Apple MacBook Air 15 2023 M2 review: The everyday MacBook now in 15 inches

[Redaktion]

It took a long time, but Apple has finally created a larger MacBook Air. Apart from the larger display, however, there are no major changes compared to its smaller sibling, the MacBook Air 13, including last year's M2 SoC.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Air-15-2023-M2-review-The-everyday-MacBook-now-in-15-inches.726811.0.html

[toto1234]

$1299.00 (256 GB) LOL

Launching a laptop in 2023 with 256Gb of disk is simply an insult to consumers.
But it's Apple so nothing new here.

[AdamB]

I wonder where it comes from... pcie 3.0, lack of wifi 6 160, I assume no wifi 6e... 250 gb ssd... score 92%... no complains about unreplaceable ram. Author probably loves apple

it seems to be very solid machine with long battery life, but score 92% is kind of joke...

[Neenyah]

I mean, 256 GB is more than enough to browse the web, watch YT, write mails and so on. But one doesn't have to spend $1,300 to do so, lol. It's a complete joke yet what do we expect from a company with $400 wheels for Mac Pro or a $999 monitor stand/arm?

[ramirez789]

and where the f... is the OLED ??

[John Brown]

Can we just appreciate that this is the first large screen portable Mac in something like a decade not to feature PWM flicker? That's huge for people who've been basically unable to use portable Macs all this time. I am finally switching back after years of having to use Windows laptops largely (though not exclusively) due to this. I really hope Apple can find a way to standardize removing PWM across their better screens. I'm a graphic/product/web designer, right in their 'pro' market segment, not a tech enthusiast concerned about 'upgradability' etc. (just buy it right the first time)... the power has been enough for a while now too. So I'm just massively relieved to finally have a usable work machine that also has the benefit of being incredibly thin with massive battery life, a color accurate screen, great speakers, etc.

[RobertJasiek]

not a tech enthusiast concerned about 'upgradability' etc. (just buy it right the first time)...

Or not at all due to greedy upsales.

[Neenyah]

I'm a graphic/product/web designer, right in their 'pro' market segment, not a tech enthusiast concerned about 'upgradability' etc. (just buy it right the first time)... the power has been enough for a while now too. So I'm just massively relieved to finally have a usable work machine

One commentator here on this forum will tell you that it's not possible to do any serious and/or professional work without numpad, so buying a MacBook is a grave mistake.

But him aside, this Air is a really wonderful little beast with way too little storage space. You also get quite nerfed SSD speeds so Apple is sneakily trying to force you to upgrade to higher configs. And then, when upgraded as you want (16/512 ideally), you get very close to a MBP territory where you get faster everything and better screen. So Robert is spot on with his comment:

not a tech enthusiast concerned about 'upgradability' etc. (just buy it right the first time)...

Or not at all due to greedy upsales.

👍

[Disco Charlie]

Soldered storage should be a instant disqualifier for any work laptop. Too much of a data liability.
This with same keyboard as 13.
And overpriced ram upgrades.
So another facebook machine , I guess.

[AdamB]

I love a comments type like: I am designer etc... so decided to add my few "achievements".

I am just a tech enthusiast.... and by the way network engineer using laptop to work, running labs, VM and servers on my machine (more complicated on my powerfull desktop). basically- IT pro

The first thing: this is quite solid laptop with nice screen and long battery life- I think everybody agree, but...
rating 92% for this machine is a joke, and this article is some sort of apple's marketing rather than review.
1- below current standard wi fi,
2- ssd unreplaceable, below current standard, 
3- just looked at review of zenbook 14x, where "RAM not expandable" is on the cos side- in case of apple, it seems to be ok ?
4- no touch screen
5- not great cpu performance.

Screen itself seems to be nice, but I prefer zenbook 14 with oled (myasus app sorts out the problem of PWM).
Big benefit that apple's machine is quiet, but I do not care about staff like magsafe etc- prefer usb c.,
recently, I bought zenbook 14 with i5 1240p and it crashes mac in terms of cpu power, allowed me to replace sdd for bigger and faster pcie 4.0, has all working day battery life (with adoptive refresh rate - 60 on the battery). And lovely oled screen... Just want to mention that I do not care about vga and if I really need one, I am able to use egpu (via thunderblot). The only macbook advantages are fanless operation and longer battery life, but I assume that the gap will smaller under load. Price I paid - £700, "reviewed" version of apple- £2000... It's pure madness...

the conclusion is: mac is solid and nice machine for people who don't run heavy work loads, super overpriced for what it offers to the customers. But the magic of apple logo works well, even on the reviewer... 
 

[John Brown]

Screen itself seems to be nice, but I prefer zenbook 14 with oled (myasus app sorts out the problem of PWM).

How do you get myasus app to 'sort out' PWM? Genuinely curious. If this is something like running it at 100% and then putting a black veil over it in software to 'dim', doesn't that kill battery life?

Regarding the power arguments, yes, it's always nice to have the best... but I ran some workflow tests (photography, coding, general heavy multitasking; no blender etc. here) and came to the view that this Air is basically on par with my latest gen ThinkPad workstation P15V, which has around two hours of battery life. Yes it also sucks that Apple charges a lot and gets away with it, but if you're using it for work, a top spec pays for itself fairly quickly, and amortizes easily over the long life span of the product. There were days when Apple still used spinning HD drives when you could get a great PC laptop with SSD, and back then that kind of thing made a massive difference. But now we're talking differences in SSD speed that are barely perceptible. So the overall experience becomes more of a differentiator than just the specs, which are no longer blockers.

[nunnu]

Apple never dissapoints me anymore, because I do not look forward to Apple anymore.
Gone are those days when I was in the awe of Apple products and services.
My iphone 12 gave me headache because of pwm.
My iphone 11 has become slow.
This macbook is not worth even for half the price.

[ramirez789]

way too little storage space.

Nah, it's really fine and works very well.

[MARK HODGSON]

Great review as always

Does the 1gb have 4 x 256 chips or 2x 512

[Timmy2]

Is there temporal dithering on this 15" Air model? You tested the 13" for it, and said "no". This is the deciding factor for me.