Hands-on: Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Air

Hands-on: Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Air

Note: This feature was first published on 6 June 2023.

There’s a new MacBook Air and it's the largest yet. It has a 15-inch display. Well, 15.3, to be exact.

To keep it short, this new 15-inch model is really just a 13-inch MacBook Air with a larger display and more speakers. The colour options are identical: Midnight, Starlight, Silver, and Space Grey.

It’s remarkably thin for a 15-inch notebook, measuring just 11.5mm thick. The weight is 1.51kg. In the hands, it feels noticeably heavier than its smaller sibling, but it’s still impressively light for a 15-inch notebook. The body is aluminium and, like any other MacBook, feels absolutely rock solid. 

@hwztech A quick look at the 15-inch MacBook Air. #hwz #hwzsg #macbook #15inchmacbookair #macbookair #mac #wwdc2023 #apple #applesilicon ♬ original sound - HardwareZone

The display is Liquid Retina and it is 15.3 inches large. It looks substantially larger than the 13-inch MacBook Air. The display’s resolution is 2,880 x 1,864 pixels, which gives it a pixel density count of 224 pixels per inch – identical to the smaller MacBook Air. Peak brightness is unchanged at 500 nits and the larger display also supports the P3 colour space and True Tone technology.

The other notable difference is the speaker system. Presumably because of its bigger size, Apple was able to outfit the 15-inch MacBook Air with a six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers. The smaller MacBook Air has a four-speaker system.

Inside, like the smaller model, the larger MacBook Air is powered by the M2 chip. However, there’s only a 10-GPU core option. You can equip your 15-inch MacBook Air with up to 24GB of memory and the maximum storage is a 2TB SSD.

Ports are unchanged so you get two USB-C Thunderbolt 3/USB4 ports on the left and a 3.5mm audio jack on the right. There’s MagSafe so you won’t have to sacrifice a USB port to charge.

Based on first impressions, this looks like a solid option for anyone who wants a relatively affordable MacBook with a larger display. Performance should be good given that it’s powered by the M2 chip and the display looks quite good even with the terrible lighting in the hands-on area. 

Pricing and availability

The new 15-inch MacBook Air is available for pre-order now with prices starting at S$1,899.

In conjunction with this announcement, the 13-inch MacBook Air also gets a price cut with prices now starting at S$1,599 – S$100 than its launch price of S$1,699.

Read more:

• Apple Vision Pro in a nutshell at WWDC 2023
• Apple Vision Pro hands-on experience at WWDC 2023
• Apple new Mac Pro and Mac Studio updates at WWDC 2023
• Apple AirPods Pro audio upgrades at WWDC 2023
• Apple iOS 17 key updates at WWDC 2023
• Apple WatchOS 10 key updates at WWDC 2023
• Apple iPadOS 17 key updates at WWDC 2023
• Apple tvOS 17 updates you can expect