The 15” MacBook Air Is Perfect. Maybe Don’t Buy It.

Here is my take: If you’re ok with a base-model 15” MBA, it’s going to be fine due to the $700 difference between the Air and Pro, start on upgrading RAM and SSD, you’ll be better off with a 14” MacBook Pro.

apple ALMOST made the perfect laptop. Same tech, same price, but starting at 16gb of ram and 512gb of storage would have been the best laptop made in the last couple years.

I decided on MBA15 512GB 16GB over MBP14 M2 Pro for several reasons: - more screen real state (important for my web dev outside of work) - larger and lower palm rest for more comfortable typing - cleaner design without speaker grills, easier to clean too - fanless, so 0 noise, and less dust inside long term, and you can put it in bed or anywhere without worrying that much about covering intake/exhaust air parts - it was still around 400€ cheaper, 2058€ compared to the 2448€ MBP14 M2 base model. Almost 25% more expensive! - lighter in a backpack if you consider the weight of the laptop+charger MBP14 has more pros, but for me those pros weren't as important as MBA15 pros, at least for my usage.

I recently bought one (walked in for a surfacelaptop 5, walked out with this) and I love it. I don’t do much, mostly docs and web browsing, but it feels amazing.

Some of us still miss that 11.6 version.

I have a suspicion that most MBA buyers would rather have a little bit of extra portability than a little bit of extra screen space. A good case in point is the University department I work in. Most of our faculty travel extensively for research in the terms they are not teaching. Our IT department has been buying them the 13" Apple Silicon Air for the past few years and I don't expect that to change now that there is a 15" version. If someone needs more performance than the Air, they will get the MacBook Pro. A 13" Air fits in most bags better, fits on most airplane trays better, and is just a little bit lighter.

I never got this, honestly. The base model M2 air 15 inch is perfect for most people who consider buying an Air. I have no idea what YouTubers think the average Joe does with his machine. I use this thing for work and in private, however, work means for me Pages, Safari and some other doc editing. Private means just some Streaming. Why would I ever, even in the future, need more than 8GB of RAM? And storage - not getting that one either, dog. Considering how much day to day stuff is in the cloud nowadays, I only have photos, few videos and light docs on my local drive. I'll probably never in the future even fill the 256 GB, even with clutter, considering I just backed up on my machine from a 128 GB MacBook Pro from late 2015. Hence, the Pro 14 inch was never an option for me, considering its price difference of 600$ over the base M2 air 15 inch (a third of its price).

I have a base M1 14” and I don’t see myself replacing it until it falls apart. Thing is crazy good

Here’s an interesting twist - here in the UK the upgraded 15” Air comes in at £1799, the 14” Pro starts at £2149.

I own a Macbook Pro 16 Max. Great technology. Despite this, I hardly ever used it because it lies in my backpack like a stone. The 14 inch is just a smaller brick. I also own an M2 13 inch Air. Much more comfortable to type and always have with you. There are always 2 remote desktops and at least 1 virtual machine running under Parallels. I never noticed a difference from the Pro 16. And with the display, I only see differences when watching HDR films. And I'm a professional software engineer. That's why nobody needs to come to me with the pro discussion. I will buy the Air 15 too. The 2 inches will make my job easier. Of course with 24 GB and 1 TB.

Bought a 15" MBA and returned it in 2 days. Purchased a 14" MBP M2 with 16gb/1tb ssd refurbished for $2200. I love it for all the reasons you stated in the video. Had I stayed with the MBA it would have cost that much, or even a tad more, to get those same specs. 14" MBP M2 was the sweet spot for me.

This review is extremely helpful as I've been waffling between the Macbook 15, Pro 14 and Pro 16. The price apple charges for storage is bonkers. It's hard to buy it because you know just how bad they are raking you for it.

Exactly what I would say, Quinn! On point and the right advice to someone considering either. The 15" does have a nicer screen size, but I don't think I can go back from XDR and Promotion.

Do more laptop reviews please !... and keep the same tone and easy going style. This review covered alot of things but above all it provided a valuable insight. Keep it up man 👍. First video I saw in this channel. Subscribed right away

What a great guy and a very real review of this Macbook ! Thank you for taking the time to make this!

I'm really glad you talked about the upgrade pricing and the fact that the base model is absolutely ridiculous. Reasonable configs are way more expensive and this should be talked about more.

Its good to see youtubers like you and LTT starting to call out Apple on their bullshit pricing of ram and storage upgrades. If ppl just stop gushing over anything Apple and maybe start offering some fair critisism then just maybe Apple will stop getting away with this! I hope more youtubers follow your example. Edited: my point was not clear on the first comment!

The beauty of the 11" MBA was its size. It was a super-thin wedge that fit where no other laptop could, and was actually better than an iPad Pro. I still use mine because of its portability, and full-on usefulness. Yeah, it can't run my new Adobe CC apps as well, but browsing, word processing, etc. is just fine, and mine has the stock 4GB of RAM, and it's running, I think, the latest OS. In fact the last two OS upgrades made it faster. Go figure.

Thanks for the excellent input. I've got the M1 14" MacBook Pro, and the larger size of the 15" Air was tempting, but I'd be giving up way too much.

Earlier this year I bought an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14in (16gb RAM, 1TB) for $1700 on Amazon Renewed. It’s such a beast of a machine. I use it for music production and DJ software. I’ve had multiple 12hr off wall sessions with it, producing music, web browsing, and messaging. I know the M2 Pro has some spec bump increases, but I’d say, if you can find an M1 Pro renewed or apple refurbished, definitely put it on your short list. I don’t see myself hitting the limit or needing to upgrade this for 5-7 years, easily.