CNET

15-inch MacBook Air Review: Far More Affordable than Pro

The big-screen Air lacks the Pro’s extras, but still performs well and is more reasonably priced. 0:00 Intro 0:56 What’s new in the 2023 15-inch Macbook Air 1:39 Display 2:48 Design 4:08 Battery 4:36 Price 5:35 Processor Read the CNET Review for more information: Apple MacBook Air 15-Inch Review: Finally, Big for Less Subscribe to…

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The big-screen Air lacks the Pro’s extras, but still performs well and is more reasonably priced.

0:00 Intro
0:56 What’s new in the 2023 15-inch Macbook Air
1:39 Display
2:48 Design
4:08 Battery
4:36 Price
5:35 Processor

Read the CNET Review for more information:
Apple MacBook Air 15-Inch Review: Finally, Big for Less

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92 Comments

  1. Wario

    June 12, 2023 at 9:32 am

    M2 😂

  2. Tet Zet

    June 12, 2023 at 9:32 am

    Another top “notch” MacBook. Apple never disappoints. Smh

  3. AkaPeegly

    June 12, 2023 at 9:48 am

    I wonder why everyone is getting the starlight to review. I think maybe this is the least popular color? Hence them wanting to push sales?

    • Jesse Fan

      June 12, 2023 at 10:41 am

      Last year they pushed the midnight version for the 13 inch, so this year they’re pushing the starlight.

  4. Art Russo

    June 12, 2023 at 9:48 am

    So do you like the Midnight color? I agree that the 13″ is ideal for traveling like I do. Torn on color – love the midnight but those smudges : )

    • allstarkidXD

      June 12, 2023 at 10:14 am

      Get starlight its the best midnight gets too much smudges thats why i avoided midnight and went with starlight

    • Art Russo

      June 12, 2023 at 10:18 am

      @allstarkidXD thank U!!!

    • MasterKey

      June 12, 2023 at 10:22 am

      @allstarkidXD was wondering, can’t you just put some kind of anti reflective screen protector like sheet on the top, cause it looks so good on the inside

    • allstarkidXD

      June 12, 2023 at 11:12 am

      @MasterKey you can but starlight to me looks very nice

    • Vincent Pascual

      June 12, 2023 at 8:13 pm

      I’d recommend silver because the MagSafe and Thunderbolt ports will inevitably be scratched by plugs. And any scratches will blend into the silver color.

  5. Gabriel Escobosa

    June 12, 2023 at 9:56 am

    Watching every single video of this laptop I can today

    • Gabriela Alves do Nascimento

      June 12, 2023 at 2:39 pm

      So do I 😊

    • Kanishk Raghuvanshi

      June 12, 2023 at 3:51 pm

      Same here. Haha

    • Jav Jav

      June 12, 2023 at 3:54 pm

      Ditto! I have the M2 MBA & considering trading it in for this new 15” model

  6. Lost In LA

    June 12, 2023 at 11:54 am

    Greater surface area is a more noticeable and measurable improvement than the refresh rate of the pro models. Ditto for weight.

    People are saying the 14″ has a better screen without doing a “blind” view test.

    • andyH_England

      June 12, 2023 at 1:59 pm

      The display on the Air is as good as the MB Pro in most regards, especially for SDR viewing which is what most of us will do on an ultrabook. HDR is nice but I barely use it and I run my Macs in power saving mode unless I need the performance so 120Hz will be disabled. The advantages of the MB Pro 14 are not as obvious as people make out. The speakers are a bit better but any extra performance is moot if you are happy with the Air as an alternative. I would definitely get the MB Air 15 as it has a larger display than the MB Pro 14 and that is the USP of the Air 15-inch and why most people will buy it. So those saying buy the 14 are missing the point.

    • 123abc

      June 12, 2023 at 8:19 pm

      @andyH_England yeah the air has a bigger display, not sure does it also have more pixels? the 15 air has better speakers than the 13 air. so the 14″ pro isn’t going to be that much better, if you want the best speakers you should get the 16″

  7. Johnny Doe

    June 12, 2023 at 12:00 pm

    Maybe in US

    In Asia, it’s bordering MacBook Pro M2 Price. 😅

    • andyH_England

      June 12, 2023 at 1:55 pm

      That is due to import duty, taxes and exchange rates and is more to do with Asian Government’s anti-import strategy. Blaming Apple for that is unfair.

  8. zero11010

    June 12, 2023 at 12:27 pm

    It starts at $1300 but you’re going to bump up the hard drive at the very least. I think for a lot of people this will be close to the base MacBook Pro price. ($1800 for 15inch air – Vs a 14 inch pro at $2000).

    The marketing term for this is The Decoy Effect. This is going to move more MacBook Air customers into MacBook Pros.

    You really don’t get much for the bump in price to this 15inch MacBook Air. You get a TON with the small bump in price to the Pro.

    You’re celebrating a customer manipulation tactic.

  9. GwaiJai 鬼仔 鬼さん

    June 12, 2023 at 1:44 pm

    Not with a notch.

    • David Jacobs

      June 12, 2023 at 2:18 pm

      🙄

  10. Maverick Dakota

    June 12, 2023 at 2:13 pm

    I would never buy a fan-less notebook computer, the throttling would be obnoxious.

    • 123abc

      June 12, 2023 at 8:24 pm

      it does a better job at sustained workloads than the 13″ Air.

  11. M4sterEma

    June 12, 2023 at 2:14 pm

    I wish they would do M2/pro imac

  12. Amitabh Bachchan - #Amitabh4u #AmitabhBachchan

    June 12, 2023 at 3:00 pm

    I bought it on the release day but have not yet gotten my hands on it. I upgraded from Mac Book Pro 13″ (2014). Does it make sense?

    • Maciej

      June 12, 2023 at 3:52 pm

      Yes

    • Sumit Rawal

      June 12, 2023 at 4:35 pm

      It is going to be big jump with cpu gpu cores. Kya kijiyega itni power ka?

    • Yep

      June 12, 2023 at 5:24 pm

      no you didnt

    • Willy

      June 12, 2023 at 7:52 pm

      a lot of sense

  13. Henri-fillip BAUER

    June 12, 2023 at 3:23 pm

    The notch pises me off they did it on purpose

  14. Md.Ibrahim Khalil

    June 12, 2023 at 3:47 pm

    Boring review 😢

  15. Noisy Boy

    June 12, 2023 at 3:48 pm

    Can’t believe how much Apples laptop design has regressed over the last 10 years.

  16. tc102167

    June 12, 2023 at 3:50 pm

    “There’s no fan on it so I don’t need to worry about it getting hot on ur lab”. That’s not true…the fan lowers temp so this device will get hot in ur lap.

    • 123abc

      June 12, 2023 at 8:21 pm

      better passive cooling than 13″ air

  17. Nathan Reedy

    June 12, 2023 at 4:06 pm

    Only if you go for the base model though.

  18. Red Capote

    June 12, 2023 at 5:16 pm

    $100 off Education, $150 gift card, and $500 off for trading in my M1 Macbook Air from 3 years ago. Oh, and 3% cash back with Apple card and easy monthly payments. This was a no brainer. Thank you, Apple.

    • Ozzie Alarcon

      June 12, 2023 at 6:45 pm

      I did the same thing. I was really on the fence with staying with my first gen 13″ M1 MBA or upgrading to the 15″. I couldn’t resist the larger screen. The perks you posted made my decision easier to make.

    • Red Capote

      June 12, 2023 at 8:13 pm

      @Ozzie Alarcon Yea man, bigger screen, better resolution, better speakers, better chip? All for $56 a month for 12 months no interest and a $150 towards the iPhone 15 in October? Let’s go.

    • 123abc

      June 12, 2023 at 8:23 pm

      I did the same thing except for the monthly payments. It will be a nice upgrade.

  19. Yep

    June 12, 2023 at 5:26 pm

    the elephant in the room is the M1 14″ and 16″ pro’s which, at least in Australia sit either side of the 15″ with 512gb and 16gb , price wise by $100 or so – both far superior products, even with M1

  20. Tolga A

    June 12, 2023 at 5:39 pm

    THE PRİCE İS CHEAP, THE SİZE İS GOOD!

  21. Rob de la Hunty

    June 12, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    Just the 13 inch Air is selling in Australia for $1,800 AUD which is too expensive for me so I will pass on that. The 15 is about $2,300 AUD . Apple are pricing themselves out of the market in my humble opinion.

    • 123abc

      June 12, 2023 at 8:20 pm

      get the student discount, also I got a $150 gift card. Nor sure if they give that for the pro and probably not if you buy refurbished.

    • Spencer Carruth

      June 13, 2023 at 1:58 am

      They might be pricing themselves out of the Australian market, but in the United States and Europe prices are fine

    • Wendy Wang

      June 13, 2023 at 3:32 am

      @123abc oh cool, is the gift card for anyone who’s purchasing this laptop?

    • 123abc

      June 13, 2023 at 9:00 am

      @Wendy Wang no it’s with the student discount, but anyone can get the student discount.

  22. Michel Stronguin

    June 12, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    Why do they have a notch still? This is a laptop, not a smartphone. There is no need for a notch, they can put the web cam in the slim bezel. Gonna wait for the day they make a notchless laptop.

  23. Thabiso Maleka

    June 12, 2023 at 7:47 pm

    The 16gb ram, 512g ssd option is very close in price to the 14” MBP

    • 123abc

      June 12, 2023 at 8:17 pm

      especially if you get it refurbished, but this is a nice thinner design and it comes in more colors.

    • Spencer Carruth

      June 13, 2023 at 1:57 am

      The whole point of this laptop is that it has a larger screen and costs less than the 16” MacBook Pro. People buying this MacBook Air won’t really care about the 14” Pro

    • John Medany

      June 13, 2023 at 3:12 am

      @Spencer Carruth yep – this. 15 inch is the size i’ve wanted for some time – the 14 mbp is nice but the screen doesnt fit righr with me – mines winging its way to me as we speak – started tracking it with DHL yestetday 🙂

  24. Aero

    June 12, 2023 at 8:11 pm

    So how many 1080p displays can it drive?

  25. Thi Henry

    June 12, 2023 at 10:19 pm

    I’m surprise apple give you 8 gig of ram for 1299

  26. Income Maker

    June 12, 2023 at 10:21 pm

    Only 5 years late😅

  27. Eric Potter

    June 12, 2023 at 10:57 pm

    So no speed test no ssd test? How hard would it be to see if the SSD can keep up with the M1…? Btw I paid 799 for the M1 from Costco. Still happy with my M1… So I’ll wait for the 70% faster M3 and get it with 16gb… Should be future proof for the next 5 years or so.

    • andyH_England

      June 13, 2023 at 3:16 am

      Dave2D looked at SSD speed and said it was a non-issue to the vast majority as they do not stress test their MB Airs, which differs from what a fanless laptop is meant for. All Apple has done is move to how 99% of 256GB SSDs work in Windows machines. For example, my Galaxy Book2 Pro gets less than 1Gbps when on battery in sequential tests, but that is more than I need for the external devices I use.

  28. Davide

    June 13, 2023 at 12:14 am

    Talking about affordable price to n base model but it is a trap cause nobody buy the base model cause the ssd low and small. So at the end the real price is more expensive.

    • andyH_England

      June 13, 2023 at 3:12 am

      Over 50% of MB Airs sold are the base model, so that is blatantly untrue.

    • krim7

      June 13, 2023 at 9:34 pm

      If all you do is surf the net and you use cloud storage, you do not need much more than 256.

      I will say, I low key regret not getting 512 on my M1 Air, as Warcraft now eats up like 40% of the storage space 🤣🤣

    • Adam

      June 14, 2023 at 7:36 pm

      That’s literally a lie. Base model is FINE for most users. Cut the BS.

  29. Mex

    June 13, 2023 at 12:24 am

    Waste of time . There will be tons of unpacking video , then display and sound, then test video, then comparing with m1 pro video, then “5 reasons to buy Macbook Air 15”, and “5 reasons why I still choose m1 pro than Air 15” . In a year a new laptop will come out and the cycle will repeat

  30. Thinking out loud (Bengali)

    June 13, 2023 at 12:34 am

    If you are done with the review you can consider to send one to me . I can give a review after using my first mac

  31. Amory Lazlo

    June 13, 2023 at 3:59 am

    What a refreshing change to watch a calm, considered, and informative presentation. And thank you for avoiding all that unboxing nonsense.

    • Patrick DuChene

      June 13, 2023 at 10:45 am

      Agreed. It’s because it’s not about ego with this guy. He’s just doing a good job!

  32. Jason

    June 13, 2023 at 4:11 am

    Base model only has 8GB of Ram. You can’t get it upgraded to 16GBs unless you order it directly from Apple. It means Best Buy, Amazon and other online shops will only have 8GB version. At least 8GB on Mac OS is equivalent to having 16GB of Ram in Windows.

    • Jasterrrr

      June 13, 2023 at 5:48 am

      8GB on Mac OS is NOT equivalent to having 16GB of Ram in Windows. The exact behavior depends on the workload, and some systems use RAM more aggressively than others by design and they rely on using swap/pagefiles more. If you primarily use your computer for web browsing, watching videos, writing docs, and similar lighter loads, you’ll be more than fine with 8GB on Windows as well. This is my experience, not an assumption btw.

      Also, if your Windows PC has 8GB of RAM but has a fast disk just like Macbooks have, that helps a lot in situations where you exceed your RAM capacity and OS is forced to use disk cache/swap/pagefiles more.

    • Adam

      June 14, 2023 at 7:35 pm

      Fact is most people don’t need more thatn 8gb in MacOS. They just don’t.

      People love to complain about it as a number, but in real use it’s just not an issue for most users.

  33. Terry Bacon

    June 13, 2023 at 5:10 am

    Don’t sleep on the original M1 Air. In my case, I use it on the couch and at cafes, and then I connect it to a 32″ 1440p 75Hz display with mouse and keyboard and it becomes a productivity monster.

  34. Frederick Ramos

    June 13, 2023 at 6:58 am

    Panget ang baba

  35. allen david

    June 13, 2023 at 7:25 am

    A good review ,the 15” pro lineup are just too expensive for most people

  36. Dom Larry

    June 13, 2023 at 8:04 am

    Cnet do you get sponsored by apple 🍎

  37. Ye Old Geezer

    June 13, 2023 at 8:14 am

    This will be my first apple laptop

  38. Hernandez Wright

    June 13, 2023 at 8:22 am

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    • Sammy Robert

      June 13, 2023 at 8:36 am

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    • Hernandez Wright

      June 13, 2023 at 8:36 am

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    • 4Ytherium

      June 13, 2023 at 10:28 am

      Bots and pyramid schemes? Sheesh.

    • nik khairun

      June 13, 2023 at 1:22 pm

      look at these bots talking gibberish

    • palgun

      June 13, 2023 at 1:27 pm

      Which bot are you using?

  39. rori free

    June 13, 2023 at 8:44 am

    So, you like a bigger screen, ok🙂

  40. videochampion

    June 13, 2023 at 8:50 am

    Rinse and repeat video, do something else

  41. Xavier Alvarez

    June 13, 2023 at 11:44 am

    Well that’s why it’s important to keep your eyes open for deals. I’ve seen MBP 14s for 1500$ MBPs 16 for 2k new from Bestbuy. Also logically considering the future 8gb with 256gb is unrealistic for new purchases so once you factor that in, the only 15″ you should get is the 16gb 1TB version which is 1700$ some might say you don’t need 1TB well you do when it’s only 100$ more for 512gbs of space.

    • RoastBeefSandwich

      June 13, 2023 at 8:32 pm

      8GB 256GB is fine for many people. Not everybody, no, but many people yes.

    • Xavier Alvarez

      June 13, 2023 at 11:58 pm

      @RoastBeefSandwich  yes if you already have it like I do, then you don’t need it. Most people right now, yes, don’t need it. But if you’re spending 1000s of dollars in 2023, then it’s much better to upgrade the laptop you’re buying now and not need the space instead of needing the space and not being able to upgrade it. But yes, from a pure hardware perspective the M1 8gb 256gb is ideal for 95% of people. But financially and future proof friendly it’s better to upgrade it now if you plan to buy new.

  42. A-yon Lee

    June 13, 2023 at 2:33 pm

    We want the 12’ macbook with m2 chip.

    • Adam

      June 14, 2023 at 7:35 pm

      No we don’t

  43. Enrique T

    June 13, 2023 at 4:07 pm

    So in fact it is overpriced, there’s just an illusion you are getting more because of the big screen.

    • Adam

      June 14, 2023 at 7:34 pm

      M2 for $1300, 500nits, color accurate, 18h battery, same performance plugged in and on battery, thing, light, well built, and class leading performance per watt.

      You think that’s overpriced?

      Silly boy.

  44. Lucas Maia

    June 14, 2023 at 6:47 am

    I don’t think I would ever consider getting a macbook a few years ago, but those M series processors changed the game. I kinda want one

  45. Ray

    June 14, 2023 at 5:42 pm

    Extra ports will be on next year’s model for an extra charge of course. The Apple upcharge is real.

  46. RoffaboyS

    June 14, 2023 at 8:03 pm

    Waste of money if you go for higher storage it’s gonna be overpriced. With that some money you can buy a Windows laptop that’s two times better.

  47. ckatheman

    June 14, 2023 at 8:11 pm

    This models m2 is not binned and does have 10 gpu cores as compared to 8 on the 13

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