One of the nice things about the new M3 versions of the MacBook Air 13-inch and MacBook Air 15-inch is that both laptops can be connected to two displays simultaneously However, doing so significantly reduces performance

According to Wccftechreports, YouTube channel Max Tech recently conducted a stress test and found that closing the lid on one of these MacBooks significantly degrades performance when connected to two of the best monitors simultaneously

While we didn't notice anything unusual when we ran our own M3 benchmark test, Max Tech found that the M3 MacBook Air's performance dropped significantly when running the 3DMark WildLIfe Extreme Stress Test for 20 minutes The score of 8,083 in the first test dropped to 5,916 in subsequent tests The fanless M3 MacBook Air could not keep up with the heat dissipation

The laptop in clamshell mode with the lid closed experienced a performance drop of almost 50%, but even with the lid open there was a 30% performance drop On top of that, Apple silicon driving the latest MacBook Air reached 114°C for the CPU and 1029°C for the GPU

Max Tech was able to lower these temperatures by placing the laptop on SVALT's Cooling Dock DHCR, but the dock alone costs $279, making it an expensive solution for those who want to use the M3 MacBook Air with dual displays

If you are primarily looking to work on the go, the M3 MacBook Air is still a great option Especially if you are looking for a fanless laptop, our tests showed that it could last more than 15 hours on a single charge However, if the ability to connect two displays at the same time was what attracted you to the new M3 MacBook Air in the first place, you might want to think twice before upgrading

Instead, you might want to spend a little more and go with the M3 MacBook Pro, which has a full-sized HDMI port along with two Thunderbolt 4 ports This would not compromise performance with the laptop's lid closed Plus, you can connect up to four external displays at the same time, not just two Battery life is also longer In our tests, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M3 lasted up to 17:25 on a single charge

Another big thing that sets Apple's Pro series apart from the Air series is the fan If you do particularly demanding work like video editing or rendering, you will want one of the best MacBooks with a fan so that you can cool the laptop when under load

However, both versions of the M3 MacBook Air received high scores in our reviews, and we were impressed with the battery life this time around