The MacBook Air is largely considered the “best” laptop for those wanting a great experience without breaking the bank. However, while some were hoping for Apple to announce a successor to the 12-inch MacBook, many others have been wishing for a larger MacBook Air.
That’s exactly what Apple delivered as part of its Keynote event to kick off WWDC 2023. The 15-inch MacBook Air is finally here, giving you an incredibly thin and lightweight laptop with a bigger screen, while still being powered by Apple Silicon. While we haven’t gotten our hands on the 2023 MacBook Air just yet, the first wave of reviews has been published, so we’ve rounded up some of the best to help you decide whether you should pick one up for yourself, or stick with what you already have.
“I wish I had more to say about the new 15-inch MacBook Air, but really, the best compliment I can give it is that it’s just as great as the 13-inch model I reviewed last summer. I liked that laptop so much that I bought one for myself. Now Apple sells that same computer but with a 15.3-inch display. If you’ve hesitated to consider buying a MacBook Air because its screens always seemed a bit too cramped, you now have another option. If you’ve always wanted a bigger display but didn’t want to pay more than $1000 for the privilege, your time is now.”
“The 15-inch MacBook Air is the best of both worlds—a larger display in a light and thin chassis. If the majority of your days are spent working on a laptop, even if it’s as routine as sending emails, organizing spreadsheets, and typing words into documents, the 15-inch model promises to save you from the migraines that come with squinting at a cramped screen all day.”
“The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (2023) is essentially just a larger MacBook Air 13-inch – and that’s both a good and bad thing. It has a stunning design, a brilliant screen, and possibly the best speaker setup you’ll find in a laptop. However, the bump in screen size means it’s less portable – one of the key selling points of the Air line – while anyone hoping for a more ambitious upgrade than just more screen real estate may be disappointed.”
“It’s a larger-screened laptop that will be great for certain kinds of professional work that benefit from more screen space without needing a ton of extra computing power. It’s of a piece, actually, with the M2 Pro version of the Mac mini, which provides a similar bridge between the basic one-size-fits-most Mac mini and the pricey Mac Studios. It’s been a good year for Mac owners whose needs straddle the line between Apple’s consumer and “pro” lineups.”
“Thank God that headset shared the floor with this, a $1,300 laptop that does not claim to move the world but a laptop that does its job, with speakers, with screens, with processors that do things right. This device doesn’t manufacture a need; it found a need, and it’s filling it. We don’t need to be convinced that we want the Air 15. We’ve been waiting for it.”
“As you’re surely aware, the 15-inch MacBook Air is little more than a bigger version of the computer that Apple released a year ago. But that’s damming it with faint praise when actually this is one of the best Apple laptops I’ve used in a long time. It does everything the 13-inch MacBook Air does with a noticeably larger screen and only a modest price increase. The only real catch is that I think the RAM and storage in the base model is rather stingy, not an unusual tactic for Apple. The M2 smokes even with only 8GB of RAM, but consider adding more if you want your computer to remain speedy for years to come.”
“The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch is pretty much the answer to my laptop prayers. I am an avid MacBook Air user and the 13.6-inch model is the MacBook I find myself recommending most, especially for everyday users. Previously, there was only one screen size to choose from, which meant that if you wanted a larger display, you would need to look at the MacBook Pro line, which is significantly more money and comes with more power than most people would ever be able to fully utilise.”
“The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch is something of an experiment. It’s Apple’s attempt to branch out from its existing stable of products to deliver new takes on old favorites, and the first bigger Air is a rousing success. As reviewers, we’re more “tests-and-data” kind of people than most laptop shoppers, blotting out brand loyalty for objective measures of capability and performance. But we cannot deny that this is a bigger and better MacBook Air—the numbers prove it out.”
“But either way, these laptops are over $1,000 less than the 16-inch-screen MacBook Pro. These are the easiest way to get a great larger-screened MacBook now, and they’re worth it. One note: the 15 now has a year-old M2 processor. Apple’s M2 was only a moderate increase in performance over the breakthrough advance of the M1 before it when it arrived last summer. Will a future M3 take another leap? Maybe you shouldn’t worry. Apple’s speed gains on the M-series chips over the Intel models have been so good that they still feel fantastic.”
“If you’ve been waiting for a larger MacBook Air or a more affordable larger-screen Apple laptop, the 15-inch MacBook Air achieves that on both fronts. It then pairs that with excellent performance thanks to the M2 chip, a long runtime, and a great display fit for work and play. I’m also a big fan of the keyboard and the larger trackpad here. Mostly, it just comes down to the color you like the most and if you can handle the fingerprints that come along with the sweet looks of midnight.”
“Given Apple’s previous annual chip refresh, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the 15-inch just missed out on the M3. It seems entirely likely that a 13-inch refresh could arrive later this year, sporting the chip, which would be a bummer to brand new owners of the 15-inch MacBook Air. Some spec improvements over last year’s model would have been nice. But betting on Apple refreshes can be a fool’s errand (after I typed that, naturally, a rumor dropped than an M3 Air is coming sooner than later). As ever, the question is whether it’s worth waiting for that inevitability. Worst case scenario, you’re stuck with a great entry level laptop and a hint of processor envy.”
Andrew Myrick is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US. He enjoys everything to do with technology, including tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. Perhaps his favorite past-time is having a never-ending supply of different keyboards and gaming handhelds that end up collecting more dust than the consoles that are being emulated.
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