M3 MacBook Air First Impressions

If you caught my most recent post, you might remember that I bought an M3 MacBook Air a few weeks ago! After using it almost daily, I wanted to share my first impressions.

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Pros

Battery Life

The first, most impressive aspect of this laptop is the battery life. Last week, I was working on writing a blog post in Safari, watching a few Youtube videos for research, and I was playing music through Apple Music in the background. After an hour, my battery had only gone from 100 to 98%!

I use this laptop practically every day, anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, and I only have to charge it once a week. It’s been so convenient!

Weight

This laptop is so much lighter than the 2015 MacBook Pro I upgraded from! I feel like it’s about the same weight as my 2020 iPad Pro with the Logitech ComboTouch case, although the weight is distributed a little differently and I haven’t actually weighed them.

As soon as I brought the box inside, I was amazed at how light it was! It’s very easy to carry around, and it’s comfortable to hold it in one hand.

Trackpad

I love the large trackpad! I know, since I got the 15 inch display, that the trackpad is extra large, but compared to the old laptop I was coming from (and the trackpad on the ComboTouch case), this one is such a great size.

Keyboard

I really love the feel of this keyboard. I feel like the keys are a little thinner (lower) than the keys on my Magic Keyboard that I use with my Mac mini – I think that keyboard is more “traditional” Apple, and this one is updated.

The response of the keys is really satisfying. The keys do feel a little more spread apart than my Magic Keyboard, so I’ve been making a few typos but overall getting used to it.

Touch ID

This is my first time having Touch ID directly on a keyboard, and I’m finding it to be so convenient!

Unlocking my laptop is a lot easier, and since I save practically all of my passwords with Apple’s built in password saver, I hardly ever have to type in passwords anymore. It saves so much time and I’m just really excited to have it!

Speakers

The speakers on the M3 MacBook Air sound great to me! They come through the crease of the laptop, and it feels pretty surround-sound. They’re capable of using Dolby Atmos in the Apple Music app, which I’m really excited about!

I’m sure an audiophile would have much more in-depth things to say about the speakers, but as a casual listener on this laptop, I’m really enjoying them.

Fan and Heat Management

I was a little worried that the new MacBook Airs don’t have internal fans. SO far, though, it’s stayed very cool and I haven’t experienced any weird problems!

I haven’t tried video editing or doing anything that requires a ton of processing, so if you’re interested in this laptop but do a lot of those activities, I would look into this more before buying.

Cons

The Ports

Of course I’m a little disappointed in the lack of ports. It has a headphone jack, the MagSafe charging port, and two USB-C ports.

For what I plan to do on this laptop, that’s fine; but I always wish companies would bring back more ports. I know this would make laptops and other devices thicker, but couldn’t they have at least had room for an SD card slot? Maybe a few more USB-C ports?

That’s just an overall qualm I have with modern laptops and computers. Even my M2 Mac mini doesn’t have an SD card reader or quite enough ports!

Outside Coating

I love the Midnight color, but it is such a fingerprint magnet! I’m not using a case right now because I love how thin, light, and sleek it is. I’m just enjoying the design of it all right now.

However, it picks up so many fingerprints! Even after only a few weeks, the edges are covered in my fingerprints just from picking it up and moving it around. I do not touch this laptop with dirty hands, it’s just the combo of coating/color/matte design that shows all the fingerprints.

Overall, I’m so happy with the M3 MacBook Air and I’m really glad I upgraded. It’s been so much easier to complete the tasks I want to do outside of my studio desk setup, and I’ve been a lot more productive because of it.

Let me know if you have any questions about this laptop, because I’m happy to talk about it more!