- Okay, so the short
version of this video, is that the 15 inch M2 MacBook Air, is probably the best 15
inch laptop in the world, for most users, but not for every user. So let's talk about it. You see the 13 inch M2 MacBook Air, is the best selling laptop right now. It's the MacBook that got
the most upgrades this year, with the new design, larger display, MagSafe, and everything else, that I mentioned in my two month review. But the one comment that I kept seeing, is that a lot of users
wished they could get one with a bigger display and they
didn't wanna spend a $2,500, on the 16 inch MacBook Pro, because they didn't need a pro device. And that's why I really like this laptop. In terms of form factor,
it looks like you took the 13 inch model and
just stretched it out. And while it is noticeably bigger, it's only 0.01 inches or
0.02 centimeters thicker. And if you haven't seen it in real life, it's kind of crazy when you fold it up, because it just looks and feels so slim. You'd expect it to be heavier. And it is, it's about 3.3 pounds but that's still less than
the 14 inch MacBook Pro. And as long as it
actually fits in your bag, I don't really see much of a downside, to the 15 inch MacBook Air
in terms of portability. Once you open it up you're getting the same keyboard as the smaller version. It's one of my favorite laptop keyboards, has a full height row of function keys, and I like the larger palm
rest assembly on the 15 inch, because it makes the typing
experience more comfortable. We're also getting a larger track pad. It's responsive, it's accurate,
and you can click anywhere. It has pressure sensing capabilities. And in general, MacBooks have my favorite track pads on any laptop. I've got two of the colors
here, midnight and starlight. It also comes in silver and space gray. Now I love midnight, I
think it looks so cool, but it will show fingerprints. If that's something that bothers
you, get a different color. The starlight is also fire, and then the space gray
and silver are timeless. Now, personally, I'm not
bothered by fingerprints, so I would go with midnight. In terms of ports, we're getting two thunderbolts slash USB four ports, for accessories, a MagSafe
free port for fast charging, and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, if you want to use wired headphones. I love MagSafe because I can
safely charge my MacBook Air, and I don't need to worry
about one of the dogs- Yeah, I'm talking to you, Mac, inadvertently ripping the cord out, and sending this MacBook
flying across from, and by the way, yes, one
of our dogs is named Mac. It's not because of
Apple Macs, or MacBooks, but that's just her name. Having MagSafe also
means that I don't need to use one of the USB-C ports to charge, and I always have the two ports
available for accessories. At the same time, just like
with the 13 inch model, all three ports are on the left side. So it means that you can only charge and connect accessories from one side. And this is one of the advantages of going with a 14 or 16 inch MacBook Pro. Looking at the display, it's the same type of display as we have on a 13 inch model. It has the same support
for 1 billion colors, the same 500 nits max brightness. It's a P3 display, and the
only difference is that it's larger and has a higher resolution. This has different benefits
to different users. For some users, it means
that they can see more of a website, a document, or a spreadsheet without scrolling. And for other users who may
have trouble with their vision, it means that they can
just take the same amount of content and just make it look bigger. So it's easier to see. In terms of image quality, I'm
very happy with this display. Content looks great, I've edited photos and video on it without any issues. And overall, I think it's a solid display. I still prefer the display on the 14 inch, and 16 inch MacBook Pro
because it's mini LED, it's a little brighter for SDR, and definitely brighter for HDR content, and it's 120 hertz versus
this one being 60 hertz. But that of course comes at a cost, and I'll leave that to
the detailed review. We're still getting a notch,
and like I said before, yes, I wish it wasn't there. If it means that I
didn't have to give up on the thin bezzles, which
can't be done right now, with the current camera module. No, it doesn't bother me. And no, it doesn't interfere
with how I actually use this MacBook or any other
MacBook that has a notch. And the one feature that I wish we did get with it, is Face ID. Now instead, biometric
authentication is done through Touch ID, which
you can use for things like logging in and making purchases. In terms of external display support, we're looking at one 6K 60 hertz display. So you can use the Apple Studio display, which I have and works great. Or if you're looking for a
very high quality display, which is specifically
designed to work with Macs, and is about half the price, check out the Ben UPD 2725 U. The speakers were also upgraded
from the 13 inch model. So while they're still
located in the hinge, we're getting a six speaker
sound system, instead of four, and it now includes
force canceling woofers. So you might be asking, is
it louder than the 13 inch? Yes, but can you hear a noticeable difference in terms of quality? Maybe, for some things, but
it's not a noticeable difference like going to the 14 inch MacBook
Pro, which is really good. Or the 16 inch MacBook Pro, which definitely has my favorite speakers. Ultimately, yes, you could
hear some difference, between the 13 and 15 inch models, but no, that wouldn't be a reason for me, to get the 15, over the 13. The camera is the same
1080p camera as the 13 inch. And here's a quick sample. This is a camera and microphone test, of the 15 inch M2 MacBook Air. This will give you a pretty good idea, of the type of image quality
that you should expect, and the type of audio quality
that you're going to get. But what about processing power? Since both MacBooks are fanless, and completely silent,
but we have the same chip, and a larger thermal envelope,
the question might be, does the 15 inch MacBook Air
give us better performance? Single and multi-core
performance benchmarks, were very similar, as was GPU performance, as long as we're comparing
it with the 10 core GPU, 13 inch and not the eight core. When I tested sustained performance, the 15 inch was marginally better, less than a 2% difference,
and even that could have been due to just
random variants in the test. Ultimately, the day-to-day
user experience, feels the same to me. And even if there was a slight advantage, in sustained performance,
we're really talking about a few seconds when it comes to rendering video or batching photo. To me, that's not a meaningful difference, because whether a video
renders in five minutes, or five minutes and 10 seconds, doesn't really make a
practical difference. The more important difference
would be when I'm doing something like editing a video
and I'm scrubbing through the timeline or working
with visual graphics. And in that case, I didn't notice a difference between the two. And the more important
factor was upgrading the unified memory, which
I'll get to later on. In terms of SSD speeds, we're
seeing the same disparity that we saw with the 13 inch model, where the 256 gigabyte version is slower, than the 512 gig and up models. I've said this before,
but this isn't likely to make a difference to the
overwhelming majority of users. Certainly not ones that
only need 256 gigabytes. And I still think that it
would be nice for Apple, to acknowledge this during
the checkout process, just per full transparency. Now, all this talk about performance brings me to battery life. Now, if you've seen any of my
13 inch M2 MacBook Air videos, you know that the battery
life has been excellent. So I was curious to see
how the 15 inch model would perform considering
that it has a larger battery, but also has to power a larger display. Both laptops are rated for 18 hours, and so far I'm getting
very similar battery life. I easily finish a day
without needing a charge, unless I'm working on a big video project, at which point I'm always plugged in. And speaking of charging, you can choose between a 35 watt dual
USB-C port power adapter, and a 70 watt single USB
power adapter at checkout. And there's no upcharge
there, no pun intended. So it comes down to whether
you want faster charging, or the versatility of
charging two devices at once. As far as configuration and
pricing, the 15 inch starts out at 1299, which is now
$200 more than 13 inch. And of course it still
comes with eight gigabytes, of unified memory and
256 gigabytes of storage. And remember, that you cannot upgrade this MacBook after you buy it. Let's start with unified memory. If you're a very basic
user, and if you plan on only keeping this MacBook for a few years, you can definitely get
by with eight gigabytes. If on the other hand, you keep your devices
for as long as possible, consider getting 16
gigabytes of unified memory. You'll never regret
having more than you need. And of course, if you want
the most capable MacBook Air, you can upgrade all the
way up to 24 gigabytes. And then we're really
getting into a conversation, of whether the 14 inch MacBook
Pro might be a good fit. Now, looking at storage, if you're just surfing the web and working with web-based applications
or basic documents, 256 gigabytes of storage will work. When you get your MacBook
Air, everything that's on it, uses less than 35 gigabytes of storage, and that leaves you with more
than 200 gigs of free space. Having said that, you do
not wanna run out of space. So if you keep photos, videos,
or backups on your MacBook, or if you use large
applications that take up a lot of space, absolutely consider
upgrading the storage, so that you have as
much space as you need. And remember that unlike
the unified memory, you can supplement the internal storage, with less expensive external SSDs, which you can share with other devices. So while there are 15
inch laptops up there, that offer cheaper RAM and
internal storage upgrades, there are ones that
offer a better display, others that are a better choice
for gamers, and of course, less expensive options
when you consider that this is the thinnest 15 inch
laptop in the world, it's super light and portable. It has powerful M2 chip, a nice display, excellent battery life, and an outstanding keyboard
and track pad combo. I think the 15 inch M2 MacBook Air, could become one of the
most popular MacBooks ever. Now, you should check out this comparison. Click on my face to subscribe. You know what I always say,
buy it nice or buy twice. Good luck and see you soon.
