Apple (AAPL) has finally released a 15-inch version of its MacBook Air. This means that you can now have a MacBook with enough screen space to comfortably help you through your workday or stream some movies while lounging on the couch.
The 15-inch MacBook Air packs plenty of performance (take care of the Apple M2 chip), a great keyboard, and long battery life in a portable package that won’t leave you with a backache after carrying it around all day.
With a starting price of $1,299, it’s not quite a budget notebook. But given that Apple’s base 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 starts at $1,099, and the base 13-inch MacBook Air with the older M1 chip starts at $999, the 15-inch Air isn’t too far off the mark.
Should you buy it? If you need a powerful laptop that will easily last you all day and won’t let you down in the power department, this is an easy sell.
What it’s like to use the 15-inch MacBook Air
Apple offers the 15-inch MacBook Air in four colors: Midnight, Starlight, Space Gray, and Silver. I’ve been able to use the Midnight Edition of the Air, and while I’m a fan of the gradient, it’s worth noting that it picks up fingerprints fairly easily. Despite its large screen, Apple says the 15-inch Air is the world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop. And at 3.3 pounds, it’s also fairly lightweight.
If you’re a video or photo editor and want to connect a media card over the air, you’ll need a separate adapter. This is because Apple only gave the 15-inch laptop two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack. There’s also a MagSafe power port, so you don’t have to worry about your charger using one of the Thunderbolt ports, but with a laptop this size, I would have liked to see an extra port or two.
The backlit Magic Keyboard is absolutely great at clicking on articles, like this one, that I write on my laptop, while its Force Touch trackpad is smooth and accurate. There’s also a Touch ID sensor built into the power button for secure login and Apple Pay.
As for the screen, Apple has equipped the 15-inch MacBook Air with a Liquid Retina display that offers exceptional color and clarity. At the top of the board is the laptop’s 1080p FaceTime camera.
Inside, the 15-inch MacBook Air packs an M2 processor from Apple, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. The RAM can be upgraded to 16GB or 24GB, while the storage capacity can be increased to 2TB. Of course, these upgrades will bring the price up to $2,499.
In terms of overall performance, Apple says the 15-inch Air is twice as fast as the flagship 15-inch computer powered by one of the Intel (INTC) Core i7 chips. In my experience, I’ve found the Air to be incredibly responsive. At no point did I notice a slowdown during my time with the Air.
The Air isn’t designed for video editing like the MacBook Pro, and while you can play a few games, it won’t blow out a Windows gaming PC. But if you’re using the Air for common daily tasks, you’ll have plenty of processing performance to spare.
battery life? It’s excellent. I used the Air on its battery all day at the office with a secondary monitor plugged in and had plenty of juice to get rid of the next morning. In other words, Apple’s claims that this is a long-lasting laptop aren’t exaggerated.
Should you get it?
The 15-inch MacBook Air is lightweight and thin, but has a screen big enough to get work done. The price, well, that’s a little high for me. You can get other premium laptops for a few hundred dollars less.
But the quality and performance of the 15-inch MacBook Air is undeniable. My wife and I are buying one soon.
Daniel Holly He is the Technical Editor at Yahoo Finance. He has been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @employee.
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