feel a lot smoother and render

much quicker on the M3 Pro that's to be

expected given the M3 pro has a more

powerful 14 core GPU and you'll likely

notice it with gaming or with plugins or

visual effects that really lean into the

GPU but because the M3 introduced

Hardware enabled Ray tracing apps that

take advantage of it see pretty huge

gains in performance over the previous

generation where I would say performance

in the M3 air is about on par with the

M2 Pro there are also a bunch of other

specs on paper that make this seem like

it's better or worse performance-wise

that don't really make any difference

the M3 air has 100 GB pers second memory

bandwidth that is much higher in other

Pro and Max machines that I've never

really noticed and likewise the SSD

speed is quite a bit faster than the

base M2 air and still a lot slower than

the N3 Pro but I've honestly never

really noticed a difference between any

of these machines in SSD speed while

actually using them that's why I run

most of my workflow from an external SSD

I remember years ago getting my first M1

Pro machine thinking that importing and

working with large files while video

editing would be a noticeable

Improvement on the internal drive versus

the external one that I had at the time

and it ended up feeling almost exactly

the same so while I do like to bump up

this spec to around 512 gigs minimum

just to give myself enough room to

comfortably work around Mac OS I

generally prefer to keep that lower and

just work from an external drive to

bring the cost down a little bit and

reduce the mileage on the internal drive

keep in mind that I am using this mostly

at home though and I can totally

understand why you wouldn't want to haul

around an external SSD if you're a lot

more nomadic but I think the main point

to be aware of here is just that SSD

speeds on any of these Macs is rarely

ever going to be a bottleneck and I

don't think that that should be a

deciding factor for purchasing any of

these one thing that is a reasonable

factor for a lot of people will be

battery life and the M3 air has been

great in that regard this like every

other new Macbook will get you through a

full work day no problem and then some

and that hasn't really changed since I

did my initial review I've taken this on

trips with me where I've been gone for a

week and I've only had to charge it once

or twice with light use and while the

pro does last a little bit longer than

this it's still outstanding now if you

start running this at 100% CPU or GPU

usage that's going to fall down much

quicker and you'll likely want to have

some kind of power brick or external

power bank handy and you're probably

looking at more like a half day of

battery life but I don't know how often

you're going to tax things that much and

it's still more than acceptable in my

opinion one question I do get a lot of

with people seeing this sitting at my

desk in a vertical stand plugged in all

the time is if I have to worry about

that killing the battery or if I noticed

any degradation there that really hasn't

been an issue on any of the Macs that

I've owned since the M series came out I

had the M2 MacBook Air at my desk for

about a year and I rarely ever unplugged

it and it was still completely fine

after that year Mac OS does a really

good job with power management these

days so that isn't really something that

I worry about anymore nor should anyone

else overall there really isn't anything

over the last 4 months with this machine

that I felt disappointed with other than

maybe not having an SD card or something

like that well traveling but outside of

minor annoyances like those this is a

super solid machine it's done everything

completely fine in my workflow whether

that's making these videos coding photo

editing or graphic design you name it as

far as software goes I'm mostly doing

front-end web and mobile development on

here and if you need to set up VMS or

have really complex projects with

software or with 3D models for that

matter you're probably going to want to

step things up and get yourself

something more powerful but for 95% of

people the M3 MacBook Air is likely all

that you're going to need it will be

interesting to see what the new

Snapdragon X Elite chips are like in

these new Microsoft co-pilot plus

machines like the surface laptop

especially considering there doesn't

seem to be a new Mac on the horizon for

a little while so I am really interested

to see how those stack up against the

MacBook Air that being said I don't

think that you can go wrong with the air

and if if you have one yourself let me

know in the comments down below how it's

working out for you and what you're

using it for that's all I have for you

today I hope you enjoyed this video or

you found it useful if you did feel free

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