13" vs 15" M2 MacBook Air - which is BEST?

foreign in a very long time we have two sizes of MacBook Air to choose from so which one's right for you the 15 inch or the 13 inch at WWDC this year Apple launched the 15-inch MacBook Air and it's pretty much the exact same laptop as the 13-inch version even right down to the color choices so you can still get this smudge infested midnight version however there are some differences and bearing in mind that this laptop came out of nowhere and now lots of people are saying should I get the 15-inch version rather than the 13-inch version I've done lots of research to save you time and find out which one you should buy but first a very quick word from today's sponsor which is Trend Micro and the Fantastic cleaner one pro so clean one pro basically makes it super easy to remove files from your Mac if you're anything like me after a certain amount of time not very long generally you accumulate loads of stuff on your MacBook or your Mac and you just don't know how to get rid of it one of the best things that cleaner one pro does is sniff out massive files that you had no idea were there there's even a dedicated view for big files so for someone like me who has lots of video files on his Mac I can find them very quickly isolate them and then delete them another fantastic feature that I use all the time is the ability to find duplicate photos cleaner one pro will find those duplicates and make it very easy for you to delete them there's loads more in cleaner one pro including a disk map so you can see exactly the type of files that are in specific folders there's a great app management section where you can completely remove apps with just a few clicks there's even a file Shredder for complete Erasure there's also a very handy toolbar at the top of the screen that gives you glanceable information for things like CPU memory usage your network activity and from there you can also do a quick scan for Junk files cleaner one pro is one of the best ways to keep your Mac nice and tidy to find out more just click that link in the description right let's start with pricing and specs and I will have to refer to my notes I'm afraid because there are just so many numbers involved and I can guarantee I'll get one of them wrong and get roasted in the comments so the 15-inch MacBook Air starts at 1 399 pounds in the UK and for that you get the M2 Chip with the 8 core CPU 10 core GPU eight gigabytes of unified memory and 256 gigabytes of SSD storage the 13-inch MacBook Air is 250 pounds cheaper and as far as processing and storage goes it features pretty much the exact same M2 Chip as this one the only difference is that in this one you get an 8 core GPU versus the 10 core GPU in this one will you notice that in everyday usage no if you start doing lots of intensive graphical work on it and video editing possibly but in that case you're probably not going to buy the base spec of either of these machines there are some minor differences between these two machines which are quite easy to miss so I've picked them out for you the 15 inch comes with a dual Port 35 watt USBC adapter whereas this one comes with the 30 watt adapter that has just one port the 15 inch is also 0.6 pounds heavier than this one and the 15 inch also has two extra speakers bringing the total to six versus four everything else is the same they've both got the same 1080p FaceTime camera they've got magsafe charging two Thunderbolt ports the same screen brightness interestingly Apple quotes the same battery life of 18 hours for these two laptops even though this one has a slightly bigger battery does that matter not at all the battery life on both of these laptops is just game changing they both have the same memory options so you can either have 8 16 or 24 gig the same goes for the storage so you can go from 256 gigabytes right up to two terabytes the biggest difference between these two laptops is that display and obviously the footprint which I'll come on to in a minute but first there's some something else I just have to talk about I won't get into the weeds with this because you will fall asleep but basically the 256 gig M1 MacBook Air has its storage spread across two nand chips the 256 gig M2 MacBook Air has that storage on one nand chip and that makes the M2 version a bit slower in certain scenarios now do you notice this in everyday life no if you're doing normal computery stuff like I do on these machines which is email web surfing you'll be absolutely fine the base spec Works beautifully I've ran this business on this machine without any trouble whatsoever it's only if you dive into very intensive stuff where you'll probably notice that performance deficit however if you want to avoid that completely just get the 512 gig of storage because that has the proper nand chip configuration I'm bored of talking about this now but just know that that same issue applies to the 15 inch as it does to the 13 inch the biggest and most obvious difference between these two laptops is the size and the choice between 13 inch and 15 inch MacBook Air is completely personal it depends massively on your use case and your preference for the size of laptop that you use but there are two things to bear in mind the first thing is that there is a bigger difference than you think between 13.6 and 15.3 inches it might not sound like much but when you put these two laptops side by side it's quite significant the good news is that if you've always used a 13-inch MacBook Air and occasionally found that display too cramped you have another option however the other thing to bear in mind is portability there's no escaping the fact that the 13-inch MacBook Air is incredibly portable it fits on all coffee tables all plane and trained seat trays there's nowhere you can take this where it feels cumbersome but what about the 15 inch version because if you know me you'll know that I'm getting fairly tired of my 16-inch MacBook Pro that thing is just heavy unwieldy and too big for all of those scenarios that I've just mentioned you may therefore think that the 15-inch MacBook Air is similar but it's not this thing is still incredibly portable it's so much thinner and lighter than the MacBook Pro I've just been traveling with this laptop to America and I barely knew it was there it was so light in my backpack and I still managed to use it on those same train and plane seat trays so even though this one is noticeably bigger than this one it's still incredibly portable I can't tell you which size of MacBook Air is for you but what I strongly suggest is going to an Apple store and putting them side by side that is the only way you can work out which one you can live with let's talk about the theoretical owners of these two laptops firstly the 13 inch is an amazing all-rounder that display is great for having two apps side by side but like I mentioned earlier it's small enough to fit pretty much anywhere that makes the 13-inch MacBook Air perfect for anyone who wants a fast convenient massively portable laptop that can do everything so who would buy the 15-inch version well I think those buyers fall into two categories the first is people who want to put lots of stuff on the screen at once and for whom 13 inches has always felt a bit cramped the second is people who just want the biggest display possible and we see this with iPhones people buy the iPhone 14 pro Max because it has a massive display that may not be for any specific reason no productivity reasons whatsoever they just want the biggest phone and those same people might just want the biggest MacBook Air which is absolutely fine I'd love to know which of those two categories you fit into let me know in the comments but the biggest takeaway from this comparison is to go and check them out yourselves in person go to an Apple Store put them side by side and work out which one is for you because the similarities between these two laptops are just numerous it's all about that display size and the size of the chassis so please go and check them out before you make that decision and if you want to know more about the M2 15-inch MacBook Air keep watching for a link to my full review that I did a week or so ago in New York City

Channel: Mark Ellis Reviews

Views: 18,143

Keywords: Mark Ellis Reviews, Mark Ellis, 13 inch macbook air versus 15 inch macbook air, macbook air, m2 macbook air, macbook air 15, 15 inch macbook air, macbook air m2, macbook, macbook air 2023, macbook air 15 inch 2023, 2023 macbook air, macbook air 15 review, new macbook air, macbook air m2 review, macbook air 15 inch, macbook air vs macbook pro, macbook air 15 vs 13, 15-inch macbook air, m2, macbook air 15 2023, m2 chip, apple, apple m2, 2023 macbook air review, trend micro

Id: BdvGrAQ4Gug

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023