Apple MacBook Air M2 (15-inch) review: Lightweight PC champion

The new 15-inch M2-powered MacBook Air is jam-packed with features to deliver great user experience and almost match the performance of the Pro models.

While the MacBook Pro series is designed for heavy-duty work for software professionals and creative artist, the Air models are mainly preferred by students and people for basic usage at home.

But, with the launch of M series silicon, Apple MacBook is now more powerful and efficient than other competing PCs in the industry. The 15-inch M2-powered MacBook Air is jam-packed with features to deliver a better user experience and almost match the performance of the Pro models.

I have been using it for more than one and a half months and here are my thoughts on the latest 15-inch MacBook Air.

Design and build quality

Though it has been upgraded with a massively big screen, the latest MacBook Air retains the sleek design elements and is lightweight too. It is incredibly thin measuring-- 11.5mm thickness, and is touted to be the slimmest PC in its class.

Though the giant laptop's case is made of superior-quality aluminum, it weighs just 1.5kg. It is so easy to carry around between places be it at the office workspace or at home or outdoors (usually in a backpack).

15-inch Apple MacBook Air M2.

When opened, it sports a mammoth 15.3-inch (diagonally) Liquid Retina Display (2880x1864p resolution, the biggest for an Air model to date. When put on the front, it feels like I am operating a desktop and you'll notice how great it is while writing an article or watching a movie in a flight.

Besides True Tone technology, it supports close to one billion colours and offers up to 500-nit peak brightness, which is more than enough to work outdoors without any issues.

Also, the multimedia content on the screen comes out really lively on the screen and you can notice how good it is while watching nature documentaries.

15-inch Apple MacBook Air M2.

Also, it has a fantastic back-lit magic keyboard, which offers a great tactile feel while typing a story. It has 78 key keys including 12 full-height function keys and four arrow keys in an inverted-T arrangement at the bottom left corner.

Also, the wide Force Touch trackpad makes the moving cursor effortless. It comes with pressure-sensing capabilities and supports force clicks, accelerators, pressure-sensitive drawing, and multi-touch gestures to pick and drop files between folders with less effort.

And, the touchID on the top right corner works smoothly without any fuss.

The latest MacBook Air M2 flaunts a 1080p HD FaceTime camera, which forms the notch at the top of the display. Though some may find it odd to see a black strip at the top, most people get used to it in a few days and forget about it.

Also, when watching a TV series or multimedia content, the OTT apps are optimized to uniformly cover the top bezel to deliver a better viewing experience.

The device features two thunderbolt ports (USB v4.0) along with a MagSafe charging port and a 3.5mm audio port on the other side.

Inside, Apple has incorporated a six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers. They manage to deliver with an impressive stereo sound effect. Like iPhones, MacBooks too set a high benchmark in terms of audio delivery through loudspeakers. It can fill any regular living room instantly. Also, I didn't notice any discernible distortion even when the volume was put to the max.

It also supports Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking when using AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max.

And like all Apple products, the latest 15-inch MacBook Air is manufactured with eco-friendly practices. Some of the critical components are made with recycled materials.

The entire metal enclosure of Apple's latest laptop is made 100 per cent repurposed Aluminium.

The components used on several printed circuit boards inside the PC have 100 per cent recycled gold plating and tin soldering. Even the rate earth elements in all magnets are said to be 100 per cent recycled.

Add to it, the MagSafe connector features 100 per cent recycled cobalt. Also, 90 per cent of the steel used in the battery tray is also recycled. And, 35 per cent or more repurposed plastic is used in multiple components.

And, it should be noted that the new MacBook Air is also free of mercury, PVC, and beryllium. Even the display glass is Arsenic-free. 100 per cent of the virgin wood fibre in the packaging comes from responsibly managed forests.

Read more | Apple partners with local NGO to protect Raigad's Mangrove forests

Performance

The latest 15-inch MacBook Air is powered by the reliable M2 processor. It is said to be 2x faster than the fastest Intel silicon-powered MacBook Air.

The M2 processor houses a powerful 8-core CPU with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, a 10-core GPU to render super-fast graphics, and a dedicated 16-core Neural Engine for on-device machine learning to deliver great user experience.

The M2 processor can deliver up to 100GB/s of memory bandwidth and support up to 24GB of fast unified memory.

Our model comes with 8GB RAM and as advertised, it delivers smooth performance without any slightest sign of lag-ness with regular tasks. Even with video editing too, it works flawlessly, like a talented figure skater moving on an ice floor.

The company also offers 16GB RAM and 24GB RAM options along with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB storage options on the Apple Store.

Whatever may be the configuration, MacBook Air M2 owners will have a great time playing graphics-rich games on Apple Arcade. Thanks to the big screen, it will be even more enjoyable compared to any previous MacBook iterations or any other branded PC in its class, for that matter.

The 1080p FaceTime camera is great on the MacBook Air. It has an Advanced image signal processor with computational video technology. But if you think, you want an even better upgrade, macOS Ventura allows owners to use their iPhone's primary camera as the webcam via the continuity camera feature. But, the user has to buy an accessory to dock the iPhone on the MacBook Air.

It has a three-mic array with directional beamforming capability to pick the owner's voice and deliver clear crisp audio to the other side of the video call.

With the Thunderbolt ports (USB v4.0), users can connect to a 6K secondary display or any compatible device for ease of work. The Thunderbolt port can support 40 Gbps data transfer.

To connect more devices, you can do so wirelessly via Bluetooth (v5.3). It also supports Wi-Fi 6.0 (802.11ax) with up to 2400 Mbps speed (Maximum PHY data rate).

With macOS Ventura, users can switch work from iPad or iPhone to the MacBook effortlessly than ever before. You can leave a particular work on one device and resume at that very same point from the MacBook without any hassles.

Also, users can edit sent messages both on the iMessenger app and the mail app too. With Freeform, device owners can collaborate with colleagues for work projects. With the Notes app, all the changes done with the team members get updated in real-time and notify the members.

With the redesigned Game Centre dashboard, owners can track their individual progress in each game even better and also see the progress of their gaming partners and track the games played by their friends or family members too.

And, with the upcoming macOS 14 Sonoma, Apple is bringing a whole lot of new features. Users will be able to move the widgets around on the desktop and they can replace or add more with ease with an easily accessible widget gallery.

Also, with the Continuity feature, iPhone users will be able to share their screens on Macs.

And, Apple is bringing an all-new gaming mode to Macs, to deliver immersive gaming experience, by lowering audio latency with AirPods. This significantly reduces the input latency with popular game controllers like those for Xbox and PlayStation by doubling the Bluetooth sampling rate.

Read more | Key features of macOS Sonoma

Battery life

In this aspect, Apple's new MacBook Air (with M2) tops the game with elan. It houses a 66.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery and the company offers 35W Dual Port Power Adapter along with two two-metre USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable in the retail box. It also supports up to 70W USB-C power adaptor.

After I started using the new MacBook Air in late June, I traveled out of Bengaluru for official work at least three times in the last one and a half months, and the longest trip was for two days.

And every time, I deliberately left the charger behind, as it already won me over its battery life prowess while working from home.

Even after working for close to nine hours, the battery on the 15-inch MacBook Air still had enough juice to go several more hours.

Despite the giant high-resolution screen, the laptop never gave me any anxiety about dying out in the middle of work. Apple has done great with full optimisation of M2 silicon and software to efficiently deliver long battery life on the 15-inch MacBook Air.

With a full charge, it can support video streaming (via Wi-Fi) for up to 15 hours. For regular work, it can last even longer than that.

15-inch Apple MacBook Air M2.

Final thoughts

With the big display, the MacBook Air is so great for working and also having fun watching your favourite TV series.

I say this often when reviewing iPhones and iPads, and I iterate here too, that having more control over the hardware and software has so many advantages. Apple has done a great job by leveraging proprietary macOS software with M2 silicon's power and energy sourcing efficiency to the max, to ensure MacBook Air delivers smooth performance and a long battery life.

The 15-inch MacBook Air price starts at Rs 1,34,900 and for students, it is available for Rs 1,24,900 through education plan. It comes in four shades — midnight, starlight, space gray, and silver.

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