The 15.3-inch MacBook Air 2023 starts at $1,299 and is available in several stunning colors, including starlight, silver, midnight, and the ever-popular space gray MacBook Air. For a closer look at how space gray compares to silver, check out this detailed review.
The newest macOS notebook boasts a long battery life, comes with an Apple M2 processor, and the price is only $1,299.
“With its incredible performance and striking design, the new MacBook Air is the world’s best 15-inch laptop. And it’s only possible with Apple silicon,” said John Ternus, Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering, in a statement.
2023 MacBook Air goes grande with 15-inch display
Going all the way back to 2008 and the launch of the very first MacBook Air, this notebook line has never had a screen larger than 13.6 inches. That makes the 2023 model a considerable increase in size.
But that doesn’t mean the new Air is big, bulky beast. Aside from the larger display, Apple’s latest consumer-oriented MacBook keeps the same slim and light design that premiered in the 13.6-inch MacBook Air released in 2022, just expanded a bit for the larger display.
15-inch MacBook Air specs
Image: Apple
Apple calls it the “world’s thinnest 15-inch laptop.” It is only 11.5mm thick and weighs in at 3.3 pounds.
The notebook sports two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe port for dedicated charging and a headset jack.
The early reports that suggested the 15.3-inch MacBook Air would have a new Apple M3 processor turn out to be incorrect. Instead, it uses the same M2 processor as the 13.6-inch version, with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU.
Price and availability
Photo: Apple
The 15.3-inch MacBook Air 2023 has a starting price of $1,299. Color options include starlight, space gray, silver and midnight.
That’s only $100 more than the 13.6-inch version, so Apple lowered the cost of that 2022 model down to $1,099.
For comparison, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro chip starts at $1,999.
Apple is already taking preorders for the 2023 MacBook Air on its website. Deliveries will begin Tuesday, June 13.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
