Photo from TechRadar
Around six or seven years ago, I had an eleven-inch MacBook Air with a low-power Core i5 and a low-resolution display. With all its faults, that machine won a special place in my heart. The build quality, beautiful design, lightness, MagSafe, and great speakers (for the time), there was nothing else on the market that could come even close to it. Although the performance was quite horrible, the battery life was much better than the competition, and the overall package at the price was unbeatable.
Now, in December 2025, as I was looking for a new lightweight, performant machine with acceptable battery life, and after a few years of disappointments from PC manufacturers, I decided to try Macs again. Since I didn’t want to spend more than around $1200 and I was especially interested in a quiet device, I went for MacBook Airs. And this time around, I really wanted a big screen, so the 15” model was what to go for. So I bought a brand new M3 15” MacBook Air with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage for around $870.
What has been quite shocking for me is how far ahead this machine is from anything else on the market. It’s completely silent since it’s fanless, it doesn’t even heat up with my workload, the screen is gorgeous, the speakers sound amazing, the build quality is fantastic, and the battery life... oh my god! The battery lasts forever. It’s giving me around 20 hours of active use between full charges, which is unbelievable! And the cherry on top is the fact that whether you’re plugged in or on battery doesn’t even affect your performance!
Now, there are some annoying things with Mac OS, as there have always been. And I really wish the device had at least one or two more USB-C ports. But the overall package here is years ahead of any other notebook that I’m aware of. And especially at this price point.
One more thing to mention is that I really like the style and design of Liquid Glass in Mac OS 26, which is not what I expected to happen. It looked quite horrible in photos and videos online, but it’s not nearly as offensive in person. It even has a certain charm.