MacBook Air M3 vs M2?

Honestly, for what you're describing, the M2 MacBook Air is probably plenty good enough. The M3 is faster, sure, but you likely won't notice a huge difference in everyday tasks like browsing or watching videos. Think of it like this: upgrading from a regular car to a sports car. The sports car is faster, but if you're just driving to work and back, you're not really using that extra power. The M2 is already super efficient and has great battery life. If you were doing heavy video editing or other demanding tasks, then the M3 would be a better investment. But for your use case, save some money and go with the M2. You can use the extra cash for accessories or something else fun!

For your described usage, the M2 is the better value. The M3 offers a marginal CPU and GPU performance bump, but the M2 is more than capable for browsing, email, and light photo editing. The battery life difference is negligible. Save the money. If you were doing sustained video editing or compiling code all day, the M3 would make more sense.

I was in the same boat a few weeks ago. Honestly, for your use case (browsing, writing, light photo editing), the M2 is probably the sweet spot. The M3 is faster, sure, but you likely won't notice a huge difference in everyday tasks. Battery life is pretty comparable between the two. Both are excellent. The M3 might have a slight edge, but we're talking minutes, not hours. The M3 does have faster Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6E), if that matters to you. If you have a Wi-Fi 6E router, you might see a speed boost. Also, the M3 supports two external displays (with the laptop closed), which the M2 doesn't. But if you only need one external display, it's a non-issue. I ended up going with the M2 because I found a great deal on a refurbished one. Saved a bunch of money and it does everything I need it to do. If the price difference is significant, I'd lean towards the M2. If the prices are close, then maybe the M3 is worth considering for the extra features and slight performance bump. But for your workload, I wouldn't stress too much about it!