Given the extra room it would have been nice for them to add maybe at least one extra usb port for value add over the 14 inch Air (whilst still being port-short of the MacBook Pros).
These are now available refurbished for as low as $950 online. I feel like that would be the best option versus the M3 that just came out because the refurb models usually have upgraded RAM or Storage.
Perfect timing. I hope I can find it at an affordable price in Germany since I am buying my first ever macbook and dont want to fall into the trap of buying the new shiny M3 Model
In my experience, most people choose the Air because it's lightweight. The only downside used to be the limited selection of screen sizes. Now, as you've already mentioned, this could easily become the most popular laptop. Although the price gets closer to that of the Pro, I truly believe its lighter weight will be a selling point for most.
also most people that buy mac in general dont know anything about tech and dont know what to buy so they just pick the brand that they know will deliver a satisfactory experience. Maybe not the best bang for your buck, but they will still buy it.
I actually really like the removal of the speaker grills. They dont accumulate dust and it gives a quite sleek appearance similar to the older macbooks in the mid 2010s
@@princethakur8424 There is almost complete consensus among reviewers that MacBook Pros have the best laptop speakers in the world, it's not even a competition. MacBook Pro speakers are the best among laptops.
I still think the smaller Air is going to remain popular with people who travel a lot, writers who want to use it on a table at a Starbucks or similar, and people who want to use it often on an airplane. 15" is a great screen size, but 13" is a sweet spot where it's not unwieldy and is just big enough for media consumption as well. Considering the size of most tablets are 10-12", you can do quite a lot on a 13.x" screen.
Yeah, right now I'm looking into a new day-to-day business laptop to replace my 15-inch ThinkPad. That inch downsize means I can carry it around a lot more easily. Plus, most 15-inch laptops are 1080p and the smaller Air still has a 2K display. Technically, it's a 1.7-inch difference, but I'm still not convinced I need a bigger screen.
I got this for my parents. Being senior citizens, they needed a laptop that has a bigger screen and would work for their daily needs without needing too much specs.. Earlier Macbook Pro was the only one with 15inch and frankly all the specs would have been wasted...this works great for my parents and they are happy.
I think one of the biggest factors that was missed out about this in terms of price between an upgraded MBA 15 inch and MBP price is the WEIGHT! I was glad i returned my MBP to get a smaller and lighter air with lots of battery life for travel. Most of the computing I do is usually on cloud these days, so the 15 inch is something i'm really looking forward to
So true, I returned the 16 inch MBP as it was just comically heavy and wouldn’t even fit in a large messenger bag. It was actually so heavy that my legs would get tired just holding it in my lap after a while. Too bad as everything else was amazing.
@@smartlearning6390 I'm doing lots of web dev, azure computing, db services, trying out a VM locally has been pretty good as well but the shitty part is you'll have to pay a fee monthly where as windows is free
My first Mac was a 15" MBP back before they were retina and unibody, but after the titanium design. It was a freaking rockstar computer, I loved that thing, it was lightyears ahead of any windows laptop at the time (I think it was 2007). Definitely intrigued in a newer 15" form factor
Back in 07 th MBP was definitely ahead of the curve in design. But until the M1 released Apple was outsourcing for RAM, Graphics and Processors, so in terms of "Bang for your Buck", it was a huge rip off... Now, with Apple's custom chips and the performance that comes with it, it's a Different story entirely.
Same here, early 2015 still going strong but needed to upgrade to the 13 inch air m2 which is arriving in 2 days. Will update my thoughts here when I receive it.
I wish they'd add 120Hz displays to the entire MacBook lineup. I daily drive a machine with a 165Hz display, and my phone has a 120Hz display. Having gotten used to those, it's honestly pretty tough going back to 60Hz. It feels insanely unresponsive to me
I was a bit stunned, that they did not include one more usb-c port, at least. There should be room for that. But i guess, they wanted to keep this as a differentiator to the Pro Line.
The M2 chip only has 2 thunderbolt controllers on the chip, so they couldn’t add a thunderbolt port, however they could’ve added one more USB C port if they wanted to. Similar to the higher end 24” iMacs. But I would agree that they definitely did not need to, sure it would’ve been nice but having MagSafe and 2 thunderbolt ports is more than enough for the average consumer. I know plenty of people who are just casual users and they will go months and months without plugging anything into their laptop other than to charge it. Anyone who needs more ports can get the MacBook Pro.
Just wanted to leave a notes saying I absolutely adore this atoll shot. The colours are perfect and the dynamic range through the window is outstanding. Just spectacular work and I wanted to share with you that someone notices it!
It never fails. Always droves of fanboys in the comments sucking off marques and babbling about transitions and editing as if they’re doing something revolutionary. The meatriding and ball gargling is insane.
This is considered big, but that makes me think of the days long ago when I had a 17" laptop. That was big to me, while 15" seemed normal and 13 was small.
I just got the 13 inch m2 air and gonna be honest. I don’t miss the bigger screen of my old laptop. As someone who takes it around everywhere it suits me more than the 15 inch that this.
as a teen I used to hate on Macs, because all I did was gaming. I've bought my first MacBook Pro two weeks ago and now I understand the logic behind apple products, the whole package is so nice
I'm a photographer. I bought the M1 13 inch air because the price was irresistible. Great laptop. My only real issue is the screen size. That 15 inch would be very helpful for my needs.
I dunno why Apple takes 15' MBA's away, then reintroduce them when people want them back.. Sounds to me, [they] created the problem in the first place. Whats so bad about leaving an additional product on the site? They do that anyway now with the M1, M2, Ultra and whatever else.
I’m getting this instead of the 14” pro because as a med student most of what I’ll be doing (displaying books, pdf files, goodnotes notebooks, TH-cam videos, school videos and lectures in general) doesn’t require that much processing power but it does need a big screen.
Couple years ago when i worked in a certain retail store, everyone wanted something a little bigger than the 13" air and everyone shat themselves when I'd say the only option in a mac was the 15"pro. You also might be surprised at the number of people who got mad like it was my personal doing that they'd have to spend so much more to get a 15" mac.
I think a lot of people are going to see you comparing this to a 14” MacBook Air and wonder why Apple doesn’t have one of those for sale. I know the 13” one is close to 14”, but it’s not listed that way.
@@alanbravo5830 I checked Apple's site before I posted that, and it's definitely shown as 13.3” in the specs. I just went back to the MacBook Air page and copied and pasted that 13.3” just for you, lol. Anyway, I think since the size is part of the actual freaking name of the product, it only makes sense for MKBHD to use that to avoid confusion.
Being a programmer working remotely, a bigger screen can do wonders when you're on the move and need to get work done. I can see the MacBook Air 15" becoming a recommended mac laptop by companies for their employees.
@@MakeItMakeSense285 I agree with you on that, given it's officially their entry line laptop, what it does achieve with the M2 (a bump up from the m1) is quiet remarkable. I myself used the 13" M1 MBP and now use the 14" M1 Pro MBP for my personal use. Having dealt with "high end" windows laptop, from a coding point of view, this should be a breeze.
@@yousifragab479 Unity ia quite the RAM hog. Photoshop too, I have 16GB Surface Pro 8 and Unity + PS eats all the RAM easily. From my experience Macs are really good with RAM management though, but I still wouldn't take less than 16GB for a Mac either, my old MB Pro is 8GB and it's just not cutting it. I'd really wish a touch screen for Mac should I ever go back. It's just so much more convenient to do mobile game testing directly in Unity editor with touch screen on SP8, plus it's easier to draw assets too.
I moved from a 16' intel mac book pro to 14' M2 air. I really like the M2 air, I realized I never needed the heavier pro all this time. But I miss the larger screen. There are times I need to squint my eyes to see what is being presented during meetings ... So this will be perfect for me, maybe I could even have a 16' Air if it comes about eventually.
I've bought one of these for work as a daily driver. I'm hybrid, so work from home and office but am mainly desk based for 8hrs a day. Hoping this will strike the perfect balance between a useable, daily screen and that lightness that makes carrying it less cumbersome than the older 15/16" MBPs
How’s the laptop? I’m a nursing student/art student and looking to get a laptop I can study with and do my creative work with. I never liked the smaller screens so any review on your experience with this laptop would help, thank you 💖
@@rose968 Hi Rose. So far, so good. I use both the 2023 MBP and 2023 MBA daily. I find the air keeps up with most tasks but the speakers are no where near as nice as on the MBP. The lack of ports is annoying too, but overall, it's a great laptop of the price. Screen is great, keyboard very comfortable, very lightweight too. Considering it's half the price of the MBP, it is definitely more than half as good... if that makes sense! I could do a video review of these if you like?
I ended up opting for a spec’s out 13 inch m2 as a travel companion to my work issued mbp. The two travel fairly nicely together and with 24gb of ram should run Ableton without having to freeze too many tracks. Great for long plane trips which is my primary use case.
@@JohnSmith-pn2vl Sounds like you've never used Ableton. Each working track places a reserve on a certain amount of memory. So do your plugins. And your add-ons. And your loaded samples.... among other things in the background to help with audio processing.
If the screen was 120hz this would be my personal machine instead of my 14 pro m2 pro. I rarely compile code that takes over 5 min for personal projects but just can’t go back to 60hz haha.
I find myself thinking if the Air line can be configured with 32GB of RAM whenever the M3 hits I could see going for it because yeah, I don't do a lot of intense development on my personal systems, but totally agree the 120Hz display of the Pro line plus the addition of HDMI and SDXC ports plus better speakers and higher spec CPUs makes the 14" Pro feel worth the added cost. Between it and the 13" and 15" Air models as well you kinda need to go with the 13" to have any sort of noticeable benefit IMO, which is the 13" model being nearly a pound lighter.
I got the midnight base version. It's the best laptop I've owned. It's actually significantly snappier than the m1 air, and the size, weight, keyboard, trackpad, speakers, everything just feels right. PS: The fingerprints on the midnight are nowhere near as bad as TH-camrs make them out to be, and they hide other kinds of blemishes like dust much better than the lighter colours.
As a college student who has the smaller M2 MacBook Air, I really don’t mind the smaller screen. Yeah, it has slightly less room, but it is essentially the same laptop and it is just as effective for the basic tasks of a student.
Having it all just "there" is good, but you can always attach a bigger display as the expensive of being 'portable' There has got to be some tade-off's.
Yeah, for college, 13-14" laptops are the sweet spot, especially in terms of portability. Having a laptop under 3 lbs makes you not even feel the weight in your backpack. When you're at home, just connect to an external display.
@@Tech-geekyyeah, if I need a bigger screen I’ll just plug it into an external monitor or a TV. Same reason why I own an 11 inch iPad Pro instead of a 12.9 inch
I never saw the appeal of big laptops, I prioritize portability. My laptop currently is 13". My advice is that if you don't split screen, don't use spreadsheets, and just need a laptop for personal use, get a smaller laptop and plug it into a monitor. I think the true audience of the 15" MacBook is casual video editors, freelancers that have to do light work, etc. I see this as more of a competitor to the larger MacBook Pro as opposed to the standard Air.
Agreed. When I saw this 15" Macbook Air come out, I thought it was my dream computer, but when I went to see it in person, it looked too large and the 13-14 inch looked much better to me.
The 16” comes with a couple of bonuses: the display is larger, you will get more of that beautiful mini led display, the bezels look slimmer due to the ratios, the notch looks smaller for the same reason. The 16” gets a larger trackpad which is more convenient to use and the speakers are better giving richer sound. As far as battery life the 16” gets three hours more in terms of web browsing, and also gets a more powerful 140 watt power supply.
Honestly, with this computer being added, I think this is the most cohesive their laptop line in particular has been in quite a few years, it really has something for everyone now. And the prices aren't as bad as I thought they would be. Makes me think of the old 4x4 consumer/pro quadrants they had back in the original iMac G3 days. I might have an easier time recommending something to people now 😅 Great video 👍🏾
@@Slengas89 should drop the Pro brand aswell, gets Confusing with the names of the M1/2 Chips. Macbook Pro M1 Pro, MB Pro M1 (do i get Pro chip? no) etc. Think Macbook and Macbook Air works better IMO
The differences between the models are marginal. Starting from a base where I want 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, the MBPro 14 offers a much better processor, a much better screen, as good or better sound, better connectivity, for 9 grams more weight and about $300 more than the 15in MBAir. Stepping up from the 13inch is bigger, but finally, I think the 14 in MBPro is the better deal.
The process is not “much better” no one plays music on labtops. It has a better screen and more ports. That’s it. It’s weight more. It doesn’t look as good. Worst battery life has fans so it’s louder. The air still wins
As someone who was torn between the 13” and 15”, I settled for the 13” and now that it’s been in my possession for a few days and used it on the train, I’m so glad I didn’t go for the 15”. The bigger screen may have been nice but I needed something I could not just easily carry whilst travelling but also could use comfortably when on a train or plane. Tray tables aren’t that massive, plus add to it a beverage and a phone which a 15” might not leave enough room for compared to a 13”
@@zoltanzana the trains where I live have 3+2 seating layout so they’re narrower. Typing this from my 13” MacBook on the train where it just about fits but no room for my coffee :p
Good review as always. Just a minor nitpick - in comparison screens you mentioned “14 inch MacBook air” instead of “13”. It will confuse some now and later.
It's a great machine but I'd hate to give up the ProMotion display on my 16" Macbook Pro. I can say that having a laptop at this size scale basically turns it into a complete desktop replacement for almost every use case, and the three-finger swipe to switch fullscreen apps combined with fluid scrolling basically eliminates the need to use arrow keys for navigation (as a dev, this is a big deal for me)
Ive been using my Mac air mid 2012 for 12 years! Yes, you read that correctly and it's not a typo....12 YEARS! I paid $1200 bucks for it back in 2012. Today, I am buying this 15 inch m2 16gb 1tb machine for $1499. Can't wait!
nice!, next year in january will be 8 years that i've had my late 2016 lower tier MacBook pro, so far it still runs great!, had to replace the battery once. Hoping to go 10 years with it
I loved my M1 air and I recently switched to M1 Pro 14" - I'd really suggest you get the 14" Pro instead of 15" Air, or simply go for M1 Air -which is now the cheapest and offers the best value for money
lol meanwhile I just bought a portable display to go with my 13 Battery life is leaps and bounds better, but screen feels so cramped compared to my 15”
@@RetardsOfPaloAlto I’m with you on this issue. I believe a 14-15” display is the “Goldilocks” sweet spot of laptop size for most users. The 11-13” screen models are nicely lightweight/compact and therefore extra portable, but a bit cramped for my taste (and most people’s, as MKBHD just pointed out). On the _other_ extreme, the 16-17” display machines can be monstrous in terms of weight/portability and $$$ cost.
Love the review! Here's my 2 cents. For my work they gave me a 13" M1 Macbook pro and I bloody love it. Having a smaller device means I can fit it more comfortably on tables and on my lap while working on the train. When I'm in 'work mode' I have large 27" monitors and a big widescreen monitor in the office. In the future I might come to own a 15" laptop in the future but the smaller 13" has been a pleasant surprise. On a side note, I own a 15" Dell XPS and its heavy, the fan is loud and the performance isn't quite as good as the MacBook...
I love my old 12inch 2013 macbook air. Opencore, new battery runs Ventura fine. I use it more than my M1 cause I prefer its size. I'd love an M2 version with the bezel cut down to match. I think Apple should make a mini one too.
Apple should've done three things: 1. Make the 70 Watt charger the default. A lot of people buying the Air are everyday users who rely on the default option for stuff they don't understand. Most people would rather have faster charging than an extra port. It's dumb that the 35 Watt dual charger is selected by default. Even refurbished macs ship with the higher capacity charger by default because they know people buying refurbished are more tech-savvy. 2. Make the ridiculous SSD prices cheaper. $200 to upgrade from 256 GB to 512 GB. I mean you can get a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro for $200 and that's a premium brand. You can get a gen4 NVME SSD from a noname brand for $75 that's still faster than the Macbook's SSD speed. Apple is about convenience and their prices are going to drive a lot of people to use inconvenient external SSDs instead just out of principle. 3. Add an option to get the display quality of the Macbook Pro without the additional compute power. Lots of non-professional users want that amazing display quality of the pro for watching content. People who buy the 15-inch variant are more likely to care about the display. In my opinion, they should keep the RAM (unified memory) prices the same (even though it is also ridiculously overpriced) and continue to not have any option to upgrade the chip to the M2 Pro because that would cause some people to not buy the Macbook Pro. But as long as they do that, very few people who would otherwise buy the Pro will buy the Air with a pathetic 8 GB of RAM (basically useless for heavy workloads) and a weaker normal M2 chip instead. Even an M1 Macbook Pro is better than an upgraded 15 inch air in every way except for thickness (which doesn't matter that much since it's the length and width of the laptop that limits the portability, not the thickness. Like wow, what a big deal that my extremely wide 15.3 inch or 16.2 inch laptop is 0.66 inches thick instead 0.45 inches thick. 3.3 pounds vs 4.7 pounds isn't a big deal either. Even more true if you're using a laptop big which adds more thickness anyway. The single core performance of the M1 pro is slightly lower than M2 normal, but the multi-core performance is substantially better. For $1949, you can get this laptop brand new on Amazon instead of the $1699 upgraded Macbook air with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. I recently went for a certified refurbished 16 inch Macbook Pro M2 instead. Refurbished is basically brand new for Apple (no cosmetic or functional defects and basically brand new battery). The extra CPU power was only $170 more than a new M1 16 inch and $420 more than a the upgraded Macbook Air. So for both the M1 and M2 Pro, you get a much nicer screen, either nicer or much nicer CPU depending on M1/M2, and a longer battery life. Alternatively, you can buy a refurbished 14 inch M2 Macbook pro for the exact same price as an upgraded air or a brand new M1 version for $270 less than an upgraded Air on Amazon. That means that the M1 version is $70 cheaper than even the Macbook Air with just the storage upgraded to 512GB (and RAM stuck at 8GB) even though the M1 Pro comes with both 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage plus all those other benefits I listed earlier. That's right! You get more RAM and all those other benefits for $70 cheaper and they're both brand new, not refurbished. I mean you get a slightly smaller screen and a thicker laptop (though the weight is almost exactly the same at just 0.2 pounds heavier for the Pro), but the screen itself is much better quality and you get all the other benefits listed above. The issue is that if you want to upgrade the Air at all, it makes it much less worth it to buy. By not doing the above, Apple is driving a lot of consumers to buy new/refurbished M1/M2 14/16 inch Macbook Pros instead, depending on their needs. Apple is hoping that consumers don't realise this, but if they think of their customers as dumb, that's all the more reason to make the damn 70 watt charger the default, lol. If you're buying the Air, just buy the base model and use an external SSD/online cloud storage. Don't upgrade the Air, please. If you're rich enough to pay for the overpriced upgrades instead of slightly inconveniencing yourself, you can afford the Pro. The RAM isn't worth it either. If you need the extra RAM, high chances are you need the extra CPU power too. The Macbook Air 15 inch base model is amazingly priced, though, and definitely worth it.
It’s Apple, what do you expect ? Outside of good deals at 3rd party vendors (e.g., BestBuy) or the Apple Cert Refurb store, you’re always going to pay that rip-off premium or as some call it, “Apple Tax” 😢😂
I personally prefer the 13.6 inch way more honestly. It’s the perfect size to carry around in cafe or while in the park etc. If I need extra space, which is rare cause my workflow involves a lot of workspaces, I just plug it in an external monitor. (I’m a software engineer)
@@zoltanzana When i’m at home or at the office yeah got 2-3 4k external monitors, but when I’m coding away outside nah To be fair tho, I don’t bring a bag to work, just my laptop
I worked at MicroCenter for years, and I was in the Apple department for a year. The amount of times a day I'd have to sell some old lady-type a 15" MBP for basic daily use was insane. This probably should've come sooner, but hey.
I’m just worried in a couple of months the M3 MacBook Air might drop and surprise surprise they refresh both the 13” and the 15” at the same time to bring them in sync!
And that's why I haven't jumped on any of these. I'll wait for the M3 and see what the landscape is like before I purchase. My question is do they do two separate or one mega event for the M3 both Air and Pro with M3 Pro and Max Chips. I'm thinking the latter to boost the whole lineup.
I bought my m2 air few months back (which has a notch). I would routinely search for faceid options within the mac settings. It did take me a lot of time to figure that there is no faceID, just the notch 😅😂
Yes! That's a bit silly for apple doing that kind of stuff. Like in an iPhone, why don't they add an in display fingerprint instead of only relying on faceid 🥲
It's fun hearing statements made during the most recent Waveform episode in your reviews. Also a good nod to the current events with the AQI map b-roll. Regarding the MBA: the deal breaker for me is the 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro you can still sometimes find for $200 more which includes a VRR display, extra I/O, and double the storage & RAM. But I guess if you just want an off-the-shelf 15" Mac, this is still the go-to over that. I'm very curious to see if the 15" actually outsells the 13" now.
I love the part where the video rewinded from the Tesla comparison and Marques showed up on screen and said "It's Rewind Time", and MacBooked all over the video. Truly one of the creators of all time.
What is he chatting about 😂 Who are these people he’s dreamed up that go into a shop and “ask for a 15inch laptop”? What an insane thing to suggest 😅 Especially for those buying from Apple. Would be like going into a restaurant and saying “I’m looking for a 600 calorie meal”. People don’t shop like that. Nonsense.
I just got one yesterday and I already love it. It's the base model and it works perfectly fine for me. We have a 13 in M1 Air and that was great as well it just now that I'm in my mid 40's having a bigger screen is just nicer. For any heavy lifting I use the the M1 Studio so the base model Air is enough.
Yep, took me a few months to warm to the idea of upgrading but I've now gone from my base model 13" to an upgraded 15" with 16Gb memory and 1Tb storage. I'd love to upgrade my M1 16" MBP but can't afford it. The 15" MacBook Air will, I hope, future proof me a little.
Personally I still prefer the 13” model. I just don't think their slightly larger size really justifies the extra $200. It's not a bad computer but I work on computers all-day long. I have multiple testing laptops and honestly i have never felt wanting for a screen that was only marginally larger. I have an M1 air right now and will probably upgrade to the M2 shortly. With the discounts that can be had for the 13” I just cannot justify it for me. Plus it's a little easier to travel with.
@@jeffdurling100 It _does_ matter; you’re confusing the Hell out of people because when you talk about a 14” display MacBook, the vast majority of people will presume you’re referring to the 14” MacBook *Pro* Just busting your chops a bit 😅, but it’s worth noting so that we’re doing apples-to-apples 😊 comparisons.
Wow, just watched your review of the 15" MacBook Air M2 and I'm seriously impressed! The level of detail you provided about its features and performance is exactly what I was looking for. It's great to see a focus on the "obvious things" that really matter to users. The sleek design combined with the M2 chip's power sounds like a game-changer.
I remember lol'ing when my grandma showed me her new 15" Macbook Pro because she needed the bigger screen to check email. This is the right machine for 95% of people out there.
Where this is going to sell like crazy is in the business world. I'm a Product Manager and rock a 13 inch Air but almost everyone else is using the 16 inch pros only because of the screens. Its crazy they have such powerful machine never pushing the machine. Developers and designers stick with the Pros but those of us rocking webapps, excel and teams an Air is perfect.
As a software developer, and after using M1 air for almost a year now, I was thinking to switch to 14" but again I thought that would not make any difference. Now, 15" is convincing me to buy it. This will be awesome !!!
Hey man long shot but if you do actually upgrade soon, I'd like to buy your older M1 air (assuming you're also in India). Let me know what you think of this and we can take it forward from there.
@@masaguchi46 yeah it bothers a little, but switching between screens is way easier and smoother than windows that it doesn’t feel much. But I would say it should have multiple external displays option. 🤗
@@masaguchi46I used an HP dock with DisplayLink for three monitors total on an M1 Air and had no issues at all. Maybe it makes a difference for gaming or something, but certainly not for programming.
Just letting you know that you refer to the 13" M2 MacBook Air as being 14" throughout the whole video, so the gain in screen size is actually larger than you say!
I was thinking about trading in my M1 Air for the 15” M2 Air but ultimately decided against it as the bigger screen and slightly better performance just wasn’t worth it to me yet. Maybe I’ll get the 2025 15” air but the M1 is still holding up incredibly well so I’m not sure.
I used to be excited about trading up for newer Apple models. But I haven’t found anything that has more benefits to me personally than the m1 air and iPhone 13mini, even putting price aside as a factor
I still think the lack of ports compared to 14" and pricier upgrade path could potentially sway people to choose 14" Pro or other windows laptop such as g14, s13, ThinkPad etc..
@@white.lodge.dale.cooper i know apple users dont see new thing very often but damn. 1 inch screen different is a "huge upgrade" these days for y'all 😂
I sold my M2 Apple MacBook Air for an M2 Pro 16” MacBook Pro. Two basic reasons: 1. Screen real estate was too less for my workflow and my bad eyesight. 2. The screen hinge had almost no stiffness one expects. Can’t actually call it loose or wobbly but you get the point. It was undoubtedly a capable machine, light, very portable and enough performance for my workloads. I could have bought the 15” MacBook Air instead but in my country the difference between a baseline 16” M2 Pro MBP and the new Air with 512GB SSD was not justified.
It depends on what you use it for, using it for light duty things like web browsing means it’s overkill But using it for video editing, gaming, or running multiple tasks at once you’ll notice a difference.
Marques has been around for it seems like forever but I only recently starting appreciating this take on tech reviews and following him more closely. Gotta say "...pounce on this popular pick" was good alliteration at the end there.
Given the extra room it would have been nice for them to add maybe at least one extra usb port for value add over the 14 inch Air (whilst still being port-short of the MacBook Pros).
wtf is the extension i see every creator using doing in the comments of an MKBHD video 😭
Apple are always stingy on the ports for some reason
I guess it's not imPORTant to them. Sorry.
@@FeelsDonkMan Not with the Pros.
There is no 14 inch air
These are now available refurbished for as low as $950 online. I feel like that would be the best option versus the M3 that just came out because the refurb models usually have upgraded RAM or Storage.
Perfect timing. I hope I can find it at an affordable price in Germany since I am buying my first ever macbook and dont want to fall into the trap of buying the new shiny M3 Model
Really great point looking into getting one as we speak!
I got my refurbished M2 with 16 gigs of ram and a terabyte of storage. I got it less than a month ago for just over $1K once you add tax and shipping.
Thanks a lot u saved me 300$
In my experience, most people choose the Air because it's lightweight. The only downside used to be the limited selection of screen sizes. Now, as you've already mentioned, this could easily become the most popular laptop. Although the price gets closer to that of the Pro, I truly believe its lighter weight will be a selling point for most.
most people choose air because it isn't as expensive as the macbook pro.
Most people choose the Air because it is the most accessible Apple laptop in terms of price.
also most people that buy mac in general dont know anything about tech and dont know what to buy so they just pick the brand that they know will deliver a satisfactory experience. Maybe not the best bang for your buck, but they will still buy it.
Yes! 😂 I just bought it because it was lighter than a pro - I upgraded everthing on it.
I actually really like the removal of the speaker grills. They dont accumulate dust and it gives a quite sleek appearance similar to the older macbooks in the mid 2010s
@@deaglannolan8468 the 14" and 16" MBPs do sound better
@@deaglannolan8468 Sound quality of MacBooks are worst , better go for windows
@@princethakur8424 macbooks have the best laptop speakers by far.
@@limbitsafe6620 Ok i think i exaggerated , MacBooks have good sound quality but windows laptops have better and they're more value for money
@@princethakur8424 There is almost complete consensus among reviewers that MacBook Pros have the best laptop speakers in the world, it's not even a competition. MacBook Pro speakers are the best among laptops.
I still think the smaller Air is going to remain popular with people who travel a lot, writers who want to use it on a table at a Starbucks or similar, and people who want to use it often on an airplane. 15" is a great screen size, but 13" is a sweet spot where it's not unwieldy and is just big enough for media consumption as well. Considering the size of most tablets are 10-12", you can do quite a lot on a 13.x" screen.
Yeah, right now I'm looking into a new day-to-day business laptop to replace my 15-inch ThinkPad. That inch downsize means I can carry it around a lot more easily. Plus, most 15-inch laptops are 1080p and the smaller Air still has a 2K display. Technically, it's a 1.7-inch difference, but I'm still not convinced I need a bigger screen.
@@ethanpschwartz Oh yeah, it'll be a hell of a lot more portable. I use a 15" ThinkPad every day at my shop, but I'm not lugging that thing around.
And I think the extra .6 to 13.6 really makes it almost the ideal size for me.
I think you should hit the gym if a 1.6kg ish device is too heavy to carry..
@@jonneymendoza no one is even talking about the weight, stop projecting
I got this for my parents. Being senior citizens, they needed a laptop that has a bigger screen and would work for their daily needs without needing too much specs.. Earlier Macbook Pro was the only one with 15inch and frankly all the specs would have been wasted...this works great for my parents and they are happy.
Buying one for my parents as well. I can’t wait to see their reactions
@@1nvdno one asked
@@i_observe9846 your mom did after I bought her an Apple Watch and a rose toy
I think one of the biggest factors that was missed out about this in terms of price between an upgraded MBA 15 inch and MBP price is the WEIGHT! I was glad i returned my MBP to get a smaller and lighter air with lots of battery life for travel. Most of the computing I do is usually on cloud these days, so the 15 inch is something i'm really looking forward to
what you do and which cloud service you generally use ?
So true, I returned the 16 inch MBP as it was just comically heavy and wouldn’t even fit in a large messenger bag. It was actually so heavy that my legs would get tired just holding it in my lap after a while. Too bad as everything else was amazing.
@@smartlearning6390 I'm doing lots of web dev, azure computing, db services, trying out a VM locally has been pretty good as well but the shitty part is you'll have to pay a fee monthly where as windows is free
If they were the same price (same GB and SSD), would you still take the Air even if the Pro gives you more?
@Smart Learning do you think 15inch air is better than 13inch for work? as a software engineer
My first Mac was a 15" MBP back before they were retina and unibody, but after the titanium design. It was a freaking rockstar computer, I loved that thing, it was lightyears ahead of any windows laptop at the time (I think it was 2007). Definitely intrigued in a newer 15" form factor
Do it, do it, do it
Back in 07 th MBP was definitely ahead of the curve in design.
But until the M1 released Apple was outsourcing for RAM, Graphics and Processors, so in terms of "Bang for your Buck", it was a huge rip off...
Now, with Apple's custom chips and the performance that comes with it, it's a Different story entirely.
@@MrGonz801 but macOS sucks compared to Windows 11. Apple really needs to step up the OS game
@@Minto107 i think windows 10 is better than 11, heck linux (arch specifically) is better than both
@@Bobby2k6 I’m a web developer and I really love Windows + WSL connection it’s the best of both worlds
Just upgraded to this one from my early 2015 MB pro. It’s a world of difference, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience!
small world, my ol’ girl from 2015 is dying on me and i am considering this model right now.
My 2014 MBP just died - waiting for this to arrive now - 10 days?! 😅
Me too!
Same here, early 2015 still going strong but needed to upgrade to the 13 inch air m2 which is arriving in 2 days. Will update my thoughts here when I receive it.
I wish they'd add 120Hz displays to the entire MacBook lineup. I daily drive a machine with a 165Hz display, and my phone has a 120Hz display. Having gotten used to those, it's honestly pretty tough going back to 60Hz. It feels insanely unresponsive to me
wish more cuz it aint happening.. apple needs to milk every last cent outta consumers
That’s why my 2013 MacBook Pro feels so slow. Thanks!
90% of people with gaming pc’s have 60hz displays
Which models in the lineup have a higher refresh rate display?
@@spreaderofnegativity7674 Curently just the macbook pros, both 14" and 16".
Always enjoy your honest reviews of new tech! From a college student it means a lot.
Are u Soomaaliyan
Kudos to the Editing, background score & Graphics Team of MKBHD....you make ur every video really special for us!!
Really impressed you were able to get a great video out of such a small difference. We're truly watching a pro at work here.
He's the bomb. Consistently relevant and brilliant. Plus he's got personality. We're very lucky.
I was a bit stunned, that they did not include one more usb-c port, at least. There should be room for that. But i guess, they wanted to keep this as a differentiator to the Pro Line.
The M2 chip only has 2 thunderbolt controllers on the chip, so they couldn’t add a thunderbolt port, however they could’ve added one more USB C port if they wanted to. Similar to the higher end 24” iMacs. But I would agree that they definitely did not need to, sure it would’ve been nice but having MagSafe and 2 thunderbolt ports is more than enough for the average consumer. I know plenty of people who are just casual users and they will go months and months without plugging anything into their laptop other than to charge it. Anyone who needs more ports can get the MacBook Pro.
@@MikeDold But I want a 16 or 17 MBA though?
Just wanted to leave a notes saying I absolutely adore this atoll shot. The colours are perfect and the dynamic range through the window is outstanding. Just spectacular work and I wanted to share with you that someone notices it!
5:08 kudos to editors for this stellar editing, the graphs are well done and the intro is spectacular, Marques' reviews are dope
It never fails. Always droves of fanboys in the comments sucking off marques and babbling about transitions and editing as if they’re doing something revolutionary. The meatriding and ball gargling is insane.
@@danceyrselfkleenwho hurt you😭😭
only problem, there is no 14in mba
@@Vikky_Edits03 it's mostly just praising him for random stuff that I kind of cringe at
It's a professional TH-cam channel about tech with literally 17 million subscribers. If they don't do it nicely, then who would?
2:22 mkbhd listening to Wind Tempos... king of good taste
hi nick
no one replied on this it’s been a year :o
1:35 He said the thing from the keynote!
This is considered big, but that makes me think of the days long ago when I had a 17" laptop. That was big to me, while 15" seemed normal and 13 was small.
15 is small and 13 is useless. 17 is big and 18 would be ideal.
@@chrisx5127 why is 13 useless lol
they can be annoying in sustained workloads
@@chrisx5127 17 is annoying. You might as well get a desktop
@@ipodtouch470 Why would I get a desktop? Can you carry a desktop?
I just got the 13 inch m2 air and gonna be honest. I don’t miss the bigger screen of my old laptop. As someone who takes it around everywhere it suits me more than the 15 inch that this.
as a teen I used to hate on Macs, because all I did was gaming. I've bought my first MacBook Pro two weeks ago and now I understand the logic behind apple products, the whole package is so nice
I'm a photographer. I bought the M1 13 inch air because the price was irresistible. Great laptop. My only real issue is the screen size. That 15 inch would be very helpful for my needs.
How’s the editing power?
@@HenriqueVefagoSC Apple silicone is pretty powerful
@@HenriqueVefagoSC it's insane ...
I dunno why Apple takes 15' MBA's away, then reintroduce them when people want them back.. Sounds to me, [they] created the problem in the first place. Whats so bad about leaving an additional product on the site? They do that anyway now with the M1, M2, Ultra and whatever else.
@@Tech-geeky there was never a 15 inch MBA tho?
I’m getting this instead of the 14” pro because as a med student most of what I’ll be doing (displaying books, pdf files, goodnotes notebooks, TH-cam videos, school videos and lectures in general) doesn’t require that much processing power but it does need a big screen.
You being mentioned in Apples Keynote is so amazing. You surely made it. Congrats ! 🎉
Couple years ago when i worked in a certain retail store, everyone wanted something a little bigger than the 13" air and everyone shat themselves when I'd say the only option in a mac was the 15"pro. You also might be surprised at the number of people who got mad like it was my personal doing that they'd have to spend so much more to get a 15" mac.
Ha definitely sounds like a Best Buy crowd.
I think a lot of people are going to see you comparing this to a 14” MacBook Air and wonder why Apple doesn’t have one of those for sale. I know the 13” one is close to 14”, but it’s not listed that way.
You're right. It's officially called MacBook Air 13”, and the screen size is 13.3”. Weird that Marques refers to it as 14" without reason or logic.
@@BumblebeeElectron I think it's 13.6 for the smaller MBA, so he just rounded it to 14". Classic MKBHD haha
@@alanbravo5830 I checked Apple's site before I posted that, and it's definitely shown as 13.3” in the specs. I just went back to the MacBook Air page and copied and pasted that 13.3” just for you, lol. Anyway, I think since the size is part of the actual freaking name of the product, it only makes sense for MKBHD to use that to avoid confusion.
@@BumblebeeElectronYou’re wrong, it’s a 13.6” display. I just looked at the specs again and i have the laptop.
@@josephwilcox You're right! I was looking at the M1 like a dummy.
Who’s here to confirm his statement from the September ‘23 Apple keynote? 🙋🏻♂️
You can find it from 1:36
Being a programmer working remotely, a bigger screen can do wonders when you're on the move and need to get work done. I can see the MacBook Air 15" becoming a recommended mac laptop by companies for their employees.
Is the Air beefy enough for heavy workloads though? I can’t see myself leaving home without my M1 MBP.
@@MakeItMakeSense285 I agree with you on that, given it's officially their entry line laptop, what it does achieve with the M2 (a bump up from the m1) is quiet remarkable. I myself used the 13" M1 MBP and now use the 14" M1 Pro MBP for my personal use. Having dealt with "high end" windows laptop, from a coding point of view, this should be a breeze.
I'm more concerned about RAM size tbh, I'm on a windows desktop, just Jetbrains Rider and Unity open and the whole 16GB is used
@@yousifragab479 Unity ia quite the RAM hog. Photoshop too, I have 16GB Surface Pro 8 and Unity + PS eats all the RAM easily. From my experience Macs are really good with RAM management though, but I still wouldn't take less than 16GB for a Mac either, my old MB Pro is 8GB and it's just not cutting it.
I'd really wish a touch screen for Mac should I ever go back. It's just so much more convenient to do mobile game testing directly in Unity editor with touch screen on SP8, plus it's easier to draw assets too.
why you and companies wouldnt recommend 96gb ram 16 inch macbook pro then? or 14 inch 96gb ram MacBook pro?
I moved from a 16' intel mac book pro to 14' M2 air. I really like the M2 air, I realized I never needed the heavier pro all this time. But I miss the larger screen. There are times I need to squint my eyes to see what is being presented during meetings ... So this will be perfect for me, maybe I could even have a 16' Air if it comes about eventually.
Nah apple finna make you buy the pro 💀
Typing this message on the Midmight 15" one now with the upgrade 24gb ram and 2tb SSD.. love it!! Upgraded from my 2019 16" Pro
The 15 is nice. But I love my 13. Perfect for travel.
The M2 MacBook Air is still the best laptop I’ve ever had.
7:55 "Despite its Potentially Premium Price, People will Pounce on this Popular Pick." Oh, the alliteration! 🙌
I've bought one of these for work as a daily driver. I'm hybrid, so work from home and office but am mainly desk based for 8hrs a day. Hoping this will strike the perfect balance between a useable, daily screen and that lightness that makes carrying it less cumbersome than the older 15/16" MBPs
How’s the laptop? I’m a nursing student/art student and looking to get a laptop I can study with and do my creative work with. I never liked the smaller screens so any review on your experience with this laptop would help, thank you 💖
@@rose968 Hi Rose. So far, so good. I use both the 2023 MBP and 2023 MBA daily. I find the air keeps up with most tasks but the speakers are no where near as nice as on the MBP. The lack of ports is annoying too, but overall, it's a great laptop of the price. Screen is great, keyboard very comfortable, very lightweight too. Considering it's half the price of the MBP, it is definitely more than half as good... if that makes sense! I could do a video review of these if you like?
I ended up opting for a spec’s out 13 inch m2 as a travel companion to my work issued mbp. The two travel fairly nicely together and with 24gb of ram should run Ableton without having to freeze too many tracks. Great for long plane trips which is my primary use case.
ram wont help you in ableton
@@JohnSmith-pn2vl Sounds like you've never used Ableton. Each working track places a reserve on a certain amount of memory. So do your plugins. And your add-ons. And your loaded samples.... among other things in the background to help with audio processing.
If the screen was 120hz this would be my personal machine instead of my 14 pro m2 pro. I rarely compile code that takes over 5 min for personal projects but just can’t go back to 60hz haha.
And that's exactly why it's not 120 Hz. Artificial product segmentation is Apple's bread and butter.
@@chrys9256True, but it’d also make it quite a bit more expensive
@@akajambas And kill the battery life.
I find myself thinking if the Air line can be configured with 32GB of RAM whenever the M3 hits I could see going for it because yeah, I don't do a lot of intense development on my personal systems, but totally agree the 120Hz display of the Pro line plus the addition of HDMI and SDXC ports plus better speakers and higher spec CPUs makes the 14" Pro feel worth the added cost. Between it and the 13" and 15" Air models as well you kinda need to go with the 13" to have any sort of noticeable benefit IMO, which is the 13" model being nearly a pound lighter.
@@white.lodge.dale.cooper I’m sure it has adaptive refresh rate
I got the midnight base version. It's the best laptop I've owned. It's actually significantly snappier than the m1 air, and the size, weight, keyboard, trackpad, speakers, everything just feels right. PS: The fingerprints on the midnight are nowhere near as bad as TH-camrs make them out to be, and they hide other kinds of blemishes like dust much better than the lighter colours.
Was your M1 air the base version also?
I find the fingerprints horrible i love the colour though, i ordered a case
Wow that transition from previous MKBHD video was amazing at 01:00. Shout out to the editor and hats off to you, Marques.🎉
As a college student who has the smaller M2 MacBook Air, I really don’t mind the smaller screen. Yeah, it has slightly less room, but it is essentially the same laptop and it is just as effective for the basic tasks of a student.
Having it all just "there" is good, but you can always attach a bigger display as the expensive of being 'portable'
There has got to be some tade-off's.
Yeah, for college, 13-14" laptops are the sweet spot, especially in terms of portability. Having a laptop under 3 lbs makes you not even feel the weight in your backpack.
When you're at home, just connect to an external display.
@@Tech-geekyyeah, if I need a bigger screen I’ll just plug it into an external monitor or a TV. Same reason why I own an 11 inch iPad Pro instead of a 12.9 inch
I never saw the appeal of big laptops, I prioritize portability. My laptop currently is 13". My advice is that if you don't split screen, don't use spreadsheets, and just need a laptop for personal use, get a smaller laptop and plug it into a monitor. I think the true audience of the 15" MacBook is casual video editors, freelancers that have to do light work, etc. I see this as more of a competitor to the larger MacBook Pro as opposed to the standard Air.
Agreed. When I saw this 15" Macbook Air come out, I thought it was my dream computer, but when I went to see it in person, it looked too large and the 13-14 inch looked much better to me.
The 16” comes with a couple of bonuses: the display is larger, you will get more of that beautiful mini led display, the bezels look slimmer due to the ratios, the notch looks smaller for the same reason. The 16” gets a larger trackpad which is more convenient to use and the speakers are better giving richer sound. As far as battery life the 16” gets three hours more in terms of web browsing, and also gets a more powerful 140 watt power supply.
Honestly, with this computer being added, I think this is the most cohesive their laptop line in particular has been in quite a few years, it really has something for everyone now. And the prices aren't as bad as I thought they would be. Makes me think of the old 4x4 consumer/pro quadrants they had back in the original iMac G3 days. I might have an easier time recommending something to people now 😅 Great video 👍🏾
Mac Book 13"/15" and Mac Book Pro 14"/16" would be a perfect line up, similar to iPhone. Drop the Air branding. Drop Mac Book Pro 13".
@@Slengas89 I think they know what they are doing being at the top of the S&P500.
They had to wait for Jobs to die. He was dead against big portfolios.
@@Slengas89who cares about the name
@@Slengas89 should drop the Pro brand aswell, gets Confusing with the names of the M1/2 Chips. Macbook Pro M1 Pro, MB Pro M1 (do i get Pro chip? no) etc.
Think Macbook and Macbook Air works better IMO
I appreciate you bro! Been rocking with you since the beginning!
“Despite the Potentially Premium Price, People will Pounce on this Popular Pick.” That was a fun little alliteration 😊
I loved it too. Delivered so smoothly. I’d be tripping up lol
The differences between the models are marginal. Starting from a base where I want 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, the MBPro 14 offers a much better processor, a much better screen, as good or better sound, better connectivity, for 9 grams more weight and about $300 more than the 15in MBAir. Stepping up from the 13inch is bigger, but finally, I think the 14 in MBPro is the better deal.
The process is not “much better” no one plays music on labtops. It has a better screen and more ports. That’s it. It’s weight more. It doesn’t look as good. Worst battery life has fans so it’s louder. The air still wins
1:35 is the moment that Apple made Marques even more famous than he already is
I was looking for this.
Thanks a lot!
I love the way, you did the Tesla Reverse in to the MacBook Air popularity...
Watching this on my HP ProBook 630 G1...😭😂
As someone who was torn between the 13” and 15”, I settled for the 13” and now that it’s been in my possession for a few days and used it on the train, I’m so glad I didn’t go for the 15”.
The bigger screen may have been nice but I needed something I could not just easily carry whilst travelling but also could use comfortably when on a train or plane. Tray tables aren’t that massive, plus add to it a beverage and a phone which a 15” might not leave enough room for compared to a 13”
the problem is confirmation bias. If you had thought otherwise, you'd have been your worst enemy
I have the 16" MacBook Pro and can use it on the train. I don't see what your problem is.
@@zoltanzana the trains where I live have 3+2 seating layout so they’re narrower. Typing this from my 13” MacBook on the train where it just about fits but no room for my coffee :p
this has to be the cleanest video yet. perfect edits, perfect analogy, perfect everything! good work.
Good review as always. Just a minor nitpick - in comparison screens you mentioned “14 inch MacBook air” instead of “13”. It will confuse some now and later.
It's a great machine but I'd hate to give up the ProMotion display on my 16" Macbook Pro. I can say that having a laptop at this size scale basically turns it into a complete desktop replacement for almost every use case, and the three-finger swipe to switch fullscreen apps combined with fluid scrolling basically eliminates the need to use arrow keys for navigation (as a dev, this is a big deal for me)
Absolutely same for me. Thinking about switching to the 15 inch Air at the moment.
Did you do the switch?
@@sndro1 same lol
Can you not 3 finger swipe multiple desktops on the 15” air?
Ive been using my Mac air mid 2012 for 12 years! Yes, you read that correctly and it's not a typo....12 YEARS! I paid $1200 bucks for it back in 2012. Today, I am buying this 15 inch m2 16gb 1tb machine for $1499. Can't wait!
nice!, next year in january will be 8 years that i've had my late 2016 lower tier MacBook pro, so far it still runs great!, had to replace the battery once. Hoping to go 10 years with it
@@joeymesa4952 This new mac is soooo much better than my old one. Glad that I bought it.
I loved my M1 air and I recently switched to M1 Pro 14" - I'd really suggest you get the 14" Pro instead of 15" Air, or simply go for M1 Air -which is now the cheapest and offers the best value for money
how can you recommend the M1 Air when you have already upgraded? Surely for the extra $100 getting the M2 13in Air is the best option value for money
Isn't it too heavy in terms of portability? I mean the 15 inch macbook air has a bigger screen yet is lighter and costs less.
@@luigi9731 it is literally 8 grams lighter than the 14” that’s all. And with a smaller footprint, the 14” will fit in bags easier
I can’t imagine going back to a 15 after using the 13. So much easier to carry around
I switched from a Pro 16 inch (intel generation) to the new Pro 14 inch and it's a bless.
So true portability is probably one of the best things about Macbooks. Not only can they be small but the battery literally doesn’t die.
lol meanwhile I just bought a portable display to go with my 13
Battery life is leaps and bounds better, but screen feels so cramped compared to my 15”
@@RetardsOfPaloAlto I’m with you on this issue. I believe a 14-15” display is the “Goldilocks” sweet spot of laptop size for most users.
The 11-13” screen models are nicely lightweight/compact and therefore extra portable, but a bit cramped for my taste (and most people’s, as MKBHD just pointed out). On the _other_ extreme, the 16-17” display machines can be monstrous in terms of weight/portability and $$$ cost.
I have 2 MBP 14 and 16, both M1pro, and I would go for the 14 every single time
Love the review!
Here's my 2 cents. For my work they gave me a 13" M1 Macbook pro and I bloody love it. Having a smaller device means I can fit it more comfortably on tables and on my lap while working on the train. When I'm in 'work mode' I have large 27" monitors and a big widescreen monitor in the office.
In the future I might come to own a 15" laptop in the future but the smaller 13" has been a pleasant surprise.
On a side note, I own a 15" Dell XPS and its heavy, the fan is loud and the performance isn't quite as good as the MacBook...
Mkbhd: also thanks to our sponsor of this video- Tesla
I love my old 12inch 2013 macbook air. Opencore, new battery runs Ventura fine. I use it more than my M1 cause I prefer its size. I'd love an M2 version with the bezel cut down to match. I think Apple should make a mini one too.
Apple should've done three things:
1. Make the 70 Watt charger the default. A lot of people buying the Air are everyday users who rely on the default option for stuff they don't understand. Most people would rather have faster charging than an extra port. It's dumb that the 35 Watt dual charger is selected by default. Even refurbished macs ship with the higher capacity charger by default because they know people buying refurbished are more tech-savvy.
2. Make the ridiculous SSD prices cheaper. $200 to upgrade from 256 GB to 512 GB. I mean you can get a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro for $200 and that's a premium brand. You can get a gen4 NVME SSD from a noname brand for $75 that's still faster than the Macbook's SSD speed. Apple is about convenience and their prices are going to drive a lot of people to use inconvenient external SSDs instead just out of principle.
3. Add an option to get the display quality of the Macbook Pro without the additional compute power. Lots of non-professional users want that amazing display quality of the pro for watching content. People who buy the 15-inch variant are more likely to care about the display.
In my opinion, they should keep the RAM (unified memory) prices the same (even though it is also ridiculously overpriced) and continue to not have any option to upgrade the chip to the M2 Pro because that would cause some people to not buy the Macbook Pro. But as long as they do that, very few people who would otherwise buy the Pro will buy the Air with a pathetic 8 GB of RAM (basically useless for heavy workloads) and a weaker normal M2 chip instead.
Even an M1 Macbook Pro is better than an upgraded 15 inch air in every way except for thickness (which doesn't matter that much since it's the length and width of the laptop that limits the portability, not the thickness. Like wow, what a big deal that my extremely wide 15.3 inch or 16.2 inch laptop is 0.66 inches thick instead 0.45 inches thick. 3.3 pounds vs 4.7 pounds isn't a big deal either. Even more true if you're using a laptop big which adds more thickness anyway. The single core performance of the M1 pro is slightly lower than M2 normal, but the multi-core performance is substantially better. For $1949, you can get this laptop brand new on Amazon instead of the $1699 upgraded Macbook air with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage.
I recently went for a certified refurbished 16 inch Macbook Pro M2 instead. Refurbished is basically brand new for Apple (no cosmetic or functional defects and basically brand new battery). The extra CPU power was only $170 more than a new M1 16 inch and $420 more than a the upgraded Macbook Air. So for both the M1 and M2 Pro, you get a much nicer screen, either nicer or much nicer CPU depending on M1/M2, and a longer battery life. Alternatively, you can buy a refurbished 14 inch M2 Macbook pro for the exact same price as an upgraded air or a brand new M1 version for $270 less than an upgraded Air on Amazon.
That means that the M1 version is $70 cheaper than even the Macbook Air with just the storage upgraded to 512GB (and RAM stuck at 8GB) even though the M1 Pro comes with both 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage plus all those other benefits I listed earlier. That's right! You get more RAM and all those other benefits for $70 cheaper and they're both brand new, not refurbished. I mean you get a slightly smaller screen and a thicker laptop (though the weight is almost exactly the same at just 0.2 pounds heavier for the Pro), but the screen itself is much better quality and you get all the other benefits listed above. The issue is that if you want to upgrade the Air at all, it makes it much less worth it to buy.
By not doing the above, Apple is driving a lot of consumers to buy new/refurbished M1/M2 14/16 inch Macbook Pros instead, depending on their needs. Apple is hoping that consumers don't realise this, but if they think of their customers as dumb, that's all the more reason to make the damn 70 watt charger the default, lol. If you're buying the Air, just buy the base model and use an external SSD/online cloud storage. Don't upgrade the Air, please. If you're rich enough to pay for the overpriced upgrades instead of slightly inconveniencing yourself, you can afford the Pro. The RAM isn't worth it either. If you need the extra RAM, high chances are you need the extra CPU power too. The Macbook Air 15 inch base model is amazingly priced, though, and definitely worth it.
I watched the apple preview yesterday and silently hoped you would release a review soon. This release feels telepathic. Awesome video.
Loving the size but that starting storage/ram option is borderline criminal
It’s Apple, what do you expect ? Outside of good deals at 3rd party vendors (e.g., BestBuy) or the Apple Cert Refurb store, you’re always going to pay that rip-off premium or as some call it, “Apple Tax” 😢😂
I personally prefer the 13.6 inch way more honestly. It’s the perfect size to carry around in cafe or while in the park etc. If I need extra space, which is rare cause my workflow involves a lot of workspaces, I just plug it in an external monitor. (I’m a software engineer)
Software engineers prefer 16" MacBook Pro
@@zoltanzana When i’m at home or at the office yeah got 2-3 4k external monitors, but when I’m coding away outside nah
To be fair tho, I don’t bring a bag to work, just my laptop
Maybe silicone thermal pads can help it dissipate heat better on larger surface
@WT95 Oh my bad, I thought it was a combined test. Thx
The 'air' in the name is definitely going to change as they expand the laptop more and more xD
Apple likely would've used just 'MacBook' for this new 15 inch model, but most people still remember the last gen MacBook was painfully underpowered.
for real 🤣
1.5M views in less than 24 hours since you first post this video. It is not by chance, you are one of the best reviewers, in my opinion.
I worked at MicroCenter for years, and I was in the Apple department for a year. The amount of times a day I'd have to sell some old lady-type a 15" MBP for basic daily use was insane. This probably should've come sooner, but hey.
Did anyone else notice the couch in the back gradually change from gray to blue at 7:00? 😮
This guy should get a shoutout from Apple for his review
Honest, concise review, with a slight bit of tech rizz. MKBHD standard dopeness, But that ending alliteration thoughhhh!. Solid!
I’m just worried in a couple of months the M3 MacBook Air might drop and surprise surprise they refresh both the 13” and the 15” at the same time to bring them in sync!
And that's why I haven't jumped on any of these. I'll wait for the M3 and see what the landscape is like before I purchase. My question is do they do two separate or one mega event for the M3 both Air and Pro with M3 Pro and Max Chips. I'm thinking the latter to boost the whole lineup.
m3 will be an insane step
Who's here after Apple event mentioned MKBHD's review🖐
I bought my m2 air few months back (which has a notch).
I would routinely search for faceid options within the mac settings.
It did take me a lot of time to figure that there is no faceID, just the notch 😅😂
hard to be st2p1d nowadays😅😅😅
How come you buy a newly launched product months back
@@Ramkumar_Ramachandran m2 air came out last year
Could've used google
Yes! That's a bit silly for apple doing that kind of stuff. Like in an iPhone, why don't they add an in display fingerprint instead of only relying on faceid 🥲
“Despite its potentially premium price, people will pounce on this popular pick”… Perfectly played partner! 😁
There is no "14in MacBook Air". It's 13 inches.
It's fun hearing statements made during the most recent Waveform episode in your reviews. Also a good nod to the current events with the AQI map b-roll.
Regarding the MBA: the deal breaker for me is the 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro you can still sometimes find for $200 more which includes a VRR display, extra I/O, and double the storage & RAM.
But I guess if you just want an off-the-shelf 15" Mac, this is still the go-to over that. I'm very curious to see if the 15" actually outsells the 13" now.
But then it's 14" again...
I love the part where the video rewinded from the Tesla comparison and Marques showed up on screen and said "It's Rewind Time", and MacBooked all over the video. Truly one of the creators of all time.
What is he chatting about 😂 Who are these people he’s dreamed up that go into a shop and “ask for a 15inch laptop”? What an insane thing to suggest 😅 Especially for those buying from Apple.
Would be like going into a restaurant and saying “I’m looking for a 600 calorie meal”. People don’t shop like that. Nonsense.
Kudos to Marques for getting a shoutout from Tim cook!
I just got one yesterday and I already love it. It's the base model and it works perfectly fine for me. We have a 13 in M1 Air and that was great as well it just now that I'm in my mid 40's having a bigger screen is just nicer. For any heavy lifting I use the the M1 Studio so the base model Air is enough.
Yep, took me a few months to warm to the idea of upgrading but I've now gone from my base model 13" to an upgraded 15" with 16Gb memory and 1Tb storage. I'd love to upgrade my M1 16" MBP but can't afford it. The 15" MacBook Air will, I hope, future proof me a little.
Who is watching this after APPLE quoted MKBHD..
GIVE ME A HELLLL YEAHHHHH🔥🔥🔥🔥
Personally I still prefer the 13” model. I just don't think their slightly larger size really justifies the extra $200. It's not a bad computer but I work on computers all-day long. I have multiple testing laptops and honestly i have never felt wanting for a screen that was only marginally larger. I have an M1 air right now and will probably upgrade to the M2 shortly. With the discounts that can be had for the 13” I just cannot justify it for me. Plus it's a little easier to travel with.
There is no 14 inch air.
@@ThePeanutGiant ok, your right. But it’s so close to 14” does it really matter?
Its only $100 extra because 15 inch Air comes with 10 core GPU, not offered in 8 core GPU.
@@jeffdurling100 It _does_ matter; you’re confusing the Hell out of people because when you talk about a 14” display MacBook, the vast majority of people will presume you’re referring to the 14” MacBook *Pro*
Just busting your chops a bit 😅, but it’s worth noting so that we’re doing apples-to-apples 😊 comparisons.
Fixed the 14” to 13”
01:35 the shoutout from apple
That word play at the end was just *chef's kiss* perfection
Wow, just watched your review of the 15" MacBook Air M2 and I'm seriously impressed! The level of detail you provided about its features and performance is exactly what I was looking for. It's great to see a focus on the "obvious things" that really matter to users. The sleek design combined with the M2 chip's power sounds like a game-changer.
You are not a human are you ;)
I remember lol'ing when my grandma showed me her new 15" Macbook Pro because she needed the bigger screen to check email. This is the right machine for 95% of people out there.
Where this is going to sell like crazy is in the business world. I'm a Product Manager and rock a 13 inch Air but almost everyone else is using the 16 inch pros only because of the screens. Its crazy they have such powerful machine never pushing the machine. Developers and designers stick with the Pros but those of us rocking webapps, excel and teams an Air is perfect.
As a software developer, and after using M1 air for almost a year now, I was thinking to switch to 14" but again I thought that would not make any difference. Now, 15" is convincing me to buy it. This will be awesome !!!
Hey man long shot but if you do actually upgrade soon, I'd like to buy your older M1 air (assuming you're also in India). Let me know what you think of this and we can take it forward from there.
Does supporting only 1 external monitor bother you? Or do you use a workaround to do this?
@@masaguchi46 yeah it bothers a little, but switching between screens is way easier and smoother than windows that it doesn’t feel much. But I would say it should have multiple external displays option. 🤗
@@masaguchi46I used an HP dock with DisplayLink for three monitors total on an M1 Air and had no issues at all. Maybe it makes a difference for gaming or something, but certainly not for programming.
@@yogensachdev oh man! that would have been possible if you were in Pakistan 🇵🇰
That intro was fire! 🔥🔥🔥
*Hears Intro Beat*: "My intuition is tellin' me there'll be better days..."
Just letting you know that you refer to the 13" M2 MacBook Air as being 14" throughout the whole video, so the gain in screen size is actually larger than you say!
I was thinking about trading in my M1 Air for the 15” M2 Air but ultimately decided against it as the bigger screen and slightly better performance just wasn’t worth it to me yet. Maybe I’ll get the 2025 15” air but the M1 is still holding up incredibly well so I’m not sure.
Same, still very happy with my m1 air and recommend it to everyone
I used to be excited about trading up for newer Apple models. But I haven’t found anything that has more benefits to me personally than the m1 air and iPhone 13mini, even putting price aside as a factor
The alliteration at the end of the video was top notch
I came here to listen to the words that were qouted in yesterday's Apple Event
I still think the lack of ports compared to 14" and pricier upgrade path could potentially sway people to choose 14" Pro or other windows laptop such as g14, s13, ThinkPad etc..
If you want windows, you're going to get windows . If you want an apple product, you're going to get a mac.
Upgraded from my late 2020 Macbook Pro 13" M1 16GB 2TB, and not looking back! Love It!!
came here after Apple quoted him on WWDC 😂😂
Using M1 Air since launch battery life is just amazing.
Can't wait to try this battery beast 🔥🔥
I'm also using the M1, I love it!
Dave Lee's video says it's basically the same battery life as the 13"
@@BigDawgCAM But in reality, it's not. The display is a huge upgrade.
As does the apple comparison tool on their site
@@white.lodge.dale.cooper i know apple users dont see new thing very often but damn. 1 inch screen different is a "huge upgrade" these days for y'all 😂
I sold my M2 Apple MacBook Air for an M2 Pro 16” MacBook Pro. Two basic reasons:
1. Screen real estate was too less for my workflow and my bad eyesight.
2. The screen hinge had almost no stiffness one expects. Can’t actually call it loose or wobbly but you get the point.
It was undoubtedly a capable machine, light, very portable and enough performance for my workloads.
I could have bought the 15” MacBook Air instead but in my country the difference between a baseline 16” M2 Pro MBP and the new Air with 512GB SSD was not justified.
Is the 24gb version overkill or will there be a noticeable difference?
It depends on what you use it for, using it for light duty things like web browsing means it’s overkill
But using it for video editing, gaming, or running multiple tasks at once you’ll notice a difference.
Marques has been around for it seems like forever but I only recently starting appreciating this take on tech reviews and following him more closely. Gotta say "...pounce on this popular pick" was good alliteration at the end there.
You had me at "this is the Tesla Model Y of Laptops" .... very well summarised. this is why MKBHD is MKBHD.
Props by Tim Cook today! A good shoutOut! Congratulations!