MacBook Air 15-inch Review: Switching from 13-inch to 15-inch + M2 Processor

MacBook Air made major changes last year. In order to meet the new generation of M2 processors, the body adopts a new design, which is more plain and generous, and looks more like a thin board, attracting the attention of many users. This year, Apple has made persistent efforts to increase the screen area with this design, becoming the MacBook Air 15-inch equipped with M2 processor for this review. As a user who has used the M2 MacBook Air 13-inch for more than a year, I hope to share a little bit of my experience in switching from a 13-inch to a 15-inch work environment in this evaluation. Of course, I also hope to try my best to answer the questions that many light users have about the MacBook Air. Mystery: I only cut one or two videos a week, is it enough to buy a MacBook Air?

Big is better! 15-inch screen improves work efficiency

The most striking aspect of the MacBook Air 15-inch M2 is of course its screen size. Users have strong feelings about the size of the 15-inch and 13-inch screens. On a 13-inch screen, you can only open one window to work on the screen. If you have to arrange two windows side by side, it will be more stressful to write notes while referring to web pages. The 15-inch screen completely releases this oppressive feeling.

▲MacBook Air 13-inch (left) and 15-inch (right) screen size comparison when viewed from the front

Another difficulty with the 13-inch screen is that the aspect ratio display is a bit unbalanced when dealing with certain websites. Take YouTube live broadcast as an example, regardless of the width of the window, the banner that appears on the right hand side of the YouTube live screen will occupy a certain width. As you can see from the picture below, the two computers each start the YouTube live broadcast on a full screen. It can be seen that the live broadcast image displayed on the 15-inch screen is obviously much larger than the 13-inch screen, which is a bit out of proportion. But in fact, many websites are like this. You can see more content at 15 inches, which is not understandable simply considering 13 inches → 15 inches.

However, we also noticed that the thickness of the black border around the 15-inch MacBook Air screen is basically the same as that of the 13-inch model. Many users prefer the ultra-narrow design of the MacBook Pro, but unfortunately this design is not used on the 15-inch MacBook Air.

Of course, for a 15-inch laptop, the high resolution and color reproduction brought by Liquid Retina Display are still of high quality in the market. More importantly, the power usage efficiency brought by this high-quality screen, combined with a large number of hardware, has achieved the MacBook Air’s long battery life, which is really rare.

13 inches to 15 inches?People who pay attention to the weight and size of the fuselage have their own answers

It is really a big trouble to consider whether to buy a 13-inch or a 15-inch. But after I received this MacBook Air 15-inch real machine, I found a few considerations for your reference.

The editor has always preferred 13-inch laptops. The main consideration is that the desktops provided by restaurants in Hong Kong are generally small; and when a laptop is opened on a bus or minibus, the 13-inch computer just won’t stand up to me at the same time. The individual body, and the seat in front. Another thing to consider is the privacy factor. The larger the computer screen, the easier it is for people to see it, unless you put anti-peeping stickers to protect yourself. As for the benefits of the 15-inch screen, in addition to the above-mentioned large screen processing double-window side-by-side paperwork, professional editing or image processing software interface display can be more complete, directly improving work efficiency. If you can use a laptop computer to watch movies and view photos, the 15-inch screen has a greater advantage.

Body weight also becomes an important factor in choosing 13-inch or 15-inch. The weight of the 15-inch MacBook Air is 1.51g, which is significantly heavier than the 1.24g of the 13-inch MacBook Air. For a 15-inch computer, the MacBook 15-inch is an extremely lightweight model. But if portability is the first consideration, 13 inches may be better. In terms of body thickness, the MacBook Air 15-inch body has a thickness of 11.5mm. Compared with the 11.3mm of the MacBook Air 13, it is about 2 to 3 sheets of A4 paper thick, and there is no significant difference in thickness. For a 15-inch laptop, it is extremely thin and light.

To sum up, if you need a large screen in use, such as displaying information to customers, or have multiple tasks, such as searching for information while surfing the Internet; in addition, you can use the 15-inch MacBook in a fixed, stable environment with a large space Air would be more suitable. If it is a single job, for example, you only need to open the memo app to type, or open only one window to surf the Internet or YouTube at the same time, the 13-inch MacBook will be more suitable. There is not enough space in the environment. For example, you will often go to Hong Kong coffee shops, restaurants or places where the transportation environment is relatively narrow. The 15-inch MacBook is obviously more obstructive and has a lower degree of privacy protection.

Larger touchpad and easier keyboard operation

The keyboard of the 15-inch MacBook Air is roughly the same as that of the 13-inch model, but in accordance with the proportions of the body, the height and width of the touchpad are larger than those of the 13-inch MacBook Air. Under the high-resolution screen, it is more comfortable to handle complex operations, such as searching for information in one window and writing text in one window, and the hand rest is the same as the 13-inch, with only the battery underneath, so the heat of the body will not be transmitted Here it is, very comfortable to operate.

Unlike the old MacBook Pro with speakers on both sides of the keyboard, the 15-inch MacBook Air has become a solid-colored case. This small space cannot be used to place the Numpad numeric keyboard, and there is always a sense of emptiness.

MacBook Air 15-inch Benchmark

The MacBook Air 15-inch uses the same M2 processor as the previous 13-inch model. The editor did the Geekbench equivalent performance test and did not find much difference between the two. It may look like a difference of 100~200 points, but it is also within the error.

The M2 processor on the MacBook Air has an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. It is more than enough to handle daily affairs. What everyone cares about may be whether its performance can meet the needs of clipping.

For editing, many “experts” will recommend that you buy a MacBook Pro, but unless editing is your job, or you need to edit every day, if you edit once a week or even a month, the situation will be greatly reduced. different. So let’s try how to use MacBook Air 15-inch for film editing. First of all, the 15-inch screen uses Adobe Premiere Pro. The resolution of the screen is high enough to fully display the timeline. There is no need to zoom in or select, and the entire interface can be fully controlled. The source of the Premiere Pro project tested by the editor this time is 4K quality. There are more than 30 sources in total. There are many color correction effects, subtitles and sound effects added to the project, but there is no pressure during the editing process. There is still no lag phenomenon when moving the time axis. After clicking the preview button, you can preview immediately without waiting. Unless you are editing some extremely professional-level videos, there is only a single clip on the same screen (not a composite of multiple shots), and the operating experience when editing is still very smooth and stress-free.

The overall length of the editing project tested by the editor this time is 15 minutes. It is output in 1080p quality through Media Encoder, and the rendering time is 9 minutes and 2 seconds, which is of course longer than the 3 minutes and 23 seconds of Mac Studio with M2 Max processor. But because the overall editing experience is very smooth, if you edit 4K projects and don’t mind a little difference in rendering time, the M2 MacBook Air is still a good choice (512GB built-in storage, 16GB memory model. The processing brought by different models times will vary)

▲ Rendering a 15-minute 1080p video takes only 9 minutes and 06 seconds. Compared with the 3 minutes and 19 seconds obtained by Mac Studio tested at the same time this time, of course it cannot be compared, but as long as the operation is smooth enough, the rendering output is slower. Not a problem for general users (non-professional video editors)

As for game performance? The editor tried to play “Cities Skylines” on the MacBook Air 15-inch, which is not an extreme requirement, but there are still highly demanding 3D games. After running for 15 minutes, the temperature of the fuselage is not too hot, and the running speed of the game does not slow down.

On other computer platforms, you get normal computer performance when plugged in, but performance drops dramatically when unplugged. This problem does not occur on Mac computers. We have tested that there is basically no difference in the performance of the host when plugged in and not plugged in, and Geekbench shows that it is within the error range.

MacBook Air 15″ performance difference with and without power connection

There are a lot of YouTubers or websites saying that the MacBook Air with the M2 processor will cause a significant drop in performance due to heat problems during efficient processing. However, the editor concluded that the application level is very strong this time, but it is not a long-term “burn-in” actual real world test. It can be seen that the M2 processor inside the MacBook Air can fully meet the performance requirements, and the case does not heat up much. There is no noticeable drop in performance under long-term use.

In high-efficiency applications, the hand rest under the keyboard is only 28 degrees Celsius for comfortable operation, and the hotter part of the whole machine is only 33 degrees and 39 degrees Celsius.

256GB is still slow, if you want SSD to be faster, go straight to 512GB or above

Our MacBook Air 15-inch test machine has installed 512GB SSD storage. The speed obtained on the speed test software BlackMagic Disk Speed ​​Test is 3410.0MB/s for writing and 2938.6 MB/s for reading, which is faster than MacBook Air 13-inch in terms of writing speed.

We try to connect external SSD, read 23GB data and write to MacBook Air. The MacBook Air 15″ was almost 4 seconds faster. This speed normally shows the original actual performance of the SSD. If you are worried about the speed reduction caused by 256GB storage, you can choose to directly upgrade to 512GB or above storage.

Super “nuclear power” is OK for students to use for two or three days

The 15-inch MacBook Air has a larger built-in battery, and the official operating time is the same as the 13-inch model at 18 hours. MacBook Air consumes very little power when processing some low-load applications, such as browsing the web and watching streaming videos. A computer can be used for a full day without charging. Simple paperwork applications can be used in the morning It can be left unplugged until dusk. If you only use it for 2-3 hours a day (such as taking notes in school), you can use it for 2-3 days. MacBook Air has the best battery life in the entire laptop industry.

▲This MacBook Air 15-inch can also be charged with MagSafe 3. The charging cable that comes with the computer matches the color of the body

The same sockets as the 13-inch MacBook Air

The 15-inch MacBook Air also only has two Thunderbolt 3/USB 4/USB 3.1 Gen 2 sockets and one 3.5mm socket, the same as the 13-inch model. It may not be suitable for applications that need to connect multiple devices at the same time. This is also a feature of the MacBook Air. The editor thinks that if Apple also provides a USB port on the right side of the fuselage, it will be more convenient to use.

The speaker has been greatly upgraded, and the sound is much more natural than the MacBook Air 13-inch

The 15-inch MacBook Air features a six-speaker sound system with a vibration-canceling woofer that also sits in the void below the screen. Due to the larger body, there is a larger surface area to reflect sound. No matter the volume of sound, the degree of diffusion of sound effects, or the sense of envelopment, there is a very obvious difference compared with the 13-inch MacBook Air. The brand-new woofer makes the thickness of the subwoofer and the weight of the sound volume several times different.

▲MacBook Air 15-inch also reflects sound on this narrow side, but this time a new woofer is added, which is completely different from the 13-inch model by two levels

When watching ordinary YouTube videos, you will hear clearer sound effects on the 13-inch MacBook Air. In addition to the clear vocals on the 15-inch MacBook Air, the low-frequency performance of male vocals will be prominent. When playing music with a strong melody, the 15-inch MacBook Air can present a more complete low-frequency interpretation. Compared with MacBook Pro’s low-frequency performance, there is still a long way to go, but compared with the 13-inch MacBook Air, it has grown a lot.

Summary: The screen is bigger and the speakers are greatly upgraded. If you want to buy a 15-inch, go for it!

This time, the editor tested this new 15-inch model as a real MacBook Air 13-inch user. We can see that the 15-inch screen has increased in practicality, and the speakers have been greatly upgraded. The sound when broadcasting is better than 13. inch models. However, the 15-inch MacBook Air still has its merits because it is more difficult to start and work on the desktops of narrow restaurants in Hong Kong, buses or minibuses with limited space. It really depends on the user’s needs. If you often work in a place with a large space, or your school has enough space on the desktop, the more practical 15-inch seems to be the best choice.

▲There is no Macbook Air on the whole machine, the only printed words are these two lines of small characters on the bottom of the back of the machine

▲Excellent backlit keyboard, the degree of light leakage can be said to be quite low

▲The only suspense of the MacBook Air 15-inch is that if the side of the fuselage is integrated, if you drop it with your palm from left to right, it will feel a little scratchy

latest videos