MacBook: Would you pay $400 for two more inches?

With the latest MacBook Air upgrade, there’s only a few inches in it and it costs a lot of money, says tech expert Elly Awesome.

REVIEW

Apple has added yet another laptop to its extensive line-up with the 15-inch Macbook Air. Essentially, this is a larger version of the popular Macbook Air 13 inch, but are there any hidden benefits to the bigger screen model? Or is it just a small luxury that comes in at a higher price point?

The MacBook Air 15 inch compared to 13 inch. Picture: Elly Awesome

Unboxing

The Macbook Air 15 inch comes in four colours – Midnight, Starlight, Space Grey and Silver. Inside the box, you get a charger, USB-C to MagSafe 3 charging cable, and start-up documentation. The laptop only has a few ports on its sides such as the MagSafe 3 charging port, two USB-C (Thunderbolt ports) that can also be used to charge the laptop via a USB-C cable, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired earbuds. It’s also worth mentioning that this laptop has Touch ID on the keyboard.

Unless you’re coming from a MacBook Air pre-2017, the condensed number of ports shouldn’t seem jarring, as you’d only be missing an older USB-A port and or SD card slot. Although an additional USB-C port wouldn’t go astray, you do get used to using only the two, which is actually generally enough – especially if you choose to charge your laptop with the included MagSafe cable.

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15” macbook air unboxing, same great specs, bigger screen! Any qs? Ask in cmments #macbook#apple#macbookair#tech

♬ original sound - Elly Awesome

Specs

You may be wondering what else is different about the MacBook Air 15 inch but, spoiler alert, it’s essentially the same as the Macbook Air 13 inch. The baseline 15 inch model is powered by Apple’s M2 chip and has an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB of Unified memory and 256GB SSD Storage. To be clear, this model wasn’t made to be a completely new product release with new features, it’s genuinely just an option to own a MacBook Air with a larger screen.

The MacBook Air 15 inch comes in Midnight, Starlight, Space Grey and Silver. Picture: Elly Awesome

With the screen size coming in at exactly 15.3 inches, yes it does have more pixels, to support the same awesome Liquid Retina display.

Apart from that the only real difference I have found is the 15 inch model has a six speaker sound system with two tweeters and four force-cancelling woofers. The Macbook Air 13 inch has only a four speaker sound system. So the sound quality is better.

The battery life, however, is unchanged, despite the size increase.

So how do you choose a Macbook with so many options on the market? Picture: Elly Awesome

Which Macbook should you buy?

So how do you choose a Macbook with so many options on the market? Well, if you’re on a budget, currently, the cheapest Macbook is the Macbook Air 13 inch for $1499, released with the M1 chip in late 2020. It’s still a great laptop and would perform well for most students and people who need a simple laptop. However, if you’ve got a bit more cash I’d go straight to the newer MacBook Air 13 inch for $1799 as it has the more powerful M2 chip and a better in-built camera.

Choosing whether to go with a MacBook Air comes down to deciding how much computing power you need and how much you value the weight and screen size of a laptop.

If you are doing lots of video editing, and running professional apps such as Logic Pro, the MacBook Air can certainly support those apps but it may start to run a little slower if you really push it to the max and multi-task.

If you want to enjoy your content on a bigger screen with awesome speakers, the MacBook Air 15 inch is for you. Picture: Elly Awesome

If you’re someone who needs a laptop for everyday tasks such as browsing the web, watching Apple TV shows, completing assignments, taking video calls, and maybe even squeezing in some photo editing, then the Air line-up is perfect for you. And if you want to enjoy your content on a bigger screen with awesome speakers, and maybe even do some gaming then the 15 inch is definitely something to consider. I saw a demo of the game ‘Stray’ played on the MacBook Air 15 inch and the graphics were gorgeous and the gameplay was fluid, so it’s definitely got some chops as a gaming laptop.

However, if you’re buying an Air because you’re looking for the lightest laptop that’s also extremely portable then I think the 13 inch M2 Chip model is a great option. I love it because I am often travelling and that’s when every gram counts, so I have to sacrifice the beautiful bigger screen.

The M2 Macbook Air 15 inch starts at $2199 and the Macbook Air 13 inch M2 starts at $1799.

Elly Awesome is an Aussie tech and lifestyle vlogger | @ellyawesometech | YouTube