The 15-inch MacBook Air is a superb big-screen laptop that’s still super portable

The 13-inch MacBook Air is the best laptop you can buy, so it’s no surprise to see Apple simply make it bigger for 2023. The 15-inch MacBook Air features a significantly larger display for juggling apps, editing photos and streaming TV shows, all without sacrificing the slim design and light weight that makes an Air, well, an Air. Couple that with the same snappy keyboard, useful MagSafe charger and best-in-class performance speeds as last year’s model, and you’ve got a heck of a value at $1,299 — though there are a few caveats to keep in mind.

So, is this the new 15-inch laptop to beat? Here’s what I think after nearly a week of using it as my main work machine on the road.

What we liked about it

One of the sleekest 15-inch laptops out there

The 15-inch MacBook Air is a bigger version of the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 that launched last year, and everything great about that notebook stands out even more on a larger canvas. This thing is astonishingly thin and light for its size — its svelte edges are almost exactly as slim as those of the smaller model, and at just over 3 pounds, it’s barely heavier. It’s also notably sleeker than its most direct Windows rival in the Dell XPS 15, which weighs in at a heavier 4.2 pounds and has thicker 0.73-inch edges. To put all of this in real-world terms, I was able to cram the 15-inch MacBook Air into my tiny backpack’s laptop compartment — not something I’d typically do with a notebook this size —?and lugged it around a busy press event without noticing any major heft.

The MacBook Air’s slick color options pop even more on this model, as there’s simply more chassis around the keyboard to really highlight whatever hue you’ve chosen. The blackish blue of my Midnight model was especially striking at 15 inches (though there is one big flaw — more on that later), and the Starlight, Silver and Space Gray variations all looked subdued and sleek up close. This is one of the most attractive 15-inch laptops I’ve ever used — and fortunately, it’s got a lot more than good looks going for it.

A big, beautiful display that doesn’t cost a fortune

The new MacBook Air’s biggest selling point is its larger screen, and as someone who uses the 13-inch model as their main laptop, making the leap to 15 inches felt like a significant upgrade. I’m almost always splitting the screen between two apps while working, and having the extra real estate made it much easier to, say, write this very review on one half of the display while pulling up key specs on the other. As a hobbyist music producer, I also appreciate being able to see more tracks at once when working on songs in Ableton Live.

These benefits are true of pretty much any 15-inch laptop, but not all of them have a screen as nice as the MacBook Air’s. This notebook packs the same Liquid Retina display tech as the 13-inch model at a slightly higher resolution, which is to say that you’re getting rich colors and plenty of brightness for working and bingeing movies in most environments. The rippling blue waves and lush greenery of “Prehistoric Planet” looked vibrant and accurate, and the show’s CG dinosaurs came through with so much detail that they practically looked real.

The 15-inch MacBook Air’s screen size is especially significant when you consider how relatively affordable it is compared to the rest of the lineup. Until recently, your only other big-screen Mac options were the $1,999 MacBook Pro 14-inch or the 16-inch model that starts at $2,499. Those displays are more advanced — sporting Mini LED tech for better contrast and brightness as well as smoother 120Hz refresh rates — but in terms of sheer screen size for the money, it’s hard to top the 15-inch Air.

Same great keyboard, webcam and speakers — with a few upgrades

Bigger screen aside, everything I love about the 13-inch MacBook Air remains excellent here — with a few bonus upgrades thrown in. The Magic Keyboard is still one of the snappiest, most comfortable laptop keyboards I’ve used, made all the better by the full-size physical function keys that are far more useful than the gimmicky Touch Bar on older MacBook Pros. The laptop’s 1080p webcam captured sharp, accurate photos of my face, and is perfectly suited for a work week’s worth of Zoom calls.

Most importantly, the MagSafe charger is back, which is super easy to attach and remove with a quick magnetic snap — and lowers the likelihood that your laptop will go flying should someone trip on the wire. Better yet, the 15-inch model ships with Apple’s dual-port charging brick by default, which gives you two USB-C connections for juicing up your laptop and phone all at once. Oh, and that braided, color-matched charging cable looks as nice as ever — especially in Midnight.

The 15-inch MacBook Air has one more subtle advantage over last year’s model, as it packs a total of six speakers compared to the four you’ll find on the 13-inch. Apple’s notebook speakers filled my room with the bright guitar pop of Jimmy Eat World and made it easy to hear every eccentric line of dialogue in “I Think You Should Leave,” though I wouldn’t say they’re loud enough to replace a good pair of computer speakers for serious listening sessions.

The best laptop performance for the money

The 15-inch MacBook Air is powered by the same Apple M2 processor as its smaller sibling, meaning it’s just about the fastest laptop you can buy at this price. Apple’s latest laptop never slowed down and it stayed whisper quiet during my usual multitasking workload, which consists of using Slack, Discord, Outlook and tons of Chrome tabs all at once — often while using split-screen mode and streaming some video just for good measure.

That being said, most modern laptops are pretty fast in everyday use, and it’s the MacBook Air’s benchmark scores that really show how far ahead of the competition it is. Apple’s 15-inch laptop posted the second-highest score we’ve ever gotten on the Geekbench 5 single-core test (a good measure of how fast a system can handle basic tasks), bested only by the 14-inch MacBook Pro and its even more beastly M2 Pro processor. The notebook’s multi-core scores — a better indicator of serious multitasking muscle — were similarly impressive, only falling to the MacBook Pro and a handful of Core i7-powered Windows rivals. It’s worth noting that the 15-inch Air performed nearly identically to the 13-inch model on benchmarks, so you don’t have to get the biggest model for the best performance.

The new MacBook Air is also perfectly capable of playing the latest Mac games, so long as you keep your graphics settings somewhat modest. On our Shadow of the Tomb Raider test (which cycles through the cinematic action game at Highest settings), the 15-inch Air averaged 26 frames per second (fps). That’s just below the 30 fps that we consider ideal for basic playability, and roughly on par with what we got from the M2-powered 13-inch Air as well as the 13-inch Pro. That being said, our benchmark is extra taxing, and you’ll have a totally fine experience with the game if you keep your settings at High or lower.

Excellent battery life

The 15-inch MacBook Air’s speedy performance is complemented by great battery life for working on the road. Apple’s new laptop survived a very strong nine hours and 15 minutes worth of continuous 4K video playback on our battery test — that’s well over a workday’s worth of heavy use, and tops what we got from recent Windows rivals like the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 (eight hours) and Surface Laptop 5 (eight hours, 14 minutes). Perhaps even more impressively, the 15-inch MacBook Air managed to outlast the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro by about 90 minutes on our tests. Your mileage may vary based on how power-intensive your daily tasks are, but you can generally count on the 15-inch Air lasting you all day.

What we didn’t like about it

Midnight is still a fingerprint magnet

The Midnight MacBook Air has had a reputation for being a fingerprint magnet ever since the 13-inch model launched last year, and that problem is only more noticeable on its bigger sibling. My review unit became laden with smudges after just a few hours of casual use, from fingerprints all over the lid and keyboard to wrist markings by the touchpad. I absolutely love this color option — I’ve wanted a blue MacBook for so long — but I wouldn’t recommend buying it unless you’re also prepared to keep a microfiber cloth handy for wiping away the prints. If not, the Silver, Space Gray and Starlight models are a little less smudge-prone.

More ports would be nice

While the 15-inch MacBook Air retains everything great about the 13-inch model, it also keeps the same scant port selection as its smaller sibling with just two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a MagSafe charging port and a headphone jack. The dedicated MagSafe port at least keeps the two USB connections free for accessories, but if you’re a power user who depends on lots of peripherals, you’ll likely find yourself needing to pick up a USB-C hub to connect all your stuff.

The similarly priced Dell XPS 15 has slightly more robust connectivity with three total USB-C ports as well as an SD card slot, giving it an edge for folks who want an easy way to offload photos and videos from a camera. Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 5 is also light on connection options, but it does have the unique advantage of a USB-A port for folks who still have lots of old accessories. The 15-inch MacBook Air’s zippy performance and big display make it a great affordable MacBook Pro alternative, but the ports aren’t quite there to help it go all the way.

How it compares

Bottom line

I reviewed the 15-inch MacBook Air during a busy traveling workweek, which ended up highlighting exactly why you might want to buy this laptop. It gets you a nice big screen for easy multitasking and immersive movie bingeing, all while still being thin and light enough to carry comfortably in a backpack for days on end. Its M2 chip makes it faster than just about anything you can buy at this price, and with the larger MacBook Pros starting at around $2,000, it’s the most affordable big-screen Mac by a wide margin.

If you’re not married to macOS, Dell’s XPS 15 — the bigger version of our favorite Windows laptop — gets you a few extra ports, more storage for the money and an optional touchscreen for easy notetaking and sketching. And if you don’t need a huge display and just want the best overall laptop out there, the 13-inch MacBook Air is a superb value at its new starting price of $1,099. But for folks who want lots of real estate to work with without having to sacrifice portability, the 15-inch MacBook Air is one of the best big-screen laptops you can buy.