MacBook Air 15: A review of the world's thinnest laptop with a 15-inch screen
Apple finally has a relatively inexpensive laptop with a large screen.
It has become the world's thinnest laptop with such a diagonal. It has the M2 processor from the "small" Air 2022 - and in all parameters, except for the size, they are almost identical.
On the face of it, it's perfect for laptop enthusiasts who want a screen larger than 13-14 inches to carry their laptop everywhere.
I've been using the Air 15 as my primary laptop for half a month: editing texts, doing a little gaming, editing podcasts, and watching shows. I usually use a 16-inch MacBook Pro - after the Air, I went back to it with great joy.
In the text, I'll tell you why this happened and what are the pros and cons of the first big "non-professional" MacBook.
Where and how much to buy
From abroad. So the notebook is the cheapest - on Apple's site the basic version can be bought for $1300. The maximum will cost $2500.
However, it will not be possible to deliver the macbook directly to Russia - you will have to use the services of mailforwarders
. In addition, because of the exchange rate fluctuations to take the laptop directly from Apple is not profitable: the price is not so much inferior to gray stores.
In addition, if you order a laptop in America, you can forget about warranty repair - unless you are ready to send a faulty computer to the U.S. at your own expense and negotiate with the service center by e-mail.
There are almost no markings on the case. Just the model number in small print
Differences from MacBook Air 13 2022
MacBook Air 15 is very similar to the 2022 model, but bigger. It has the same body shape, power, port set, and screen quality. The keyboard and webcam are also the same.
The difference in display diagonal between the models is 12.5%. The larger Air is almost a third heavier than the smaller one.
MacBook Air 13 and 15 cost about the same in Russia. For the optimal configuration of Air 13 with 8 GB of RAM, 512 GB SSD disk and 10-core video chip
A size comparison of the Air 13 and Air 15. The difference is noticeable, but it's really only 12.5%.
Design
The notebook is very thin. It's just 1.4 centimeters including the feet. The Air 15's main selling feature is its large screen in the lightest possible body.
The Air 15 is about 300g heavier than the Air 13, weighing in at 1.51kg. That's incredibly small for a large device, especially after the heavy MacBook Pro 16. A couple of times, I even freaked out because my laptop backpack felt too light - I thought it had been stolen while I was lounging in a coffee shop.
On the other hand, not everyone will like carrying around an extra kilogram and a half. Plus, the 13-inch MacBook Air fits in some women's bags and small backpacks, but you'll need something roomier to carry it.
The compactness is also felt in the included charger. It's small even compared to the pro-version adapter, not to mention the solid power supplies on Windows laptop chargers.
Every laptop I have is subjected to the passenger princess test - I check how comfortable it is to work on it from the passenger seat in a car. The Air 15 passed the test, but to reach the arrows or Enter with my hand, I had to rest my elbow uncomfortably against the door
The keyboard is good, but the keys are quickly wiped down. In a laptop for 1500$ you can't expect to see keys made of cheap ABS-plastic, which after a couple of months of use begin to shine characteristically.
The problem is noticed in all MacBooks of the last three years, it's not exclusive to Air 15. Scuffed keys with indelible fingerprints do not interfere with life, but spoil the impression of use.
The problem is solved by buying a keyboard cover. I'm not ready for such solutions: they greatly reduce the pleasure of typing, which is especially important if you work a lot with texts.
The problem was noticed and publicized a few years ago, but other than overlays, no solution has been found yet
Aesthetics aside, the Air 15's keyboard is very pleasant: large enough to avoid accidental key misses. The keys themselves don't squeeze very deeply, but that's only going to bother the most dedicated fans of noisy mechanics. Thanks to a very thin body, the keyboard is minimally elevated above the table, so your wrists lie flat and get less tired.
The touchpad is huge. The touchpad is equally good and responsive on any MacBook, but on the larger 15- and 16-inch models, the touchpads are especially nice to use. The thing is, the large panel accommodates all five fingers at once, which means gestures are easier to use.
On the Air 13, to open Launchpad with programs, you had to make sure your fingers stayed within the panel. No such problems with the 15-inch model.
Ports are sufficient for basic work. The new Air has four connectors:
- MagSafe magnetic connector for charging.
- Two Type-C Thunderbolt 3. They support data transfer at speeds up to 5 Gbps. They can also be used to charge your laptop and connect monitors.
- 3.5 mm headphone output. The only connector on the right side of the notebook.
The ports on the Air 13 and Air 15 are identical to each other. For basic use they are enough: you can simultaneously connect a monitor, charger, external storage and headphones to the device.
But for any non-standard situations - for example, connecting a TV via HDMI or copying photos from the camera's flash drive - you'll have to buy adapters. Plus, the Air 15's charging ports are only on one side, which means you'll have to bend the cable unnaturally every time the outlet is on the right side.
My dog Kumo doesn't understand why a couple more connectors couldn't be added to the same enclosure for convenience
But supports Apple's decision to leave the 3.5mm headphone jack in laptops
Screen
At 15 inches, working with two windows is easier. This is important for those who work with multiple programs at once or check sources. The 12.5% difference seems small, but Google Docs fit on half the Air 15's screen much more freely than on the smaller model.
The picture is juicy but natural. A common feature of all MacBooks, but one that can't be overlooked. IPS-matrix, although it suffers from low contrast, but perfectly displays colors "out of the box". That's partly why MacBooks are so appreciated by photographers and videographers: you don't have to adjust the screen to get the colors right.
The bright triangle shows how much of the popular sRGB color space the laptop screen covers. The picture shows a perfect result, in cheap laptops the triangles are smaller and disproportionate.
ProMotion is not present in the laptop.
It means that the screen supports refresh rate of 60 Hz only. This is enough for everyday tasks, but if you get used to the 120 Hz screen, scrolling a page on the display with 60 Hz will look a bit jagged, intermittent.
The difference is especially noticeable when switching from ProMotion devices like the iPhone 13 Pro and MacBook Pro 16. But if your eyes are not used to the increased frequency, there will be no discomfort.
Brightness is acceptable, but you won't be able to work in the sun. ** The Air 15's screen brightness is 500 nits, like most laptops. At home it's comfortable to work in any conditions, but in the bright sun the display dims so much that you can't even make out the text on the screen.
Separately, I'd like to note not the upper, but the lower brightness bar: it's also important not to shine too brightly in your face in the dark. The Air 15 is fine with it - at minimum brightness, the device can be used in the dark without Night Shift turned on.
The screen glares in the sun, so you definitely shouldn't turn on the dark theme outdoors
You can hide it with third-party programs like Forehead, TopNotch or De-Notch-ifier. But then you will lose useful space at the top of the screen.
Unlike the "dynamic island" on the iPhone 14 Pro, the bangs don't work as a separate UI element. It's a static black spot that hides the webcam and light sensors.
Technically, Apple may well have avoided this questionable decision. Especially since FaceID doesn't exist in MacBooks. For example, Huawei Matebook X Pro has a top frame that is not much thicker, but it includes not only a camera, but also a face unlock scanner.
The screen space under the bangs is not cut out in any way - it can overlap, for example, the items in the top bar menu if there are too many of them
Sound and Camera
Speakers are enough for music and watching movies. Laptops don't usually pay attention to acoustics: it's assumed that they are more often used with headphones or external speakers. Despite this, Apple's laptops have always been different from their Windows-based competitors: the quality of microphones and speakers in MacBooks has improved dramatically in recent years.
The audio system specifically in the Air 15 isn't revolutionary: it's still just very high quality speakers. The 15-inch version has six speakers, the 13-inch version has four. The difference is only noticeable in head-to-head comparisons. In addition, the limitations of the design have an impact: the speakers are hidden behind the keyboard, so the sound is slightly muffled. This problem is not even present on Air with the M1 2020: there the speakers were placed on the sides of the keyboard.
Even without noticeable innovations, the speakers are good. Especially in the low frequencies - where other laptop speakers begin to whistle and wheeze. The sound is comparable to "Station Mini" and small speakers like JBL Flip 4. For use in an apartment they are enough with reserve.
There's enough room on the sides of the Air 15's keyboard to put speakers in it
But they're hidden somewhere deep in the heatsink, right where the laptop folds down
The Air 15 actually has three microphones in one place, in the folding mechanism next to the speakers.
Voice is clear, background noise is well filtered. You can go to work calls with it without headphones: the sound from the speakers does not get into the microphone at all.
Musician and sound producer Andrew Huang says he recorded a few tracks on a MacBook microphone instead of a professional studio microphone. No one noticed the difference
The camera isn't just for calls. The Air 15 has a Full HD webcam. It handles low-light conditions in the room well, and the picture is crisp and bright.
It's hard to imagine someone shooting video on the webcam or taking professional photos, so the camera in MacBook can be called ideal for its tasks. Besides, you can use an iPhone as a webcam, and there's no need for a built-in webcam at all. Except for the fact that you won't be able to watch tictocks during calls.
In case you decide to go out of the field on a call - count on a good picture
In more familiar home conditions, the quality is also not bad, but the "soap" is clearly visible on the face - traces of image enhancers
Performance
The processor is enough to work with photos and video. The eight-core Apple M2 chip performs well in complex tasks like photo and video programming.
Apple's eight-core M2 chip performs well in complex tasks like programming, photo and audio work.
You can render video, too, but the Air 15 is much slower than the pro versions. This is mainly due to the less powerful graphics card.
In household tasks, the performance limitation is not felt at all: the laptop will be enough for hundreds of open tabs in Chrome, 4K-video in the background and work with a heavy project in Figma
for a dozen web pages.
In synthetic tests in Cinebench R23
scores 1500 points in single-core mode and about 8000 points in multi-core mode. The Air 15 is clearly not the best solution for working on complex graphics, but for the thinnest fifteen-inch laptop in the world, the result is decent.
- *The Apple M2 chip comes in two versions, with either eight or ten graphics cores. The Air 13 has both, while the Air 15 has only the more powerful version.
That means the laptop can handle demanding tasks like gaming and video work even in the basic version.
If you're familiar with Windows graphics cards, the graphics chip in the Air 15 is close to the GTX 1650 in terms of performance. In simple words: enough for Apple Arcade games, video creation, and 3D graphics.
Despite the good performance in Blender
For graphics work, I suggest getting a pro version of the MacBook or a Windows laptop. Comparing an ultraportable device to massive workstations is pointless.
Apple Arcade games are handled flawlessly by the Macbook, though they run without issue on my 2019 iPhone 11 Pro as well.
In the list above, only native games, that is, those adapted to Apple's processor. You can also play Windows or Mac titles for Windows or Mac with Intel processors using the Rosetta 2 emulator. But the performance so falls in times, and some games stop launching.
I was never able to run Tropico 6 using the built-in emulation
I used the Air 15 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. This is not the base version - it will only have 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The versions with 8GB of RAM will be fine with the browser and most apps. But processing hundreds of photos at once or video editing will seriously slow down. This happens because the built-in video chip uses RAM simultaneously with the processor. If the reserve is small, there may not be enough for everyone.
And even in applications like Adobe Photoshop, which rely more on the processor than on graphics, it is also desirable to have more RAM. The computer needs to keep all the necessary files at hand, and not to load them every time from the SSD.
Air 15 practically does not warm up under load. Thanks to sophisticated passive cooling.
the notebook manages to stay cool and not burn your feet if you have to edit a movie on your knees.
I felt barely noticeable heat while I was stress-testing the processor and graphics card. The keyboard gets warm, but the touchpad is cool under any load.
Despite the absence of coolers and passive cooling, the heatsinks and air ducts in the notebook are arranged in such a way that even a serious load hardly slows it down and does not heat it up.
Convenience
Open with one hand. It's a MacBook.
Battery lasts for a day. Or 14.5 hours of normal use. The figure is similar to other Apple laptops: for the first few years, you may not charge them at all during the day until the battery inevitably starts to lose capacity.
MagSafe charging is convenient, but only on one side. The laptop can be charged in two ways: via the MagSafe magnetic connector or via USB-C. There will be no difference in speed, but a special connector allows you not to occupy a slot for a monitor or an external SSD. And if someone pulls the wire, the laptop will not fly to the floor after him.
But there is one inconvenience - all connectors are on the left side. That is, if you have a socket on the right side, the wire will be bent in the place of connection to the laptop and will wear out faster.
The big screen is really useful. Apple did their job: with a small difference in size, it's much more comfortable to work behind a 15-inch screen. In half a month of use, I've only regretted working on a 13-inch laptop a couple of times: in a train compartment and in the back of a cab. In tight spaces, the size makes a difference.
Monolithic construction - repair can be a problem. As a laptop owner, it's important that key parts can be replaced or repaired in the event of a malfunction. Or if coffee gets spilled on the keyboard.
The Air 15 is almost unrepairable. Four screws on the bottom panel hide the motherboard, to which the processor, RAM and permanent memory are soldered. In fact, only the battery can be replaced. Even the keyboard is not detachable - if something happens to it, you'll have to replace the whole lower part of the case.
- *Apgrade is not available - it's important to choose the right version right away. RAM and persistent memory cannot be added or replaced - only together with the entire motherboard, processor and ports.
So if after a couple of months it turns out that for your tasks something is not enough, the laptop will have to sell and buy a new one.
The storage in the base version is slower than in the others. The 256GB SSD in 2023 is frankly small. It fills up in a couple of months if you download movies to the laptop and don't clean the cache in programs. Besides, in the minimum version 50 GB will take the system, and the user will be left with about 200 GB.
Also, the 256GB drive is slower than the 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB versions. This is because in the older configurations, it consists of two chips, while in the initial configuration it consists of one. Because of this, the computer can't split the reading and writing of files into multiple parallel processes. The speed gain on older models is 30-50%.
Nevertheless, even in the basic version the read and write speeds are sufficient - about 2.5 Gb/s and 1.5 Gb/s respectively. This is enough for copying files from an external drive, but videographers will be more likely to encounter limitations. They not only need to copy and read files in the system, but also constantly load and overwrite them in video editors.
Analogues
If you need a laptop right now, in addition to the Air 15, you should look at the following models of MacBooks.
Air 13 2022. Almost the same laptop, but smaller and a little cheaper. This is one of the best compact laptops in the world: very thin and light, yet powerful and works without charging for a full day, or even a day and a half.
Significant differences from the 15-inch model: the speakers are a little worse, and the integrated graphics card in the base model has only eight cores instead of ten.
The older Air has a different design and a wider-bezeled screen, but no bangs. It also has a worse webcam and no MagSafe connector, so it only charges via USB-C.
MacBook Pro 14 2021. The last-generation Pro with the M1 Pro processor could be a worthy alternative to the larger Air. It takes up less space in your bag, but is 6% heavier. Its screen is only 7% smaller.
At the same time, it is 30-40% more powerful due to the improved graphics card and is suitable for long resource-intensive work thanks to active cooling with fans. For browsing, email, or web design, the M2 has enough power, but for video or 3D graphics, the M1 Pro is much better suited.
The MacBook Pro 14 also has better speakers and a better display. The brightness of the advanced mini-LED panel reaches 1600 nits in HDR content - three times higher than Ayr. In addition, the Pro's screen is more contrasty and can reproduce near-perfect blacks, while Ayr's dark areas will look a bit whitish.
The Pro 14 also has a separate HDMI port and SD card slot, which can be useful for photographers and videographers.
Asus VivoBook Pro 15 OLED. This is a flagship Windows ultrabook: not as thin and light as the Air 15, but more powerful thanks to a discrete RTX 3050 graphics card and a high-quality OLED screen.
It weighs 1.8 pounds, and it's heavier to carry around. But it has a full set of connectors on the sides: several USB, HDMI, card reader. On the downside, OLED screens flicker and can cause fatigue and headaches for some people. Plus, there's a risk that the panel will burn out and "Start" will be permanently imprinted at the bottom of the screen.
Huawei MateBook X Pro. The closest to the title "Like a MacBook" among Windows devices. The device is solid and monolithic, the body is matte, it doesn't collect fingerprints on itself. The screen is not 16:10, as in the Macbook, but 3:2 - the first time at such a "square" will be unaccustomed. It has more ports, there is face and fingerprint unlocking, and there is no weird cutout on top of the screen.
On the downside: the sound is quieter, and the battery lasts up to eight hours - two to three times less than the Air on the M2.
Should you buy a MacBook Air 15
The Air 15 closes the niche of thin laptops with big screens for the first time in 15 years. It's a good fit for those who are constantly on the go but want to comfortably work with documents and photos or watch movies.
For early 2024, I recommend waiting for the next generation if you don't need a laptop right now. Apple will unveil models on the M3 chip at one of their presentations in September, and the current ones will likely be cheaper. In addition, at this point a lot of people are selling 2022-2023 laptops from hand and there is an opportunity to take laptops in good condition with a noticeable discount.
