The Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024) is a premium ultraportable laptop. It replaces the M2 Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023). This new model sports an M3 SoC with eight CPU cores and ten GPU cores, which brings a few new features, like hardware-accelerated ray tracing, Dynamic Caching, and an AV1 decoder engine. RAM and storage max out at 24GB and 2TB, respectively. Other changes include support for two external displays (with laptop closed), Wi-Fi 6E, and a more smudge-resistant coating on the Midnight model. It has a 60Hz 2880 x 1864 Retina display, a 1080p webcam, and a 67Wh battery. Its port selection comprises two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3s, a MagSafe charging port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It's available in four colors: Space Gray, Silver, Starlight, and Midnight.
See our unit's specifications and the available configuration options in the Differences Between Variants section.
Our Verdict
The Apple MacBook Air M3 is excellent for school use. It feels incredibly well-built, and thanks to its compact design, it's easy to carry around. Overall, it provides a great user experience with a sharp, bright display, a spacious keyboard, and a large, haptic touchpad. Its M3 SoC can handle general productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback. You can perform more demanding tasks like video editing, programming, and 3D graphics, but you might not get the smoothest experience if the material is highly complex. Battery life is amazing at around 12 to 13 hours of light use. Unfortunately, it only has two USB-C ports, and while it can output to two external displays—an upgrade over its M2 predecessor—it can only do so with the laptop closed.
- Well built and easy to carry around.
- Sharp, bright display.
- Comfortable keyboard, gigantic touchpad.
- All-day battery life.
- M3 SoC can handle some demanding tasks.
- Limited port selection.
- Some thermal throttling under load.
The Apple MacBook Air M3 is sub-par for gaming. Although its M3 SoC can handle some older and highly optimized titles, it'll struggle to maintain playable frame rates in graphically demanding games. Also, most games must run through Rosetta 2 since they lack optimization for Apple silicon, so the performance can vary greatly depending on the game. It has a 60Hz display with a slow response time, resulting in a blurry image with visible ghosting in fast-moving scenes, and it doesn't support variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing. On the upside, it doesn't get hot under load, and there's no fan noise since it's a fanless device.
- Comfortable keyboard, gigantic touchpad.
- M3 SoC can handle some demanding tasks.
- Fast SSD.
- Few games optimized for Apple silicon.
- 60Hz display with slow response time and no VRR.
- Limited port selection.
- Soldered RAM and storage drive.
- Some thermal throttling under load.
The Apple MacBook Air M3 is great for media consumption. It's easy to carry around, and its battery lasts around 12 hours of video playback, giving you plenty of time to get through multiple full-length movies and TV show episodes. The display looks sharp, bright, and color-accurate; however, it isn't the best for dark room viewing, as its low contrast makes blacks look gray. The speakers are among the best you can get on the market; they get very loud, producing a full and well-balanced sound with a good amount of bass.
- Well built and easy to carry around.
- Sharp, bright display.
- Loud speakers with a full, well-balanced sound.
- All-day battery life.
- Superb factory calibration.
- Blacks look gray in dim settings.
- No touch input.
The Apple MacBook Air M3 is very good for use as a workstation. Its M3 SoC can handle some demanding workloads, like video editing and programming; however, you might experience some slowdowns and stutters if the material is highly complex (particularly GPU-intensive workloads), and completion times will be slower than most workstations with an active cooling system. Also, you can only get up to 24GB of soldered RAM, which might not be enough for some people. Color correction work is possible, as the display has full DCI P3 coverage and exceptional factory calibration. The keyboard gets quite toasty under load and can cause some discomfort, but thankfully, there's no fan noise since it's a fanless device. Unfortunately, it only has two USB-C ports and can only support two external displays (with the lid closed).
- Comfortable keyboard, gigantic touchpad.
- M3 SoC can handle some demanding tasks.
- Fast SSD.
- Display has full DCI P3 coverage.
- Superb factory calibration.
- Limited port selection.
- Soldered RAM and storage drive.
- Some thermal throttling under load.
The Apple MacBook Air M3 is great for business use. It's very portable for a 15-inch model, and its battery lasts comfortably through a full workday of light use. Its M3 SoC can handle most productivity tasks, like text formatting, spreadsheets, and presentations, and you can even do some light photo and video editing. The display looks sharp and bright, the keyboard is comfortable to type on, and the touchpad is large and responsive. Its 1080p webcam is excellent, so your colleagues and clients can see and hear you clearly on video calls. The main downside is that it only has two USB-C ports. It can output to two external displays, which is an improvement over its M2 predecessor, but it can only do so with the laptop closed.
- Well built and easy to carry around.
- Sharp, bright display.
- Comfortable keyboard, gigantic touchpad.
- All-day battery life.
- M3 SoC can handle some demanding tasks.
- Limited port selection.
- Soldered RAM and storage drive.
Changelog
- Updated May 07, 2025: We've updated this review to Test Bench 0.8.3, which removes the viewing angle tests and adds a GPU Total Graphics Power comparison in the GPU section. The Pen Input test in the Extra Features section has also changed, as it now shows whether the laptop supports pen input rather than the inclusion of a stylus in the box. See the changelog for more details.
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Updated Apr 04, 2025:
We've added the Apple MacBook Air 15 (M4, 2025) as an alternative with better external display support in the Ports section.
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Updated Mar 28, 2025:
We had incorrectly listed the charger size in our Portability section as larger than it is. We've updated our review with the correct volume.
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Updated Mar 24, 2025:
Added mention of the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 Aura Edition (2025) in the Contrast section as an alternative with an OLED display.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Apple MacBook Air 15 with an M3 SoC (10 GPU cores), 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. The RAM, storage, and color are configurable; see the available options in the table below.
| Screen |
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| SoC |
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| Memory |
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| Storage |
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| Color |
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See our unit's label here.
Popular Laptop Comparisons
The M3 Apple MacBook Air 15 is one of the best ultraportable laptops on the market. Its build quality, as well as the quality of its speakers, touchpad, and webcam, are industry-leading. Its battery life is also among the best in its class. However, its port selection is very limited. Additionally, while its Retina display is among the brightest, it's starting to fall behind the competitors, as many Windows laptop manufacturers are offering displays with a higher refresh rate and a wider color gamut.
See our recommendations for the best lightweight laptops, the best travel laptops, and the best laptops for college.
The Apple MacBook Air 15 (M4, 2025) is the next generation of the Apple MacBook Air 15 (M3, 2024) and presents minor upgrades. The biggest changes are in the SoC and port selection. The M4 SoC provides a decent performance uplift, and the Thunderbolt 4 ports allow you to run two external displays simultaneously with the built-in display. Besides the new 12MP webcam with Center Stage support, the user experience is essentially identical between these models; the display, touchpad, and speakers are the same and generally fantastic. The typing experience is the same as well and leans slightly harsh, owing to the short key travel and rigid keyboard deck, though.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 (2024) and the Apple MacBook Air 15 (M3, 2024) are both 15-inch ultraportables and direct competitors. Both laptops provide an amazing user experience, though the Surface Laptop beats the MacBook Air in a few areas, as it has a brighter 120Hz display, a wider port selection, Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity, and a much longer battery life. On the other hand, the MacBook Air has a larger touchpad, and unlike the Surface, it's a fanless device. Performance-wise, the Surface Laptop's Snapdragon SoC is faster than Apple's base M3 chip in heavy, multi-threaded workloads. However, the MacBook Air comes out ahead when considering app compatibility, as there are more apps that run natively on MacBooks with Apple silicon than Windows on ARM, and at the time of writing, Apple's Rosetta 2 emulation is more mature than Microsoft's Prism.
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023) is much better than the Apple MacBook Air 15 (M3, 2024) for most uses. The MacBook Pro is a much more powerful device designed for demanding workloads like content creation, while the MacBook Air is an ultraportable designed for general productivity tasks. While both devices sport a nice display, the MacBook Pro's is much more advanced, as it has a Mini LED backlight, allowing for local dimming, and it gets significantly brighter, up to 1600 cd/m² in HDR. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate (60Hz on the MacBook Air), improving motion smoothness and system responsiveness. Other improved features on the MacBook Pro include a wider port selection with better multi-display support, better-sounding, up-firing speakers, and a better active cooling system, allowing for better performance in heavy, sustained workloads.
The ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (2024) and the Apple MacBook Air 15 (M3, 2024) are both excellent ultraportables that deliver a premium user experience. Each has pros and cons, so the choice depends on your operating system preference and what you care about. The MacBook Air 15 has a larger display, giving you more screen real estate for work more comfortably; however, the Zenbook 14 is available with a sharper 2.8k panel that supports touch and pen input. The Zenbook 14's 2.8k display options are also OLED panels with a 120Hz refresh rate, so you get deeper blacks and smoother motion, though those things might not be all that important if you only look at static content like text documents and spreadsheets. As for inputs, the MacBook Air 15 has a larger, easier-to-use haptic touchpad; on the other hand, you can use the Zenbook's touchpad as a numpad, which is handy for those working with lots of numbers.
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