The Apple MacBook Air 15 M3 is still the best overall laptop on the market

Since its release, the Apple MacBook Air has been on everyone’s list of the best laptops available. When the 15-inch version was released, it also jumped to the top of everyone’s lists, and for good reason.  

The MacBook Air 15 is an outstanding laptop and offers impressive performance despite its supposed specs.  Upwardly controlling the entire ecosystem obviously makes a big difference.

Now though, it seems all the marketing we have seen is about AI.  AI shmay-eye is what I say to that.  It is apparently going to be the deciding factor for everyone according to the manufacturers but for me, AI is a feature, not a product.  

It was never so apparent to me until I tried out the Apple AI after using Microsoft’s CoPilot+ on all of the PC laptops last year. In the end, nearly all AIs are created equal (equally useless), and the MacBook Air 15 is still my favourite laptop and a must-buy for many people.

Design & Hardware

The design of the M3 MacBook Air 15 is the same as last year’s M2.  The touchpad is still massive and easy to use and the keyboard is still extremely pleasant and comfortable to use for long periods of typing.  Apple has not tried to reinvent the wheel when it comes to these input devices and I love it – don’t fix what isn’t broken (some other manufacturers need to remember this).

Before I go any further, let’s quickly touch on what makes the MacBook Air the MacBook Air. It is super thin and light. I’ve used a lot of laptops in the past couple of years, and I’ve still yet to use one that matches the MacBook Air in size and has a 15-inch display. Its thinness and light weight make it super portable and desirable to so many people, including me.

The display is still a 15.3-inch IPS panel, and once again, it is not a touch display. I would love for Apple to include an OLED display and/or a touch option on the MacBook Air. I’d go for an OLED display on a MacBook Air every day of the week. OLED displays look so much better than IPS displays, but I wouldn’t expect Apple to add one to the MacBook Air any time soon—rumours have it scheduled to arrive after 2027.

As you may have guessed, the M3 MacBook Air 15 is powered by the Apple M3 chipset, which supports Apple AI, as useful as that is for anyone. The M3 includes machine learning accelerators in both the CPU and onboard GPU, meaning that onboard AI processing is much faster. The onboard GPU allows the M3 chipset to support ray tracing with a significant improvement in performance. Gaming with it was really good, the best gaming experience I’ve had on an Apple MacBook device.

The new M3 chipset also supports up to two external displays (with the laptop lid closed) which, although an improvement, is less than nearly every Windows laptop on the market.  Power users may be hamstrung by these limitations but to be honest, power users should not be looking at a MacBook Air, instead opting for a fully featured Windows laptop or the MacBook Pro.

In the end, the hardware combination of the MacBook Air 15 is exceptional. The keyboard, the touchpad, the speed of the M3 chipset and its GPU integration alongside such a thin and light footprint make for an extremely compelling package — especially at the half-decent price. I’d just prefer an OLED display is the only negative I’d say — well, not negative but not a positive, a neutral?

AI and other software

MacOS may be daunting for users new to Apple MacBooks, but as a long-time Windows user, I found it extremely simple to get used to the different keyboard shortcuts and the way Windows, other icons, etc., are set up.

I may have occasional issues with my failing memory but that is \because my desktop is a PC and the laptop is a MacBook Air so switching from one to the other may take a few minutes to get the memory connected to the correct OS but after that it is super simple.  If you are new to the system, you can simply ask for help on the MacBook Air or Google it.  Easy.

Unfortunately, Apple’s AI software is not groundbreaking. It seems extremely similar to that offered by other manufacturers. However, what Apple has included does work well.  

Most AI is centred around summarising emails, chats, and articles, although Siri is apparently smarter now. Within Mail, you can use smart replies, summarise emails, and have the app prioritise emails for you.

Speech-to-text is improved, and although it is better than what is on PC, it is a far distance from the Google Assistant Voice found on Pixel smartphones – that is exceptional and streets ahead of anything else available for free on devices.

ChatGPT integration is now included – for what that is worth.  I’m not convinced of the value of ChatGPT in everyday life for me, but I know my uni student-daughter has a different opinion on that (apparently, they can use it for some of their subjects).

That’s basically it for AI. I’m much more interested in the various third-party apps that include AI. Some of the best were photo-editing apps, including Luminar Neo. This app was amazing at sharpening night lights, etc., creating stunning results. It performed many of these edits using AI—not onboard but through its own cloud. This is my idea of AI—actually useful results.

In the future, I’d love for manufacturers to use AI for everyday functionality, such as adjusting the display resolution, refresh rate, CPU speeds, etc., to enhance battery life and performance. The rest of it, or how it is currently constructed, is fluff — a gimmick to play with in the beginning but rarely touch going forward.

Battery life

Once again, the MacBook Air 15 knocks the ball out of the park when it comes to battery life.  Apple states that you should get around 18 hours of battery life out of your M3 MacBook Air 15, and although I got a bit under that, it wasn’t by much.

Most of my use of the Air is work for EFTM with some basic YouTube watching and maybe some Spotify but nothing too extensive.  You can be certain that if you get the M3 Apple MacBook Air 15 you will not have concerns regarding battery life.  The battery life on the MacBook Air 15 (M3) shows just how good it is for a manufacturer to have a vertically aligned and integrated system where they develop everything from the ground up.  

PC manufacturers no doubt salivate at the thought of having the vertical integration that Apple does (and this is one reason why Google has started using their own chips in their Pixel smartphones in the last few years), and it is easy to see why.

The overall package is still unbeaten

Each year I run out of superlatives for the MacBook Air 15. The big display but with such a thin, light footprint make it fit comfortably in the ultralight category. The M3 chipset allows it to perform seamlessly, now with onboard AI and although I think AI is over-rated at this stage, it is more AI capable than any MacBook Air before it

Everything else, although the same as last year is still near the top of the heap. The keyboard is the same but still great. The touchpad is big and the same as last year but still great. The 15-inch display is still the same and acceptable — next year, I’d like to see a more capable display, if not an OLED display, but I’m not holding my breath on that one. Most people do not need the high quality, bright, accurate display you get with OLED displays, but for those that do need it- digital creators mostly- a laptop with a better display is a better choice.

The battery life is still near the top of the category thanks to Apple’s vertical integration and the price is relatively affordable, something very un-Apple. This makes the MacBook Air 15 possibly the best overall choice for an ultraportable laptop. The overall package is just so compelling it is difficult not to recommend it.

The Apple MacBook Air 15 is available from just AU$2,199 with 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of SSD storage. The only difference between this and our review unit is the SSD storage (the review unit has 1TB of storage), so the performance will be the same. This is why the MacBook Air 15 M3 gets my two massive thumbs up and a big recommendation for those who want a laptop for use around the house and on the go.