Verdict
The MacBook Air 15 - column inch is quick , well - designed , has a good concealment and first-class shelling life . It ticks just about every box I look for when recommending a laptop
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Sometimes a 13 - column inch laptop CRT screen simply is n’t heavy enough , whether you ’re dealing with multiple spreadsheets or piece of work or are watching a movie during your downtime .
ill-use in , the Apple MacBook Air 15 - inch , prove to be a super - sized variation of the hugely popularMacBook Air M2 . Apple has even been able-bodied to press in a new six - speaker strait system to improve the overall package .
That intend there are no new chip option , no major increase to battery life and no additional screen tech . It ’s the MacBook Air I already get laid , just with a larger projection screen .
That was n’t an outlet back in 2023 , but with a newM3 chipseemingly just around the corner for the Air range , are you unspoilt off waitress ? Here are my thinking .
Design and Keyboard
Like its lowly 13 - in sib , the MacBook Air 15 - inch film many design cues from the pricierMacBook Pro 14 - in and 16 - column inch models . It ’s just that everything is a little thin , lighter and , well , less fully featured here . It ’s far boxier than previous MacBook Air framework , with that iconic hero sandwich design that tapered down to a razor - thin edge ditch in favour of a much more symmetrical look . Some of the spell has disappear , but it rest a seriously refined laptop .
I have been accustomed to 13 and 14 - inch laptop computer over the past few years , but I still much favor the 15 - inch size . It ’s roomy than the 14 - in MacBook Pro without feeling too clumsy and far easier to work on than the 13 - inch airwave . As someone who carries a laptop computer around a lot , I have n’t find go this machine into my pocketbook any trickier than I did with the smaller modeling .
For a laptop this size of it , it ’s amazingly faint . At 1.51 kilo , it ’s unclouded than the 14 - inch MacBook Pro ( up to 1.63 kg ) and only slenderly heavier than the 1.24 kilogram 13 - inch model .
Of of course , the 13 - in stay the more portable of the two , however , if you pass a lot of the twenty-four hour period process at a desk without an external monitoring equipment I ’d plump for the 15 - inch stochastic variable every single time . I am not sure I could flip full - sentence to a 13 - inch laptop again .
There are four colours available : Apple ’s stalwart silver and dark gray options , plus a glitzier Starlight that has subtle hints of gold and a dark blue called Midnight . Midnight would be my people of colour of pick , though it is very prostrate to picking up fingerprint .
One of the bigger differences between this mannikin and the MacBook Pro 14 - inch and 16 - column inch are the ports available . While the pricier mannequin haveMagSafefor commit , HDMI , multiple Thunderbolt ports and importantly a high - spec SD wit reader , the MacBook Air slims that select down just two Thunderbolt 3 / USB - degree Celsius port and MagSafe .
I have major issues with port placement as sticking the two Thunderbolt 3 / USB - carbon porthole and MagSafe all on one side , rather than spread them out , means connected devices can get clog up . Moving oneUSB - Cport to the other side , next to the headphone jack , would have made a pot more sense .
The lack of HDMI is expected considering the thin frame , yet the want of a Mount Rushmore State card is harder to live with . It ’s such a canonic plus and should be a give on all laptops , especially those of this size . I ’d recommend a undecomposed adaptor to increase the port selection .
I do love the reintroduction of MagSafe though , which is the best way to charge the laptop computer . The MagSafe cable admit in the corner clips gratifyingly into the time slot and draw apart easy if you accidentally trip over it , meaning the laptop does n’t go vanish . As ready to hand as charging viaUSB - Cis , the bestow protection with MagSafe is very welcome .
It ’s no longer a surprise a MacBook ships with a sublime keyboard and trackpad – and it ’s no different with the 15 - column inch gentle wind . The large keys make typing a pleasure and if you ’re come from a MacBook with the derided Butterfly switches the improvement will be instantly noticeable .
There ’s a TouchID fingerprint unlock key that is dissipated and reliable for both unlock the machine , empower payments and helping avoid forgetting passwords . confront Unlock would have been a nice gain – and there must be room for it inside that notch – but with it being pretermit on the high - end laptop computer it was never going to make its debut here .
The trackpad is slightly larger than it is on the 13 - inch model and one of the biggest you ’ll find on any laptop computer . It ’s very responsive and can be pressed anywhere thanks to the tactual design .
Display and Sound
The leap in size – and the spaciousness offer by those extra couple of inches – aside , the screen door is virtually the same as the one on the 13 - inch breeze . It ’s a good panel , though If I was being picky it ’s the one area where the MacBook Pro ( 14 - in and 16 - in ) offers a notably proficient experience .
The 15.3 - inch 2880 x 1864 LCD feels a little old - fashioned in 2023 – specially if you spec the machine up and pay off some of the higher Price . If the utmost screen lineament is key – or your work flow requires anHDRpanel – I would pay off the supernumerary for the 14 - column inch MacBook Pro .
It ’s a 60Hz jury , rather than the faster 120HzProMotionversion once again found on the MacBook Pro . There ’s no proper HDR support either , and the IPS panel renders blackness more like dark greys ( an issue avoided on the Pro tune thanks toMini LEDtech ) and while the 500 nits of brightness I get in my lab tests matched Apple claims , it is far lower than the 14 - inch MacBook Pro . Still , 500 nits is much higher than the standard 300 nits most laptop screens hit .
TheAsus Zenbook S 13 organic light-emitting diode , for representative , does n’t have the in effect screen we ’ve ever check , however , the usage of an OLED board does sum up an extra zing to colours and you get those immersive deep blackness .
One ‘ feature of speech ’ the MacBook Air does inherit from the Pro series is the notch . Some might hate it , but on a screen this large it ’s easily forgettable . If you ’re watching a telecasting , it blends into the black legal profession on either side of the content and after a few days of habit I did n’t even notice it was there .
One area where the MacBook Air 15 - in wo n’t be well beat is with the loudspeaker . Thanks to the heavy chassis , there ’s more space for an improved speaker organization and they pump out impressive audio with comely basso and amazingly just outspoken clarity . They get very loud , too .
Performance
you could pick up the MacBook Air 15 - inch in two main off - the - shelf configurations : the base model ( $ 1299/£1399 ) has a 10 - core GPU , 8 - core CPU , 16 - core nervous engine and 8 GB memory .
The costly version , which will lay out you back £ 1599/$1499 , come with the same 8 - magnetic core CPU , 8 GB computer storage , and 16 - Congress of Racial Equality neural engine , but double over the 256 GB base storage to 512 GB . 256 GB seems very low for a laptop in 2023 , especially at the price , and I quickly filled it up by transfer information from another motorcar .
These are the two SKUs find in retailers like Amazon , however , purchase direct from Apple and you could configure many of the parts . Remember though , there are no aftermarket upgrades here – so select sagely when purchasing as you ca n’t up the memory or internal storage later .
The memory can be upped to 24 sarin , while the reposition can be bump to 2 TB . Both of these upgrades are pricey , and you ’ll soon start gain the starting toll of the 14 - inch MacBook Pro .
The MacBook Air 15 - inch sticks with the same M2 chipset that debut in the 13 - in version at WWDC 22 . It ’s a herculean silicon chip , but it ’s widely expect to shortly be supersede by the inward M3 processor .
TheMacBook Pro 16 - inchis already ostentate the Modern - generation M3 Max chipset , so it ’s only a matter of month until the MacBook Air benefits from the generational operation upthrust . So if you care about getting pinnacle performance , it may be worth hold off a little longer .
There ’s also noM2 Prooption with 15 - column inch MacBook Air , probably due to the lack of an inner sports fan . As it ’s powered by the same chip , it ’s not a surprisal the 15 - inch version of the Air perform very much like its diminished sibling .
The M2 is still a great performing artist , with Apple ’s usage silicon managing to churn through canonic tasks and more intensive ones with relaxation . See below for a look at how well the MacBook Air 15 - inch comparison to some of the rivalry .
There ’s a little melioration in both the Geekbench 5 exclusive and multi - core run over the M1 chipset found in the MacBook Air 2020 , but the bigger improvements are base when comparing the results elsewhere . Compared to the Asus Zenbook 15 OLED ( around £ 1199 ) with its AMD Ryzen 7735U , the MacBook Air 15 - in scores considerably higher on both single and multi - core tryout .
4 K video editing , in both Adobe ’s Premiere Pro and Apple ’s Final Cut Pro , is achievable with smooth scrolling through timelines and fast exportation time . As with the 13 - column inch variant , the only way I rightfully contend to slow the car down while editing 4 K footage was by throw it plugged into Apple ’s 5 K Studio Display .
In the PugetBench for Premiere Pro benchmark , the M2 scored 299 , which is a good score for a auto like this . To put that in position , the likewise - pricedSamsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro(i5 - 1340P , 8 GB ) tally 204 .
Gaming has never been a Mac ’s inviolable skill , but there are now more M - series - supported game . Stray , for example , runs very well here , and it ’s great for CPU - intensive game like Football Manager .
The want of a rooter means the machine is tacit all the time , something that ’ll be like a shot noticeable to anyone upgrade from an Intel - power MacBook . Elsewhere , there’sWi - Fi 6and Bluetooth 5.3 , although the very latest laptop are now steady move over toWi - Fi 6EandWi - Fi 7 .
Battery Life
Those desire the larger 15 - inch would bear on the endurance of the motorcar a lot further than the 13 - inch should irritation expectations . Still , Apple has once again shown its M - series chips provide fantastical all - day assault and battery life .
Apple does n’t make any title about improved battery public presentation over the 13 - inch . The bigger stamp battery sizing is just being used to power the larger CRT screen rather than helping it last any longer .
During the week of using the MacBook Air 15 - inch as my main workplace machine day by day , it has moderately much matched the 13 - column inch variation in every panorama . I did n’t need to reach for the charger at all during a typical 9 - to-5:30 workday and on a few day I realised I had left the courser at home . This involve several hour of Zoom and Google Meet calls , too many Slack messages to reckon , Google Docs and Word typing , and intermittent role of Photoshop and Lightroom .
I unremarkably had around 20 % electric battery persist when it came to logging off for the Clarence Day , which was sufficient for starting the next day . When I played a looped 1080p telecasting at 50 % cleverness , it lasted for almost 14 hours . Both of these result matched the results I achieved when I reviewed the 13 - in M2 Air last year .
There are two chargers available for the 15 - in air travel , and if you ’re buy from Apple you’re able to prefer one or the other at checkout . The default option goes for versatility , coming in at 35w but extend two USB - C ports so you’re able to commit the laptop and an iPhone , iPad , Apple Watch or even a Nintendo Switch at the same clip as the laptop computer . It ’s handy , and bang-up for travelling .
The other option ditches the second port wine but moves from 35w to 70w . This will consign the machine much faster and as I value rapid charging over versatility , this is the selection I would go for .
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Final Thoughts
The Apple MacBook Air 15 - inch may be a basic rise on the standard13 - inch MacBook Air , with a bigger screen and great speaker frame-up proving to be the only raw additions . But a expectant version of its most pop makes so much sense , pop the question customers who do n’t need the 16 - inch MacBook Pro a cheaper way of make a big - sieve MacBook .
compare to the wider competition , the lack of an OLED screen is the biggest dashing hopes . That ’s not to say this is n’t a strong display though , with Apple making it brighter than the average Windows rival .
And while the M2 C.P.U. is plenty powerful enough , it ’s deserving point out that Apple is almost guaranteed to be introducing an even more powerful M3 chip to the MacBook Air series in the coming months . If you want the unspoilt performance for your money , it ’s likely worth waiting .
For those who ca n’t expect , the 15 - inch MacBook Air remains one of thebest laptopsand one of thebest MacBookson the market right now .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we review hold up through a series of unvarying checks designed to gauge central things including physical body quality , operation , screen timber and barrage spirit .
These include conventional synthetic benchmarks , scripted tests and a series of real - world halt .
FAQs
Yes , and you have two option . Either a 35w courser with two ports or a 70w reading with a single port .
