MacBook Air (M2, 15-inch) review: A big-screen Apple laptop for the masses

For years, there was a calling for Apple to make a laptop with a larger screen in the Air product line. Sure, there was the MacBook Pro for users who wanted a bigger display, but not everyone who preferred a 15- or 16-inch screen wanted the MacBook Pro. For a while, the 13-inch MacBook Air actually was the bigger one, with the 11-inch model serving as the small-screened variant. That changed in June of this year when Apple debuted the 15-inch version of the M2 MacBook Air. In essence, it's everything we loved about the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air — but bigger. If you're looking for a big screen in an Apple laptop but don't want to spend MacBook Pro money, the 15-inch MacBook Air is for you.

But I am going to push back on something: This has no business being an Air laptop. Remember, this is still the product line that could fit in a standard manilla envelope. The product that sparked an entire new category of thin-and-light laptops across both macOS and Windows devices. With a width of 13.4 inches and a weight of 3.3 pounds, the 15-inch MacBook Air just simply isn't all that portable. In fact, the first-ever MacBook Air (released in 2008) is lighter than this MacBook Air. While it might not necessarily be a MacBook Air, that doesn't take away from the reality that it's one of the best 15-inch laptops out there for basic productivity work.

About this review: This review was written after three weeks of testing a MacBook Air (M2, 15-inch) provided by Apple. The company did not have any input and did not see the review's contents before publishing.

MacBook Air (M2, 15-inch): Pricing and availability

Apple revealed the 15-inch MacBook Air at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2023, and it's based on the original M2 MacBook Air released in July 2022. It's been available for purchase for a few months now at retailers like Apple, Amazon, and Best Buy. The base model of the 15-inch MacBook Air starts $1,200 and features an M2 chip with 8GB of unified memory and 256GB of SSD storage. You can upgrade the RAM to 16GB or 24GB, and the SSD can be upgraded to as much as 2TB of storage. It features an aluminum body that can be purchased in Midnight (dark blue), Starlight (gold-ish silver), Space Gray, and Silver colorways.

Since there is literally no upgrade path for the MacBook Air post-purchase, I'd consider 16GB of unified memory the bare minimum and would strongly recommend an upgrade to the 512GB SSD. This is the configuration that I received for my review unit, and it retails for $1,580 at full price. If you're considering the base model for your purchase, take into account that the performance and benchmark data in this review will likely be better than the base-model configuration.

Design

A thin, sleek, and modern fingerprint magnet

The MacBook Air needed a redesign for a while, with the original wedge-shaped form factor lasting an insane 14 years across multiple generations. Apple fully redesigned the device in 2022 with the 13.3-inch MacBook Air, and that same design is present on the 15.3-inch MacBook Air. It's one of my most favorite designs Apple has ever shipped on a laptop, with the MacBook Air having a sleek and modern look. It's technically thicker than the wedge-shaped MacBooks Air at their thinnest points, but the uniform thickness of the 15-inch MacBook Air means it is thinner than the older model's thickest points. Apple even says that the 15-inch MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop of that size available, and at just a 0.45-inch thickness, I'd believe it.

It isn't all great for the rest of the MacBook Air's dimensions go, though. The 15-inch MacBook Air weighs 3.3 pounds, which is considerably heavier than the 2.7-pound weight of the 13-inch model. There's also the overall footprint of the 15-inch MacBook Air to consider, with a width of 13.4 inches and a depth of 9.35 inches. All this combined doesn't really make the MacBook Air a portable machine. It'll fit in backpacks designed for laptops of this size, but it isn't fitting comfortably in drawstring bags, purses, and totes like the 13-inch model.

It's one of my most favorite designs Apple has ever shipped on a laptop, with the MacBook Air having a sleek and modern look.

For laptops in this category, I prioritize size and weight above all else, and my issue with the 15-inch MacBook Air is you don't get many extra features with the bigger size. There's of course the extra screen size, but the ports and internal components are exactly the same between the 13-inch and 15-inch model. For me, the extra size and weight isn't a worthy tradeoff for a bigger screen. For some people, the ability to run two apps comfortably on the same desktop is totally worth the bigger footprint. It all comes down to preference.

One significant drawback that doesn't come down to preference is that the MacBook Air is a fingerprint magnet. At first, I thought this was a problem exclusive to the Midnight colorway. Then my review unit arrived in the Starlight color and that machine became covered in fingerprints as well, so be wary of fingerprints on every color. I've also noticed the paint scratching around the ports, mostly on the Midnight color, which I've used for about four months. In fact my titanium Apple Watch band has actually stripped most of the paint off the laptop's palm rests on the Midnight model. These aren't necessarily reasons to avoid the 15-inch MacBook Air, but they are something to keep in mind.

Ports

It has everything you need — kind of

You get four total ports on the MacBook Air, which should be more than enough, at least on paper. There's a MagSafe 3 connector for charging, two Thunderbolt/USB4 ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Though you can charge the laptop via USB-C, I found myself using the MagSafe 3 cable most often. It's simply a superb connector, packing a status indicator light and quick detachability, so I'm willing to carry two cables with me instead of just one. With two Thunderbolt/USB4 ports, you can adapt these ports into virtually anything you need, from HDMI to cables as ancient as FireWire. That means you can charge, listen to music with wired headphones, and still have two USB ports for things like data transfer or display output.

But still, I'm going to have to say it isn't enough. Laptops of this size should have at least three USB ports, with at least one of those ports on each size. That way you can charge from whichever side is most convenient and still have plenty of ports to use for accessories. It also doesn't matter how many ports you have, at least when it comes to display output. Since the base M2 chip only supports output to a single external display, that's all you'll get without an expensive Thunderbolt dock. This doesn't affect me that much, since I have a desktop Mac Studio for use with external displays. For people who want to use this MacBook Air as their only computing device, the display output limitation is a huge consideration.

Keyboard and trackpad

The best of any laptop in this category

Aside from a few dark years in the 2010s, Apple's keyboards and trackpads have always been top-notch. Even compared to the most premium Windows laptops, I have yet to find a trackpad that feels better than the one on modern MacBooks, including the 15-inch MacBook Air. The haptic feedback is excellent, and touch sensitivity is great as well. A lot of macOS is built using gesture-based navigation, like a three-finger swipe up to show all of your open windows or a three-finger swipe left or right to change Spaces. I can fly around the operating system with ease thanks to the trackpad, and this is part of the reason I don't use split-screen or multi-window views that often.

The MacBook Air has the perfect amount of key travel for this form factor, and I can literally type all day without feeling much fatigue.

As far as the keyboard goes, it's downright perfect for my preferences. I like medium-travel keyboards, where you can feel a bit of travel, but there isn't too much depth to a single press. In fact, I find that I'm quicker on these types of keyboards than mechanical ones. The MacBook Air has the perfect amount of key travel for this form factor, and I can literally type all day without feeling much fatigue. There's also Touch ID, and this lets you unlock your Mac with your fingerprint. More importantly, it lets you autofill passwords from your iCloud Password Keychain, essentially serving as your master password.

Display

Simply great, notch included

The 15-inch MacBook Air has a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, which is Apple's name for its lowest-end IPS LED technology. That isn't a knock on the MacBook Air's display, it's just a compliment to how good MacBook Pro screens have gotten over the years. The MacBook Air has a 2880x1864 resolution with a pixel density of 224 pixels per inch, and this confirms that the 15-inch MacBook Air display is just a scaled-up version of the smaller model. It has a peak brightness of 500 nits, which was more than enough brightness even while working out in bright sunlight. Apple also says it supports a billion colors and the P3 color gamut, so this machine works for photo editors who appreciate color accuracy.

While testing the MacBook Air, we got support for 100% sRGB, 81% NTSC, 83% AdobeRGB, and 94% P3 gamuts. For reference, these numbers are a bit lower than our results for the 13-inch MacBook Air, but are still good. Though it isn't the best laptop for color accuracy, the Liquid Retina display on the MacBook Air still looks excellent. However, you won't find some premium features like 120Hz refresh rates on the MacBook Air. If you're just using your laptop for web browsing, basic productivity, or even photo editing, that won't be a problem.

For the uninitiated, it might seem strange to have a notch on your MacBook's display. I actually like it, as it gives Apple more room to fit in a 1080p webcam and only blocks space taken up by the menu bar. When you're in full screen mode, there's a setting that tells the menu bar to show permanently, and I prefer this mode to prevent the notch obstructing my windows. The front-facing camera is good, but I tend to use Continuity Camera exclusively as my webcam. By using my iPhone as my webcam, I get high quality video without paying up for a dedicated webcam. Though this isn't necessarily a part of the MacBook Air's hardware, it is a perk of using a Mac laptop that can't be understated.

Performance

Excellent for light and moderate workloads

With the second generation of Apple Silicon processors, Apple is building upon the advancements it made in the M1 system-on-a-chip. You won't see as big of a jump from M1 to M2 as from Intel to M1, but it's still a very good processor. In fact, in a few of the benchmarks we ran, the M2 processor hit the highest single-core scores of any laptop on the market. For single-core performance, there's no better chipset than the M2. However, for more advanced workloads that favor multi-core performance, there are significant advantages to choosing an M2 Pro or M2 Max chip on a MacBook Pro instead. For these reasons, we'd recommend the MacBook Air for use cases that include web browsing, productivity apps, and photo editing. When you start talking about video editing and beyond, it's time to start looking at the MacBook Pro.

For single-core performance, there's no better chipset than the M2.

The MacBook Air has no active cooling systems, which completely eliminates fan noise. I have a few other Windows laptops on test right now, and it was genuinely jarring to hear fans start up after using M2 MacBooks Air for months. While the audial impacts are great, there is a downside for thermal performance. You can get the MacBook Air to throttle, but you'll have to throw a lot at it. During my benchmarking tasks, I recorded a max temperature of 116 degrees Fahrenheit on the aluminum body above the keyboard. This is where the MacBook Air gets the hottest, and it is noticeable when you're doing intensive tasks.

I ran Geekbench 6, Cinebench R24, and Crossmark on both the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBooks Air. Though these machines should run the same, the thermal distribution through the bigger chassis could have had different performance effects. After testing, we found that performance is relatively equal between the two MacBook Air sizes. When one system outperforms the other, it's what we'd consider within the margin of error. The benchmarks do confirm what we already know: The M2 chip crushes it in single-core performance.

I routinely edit photos and do other kinds of productivity work as a tech journalist, with the M2 MacBook Air serving as one of my primary laptops. The other is the dual-screen Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, which has active cooling and a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U processor. The MacBook Air handled all of my workflows with ease, and there was no sluggish behavior or thermal throttling whatsoever. For what it's worth, my experience with the M2 chip on the MacBook Air has been much better than my 16-inch MacBook Pro (Intel i7, 2019), which was one of the last-updated Intel Mac laptops.

But the killer part of the MacBook Air is hands-down the battery life. It's the only laptop I've ever owned that I feel comfortable taking out for a full day of work without a charger. I typically get anywhere from six to eight hours of constant use on my MacBook Air, with a few extra hours of standby time. Depending on what I'm doing (and how high my brightness level is), I can get up to 10 hours. This is improved with a low power mode that is new to MacBooks, and though this does limit performance, it extends battery life quite a bit. Perhaps my favorite part of my MacBook Air's battery is that the system is so efficient you can actually power it with portable chargers, when you're in a pinch.

The MacBook Air is the only laptop I've ever owned that I feel comfortable taking out for a full day of work without a charger.

Should you buy the MacBook Air (M2, 15-inch)?

You should buy the MacBook Air (M2, 15-inch) if:

• You want a 15-inch laptop in a thin form factor
• You primarily do web browsing, productivity work, or photo editing on your laptop

You should NOT buy the MacBook Air (M2, 15-inch) if:

• You want an ultra-portable laptop
• You need more power than the M2 with passive cooling provides
• You need more ports or require multiple external displays

The 15-inch MacBook Air is one of the best laptops of this size you can buy, especially in this thin of a form factor. It's my go-to recommendation for people who want a big-screened MacBook for casual use. To me, the 15-inch MacBook Air lives in a weird middle ground, because people wanting a portable machine should absolutely choose the smaller model. But the configuration we tested costs $1,580 at full price, and the 16-inch MacBook Pro retails for $2,000. That means if you're an average user who wants a bigger screen, your only reasonable option is this 15-inch MacBook Air.

And that might not necessarily be a bad thing. The 15-inch MacBook Air — like its smaller counterpart — has a great display, impressive performance, and best-in-class battery life. It also runs macOS, which is a huge perk for certain workflows and for anyone who has other products in the Apple ecosystem. While I'll be sticking with the 13-inch MacBook Air as my daily driver, anyone who wants that machine in a bigger form factor will be happy with the 15-inch MacBook Air.