MacBook Air 15: 6 things you need to know

During the Worldwide Developers Conference that kicked off on 6 June, Apple showed off their latest laptop in their lineup, the MacBook Air 15. Cupertino calls it the world’s best 15-inch laptop, likely helped by the fact that they don’t make a 15-inch MacBook Pro right now. To get you up to speed with Apple’s new laptop, here’s 6 things you need to know about the MacBook Air 15.

1. Larger 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display

We’re going to start with the obvious, mainly because it’s the key differentiating factor between the new MacBook Air and the older MacBook Air 13. Apple has given its new laptop a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display pushing a 2880 x 1864p resolution. This gives it a similar pixel density of 224 pixels per square inch as the smaller MacBook Air. In fact, other than the larger display, most of the screen specs are the same across the two MacBook Air laptops. This means the same 500nits brightness, the same full coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and the same support for True Tone technology.

The larger display also means a slight bump in heft, with the MacBook Air 15 coming in at 1.51kg compared to the MacBook Air 13 which weighs 1.24kg. despite the bigger size the new MacBook Air is still relatively thin though, measuring just 1.15cm thick—a mere 0.02cm more than the MacBook Air 13.

2. Powered by Apple M2

Under the hood of the new MacBook Air 15 you’ll find the Apple M2 processor, though not entirely the same one as MacBook Air 13. Unlike the smaller MacBook Air, the MacBook Air 15 uses the M2 processor with 8 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores as a standard option; the MacBook Air 13 base model uses an M2 chip with 8 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores, with the higher specced option costing more money.

But other than that, just like with the display, the rest of the MacBook Air 15’s guts are pretty similar to its smaller sibling. It comes with up to 24GB of memory, up to 2TB of SSD storage and comes with MacOS Ventura out of the box.

3. Bigger battery, same battery life

Perhaps due to the larger screen, Apple rates the MacBook Air 15 for the same up to 15 hours of wireless web and up to 18 hours of Apple TV app movie playback despite it having a larger 66.5Whr battery compared to the MacBook Air 13’s 52.6Whr battery.

It’s also worth noting that the larger MacBook Air comes with your choice of either the 35W dual port USB-C power adapter or the new 70W fast charging USB-C power adapter. This option is only available on the MacBook Air 13 running the M2 chip with a 10-core GPU with the base model MacBook Air 13 coming with a 30W USB-C power adapter instead though you can still upgrade to the other options albeit at a cost.

4. Better audio

The MacBook Air 15 gets a new six-speaker sound system with force cancelling woofers, a notable upgrade over the MacBook Air 13’s four speaker sound system that also lacks the woofers. This comes with wide stereo sound and support for Apple’s Spatial Audio when playing music or video with Dolby Atmos on the biult-in speakers as well as supported Apple earbuds and headphones.

There’s also a three-mic array with directional beamforming, and a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high impedance headphones for when you really, really want that high quality audio in your ears.

5. Everything else stays the same

Other than the aforementioned specs and features, for the most part the MacBook Air 15 really is exactly what it looks like: a larger MacBook Air option for those who find the MacBook Air 13 just a little too small but don’t need the performance boost of the MacBook Pro 14 or 16.

This means that you’ll find the same backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and a Force Touch trackpad, the same 1080p FactTime HD webcam, two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on the left of the laptop and the same support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. It’s even available in the same four colour options as the MacBook Air 13: Silver, Space Grey, Midnight and Starlight.

6. The MacBook Air 13 is now cheaper

The new MacBook Air 15 starts at RM6,199, though at the moment Apple has yet to confirm availability of it in Malaysia. This gets you the base model with 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage. Upgrading the memory to 16GB will cost you RM800 while doubling the storage will cost RM800 too. A fully specced out MacBook Air 15 with 24GB of memory and 2TB of SSD storage will set you back a cool RM10,999, and that’s before you even consider adding in software options like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro.

However, with the release of the MacBook Air 15, the MacBook Air 13 is now cheaper than before. The base model MacBook Air 13 now starts at just RM5,199, a RM300 price cut from when it first launched late last year. If you’ve been waiting to snag the smaller MacBook Air, then this could just be the time to do so.