Apple - MacBook Air 15-inch Laptop - M3 chip Built for Apple Intelligence - 16GB Memory - 512GB SSD - Midnight

I purchased the 15-inch MacBook Air from Best Buy last month, and it has exceeded my expectations in every way. This model strikes a perfect balance between performance, design, and portability. The larger 15-inch Liquid Retina display is a game-changer—vibrant colors, sharp details, and ample screen real estate make multitasking and media consumption incredibly immersive. Despite its size, the laptop remains incredibly lightweight and easy to carry around, thanks to its iconic thin design. Powered by Apple’s M2 chip, the performance is outstanding. Whether I’m working on multiple tabs, streaming high-definition videos, or running demanding applications, the MacBook Air handles it all seamlessly. Battery life is phenomenal, lasting a full day with ease, which is perfect for long study sessions or workdays. The keyboard and trackpad maintain Apple’s industry-leading standards, offering a comfortable and responsive experience. The sound quality from the six-speaker system is surprisingly rich for a laptop this thin, making it ideal for music and video playback. Best Buy provided a smooth shopping experience, and I got a great deal on the laptop. This MacBook Air is worth every penny, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a premium, powerful, and portable machine.

This is a great machine for overall use. It has far more power than needed for most everyday tasks and can even handle some Python development with no issues. I have not tried compiling any large projects, but I suspect it could hold its own against your higher-end Windows laptops. It is much faster with Python than the new Windows CoPilot+ machine I had for a couple weeks before going back to Mac. I like the 15" over the 13" (I had the 13" MacBook Pro for work and the display was just too small when using it as a laptop and not connected to my other monitors). Web Browsing: I have had no issues. It is more than sufficient for browsing/working in web-apps. Local Apps: Again, no issues with MS Office apps and PyCharm for my personal activities. Weight: The claimed weight is the same as the Windows CoPilot+ machine I tried, but for some reason it feels heavier. The Windows machine was even a 16" with an OLED screen (beautiful screen on that Samsung device). Still, easy to carry around. Power: The battery on this is great! I have not "tested" it, but I have used it away from power for several hours and it maintains the state of charge very well while sleeping. The charging "brick" seems a bit small, but since it sips power when doing basic tasks, I suspect that won't be an issue in the long run. Display: MacBooks have had great displays for years and this one is no exception, it looks great. Not much else to say other than I wish Apple would provide the same great display with a touchscreen as I think Samsung has been able to do this well.

Pros: I love the screen size! Coming from 13”, the 15” screen is definite and noticeable upgrade in screen real estate. The midnight blue color is gorgeous. Seriously, gorgeous. It looks like a deep navy blue in most lighting, and like a dark hunter green in incandescent light. Under office lighting, it looks like a greeny-blue gunmetal color. The resolution of the retina screen is unmatched. No pixels here. IMO, this is 50% why you buy a mac. The keyboard feels good, if not slightly cramped, but I’m normally using the Ergo split desktop keyboard so this might be just me. The computer itself runs efficiently in every aspect. It’s fast, it has no problem with overheating, it handles multiple tasks or multiple tabs in your browser without issue. Cons: Last night it refused to accept the correct login password for any of the user accounts becaues the accepted password was 1 character longer than the input box. Be careful with this. It’s a software problem rather than a hardware problem. I tried to shut it down and it flashed half a pink screen at me before doing so. Eventually, it let me in after several more restarts I don’t now why. I’m not sure if I need to exchange this exact computer or it was a one time issue. I changed the passwords to something shorter, but the pink screen flash is concerning. Midnight black is known for smudging and fingerprinting. So far, I’ve had zero issue. If it becomes a problem, I’ll exchange it for a different color. I wish they sold this model in the space black. The speakers are on the back of the lower half, near the hinge. This results in a sort of muddy sound that I don’t recommend if you’re listening to music. You’re better off connecting to a bluetooth speaker like the JBL portable speakers or something similar. It’s heavier than I expected and not featherlight like the 13” Macbook air M1. I hope that in future macs, they can make the notch at the top smaller and not as wide. You can see in the photo that it takes up quite a bit of space, and it’s going to take up space if you're in full screen watching a movie. Dimming the keyboard backlight is no longer available via the keyboard itself, and must be done with a mouse click under the control center on the upper right. Battery life is not as great as I expected. It’s down to 35% after ~10.5 hours of use. This sounds like a lot, but the hopeful part of me wishes for 3 days of usage out of one charge. It looks like the battery will need recharging from zero at around 12 hours of usage. Neutral: If screen real estate is your top priority and you have extra money, I’d spend $350 more to get the 16” pro M3 while on sale. The 15” Air is not a “travel” laptop. This thing is big, so much bigger than the 13”. 2” is the size difference, but it feels like a lot more. I wouldn’t get this as a laptop to put in your backpack and walk around college with it. Ram and storage: I read recently that 16 gbs is the new benchmark for the minimum amount of ram anyone needs with upcoming technology. Since the ram is soldered to the logic board, you cannot upgrade it in the future. Get enough ram to future proof your laptop and ensure this will still be usable in up to 5 years. It’s doubtful 8 gbs will be sufficient if you want to do more than just web browsing on your computer. The storage size of the hard drive is less relevant if you plan to use an external drive and store your files there, connecting it to your computer with a cord. If you don’t plan to do that, 256 gbs is good for minimal to low moderate photo storage and few to no extra programs and software. Anything greater than these parameters means you should go with 500 gbs, again, to future proof your computer. You can’t upgrade the storage space later. One last positive: I like that I can place a setting where a finger tap anywhere on the trackpad = a click. Using just the designated space along the bottom of the trackpad to click with your thumb makes the click feel difficult and awkward to press.