A Review of the New M3 MacBook Air for Photographers

The MacBook Pro is generally thought of as the workhorse for creatives, but the Air series should not be overlooked, and you might be surprised what you can accomplish with one. This great video review takes a look at the new M3 MacBook Air and how it performs for photography-related tasks. 

Coming to you from ArtIsRight, this fantastic video review takes a look at the new M3 MacBook Air for photographers. I'll forever be an advocate for M Series MacBook Airs for creatives; I absolutely love my M2 model. The latest models come with a nice range of features and upgrades, including:

• Screen Sizes:

  • 13 and 15 inches

• Finish Options:

  • Silver
  • Starlight
  • Space Gray
  • Midnight

• Chip Specifications:

  • Apple M3 chip
  • 8-core CPU (4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores)
  • 10-core GPU
  • Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
  • 16-core Neural Engine
  • 100 GB/s memory bandwidth

• Media Engine Features:

  • Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW
  • Video decode and encode engines
  • ProRes encode and decode engine
  • AV1 decode engine

• Display Specifications:

  • 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display: 2560-by-1664 native resolution at 224 pixels per inch
  • 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display: 2880-by-1864 native resolution at 224 pixels per inch
  • 500 nits brightness
  • Support for 1 billion colors
  • Wide color (P3)
  • True Tone technology

• Memory Options:

  • Base: 8GB unified memory
  • Configurable to: 16GB or 24GB

• Battery and Power:

  • Up to 18 hours of Apple TV app movie playback
  • Up to 15 hours of wireless web
  • 52.6- or 66.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery
  • 35 W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter
  • USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable
  • Fast-charge capable with 70W USB-C Power Adapter

• Storage Options:

  • Base: 256 GB SSD
  • Configurable to: 512 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB

• Charging and Expansion:

  • MagSafe 3 port
  • 3.5 mm headphone jack
  • Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
    • Supports Charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s), USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)

• Display Support:

  • Full native resolution on the built-in display at 1 billion colors
  • One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz
  • A second external display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz with lid closed

• Video and Audio Playback Support:

  • Supported video formats: HEVC, H.264, AV1, ProRes
  • Supported audio formats: AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos

• Keyboard and Trackpad:

  • Backlit Magic Keyboard with 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys
  • Touch ID
  • Ambient light sensor
  • Force Touch trackpad

• Wireless Connectivity:

  • Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)
  • Bluetooth 5.3

• Camera and Audio:

  • 1080p FaceTime HD camera
  • Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers
  • Support for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos
  • Three-mic array with directional beamforming
• Size and Weight (13-inch Model):
  • Height: 0.44 inch (1.13 cm)
  • Width: 11.97 inches (30.41 cm)
  • Depth: 8.46 inches (21.5 cm)
  • Weight: 2.7 pounds (1.24 kg)

• Size and Weight (15-inch Model):

  • Height: 0.45 inch (1.15 cm)
  • Width: 13.40 inches (34.04 cm)
  • Depth: 9.35 inches (23.76 cm)
  • Weight: 3.3 pounds (1.51 kg)

• Accessibility Features:

  • Voice Control, VoiceOver, Siri and Dictation, Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion, Live Captions, Switch Control, Zoom

Altogether, the new M3 MacBook Air looks like another great entry in the series. Check out the video above for the full rundown.