The MacBook Air M3 is my daily driver — and it just crashed to $799 for Prime Day
The MacBook Air M3 is my daily driver — and it just crashed to $799 for Prime Day
Publish Date: 2026-06-23 10:18:00
Source Domain: www.tomsguide.com
The MacBook Neo has garnered significant attention for its affordability. While it’s a fantastic laptop, it can struggle with more demanding tasks because of its 8GB of RAM and mobile-first A18 Pro chip. Now that it’s officially Amazon Prime Day, you can save big on an even better MacBook.
Right now, the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 is on sale for $799 at Amazon. While this is an older Air model, it still runs circles around the MacBook Neo in terms of performance. Not only that, but it has a larger display, MagSafe charging, and a backlit keyboard. This is the MacBook I use every day, and it has never let me down in all the years I’ve used it. Here’s why you need to take advantage of this deal.
In my MacBook Air M3 review, I said this laptop was a winner thanks to its features. This includes a gorgeous 13.6-inch (2560 x 1664) display and its overall portability. Measuring 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches and weighing just 2.7 pounds, this machine makes for an excellent travel partner—whether it’s to your favorite cafe or different rooms around the house.
Based on our Geekbench benchmark results, the MacBook Air M3 delivers 35.5% faster multi-core performance than the MacBook Neo, with the latter scoring 8920 versus the Air’s 12,087 score.
The MacBook Air M3 also has 16GB of RAM compared to the Neo’s 8GB, which means it can handle more tasks (like multiple open Chrome tabs) before you’ll notice slower performance.
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide)
Another quality-of-life difference is MagSafe charging, which means you won’t have to use one of the USB-C ports to charge the laptop, unlike with the MacBook Neo. Speaking of ports, the Air sports two USB4/Thunderbolt 4 ports, whereas the Neo has one USB3 port and a USB2 port. For faster charging and data transferring, the Air wins.
While the current MacBook Air M5 offers faster performance, the M3 Air is still a fantastic laptop for work and play. The fact that it has been my daily driver for the better part of two…
