Apple MacBook Air 15 (base) - A Long Term User Review. 

All those content creators ignoring the 99,999% base users out there.

I don’t want to say that I love this laptop.. But it’s true I love this laptop. It’s everything I wanted in the MacBook Air. I remember back in my late 20’s I got the white 13 inch MacBook, it was great. I loved the 13 inch screen. With the exception of my company-issued laptops all of my personal laptops (Windows and Mac) ever since have been 13 inches. Now that I’m in my mid 40’s I hate the 13 inch screens. I share a M1 Air with my teenage and I just don’t like using it because it’s just to small. I held off on buying 13 inch M2 because of the rumors that a 15 inch was coming. I’m really glad I did, I love this laptop. The size of the screen makes all the difference. Having the extra real estate transforms the whole experience. I know this screen is not as good as the MacBook Pro but it’s awesome that I didn’t have to pay for a MacBook pro to get a bigger screen. I picked up the base model and it’s perfectly fine. It’s cool and silent and packs a punch. The battery life is crazy, I don’t know how long it last but it’s definitely several days. I would have liked to get more RAM but I’m one of those folks that is really offended by what Apple changes for RAM. If this was my only machine I would have sprung for the extra RAM. It’s not my main machine so it really doesn’t bother me. If I need to do any real heavy lifting then I use my M1 Studio. My only gripe is I wish they would have put a USB-C port on the right side of the laptop. It would have been nice to be able to charge from either side of the laptop. All in all this is a fantastic laptop and I’d recommend it to almost anyone. RU-vidrs do heavy lifting with their laptops, but be honest, most people do not. And no this is not a MacBook Pro. If you're in the market for a MacBook Pro, they are not in the market for a MacBook Air regardless how big the screen is.

What Apple charges to go from the base 256GB to a 2TB SSD is daylight robbery. They want £800! You can buy a Gen 4 2TB M.2 drive for £100 that will be faster than the proprietary SSD (controller is in the M2 chip) in the MacBooks. How they believe that is acceptable is beyond me.

something is off with the bass in the voice

I really wish Apple would allow storage upgrades. I understand the memory is on a SOC, so that is a no go. But my Macs have regularly lasted 7-10 years of use and storage has ALWAYS been the primary issue.

Exceptional content, thank you!

My grandma just got this laptop and she seems to like it and it is so fast compared to her 2019 windows laptop undoubtably expenses but pretty worth it and would be a steal if it came with 512+16 gigs by default

Really great review. Thank you!!

I got myself the 15 Air with 24GB RAM and 256 SSD, the reason why I went with the configuration is cause I use a gaming monitor as a 2nd Monitor display which can use significant energy when I have 2 windows open on an browser so that extra RAM is very useful and there is NO alternatives for extra ram while I do have a 5TB external hard drive which there is many alternatives and having a bigger screen on the MacBook Air for less then 2000 bucks is just insane value. I was thinking at a Pro version at first but just to have the 14 M2 Pro is already 2000 bucks + tax and I don’t really need the HDMI port since I already have a USB Hub, overall I love the portability of the MacBook Air 15 and upgrading it from my Intel 2020 MacBook Air is a huge Win for me! Especially adding the Educational Pricing Discount!

Really great review. Subscribed.

Love you realistic review of your 15 inch MacBook Air. I have that too, and it is a powerful workhorse! I use it for college, and if I need to do light photo and video editing on it then this MBA really hits the sweet spot. Battery life is impressive on this too.

New to the channel and glad I found it! Your information is balanced and solid. Your camera work and editing is gorgeous! It totally looks like an Apple production :-). I’ve got a MacBook Air 15 open box special from Best Buy in my cart and I was reviewing this one more time before I hit purchase:-)

E. another great presentation!

Bought myself a 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD this week. Honestly don't care that much about SSD R/W speed since I don't work with big files anyway. When storage eventually (and quickly) becomes an issue I can always just buy an external drive, besides I also have plenty of cloud storage

Always a treat to watch Eber's experience.

excellent review

Great review.. but it really depends what you do with your machine... I use my M1 Air (base model) to run my business and it does so without breaking a sweat. I don't work with graphics / video,... and for me after 2.5 years of intensive use, I am at only 50 per cent of my storage. 256 is absolutely fine for me. I use cloud storage a lot and most of my data are documents etc. And I think - looking around me - that is the case for most people. I am quite interested in the Air 15 as a bigger screen would make a considerable difference for my work, and I like the design a lot. When it comes to performance, I am sure that for me (and others using their laptops to write / do office work and research - the base model seems more than adequate (my M1 does not break a sweat) and maintains very solid battery life, etc. There M Macs are incredibly solid machines.... great times for used focused technology!

Great presentation! I'm really glad you tested the base 8/256 version. As you and everyone mentioned it's a shame the base MBA doesn't come with minimum 16/512. I have a 13 MBA M1 8/256 and does well for day to day business stuff like you were using it for. This is my second MBA and I got the base speck as I also had a desktop. But the MBA base model also used to come with a SD card slot. I've always just used it as a field computer, could pop in a SD card out of a camera and into MBA make a quick back up.and view video or pics and transfer raw footage to external HD. Really not for storage. Even the M1 8/256 is fine. But I just ordered the MBP 14 M3 Pro. I convinced myself maybe I'll dabble with some video projects again but will likely be overkill for what I'm doing these days, but extra $500 isnt' a big deal to me now either, as I'm on a lap top all the time, and may love the screen, sound, and extra ports. Who knows I may feel like doing some content creation for social media but even then I won't be half as cool as you! Keep up great work!

I am comparing this laptop to my current M1, Pro, 13inch, 2020 - As I want this bigger screen! I mainly do Xcode builds and development, wondering if performance is enough, since it's M2 I assume it it's better? Looking at bench marks, right?

Do you think a MacBook air m2 8/512 would be good enough for realty photo and video editing... also drone footage... Thanks for any insight.

this review is spot on, especially the battery life is the reason that differentiate from getting the macbook pros which are more value for money.

Eber, what is the monitor underneath the main one on your desk setup? I love that for editing!

I had a 2020 Macbook Air and the ONLY reason I parted ways with it was because I wanted a laptop to game on so I got myself a G14. Loved that thing for what it was and it worked like the day I bought it.

would you recomend the M2 MacBook air for video editing?

So…I was thinking of an M3 MBA when it comes out. Fully loaded (24 GB of RAM and 2T Storage) will be around $2,400. Am I stupid to do this? I don’t do heavy video editing but I may do some photo editing. Maybe some basic movie making. What do you think?

256GB storage and 8GB of RAM is the same as the base model iPhone 15 pro max, this spec is a joke for a laptop in 2023. Here in Europe the price for a real basic 16GB RAM and 512 SSD 15" air, is 2100 Euro. Apple realy don't want us to buy the 15" air, otherwise I don't understand the reasoning for this ridicules price.

My Intel Mac Mini only equipped with 256GB internal storage and I mainly boot from an external SSD for daily use. Also we can use a Mac to boot another one through target drive mode. If money is a concern, put those on the RAM should be the priority. However, as XR headsets or glasses and handhelds becoming popular, the use cases of using laptop might shift a lot in the near future.

Great review thank you. So to sum up, for an average user, email, You-Tube, Facebook and that type of thing you would suggest its a good purchase?

hey, I plan to buy a MBA M2 with 16 gigs of RAM and 256 gigs of SSD. it will be my first mac device. I will use it for coding, watching lectures and even some high end development. i plan to use it for 6 years . do you recommend it to me ?

@Hardware Canucks, I want to replace my aging intel based MBA 2017 and have shortlisted MBA M2 13 or 15 inch. My use will be official work basic task like web browsing, emails, facebook/zoom meeting, you tube watching, MS office (word, excel, powerpoint), pdf file creation and normal file transfer thru emails etc. I wont need it for coding or photo editing etc but just for normal basic use mentioned above. My question is whether the base model 8/256 GB is enough for me or do I need to upgrade RAM or SSD for MBA M2 due to slow SSD issue. Will appreciate your feedback.

What a joke, they charge 1400 for an entry based laptop that’s crippled with 8GB of RAM and and 256GB of storage in 2023! 😂 Damn crooks! At that price give me 16GB and 1TB! Sorry Timothy Crook, I’m not buying 🤡

to think that this computer has basically every hardware aspect up to spec with the 2019 16" macbook pro while having performance and battery life that will run circles around it is insane. you get two usb c ports and a magsafe port instead of four thunderbolt ports without magsafe. and a high impedance headphone jack. the display is basically just as good with a much better webcam and the speakers, in my opinion, are almost as good on the 15" air than they were on that macbook pro. all of this while also including full height function keys over a touchbar makes this laptop just a much much better deal than a 2019 macbook pro. and that too at a $1300 starting price.

So basically, if you wanted to turn it into a seamless productivity spec (16GB + 512 GB SSD), you would have to spend $1700. For as good as a laptop as it is, the price just does not justify it at all. I feel people overestimate just how much they need to spend for general productivity. If you're spending more than $1000 just for Word documents and checking emails, you're underestimating the value proposition of cheaper laptops.

Knowing Apple, I'm gonna wait until These M2 MBA 15's get put in the official certified refurbished store on the apple website. The bang-for-buck version being 16gb ram/256 SSD once these models enter the certified refurbished store. The 16 ram/ 512 SSD or 1tb SSD version being the future proof option but I already have external SSDs from the past so I'm all good on storage.

I wanted the best screen and speakers for watching movies and music so I got 16"b m1 pro 16gb 1tb 2 battery cycles for $1558.99 15" air would been nice for it but the speaks are way better on the 16" pro last time I used a mac was 1985 lol... but the new m chips are great

I may buy the 15" Air if there are good black friday savings this year. It's unreasonably and prohibitively expensive to upgrade either the ram or SSD currently.

10:54 The usage monitor on menu bar looks so cool. Whats the name?

with the right specs (16 GB, 1 TB) the 15" Air is an expensive but excellent, self-sufficient laptop. Powerful yet always silent, easy to use, good for content creation like photo editing or text writing. As desktop computer replacement (my current use of this machine) the Air looks not as good. One has to use dongles, only one external display can be attached natively. I still anticipate to use this device, in one way or another, for a long time to come. Get a model with 16 GB!

Would you say the M2 15 inch Air is worth upgrading from a 2019 Intel base Air? Sonoma is laggy in places and the battery isn't great on my Air right now...

5:19… where is that gorgeous view? Santorini?

i agree with what you say BUT, by using various vouchers and discounts you can manage to lower the price a fair bit and get 16/512, and let me tell you, that m2 made me almost not use my 16 inch for a while! Looks, speed, keyboard, they are great. The screen only looks bad if compared side by side, but using it often with a studio display no difference, and also some shows appear the same anyway, even when trying to force Vivid. Last but not least: the battery! i now use the air a lot more than both the 16 inch AND the ipad because lighter and less bulky than an ipad with MK while offering a bigger screen!

This is by far the most helpful video I’ve seen for the MacBook. Thank you 🥹

Some thing which is deal breaker for me: 1. Caps lock on macs (yes, I don't understand why they make it so bad, but I write a lot and it is bad thing for me) 2. 8+256 on 1200 bucks is big no....I brought asus zenbook oled which has 16gb ram+ 1 tb SSD and same price....it had intel 13th chip as well.....apple need to up this price thing...these are wild prices and it is really hard to justify it

how do you get the cpu, ram etc. on top right menu bar?

Happy to see you doing an unsponsored video! I always just default skip the sponsored ones.

you can get a more powerfull device, but not that kind of package. Display Noise Batterylife Trackpad. If you bought a mbair m1 2020 you will still be very happy with your purchase.

I got the 15” M2 Air 16GB and 1TB from the Apple Store for 1649$ or something like that. Keep your eyes out for the deals.

Apple's RAM and SSD pricing is ridiculous

whats that small display under the main monitor?

I have 8GB RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage on a $300 phone bought back in 2021. But Apple charges $400 for additional 8+256 upgrade.

There is another point to why you should consider the air, which is the screen. My screen on my m1 pro broke after a year, and after going through the Apple forum and other forums, there are thousands of other people who also had a broken screen after a year or a year and a half. - The issue was that It was showing light, but was incredibly blurry to the point where you can't see anything (Google this and see for yourself). And Apple does not fix this for you, even if it's a production error. I also want to mention that the logic board died after only 6 months, which I luckily got replaced for free as they recognized this as a production error. The M1 pro was an incredible machine, but I won't purchase another pro until they change the screen.

why did you compare 16gb ram, 1tb ssd of 13" air to 8gb ram, 256 gb ssd of 15" air?

Interesting choice. There are many videos saying you need 16gb RAM, or upping storage to 512Gb. It obviously depends on what you want to do with it, but I feel you should have gone 512Gb and then perhaps 16Gb RAM. For me, I've got a Mac mini M1 with 8Gb RAM so can see how an M2 MacBook would cope with my usual tasks. I don't think I need extra RAM, but definitely need the 512Gb storage - it is much quicker than 256Gb anyway.

Can U compare it with the samsung Galaxy book 3 PRO 360

I never thought i’d be that person who pointed out a wrinkled tshirt

Small SSDs may be intentional in an attempt to push people into using iCloud for storage - and paying a monthly fee for it. I don't like my stuff being on somebody else's computer and I hope "they" continue to offer options with large SSDs (written from my Windows computer with a 2TB SSD!).

what ram is soldered in the mobo?

Well, this is a weird thing to do to compare the Macbook Air 13 1TB SSD with the Macbook Air 15 256GB SSD. We all know the 256GB SSD is slower on the Macbook Air and 512GB SSD and onwards is faster. This does not give an accurate picture of the comparison.

I can't believe you didn't go with Midnight blue

Nice

Base 15in model seems good enough for me as a beginner photographer.👍

Yeah, 256 GB is not enough for today’s computing unless everything you have is on a cloud service. My mom forgot how much space she had on her old MBP and found out it wasn’t enough. She had to exchange it for the 512 GB option. She loves her M2 Air after having to put up the MBP that had the terrible service

Looking at a 16GB/512GB M2 13" Air for $1400CAD used or a 16GB/1TB M1 Pro 14" for $2000 CAD. I'm thinking the air is the better deal. My needs are mostly software development (rust, python, etc). Any insight would be useful!

I don’t know why people make a big deal between a 15” screen and 13” screen for traveling… I literally travel internationally for long periods of time with a 40L pack…. It makes virtually ZERO difference…. What matters is the total weight of the laptop and its power supply… For instance, A Surface Book 1, 2 or 3, sucks… Do to its thickness from the funky hinge design… Then throw in the heavy power brick, and you have a non travel friendly laptop. Even the 13.5” model.

Is this the M2?

Apple Fanboys will always buy a MacBook even if it comes with 128GB storage. 256 GB of storage is totally unacceptable in 2023. Even phones are having more storage than this. This is an insult IMO

I learned nothing from this video. I still don't know what to buy. 256 storage seems plenty to me since cloud storage is available almost everywhere now and is very inexpensive. What are you putting on your laptop that you need so much local storage?

The theory that “next year’s base model is yesteryears pro model” is increasingly becoming more facts

Always buy refurbished Mac's. You'll save yourself 200-300 bucks and the only difference is it comes in a brown box instead of a white one. The two exceptions are if you have an educators discount or you need a customized machine(extra RAM and Bigger GPU).

Something wrong with your battery work numbers - can't so big difference between air 15 66Wh and 16 pro with 100Wh battery. 5% could be, not like 40%

NAND chips aside, i dont see why 256gb would be an issue if I’m not gaming, video editing, or using photoshop professionally/being a photographer needing onboard storage for a boatload of HQ photos Why would it matter if all I’m doing is productivity stuff like responding to emails, excel, and chrome? 🤔 While it really makes sense to me, I’m still unhappy with the base ssd speed/being 1 chip tho. For those of pooping on apple on this - why would my mom, who wants a light mac for her day to day, care about the storage, ram or ports? If you do, you’re not the target audience in most cases imo 🤔🤔 And don’t forget apple is so different as an offering it’s not really competing with windows or the dell - especially not on thin and light as a category Curious to hear ppls thoughts?

Does the webcam has stabilization? 😂

In South Africa the M2 15” 512gb MBA is the same price as the M1 14” 1tb MBP & 16” 512gb MBP. Getting the Air makes no financial sense.

Is it good for coding

I 100% agree that the base model is not up to standard. I will say though that the 16 gig 512 GB version is more than adequate for everything this guy is doing. The one thing that I hate about many of the reviews is that, the latest and greatest is always going to be the choice of those that are doing reviews. I would venture to say that the MacBook Air is a quality device and will accommodate most anything that you throw at it. As an engineer, it handles software that is more robust than those that just dabble in video editing and photography. I know this is their profession, in a real setting the MacBook Air is an exceptional machine. But he is right the 8/256 model is definitely one to avoid.

Just get the base model. Or more RAM at best.

Honestly, I think 256 GB is enough. If it's a dual NAND. I edit photos and videos on my M1 Air, and I keep all my files on an external ssd. I wouldn't want to rely on an ssd that is soldered on, and can't be used or be recovered without the mac. Plus, keeping files on an external ssd makes it easy to move between other devices. I store only programs and termporary documents on my mac, and still have 100GB left. Would rather have apple keep the 256GB option if it means keeping the price lower, only if it's dual NAND tho.

You stopped me at the notch...

I think the 15" should not be viewed as just an upsized 13", instead of a different class of laptops. With 13" you get the great portability, while the 15" is noticeably chunker and heavier, but with the bigger screen you now have a fullsize laptop, not just a travel machine. So the port situation with very, very few ports, hurts quite a bit. The standard SSD capacity is laughable but at least you can add external storage. But you can't add RAM, which is the real offender here. Planned obsolescence by putting too little RAM into the base model. I got the 16 G / 1 T version. Expensive, but necessary for a LAPTOP in this day and age. If you just want to check emails, get an Ipad.

Still a bit overrated if someone isn't very tall or sound fanatic. LG Gram 16-inch or the MacBook Pro 14-inch are better. LG 16 for features & screen real estate. MBP 14 for MacBook features.

8 / 256 Gb config in 2023 is a joke. Also 60 Hz is not acceptable to me

I love this laptop but feel frustrated that they gimped parts of it to make the pro look better.

Funny. I just checked my M2 15" M2 and I am using 40gb of storage. LOL! It's called iCloud.

Till today I don't understand why a company like Apple behaves so poorly in regards of storage space on their products. Apple is very expensive I can accept that to some extent but by forcing their customers to pay extra to get NOT MORE! but equal storage capacity like their rivals is just plain bad like really bad. Imagine Apple would tell you "yeah we have this new M2 processor which is awesome but you only can get it if you pay 200bucks more! In the base configuration you get a processor from 2010" or something like that. You would be forced to upgrade just like they are doing it with storage space. That needs to stop. Put at least a 500GB drive in all machines and let the customers pay more if they really need MORE space not ENOUGH space....

With m2 16 gb ram n 512 SSD is needed fot having the right performance

0:17 OMG what happend with your mic

There's really just 1 thing that prevents me from upgrading from my M1 Air: not having a true thunderbolt connection with the ability to connect multiple displays from the same port. It would 100% be my only computer these days if I could plug it into a thunderbolt dock and have multiple external displays. Such a good machine if it wasn't for just that one thing.

Hello, is anyone here who can explain the equivalent of these specifications in NVIDIA and INTEL? Apple M2 chip = [Equivalent NVIDIA/INTEL chip name] 8-core CPU = [Equivalent NVIDIA/INTEL CPU name] 10-core GPU = [Equivalent NVIDIA/INTEL GPU name] 16-core Neural Engine = [Equivalent NVIDIA/INTEL Neural Engine name]

What you would call a video editor didn’t edit the video very well

MacBook Air not for creators, it's for students, home users, and light duty work. Yes, it can sort of do more if you try but Apple did not put a fan in the Air for a reason. Apple wants you to buy a MacBook Pro if you want all that performance a lot of the time.

Audio is off

Why would you Not Want more Power when Connected to the Mains ? 😅

If you do consider 256 GB as insufficient option why did you buy it? Therer are lots of higher end optiobs to choose from

Didn't you just defeat the purpose of having a portable editing machine by doing this switch?

Sure, they’ll bump up the base spec….while charging a 2 grand base price.

>.exe stopped working Yup, windows brain

256gb slower 50% vrs 512gb faster on m2 mb air 15...is this true? twice

uh isn't it far far more portable?

comparing a new product price with limited-available refurbished ...

out of context: bruh I didn't know that the MacBook Pro with the little screen on the top of the keyboard was old My bank account died😭