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15" MacBook Air: A great couch computer!

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I’ve had the 15-inch MacBook Air for a month: daily work, on the couch, and on vacation. Is it for me? Is it for you? Here’s what’s affected me most.

Design

I think it’s really good, and there’s almost nothing I’d change. It has Apple’s current design language with flat tops and bottoms and slightly rounded edges, and looks like the 13-inch M2 Air, just bigger. It’s thin and light for a 15-inch laptop, almost deceptively so compared with my 14- and 15-inch PC work laptops. But it’s noticeably heavier than the 13-inch Air, so if portability is key, it pushes the limit.

I have Midnight, and it’s probably the last time I buy it: Midnight MacBooks are fingerprint magnets, and the light caught one on my desk yesterday and put a spotlight on it. I prefer Silver, and used Space Gray for years. I like the contrast between a lighter laptop and the black keyboard.

Ports

The same as the 13-inch: two Thunderbolt 3 / USB4 and MagSafe 3 on the left, and a headphone jack on the right. That’s one of my few issues: it’s a larger machine at a $1,299 starting price, so I’d expect a few more ports, like HDMI and an SD card reader. Even for casual desktop use, you’ll probably need a hub or dock, which can cost up to hundreds of dollars. Most people just need HDMI and one other port, and now the cost is higher.

Trackpad

Really big, almost comically big next to something like the iPad Magic Keyboard. I prefer the 13- and 14-inch trackpads, because the keyboard sits a bit closer to the front and is more comfortable to type on. Apple put the keyboard all the way up top and didn’t want empty space in front, so the trackpad got bigger. I’ve decided I don’t like that trade-off: at a desk, I have to reach further up, which is less ergonomic and puts pressure on my wrist, whereas on the 13- or 14-inch my palms rest at the front edge. I’d take a smaller trackpad so Apple could pull the keyboard down and add speaker grilles on top.

Speakers

Better than the 13-inch, but still a bit muffled compared with the 14- and 16-inch Pros. You’ll only notice if you set them side by side, so for 99.9% of you they’ll sound great. I’ve used it for editing video, movies, YouTube and music without being disappointed. I’d prefer upward-firing speakers over bouncing off the display, but in use you can’t really complain. Dave2D made a good video comparing Apple’s speakers with most PCs’; the link is in the description.

Performance

The base model with 8 GB and a 256 GB SSD, at $1,299 (the link in the description saves $100). For daily use, it’s fine, about the same as the 13-inch M2 Air.

  • Video editing: it can do it, with some intermittent choppiness in the timeline. I use multiple streams of 4K footage, so it’s not ideal. If you’re starting out with video, photo or audio creation, it’ll work, but you may need more in a year or two.
  • Everyday: with a bunch of Safari tabs, email and work apps, it’s fine, but a couple of times a week I get a stutter of about 5 seconds, as if the computer has to catch up with itself. I think it’s the RAM and SSD: I’m not pushing it hard, but I see a couple of gigabytes of swap and moderate memory pressure. Apps and websites want RAM, and when it needs more than 8 GB, it swaps to the SSD, and the 256 GB SSD is slower than larger ones.

If you’re deciding on an upgrade, I’d choose 16 GB of RAM over the larger SSD, and add external storage later if needed. Overall, performance is pretty good, and I’m being nitpicky coming from a MacBook Pro. From any Intel Mac or PC, it’ll feel like a whole new world, and I wouldn’t hear a complaint if I gave it to my wife, daughter or family.

Battery

Pretty great: for regular non-video work and play, well over a day of active use. You just don’t see 12–15 hours from non-Apple laptops. If you need full power on battery, you get it, rather than the laptop throttling.

Everything else

The 15-inch screen is large and bright and works in bright or dark rooms, the keyboard is the standard Magic Keyboard (which I love), and the Air is completely silent with no fan, yet stays cool. It’s great on a couch, but a bit big for airplane tray tables and lugging around. The camera still needs work.

Should you get it?

If you want a larger-display MacBook, this is your only option unless you spend much more. I still think it should come with 16 GB at this price, but it won’t. For most people and most things, the base model will probably work fine, especially students, casual users, and work with standard apps. It comes with just about everything you need, but maybe not everything you want, like ports. If you’re a mechanical engineer, 3D rendering artist or content creator, upgrade RAM and/or SSD at a minimum, or look at a refurbished 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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