Apple MacBook Air 15 M3 review - Apple’s large everyday MacBook gets a power up

When it comes to the MacBook Air 15's design and case quality, basically nothing has changed. As with the predecessor, the larger Air is even thinner than the MBA 13 and this is why the device's weight (1.5 kg) will surprise you the first time you pick it up. In practice, the hard front edge isn't a problem since the base unit is too flat to cause discomfort to your wrists. The build quality continues to be excellent and this also applies to the stability. The maximum opening angle sits at 135 degrees.

Apple has stuck with its four familiar color variants (Silver, Space Gray, Polar Star & Midnight). The dark blue Midnight variant looked particularly good in product photos, however, it very quickly revealed itself to be a fingerprint magnet and it was difficult to impossible to keep its surfaces clean. With the new M3 model (Midnight), we now have the same anodized coating at work as the one found on the black version of the MacBook Pro 14/16. This helps make fingerprints much less of a problem and this is something we observed with the new MacBook Air 13. Nevertheless, the lighter versions such as our Polar Star review sample have an advantage in this regard. 

However, there is one new feature. Up to now, the MacBook Air 15 M2 could only control one external monitor in addition to the internal panel. The M3 SoC's hardware requirements are identical meaning it's only possible to control two displays but, when the display lid is closed, two external monitors can now be used (1x up to 6K/60 Hz, 1x up to 5K/60 Hz). That is, of course, still not perfect but it's definitely an improvement and it can make all the difference if you wish to use two monitors. 

We tried out this new function with the MBA 13 as well as two external displays (one via USB-C and one via a USB-C/HDMI adapter) and it worked flawlessly. The MacBook Pro 14 M3 will also receive this functionality at some point in the future, likewise, via a software update. 

For the Air, Apple has still opted to use a 15.6-inch IPS screen. The resolution is a somewhat odd 2,880 x 1,864 pixels. The additional 64 vertical pixels are used for the area next to the notch. This still doesn't look particularly good but it doesn't eat into any of the 16:10 panel's actual space.

The panel's subjective image quality remains very good. The colors are vivid, the content is sharp and macOS also still doesn't suffer from scaling problems. However, in terms of the refresh rate, we would like to see an update to 120 Hz since we're still dealing with a 60 Hz panel. The response times are unremarkable and, in everyday use, you'll not see any evidence of ghosting. PWM is absent and both the screen brightness as well as the color temperature can automatically adapt to the ambient light.  

The Apple M3 SoC is Apple's first chip to be manufactured using a 3 nm process. The core configuration corresponds to the old M2 SoC but Apple was able to increase the clock speed thanks to its improved manufacturing process - without consuming considerably more power. The four performance cores now reach a maximum of 4.056 GHz (or ~3,6 GHz when all cores are stressed) and the four efficiency cores, have a maximum of 2.748 GHz. In the multi-core tests, the processor is briefly allowed to draw ~21 watts, before dropping and finally settling to ~12 watts (R23 Multi: 9,085 points means ~12 % less). This makes the performance drop lower than the MacBook Air 13. In short tests, performance is comparable to the MacBook Pro 14 M3 where, of course, the performance remains stable thanks to the active cooling.

Compared to the old M2 SoC, the performance is around 20 % higher on average. The result is that in multi-core tests, the M3 SoC is generally slower than its 16-inch competitors where the CPUs consume four times as much power.

In the single-core tests, Apple has also managed to increase the performance by a solid 20 % compared to the M2, thereby closing the gap to both Intel and AMD. Only some Core i9 CPUs still have an advantage. These are impressive results, especially when you consider the low single-core consumption of a little over 5 watts. We already took a look at the M3 SoC's efficiency in our analysis article. In battery mode, the MacBook Air 15 M3's CPU performance remains consistent. Additional CPU benchmarks can be found here.

In everyday situations, the old MacBook Air 15 M2 was already a fast device and that is also the case with the M3 SoC. Above all, in native applications, the performance is very good and, in the synthetic benchmarks, the new MacBook Air 15 M3 almost always manages to be ahead of the Windows competition pack. 

Applications for Intel-based Macs can be emulated via Rosetta 2 and this works very well. Although there is a speed difference (especially when it comes to complex applications) this also works flawlessly. The subject of AI is currently very trendy and, with its Neural Engine, Apple has also had an NPU installed since the M1 chips and uses these, for example, for word prediction in messages. Anyone who likes using Microsoft's Office Suite including Copilot won't have to worry about this since this functionality is provided via the Cloud meaning there is no difference to Windows devices. 

Unlike the Pro models, Apple has stuck with PCIe 3.0 SSDs for its Air. Our review device comes with a 512 GB version (AP0512Z) installed and its transfer speeds are on an expected level of a maximum of ~3,5 GB/s. In everyday use, this means there are no limitations. Once again, we expect the 256 GB model to have significantly lower performance (~50 %) and this is something we will check as soon as possible. After the first start-up, the user has an available 465 GB at their disposal. The Air M3 can be configured with an SSD with a maximum capacity of 2 TB. Additional SSD benchmarks are listed here.

Our review device has the 10-core M3 GPU which we are already familiar with from the MacBook Pro 14 M3. The maximum power consumption sits at ~15 watts and the performance is basically on the same level as the MacBook Pro. However, under continuous load, the Air also has to drop a little. In the 3DMark WildLife Extreme stress test, the result dropped by around 17 % after 20 runs making it more stable than the smaller MBA 13. When it comes to the GPU performance, we also observed a 20 % advantage compared to the old 10-core M2 GPU. In battery mode, the graphics performance remained constant and additional benchmarks are available here.

Gaming on the MacBook is slowly picking up speed and titles such as Total War: Pharao or also Baldur's Gate 3 run natively on the MacBook. But, Baldur's Gate 3 at high details is too demanding meaning you will have to activate FSR. Doing this will allow you to hit around 35fps even in 1080p/high. However, with FSR, you should at least choose the Quality setting, otherwise the graphics quality suffers visibly. Emulated games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Witcher 3 also run on the MacBook but, depending on the title, there can be some limitations and the performance is also somewhat paired back.