MacBook Air M3 Reddit Verdict: Worth It or Overhyped?

That's the thing and I laugh at people 'upgrading', 90% of people won't notice a difference in performance…

New coating prevents some fingerprints and is easier to clean, but still can't prevent oil build up over time. 2x external displays requires the lid to be closed, so you can't use Touch ID, can't use the webcam. Wi-Fi 6E system is excellent; raw throughput is notably higher than some laptops with Intel AX211 & MediaTek MT7922.

I will only update for a bigger screen at this point. Otherwise I'm good with my M1 Air.

Probably caused by the reddit crowd fearmongering on 8gb ram :)

Lol it actually costs $100 more to get the refurb one than new that's crazy.

Insane battery life and no fan noise.

It's a great laptop for everyone, the problem is that those who need 16GB or 24GB will have to pay for these upgrades. Very interesting that they allow dual displays with the lid closed.

The RAM isn't going to make a difference unless you're actually doing demanding tasks that will use up that RAM. You aren't doing that.

100% agreed with everything you said. It's true. There was a huge advance in terms of performance and battery capacity during the 2020/2021 years for MacBooks and iPhones/iPads and everything since then has just been minor improvements. From a 2017 MacBook Intel to a 2024 MacBook M3? Yes. An iPhone XR to an iPhone 15? Yes. But to upgrade from M1 to M3 or iPhone 13 to iPhone 15… better hold up and wait until a better cycle arrives.

Macbooks are some of the best laptops on the market right now.

And keep in mind how much it costs. 16 gigs should absolutely be standard. No amount of 'the target audience...' will change that at that price.

As someone who used to sell computers for a living yes this should be great for the average college student. The only caveat for Macs is there's no way to replace parts but realistically Macs nowadays tend to have a ton of staying power and are great for the average user.

To be fair people are complaining about RAM/storage everywhere. Every Apple related sub is loaded with mad comments from people who this laptop is for. It's bullshit. But unfortunately there just isn't another product on the market quite like it. So folks will just pay for the RAM/storage updates if it's what they want.

I'd personally snag an M2 for cheaper if I could find it, not a ton of performance difference for most workloads. But $980 feels pretty unbeatable!

Apple silicon is just about the only thing getting me excited about hardware right now. Their ARM SoCs are just so different and innovating in a lot of ways that other products releasing just are not.

The M series MBA feels like the continuation of the prosumer focused 13'' MBP from back in the day. I held onto my 2014 Pro all through the touch bar era and was thrilled when I laid my hands on my MBA. Apple really got this line of laptops where it needed to be with Apple Silicon. They are great computers now.

2 display out max? With the lid closed? What the actual f?

I agree that 8 GB of RAM is fine for web or basic office work today. But with Apple's pricing, I'd expect decent longevity out of the hardware, and I have no confidence it will still be enough four, five, years down the line.

I would argue that this is the best laptop for the vast majority of people (except those that want to game on it). I have an M1 and it can edit videos, photoshop, and even last me all throughout college as a cs major. The ui is very intuitive and clean with no windows bloat. The battery life is literally life changing.

The m2s still run amazing.

It's crazy the original m1 macbook air 8GB/256GB was 999 on release. This M3 is so much better and cheaper. Good to see the price coming down.

M2 256GB has half the storage performance of even the M1 model.

First and only Apple device, but these MacBooks are so good for the price point compared to the competition. I would rather die than give it up now.

Crazy how much power these things pack nowadays. I know people will complain about RAM/storage, this is tradition at this point for Apple products. The overall package is still plenty nice.

Yes buy a MacBook. They're MUCH faster at everything, no bloatware, battery life is so much better it's not even funny. It's going to be a fast light reliable machine for years and years.

One more reason for upgrading from an 8GB M1 Air to a 16GB M3 Air is Graphics. If you're doing graphics intensive work, you'll see a significant jump in GPU performance. I had the M2 Air and got the M3 Air recently because I do GPU intensive tasks but hate the Pro's chunky design. The M3 Air's GPU is far more powerful than the M2 or M1's.

Here's two universal truths a lot more people need to learn: You don't need to upgrade unless you actually see and experience a real need to upgrade. Main reason for most workflows to get higher ram / chip is to future proof, so you can wait longer to next upgrade.

My M1 Air is starting to show some of its age and limitations with the 8GB RAM for the things I want to do these days. First time MacBook buyers are so lucky getting a machine this powerful for this cheap.

This is arguably the best macbook deal in a long time. One gen cpu behind current, but has both ram and storage upgrades. M3 vs M4 is largely irrelevant in the air config outside of the m4 additional monitor support and maybe the neural engine.

I'm considering returning my recently bought M4 for this M3 deal. One consideration for others on m3 vs m4 — m3 air can't support 2 external monitors unless it's in clamshell mode, while m4 can.

I went from a 13" M1 8G to 15" M3 16G and I love it. Screen size is the biggest difference but it's snappier and the speakers are better. Absolutely no memory pressure and that was a constant with the previous 8G M1. Also Midnight is fantastic. Zero smudge problems.

Great thing about these things is that the resell value holds well for the higher spec units, so upgrading is usually not terribly expensive.

Get the M3 since that 256SSD is faster (dual NAND chips) than the M2 256SSD (solo NAND chip)…

The fact that it's not that m2, m3 MacBooks are bad, but the M1 is too good. It was ahead of its time.

Well, the M1 is a pretty solid machine despite being 4 years old. You really won't see a large difference going from any apple silicon Mac to another apple silicon Mac.

I really needed an M3 because I need to be able to connect to 2 external monitors (extended) with the lid closed which the M1 would not support (not even M2). I agree definitely the M3 camera is better and the edge to edge display (with the notch) I'm loving it cause I feel like I get some extra space I didn't have with M1.

My M1 Macbook Air from 2020 is still incredibly good at being an internet browsing / office and school work machine and shows no particular signs of slowing down. Just make sure you get 16GB of RAM. They're light, fast, and the Apple things built-in do interface together really well with other Apple stuff.

Congrats, Air M3 is my first Mac. Its incredible.

Im using the same to write this post; love the machine :)

My m1 is still going strong. Recommend this for your technologically-challenged family members, especially elderly.

Just ordered, can't beat the price. 24gb memory this will last a long time 5-10 years.

Last Macbook air I had lasted 8 years. Still works but CPU is an old dual core. Cheap PCs don't even last that long. While it cost a bunch up front, they will last.

No Man's Sky works fine on a MBA, especially an M3. I've never played Dying Light, but unless the port is absolutely horrible it should also be fine — it works on chips 10 years old and the old Radeon R9 according to minimum specs on Steam, so an M3 will handle it easily.

In terms of gaming performance, the titles you've listed seem a good fit for the Air. Having 24gb vs 16gb will not impact gaming performance on the Air. Any game that might need more than 16gb unified memory to run well won't run well on an Air anyway.

If you do decide to go with the Air and have a decent internet connection, there is always the option to use Cloud Gaming (GeForce Now, ShadowPC, etc.). I've used various Cloud Gaming services on an M2 MacBook Pro, and not really seen any issues in terms of gameplay when I had at least 15-20mbps.