Apple MacBook Air M3 Unboxing and First Impressions

MacBook Air M3 Unboxing

Starting things off with the Apple MacBook Air M3 unboxing, the packaging itself is pretty much your standard Apple affair, with it being sleek and minimalistic in nature. It’s so minimal, you don’t even see a single feature being highlighted around the box and will have to go look at the tag on the back to know the specifications and color. In case you’re wondering, we got ourselves the Midnight variant of the MacBook Air M3. It’s also worth noting that the packaging is 99% fiber-based as part of their goal to remove plastics from all packaging by 2025, with 100% of virgin wood fiber coming from “responsibly managed forests”.

Inside the box, we found the following items:

• 35W Dual USB-C power adapter
• 2-meter USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable
• Documentations
• The Apple MacBook Air M3 itself

If you’re wondering if the recent MacBook Pro M3 Max came with anything different, click right here.

MacBook Air M3 First Impressions

The MacBook Air M3 is the first Apple product to be built with 50% recycled materials. This includes 100% recycled aluminum for the enclosure, 100% recycled rare earth elements fore the magnets, and 100% recycled copper for the main logic board. If you think the use of recycled materials would make it feel cheap, you’d be surprised as it feels more premium than ever. In fact, I’m sure many people would have trouble telling the difference in look and feel compared to the more expensive MacBook Pro and all the MacBooks in recent years. It’s said to feature a new anodized coating for better resistance against fingerprint smudges, but it seems to catch them pretty easily still.

Open up the lid, which can be easily done with just one hand, and you’ll be greeted by its 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display and Magic Keyboard. Admittedly, this is my first ever MacBook so I was genuinely surprised when it powered on automatically as soon as you pop open the lid. There is a gigantic trackpad here, and the keyboard layout is akin to a compact tenkeyless, which is of course tuned to a Mac as it has the Command key. There is a rectangular notch reminiscent of the iPhone 13 series, which houses the 1080p FaceTime HD camera. It’s a bit of an eyesore for me initially but I got over it pretty quick.

As a person who grew up on Windows PC, I was a bit confused on how to go about using a MacBook, with this one in particular running macOS Sonoma 14.4.1. The whole experience became a lot smoother when I found Finder, which is their Explorer tool equivalent, and realized a lot of the Windows shortcut keys worked on a Mac by substituting with the Command key. I also liked how the UI has an iPhone feel to it with its widgets, making it easier to adapt to. Of course, I’d like to go over some of the new things that Sonoma has brought to the table but I’ll save that for the review itself.

In case you’re curious, we’ve listed the full specifications of our Apple MacBook Air M3 right below here:

Specifications

We’re in the midst of reviewing and benchmarking this MacBook, and since it’s Hari Raya is upon us, it will take a bit of time before the review is out. For now, stay tuned to the Apple MacBook Air M3 review right here on Pokde.net.