Apple MacBook Air 15in (2023) review

The pitch for the 15in MacBook Air couldn’t be much simpler: it’s the MacBook Air, but bigger. 

Apple has changed as little as possible about the laptop’s innards, instead simply expanding the 13in model outwards to fit in a bigger screen and some extra battery capacity. 

That’s hardly cause for complaint though. The M2-powered 13in model is itself a winner, and at only a year old it’s hardly in need of reinvention – though that time has helped the Windows competition catch up when it comes to pure performance. 

Still, the combination of outstanding battery life, excellent Apple design, and a relatively affordable price point make this a compelling larger laptop for those who don’t need all the power of a MacBook Pro. 

Design & build 

• Range of four muted colours 
• Thin and light aluminium design 
• Limited ports 

The 15in MacBook Air looks exactly the same as the 13in, except for the obvious size difference. It’s built from the same 100% recycled aluminium, and ships in the same set of restrained colours: Silver, Starlight (gold), Space Grey, and Midnight (very dark blue – pictured). 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

As you’d expect given the name, it’s thin and light – in fact, at 1.15cm thick it’s a mere 0.02cm thicker than the 13in equivalent, which you really would struggle to notice. The 1.51kg weight is a bigger jump, but still light enough to comfortably lug round in a backpack all day. 

Apple’s usual polish is seen throughout, from the wobble-free hinge to the pristine, uninterrupted underside of the laptop. My only real design complaint is that my Midnight model is a bit of a fingerprint magnet, though other finishes may fare better. 

One big disappointment is that Apple didn’t use the extra chassis space to fit in any more ports. Just like the 13in model this only features a 3.5mm headphone jack, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a pair of USB 4/Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

Those two USB-C ports can also be used to charge the laptop, but annoyingly are both found on the left, next to the MagSafe socket – would it have killed Apple to have thrown one on the right to give you an extra option in awkward charging spots? 

Note also that there are no USB-A ports at all, so you’ll need a dongle or adapter for older USB-A accessories. You also won’t find the HDMI port or SD card slot that Apple reserves for its Pro laptops, though that’s a more understandable omission. 

Keyboard, trackpad & webcam 

• Comfortable, full-size keyboard 
• Expansive haptic trackpad 
• Basic 1080p webcam – despite the notch 

The keyboard here is large, comfortable, and backlit, with a fingerprint sensor built into the power button at the top-right.  

It doesn’t run edge-to-edge, leaving a lot of space to the sides, so I’m sure some will lament Apple’s decision not to fit in a numpad – or even simply expand the rather cramped arrow keys. Still, if those won’t bother you then there’s little to fault here. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

See also  Honor 70 review

Similarly, the trackpad is expansive, running almost to the laptop’s bottom edge, and uses haptic tech to provide touch feedback without actually moving the pad itself when you click. 

Unlike Windows rivals including Dell and Huawei, Apple hasn’t expanded the haptic toolset to add extra functionality or features however, so this remains a straightforward enough input option. 

Then there’s the webcam. The large notch cut into the display may have led you to believe that the MacBook Air includes the iPhones’ FaceID tech, or that its webcam will be especially capable, but I’m afraid neither is true. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

The 1080p camera here is slightly higher resolution than most rivals (720p remains, frustratingly, the norm) but to be honest, video quality isn’t appreciably better. Footage is still soft, details are smudgy, and the camera struggles in anything other than ideal lighting. 

It is, in other words, a bog standard laptop webcam. Despite that big ol’ notch. 

Screen & speakers 

• 15.3in IPS display 
• 2880 x 1864 resolution 
• Large notch cut into the top 

The larger display is the main reason to opt for the MacBook Air 15in, though despite that it’s one of areas where the hardware feels the most flawed. 

At 15.3in it’s much larger than the panel on the smaller MacBook Air, sitting neatly between the two MacBook Pro models. All that extra real estate is perfect for productivity, with enough space for multi-tasking and split-screening that wouldn’t really be possible on the smaller Air. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

Still, there are downsides to the display. It’s detailed enough thanks to a crisp 2880 x 1864 resolution, and colour accuracy is good, but Apple is still using IPS tech here, so it lacks the deeper blacks and starker contrast of the OLED panels elsewhere or the 120Hz mini-LED found in the MacBook Pro. 

More frustratingly, it’s not particularly bright, and macOS’s auto brightness controls seem to aggressively favour a dim display. I’ve found myself having to frequently override the automatic option and crank up the brightness, and wouldn’t want to rely on this outdoors on a bright day. 

Then there’s the notch. I’ve already moaned a little about the fairly average webcam inside it, but it’s an unsightly addition to the display that still distracts after two weeks with the laptop. macOS does a good job of working around it – shifting display elements to either side cleanly enough – but it shouldn’t need to. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

Finally, in common with all MacBooks, this isn’t a touch display. If you’re coming from a modern Windows laptop that may annoy you a little at first, though ultimately touch input is only occasionally the most efficient way to interact with a laptop anyway. 

As for audio, alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack there’s a six-speaker array here which even supports Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.  

Sound quality impresses by laptop standards, and will do the job for a video call or a spot of Netflix in bed, though ultimately you’ll still want to pair it with a speaker for any serious music listening. 

Specs & performance 

• Excellent M2 performance 
• Up to 24GB RAM 
• Up to 2TB storage 

The Air 15in is powered by Apple’s own M2, the same chip found in the 13in model. There, buyers are given a choice between two versions, one with a couple of extra GPU cores, though here only the more powerful option is available. 

This is still less powerful than the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips you’ll find in the latest MacBook Pro models, but it’s no slouch.  

Benchmarks peg it at a similar level to the Intel Core i7 chips you’d be likely to find in an equivalently priced Windows machine, and in practice it’s got more than enough power for office work, abusing Chrome tabs, and light Photoshop use without ever breaking a sweat.

This should suit most students and office workers, who will find this easily powerful enough for their needs, but anyone involved in creating 3D assets or 8K video editing will run into the laptop’s limits pretty quickly. 

The fanless design has the benefit that the MacBook Air is quiet even when it’s running at capacity, but it’s also part of why performance will always lag a little behind the Pro model, which can push itself harder thanks to its built-in cooling fans. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

It’s worth caveating that with the fact that I’ve been reviewing a model with 16GB of RAM, double the 8GB default, which may struggle more with multitasking. You can also up it to 24GB, though this will be overkill for most.  

Storage ranges from 256GB – good enough for anyone who makes good use of iCloud – all the way up to a hefty 2TB. 

Connectivity comes in the form of Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. Apple still doesn’t offer any 5G or 4G option on any of its laptops, nor does this support the faster Wi-Fi 6E or 7 standards. 

Battery & charging 

• Astonishing multi-day battery life 
• Charging via MagSafe or USB-C 
• Even 70W adapter charges slowly

Battery life remains the best reason to buy a MacBook over an equivalent Windows device right now. Intel may be able to match Apple Silicon from a pure performance standpoint, but it doesn’t even come close on efficiency. 

This is that rarest of things: a laptop I’m happy to take out for a workday without bringing the charger along, adding another level to its portability. 

This will comfortably run through a full workday and then some, and with lighter use you may find you can go days without plugging into the power. It easily outlasts the smaller 13in Air – a good reason to opt for this bigger model – and even beats the latest Pro on longevity.

Dominic Preston / Foundry

When you do need to charge, you get an option: you can charge with Apple’s proprietary MagSafe connection, with handy features like a magnetic attachment and a charging status LED, or you can simply use any sufficiently fast USB-C charger in either of those ports. 

There’s actually another choice to make before you even buy the laptop, with Apple offering both a 35W charger with two USB-C ports on it, or a 70W charger with a single port (you must pick which you want when you buy direct from Apple). The latter will charge the laptop faster, but the former offers a little more flexibility if you want to be able to top up your phone or headphones at the same time. 

Either way, charging is unfortunately slow. Even with the 70W charger I managed to restore just 23% of the battery in half an hour on charge, which means it’ll take hours to top the laptop up fully. Apple may have its rivals beat on battery, but it has to catch up on charging.

Software & features 

• Ships with macOS Ventura 

There’s not too much to say here: this is a Mac, so unsurprisingly ships with the latest version of macOS, Ventura, including all the usual pros and cons that entails.  

Dominic Preston / Foundry

After a few years of Apple Silicon, most key apps are now able to run natively on the hardware, which is part of why performance is now so solid.  

If you’re used to Macs you can expect the usual smooth OS experience, easy interaction with other Apple hardware, and long-term software support.  

The only real negative is the limited support for PC games, but as long as you don’t mind giving up gaming then macOS is great, even if you’re not an iPhone or iPad user in the rest of your life. 

Price & availability 

The MacBook Air 15in is available now worldwide. There are two default configurations, for $1,299/£1,399 or $1,499/£1,599, which both include 8GB of RAM and only vary in storage: either 256GB or 512GB. 

If you want to crank things up to the max, it’ll cost you $2,499/£2,599 for an OTT model with 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

Impressively, the 15in Air is only $200/£250 more than the M2-powered 13in – and in fact the gap shrinks to $100/£150 if you compare to the 13in with the same 10-core GPU, so fortunately you’re not paying too much of a premium for the larger form factor. 

The company also still offers a 13in Air with the M1 chip, though this is in an older design – but since it lacks the notch, you may even prefer that. 

To see how the Air compares to Windows options, check out our full ranking of the best laptops or the best laptop for students. 

Verdict 

There’s little to fault in the MacBook Air 15in, which delivers on exactly what it promises.  

The solid performance of the M2 chip returns, now paired with a larger display and more spacious body, without compromising on the Air’s essential portability – helped as ever by its extraordinary battery life. 

Dominic Preston / Foundry

It’s not perfect. With all this space Apple could surely improve the ports on offer, and the notch remains an unsightly blight, completely unjustified by the very average webcam quality. And despite all the size, the screen itself is frustratingly dim. 

Still, the overall package is excellent, and if you’re a Mac user who wants a large display but doesn’t need to pay for the power of a Pro, this ticks all the boxes that count. 

Specs 

• Apple M2 chipset 
• Up to 24GB RAM 
• Up to 2TB storage 
• 15.3in IPS display 
• 1080p webcam 
• 2x USB-C 4/Thunderbolt 3 
• 1x 3.5mm headphone jack 
• 1x MagSafe 3 
• 35/70W charger 
• Wi-Fi 6 
• Bluetooth 5.3 
• macOS