In style, Apple unveiled the new star of its laptop family - the 15-inch MacBook Air 15 - at the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference. It's a device that not only meets the high expectations of the tech giant, but also exceeds them. With incredible performance and an incredibly slim design, Apple has once again pushed the boundaries of what's possible.
Apple claims that this MacBook Air 15 will be “the best 15-inch laptop in the world”. Thanks to the new M2 chip, the new MacBook Air will be as much as 12 times faster than the fastest Intel MacBook Air models. This elegant laptop, only 11.5mm thick, is according to Apple the thinnest 15-inch laptop in the world. It weighs just over 1.4 kg (3 pounds), which makes it incredibly portable.
The laptop's screen is 15.3 inches, with small 5 mm thick bezels that allow for an impressive display with a brightness of 500 nits. For all fans of online conferences or family video calls, the MacBook Air offers a 1080p FaceTime HD webcam and three microphones with "advanced algorithms for directing the beam of voice reception".
For those who appreciate good sound, the MacBook Air comes with six speakers (two tweeters and two pairs of woofers) with surround sound and Dolby Atmos.
With the new MacBook Air, Apple also considered the needs of different users. It will be available in midnight, starlight, space gray and silver, and will have two USB-C Thunderbolt ports (supports up to 6K external display), MagSafe charging port and headphone jack.
All of this is available for a starting price of $1,299 ($1,199 for educational institutions), and will be available as early as next week. At the same time, Apple is lowering the price of its smaller model. The 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip will now cost $1,099, while the base M1 Air will continue to cost $999.
New Macbook Air 15 - 2023 - technical details
With the M2 chip, the 15-inch MacBook Air offers exceptional performance. It is up to 12 times faster than Intel's fastest MacBook Air. When compared to the best-selling 15-inch notebook PC with a Core i7 processor, the new MacBook Air is up to twice as fast. In addition, it offers an extremely long battery life of up to 18 hours - that's 50 percent more than the aforementioned PC - despite the better screen and better performance.
The 15-inch MacBook Air boasts a powerful 8-core CPU with four high-performance cores and four efficient cores, a 10-core GPU for incredibly fast graphics, and a 16-core neural engine. The M2 also provides 100GB/s of memory bandwidth and supports up to 24GB of fast aggregated memory, enabling ultra-smooth multitasking and complex workloads. The M2's performance enables users to work, play or create almost anything – anywhere.
The new 15-inch MacBook Air represents a new mid-range offering for Apple, which previously had a pretty wide price gap between its 13-inch MacBook offerings and larger, higher-priced models. This 15-inch Air will likely appeal to an audience that wants a bigger screen but doesn't need the extra computing power (and cost) of the 14- and 16-inch Pro models.
Additionally, the 15-inch size can serve as a convenient mid-range model between Apple's current 14-inch and 16-inch offerings. macOS fans haven't had the attractive option of a 15-inch model in years. The 14-inch screen is often too narrow to comfortably use some creative programs, while the 16-inch Pro can be challenging to carry along with peripherals and photography gear. A lightweight 15-inch model could find a home with users who have been caught between the two sizes for the past two years.
Apple also made sure that the new 15-in MacBook Air 15 stayed true to his roots with his fanless design. It will thus ensure quiet operation, which is especially important in quiet environments such as libraries or offices.
The new laptop will run on macOS Ventura and will later support macOS Sonoma when it is released this fall. AND, of course, all subsequent versions of the program.
"If you measure, measure seven times - cut once," says a Slovenian proverb. Apple seems to have taken this into account when designing its new 15-inch MacBook Air. With every inch and every feature, Apple seems to have carefully considered the needs of its customers. The result? A laptop worth its price and more. Now the only question that remains is how the new 15-inch MacBook Air will perform in practice when users start testing it in their homes, offices and on the go. But if Apple's promises are to be believed, we can only expect the best.
