The M2 MacBook Air is our best laptop pick thanks to its best-in-class performance and slim design, but what if you want a bigger screen? That’s where the new 15-inch MacBook Air comes in.
Unveiled today at WWDC 23, Apple’s newest MacBook retains everything that makes the 13-inch Air our favorite notebook and simply stuffs it into a bigger (but still thin and light) chassis with a larger display and more speakers. Wondering if it’s the right MacBook for you? We got an up-close look at the new MacBook Air to help you decide.
The 15-inch MacBook Air takes our favorite laptop and simply gives you a new, bigger size option. The increase should come in handy if you plan on photo editing or gaming, or if you just like having a ton of screen space for multitasking between emails, Slacks and video calls.
MacBook Air 15-inch preorders and pricing
The 15-inch MacBook Air is available for preorder today starting at $1,299, and will be available next week. It comes in the same colors as its 13-inch counterpart: including Starlight (gold), Midnight (blue-black), Silver and Space Gray.
If you prefer a smaller MacBook, the 13-inch MacBook Air just got a $100 price drop down to $1,099, making our top-rated laptop an even better value.
Same great laptop, now just bigger
The 15-inch MacBook Air is essentially the 2022 MacBook Air but bigger – which is to say that its sleek, portable and packs just about the fastest processor you can find for a laptop in this price range. It retains the same thin edges as its smaller sibling – at 11.5 millimeters, it’s being called “the world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop – and at 3.3 pounds, it should be fairly easy to lug around in a bag.
Like on last year’s Air, you get a snappy Magic Keyboard with useful physical function keys (good riddance, Touch Bar), a sharp 1080p webcam and two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports in addition to a headphone jack for wired audio. You’ll also get the revamped MagSafe charging port, which attaches and detaches with quick magnetic snap – and is especially great for avoiding accidents should a friend or pet trip on your charging cable. The dual-port charger (which is an optional upgrade on the smaller model) comes standard on every 15-inch unit, which is a nice perk that allows you to charge your phone and laptop from a single brick.
As its name implies, the 15-inch MacBook Air bumps the display size up to 15.3 inches, which promises 500 nits of brightness for easy viewing in any setting and support for 1 billion colors for immersive video editing and movie binging. Apple says its twice as sharp and 25% brighter than a similar PC laptop, which is something we’re looking forward to testing against the best Windows laptops.
Thanks to its larger build, the 15-inch MacBook Air features a six-speaker sound system (up from four on the 13-inch model), which should be ideal for bumping your favorite songs and listening back to some mixes in GarageBand.
The 15-inch MacBook Air features Apple’s M2 processor, which made last year’s 13-inch model one of the fastest laptops we’ve ever used. It soared past most competitors on our benchmark tests, and performed about 16% better than the older M1 MacBook Air. It also chewed through basic music and visual projects in second. We’ll have to try the new model for ourselves, but we expect it to be just as ridiculously fast as last year’s model. You can also expect the same 18 hours of battery life (just be ready to keep the charger handy when doing more intensive work).
I got to briefly get my hands on the 15-inch MacBook Air and observe a few demos, and it looks and performs exactly how I expected it too. It was fairly light and easy to pick up despite its larger size, and those edges still look slim as ever. Photos looked especially vibrant on the bigger display, and as a frequent split-screen multitasker, I liked how much extra stuff I was able to see when using Slack and Excel side-by-side. The Air seemed to perform zippily when an Apple rep pounced around in the game Stray or edited 4K video in iMovie, and its upgraded speaker setup seemed pretty crisp based on the short clip of the movie Ghosted I got to see.
The takeaway
The 15-inch MacBook Air takes our favorite laptop and simply gives you a new, bigger size option. It should make an especially great fit for folks doing light photo editing or casual gaming, or anyone who just likes having a ton of screen space for multitasking between emails, Slacks and video calls. At $1,299, it’s shaping up to be a heck of a value, and could make for a more affordable alternative to the $1,999 MacBook Pro 14-inch for folks who want a really fast laptop – but don’t need the absolute best processing power for serious creative work.
And if you don’t need a big screen, the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 is an even better deal at its new $1,099 price point. If you’re getting your first MacBook or are finally ready to upgrade from that old, slow notebook that’s constantly crashing, now is looking like the best time to get a MacBook Air – regardless of your size preference.
