The MacBook Air Conundrum

With the new M3 MacBook Air, you now have a wide selection of entry level offerings to choose from! Today we’ll examine the M3 MacBook Air in the context of its older M1 and M2 brethren. Let’s compare and benchmark these MacBooks to test for a winner!

Time stamps
0:00 unboxing
1:26 SSD Speed test
3:30 M1 vs M2 vs M3 MacBook Air
6:15 How do you choose?

Gear:
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[Mmacrossfirekenai]

The greatest thing about this MacBook Air is that it generates discounts on other MacBook Airs

[philthemustardtiger]

"the best feature that the M3 MacBook Air introduces... is price cuts for the other two." LOL so true

[Cargo_Bay]

“I debated whether I was gonna review this at all”. Sure, Jan.

[Shumittsu]

At this point I might replace my M1 Air with the M5 or M6 when the M8 drops lol

[bryans]

"Buy refurbished and buy last generation" is my motto these days.

[d.r.martin]

Clearly you can't lose with any of the three. But for basic users on a tight budget, the M1 at this writing is still available for $750 new. That was the choice I made a couple of months ago, and I don't regret it.

[EnronnSierra]

Have an M1 13 inch MacBook Pro bought in 2020 and I have no desire to upgrade anytime soon. My plan is to keep it until stops receiving security updates. We have reached a point now where these things are solved problems. Unless you are Luke Miani or iJustine thats editing lots of videos, years then upgrading regularly makes sense. Basic editing in Photoshop, occasional YouTube vlog video, managing your budget in Excel, writing a script in Google Docs, spending most of your time web browsing honestly doesn't warrant regular upgrades. But if you have the money and you like treating yourself to latest greatest, different.

[montaguebarnabasltd]

You look so happy to have made it as a YouTuber. Really happy for you, and best of luck furthering your career.

[craigsmith]

I went from a 2015 air to an m1 air, and I don't think I will need to upgrade for a long time, I use it everyday for logic and for things like tonex and amplitube and it doesn't miss a beat.

[kirishima]

So basically the M1 was too good and Apple are having trouble improving upon it.

[jaredgilmore]

My base m1 MacBook Air with 15 battery cycles and 1 big deep scratch I got for $450 is still the best tech deal I’ve got in many years. All I do is get great deals on tech, and this is still the best. It’s insane.

[valramos]

1. Stick to your budget
2. Consider what you have now

If still on Intel, get M1 (refurb or discounted)
If on M processor already, you don't need a new one.

[stefanlasser]

Oh no, you really forgot something important!! The base M3 chip now supports dual external displays (also in MBP via update)!!! This is really important for a lot of people.
For me, it opens the door to think about "do I need a pro" at all.

[nookeen]

You did not mention the ability to support 2 screens with M3. In my mind, this is a big plus.

[elormatefoe]

let me just take a moment to appreciate how clean and effortless the unboxing was🤩

[Aron]

The M1 is es absolutely beast in everything with 1 TB SSD and 16GB RAM. It would also be a beast with the base M1 model.

[ngc]

Is the M3 SSD still slower than the M1 with the 512GB model?

[SantaRosaSteve]

I am looking at upgrading my two daughters old MBA’s 2014 and 2015. Your review was very useful. Its school work not power use and I think discounted M1’s will be the best option for me. Thank you.

[Tele]

"I debated whether I was gonna review this at all" says the guy who makes multiple leak videos like a year before the actual product launch date.

[Youtubehandles]

Huh?
2 Display support & Wifi 6E for future proofing