15-Inch MacBook Air M2 Review – Long-term Thoughts!

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86%

86%

• Design

  9
• Display

  8
• Processor

  8
• Camera & Audio

  8
• Battery Life

  9
• Accessories

  9
• Value for money

  9
• User Ratings (3 Votes)
  4.7

Time flies. Just over a year ago, I was standing at the Top of the Rock Observation Deck at the Rockefeller Center in New York attempting to take a photo of myself holding the 15-inch MacBook Air M2 for a YouTube thumbnail.

No one else was doing the same thing. Obviously.

I got the shot (and a few weird looks) before embarking on twelve months of using Apple’s latest iteration of the beloved MacBook Air day in, and out. If you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking about buying one yourself and, clearly, you want to hear from someone who has spent considerable time with the supersized cult hit.

Guess what? I’ve done just that, and I’ve got lots of thoughts.

My spec (and why I wish I’d gone further)

As always, I opted for the base model 15-inch MacBook Air last year. This was before the introduction of the M3 chip, therefore the spec I have probably isn’t the one you’ll be going for.

Regardless, for nostalgia’s sake, a quick recap: it has the M2 chip with an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB of SSD storage. It also came with a 35w dual USB-C power adaptor (which I’ve lost). This particular 15-inch MacBook Air set me back £1,399 – £100 more than what you’ll pay for the equivalent M3 version today.

If I had my time again, I’d have done one thing differently. Maybe two, actually. I’d have upped the unified memory to 16GB and increased the storage to 512GB. The former is because, at times, this MacBook Air feels a little bit strained. It’s not a constant battle, but there’s just an occasional hesitance and the odd graphical jitter that makes me wonder how much that big display’s power draw needs under the hood to feel MacBook Air smooth.

As for more storage, I currently have 87GB free on this laptop. I’m yet to encounter any formal warning about rapidly diminishing space, but a bit more headroom would have been sensible.

The moral of the story? Don’t act like this particular tech YouTuber – spend as much as you can to ensure longevity and the absence of buyer’s remorse.

If you’re wondering, the maximum you can spend on a 15-inch MacBook Air is a not inconsiderable £2,599/$2,499 which nets you the exact same M2 chip but with 24GB of unified memory, 2TB of storage, and a 70W power adaptor.

Durability

I should probably confirm at this juncture that I’m not remorseful about my 15-inch MacBook Air purchase at all. Quite the opposite, in fact, partly because it looks so good and appears rather adept at retaining those good looks.

I chose the Starlight colour, simply because I’d never owned a laptop in what is basically a very light shade of gold. If you’re swinging between this and the silver version and want something just a little bit different, I’d go for Starlight.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, it doesn’t display smudges or fingerprints, at all (unless you really go looking for them). Secondly, I think it might be the best-looking MacBook I’ve ever seen – particularly in 15-inch form. By default, that means it’s the best-looking laptop I’ve ever seen.

Fight me in the comments.

After a year of feverishly bashing out countless blog posts and email replies, the keys have done their usual ‘let’s go shiny’ trick, but even that doesn’t seem as prominent as it is on darker-coloured MacBooks.

It hasn’t picked up an ounce of damage, either. Granted, it spends more of its time on the kitchen breakfast table than being slung into the back of my rucksack (more on that later) but that’s actually a rather perilous location. Stuff gets chucked on top of it, and it gets moved around without my knowledge.

I was worried in my first impressions review that the thickness could be a worry for bending or denting. To date, there isn’t a single mark or blemish on this MacBook Air. It has even survived several inadvertent dustings of icing sugar.

Performance

The launch of the M2 chip was a trying period for Apple. Coming off the back of the M1, which remains one of – if not the – most important updates in the history of the Mac, it attracted criticism due to the switch from dual to single NAND storage chips and the resulting degradation in performance.

Now, let me once again remind everyone that the “degradation in performance” was as much overblown as it was not an issue for 99% of MacBook buyers, but it was there. It’s why, one would assume, the M2 chip appeared to be more of a stopgap for the Mac, with its successor, the M3, arriving less than a year later.

As noted earlier, my 15-inch M2 MacBook Air M2 feels slightly hamstrung at times, but it hasn’t held me back – it has simply reminded me of the golden rule when it comes to buying a laptop (spend as much as you can comfortably afford to ensure longevity).

When I first reviewed this machine, I said the sweet spot to maximise your investment was 16GB of unified memory and a 512GB SSD. I still stand by that statement. My use case doesn’t demand a lot of power, thankfully; this is resolutely a writing and admin laptop. For that, it is a stellar performer, not least thanks to the utter brilliance and optimisation of macOS.

The only thing I’d say is that the 15-inch display will tempt you to do more with this thing. That’s why mine is rapidly making its way into a long-term music project I’m working on, and why I’d recommend, once again, speccing yours up as far as feels comfortable. I have a sneaking suspicion that the 15-inch MacBook Air would make an unbelievably good production alternative to the MacBook Pro for all but the most power-hungry video editors.

The good news is that the M3 version (which is the only 15-inch MacBook Air you can buy new, at the time of writing) is a significant step forward from the M2 edition it replaced. It’s a very good time to buy, basically.

Should you wait for the M4 MacBook Air?

Apple released their first round of M4 Macs in November 2024. Included in that were the M4 Mac Mini, M4 iMac and M4 MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air was noticeably absent.

That means the newest MacBook Air currently available is still the M3 MacBook Air. When will Apple update the MacBook Air with the M4 chip? It’s likely to be sometime around February 2025.

The M4 chip is incredibly powerful, but not dramatically different when compared to the M3 chip. These updates are primarily rolling out so that Apple’s devices are optimised for Apple Intelligence. Older devices using the M2 and M3 chip will still be able to use Apple Intelligence though.

So there aren’t really any reasons to wait for the M4 MacBook Air if you really want/need to buy a laptop now. The M3 MacBook Air is one of Apple’s best-ever laptops and is powerful enough for the needs of 90% of users. Don’t bother waiting, just get the M3 now!

Wrap up: who is the 15-inch MacBook Air for?

I’m a big fan of the home I’ve found for the 15-inch MacBook Air. It’s lavish, exuberant, and completely goes against my advice for normal users, but it does mean that I can justify (kinda) having more than one MacBook.

Whereas my 14-inch MacBook Pro travels with me practically everywhere and remains the production powerhouse behind my YouTube channel, the 15-inch MacBook Air is my stay-at-home laptop. That big display, the gorgeous looks, and the superb battery life suit the role perfectly and it’s still the first computing device I interact with daily (although I am, admittedly, in the midst of an 11-inch M4 iPad Pro review at the moment).

For everyone else, the 15-inch MacBook Air is a no-brainer alternative to the MacBook Pro. Unless you want ridiculous portability, I think it makes far more sense than the 13-inch version due to that copious screen estate and devilish good looks.

If you’ve been toying with the decision to buy a 15-inch MacBook Air for a while now, just go for it. Opt for the M3 version rather than the M2 edition, spec it up, and you’ll obtain a laptop that you’ll love for many years to come. I promise.

Before you go