Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is back for 2023. And Apple isn’t messing around. After a short-lived trailer that told us… nothing, and a brief intro from Tim Cook himself, we got our first look at Apple’s newest hardware. Say hello to the ‘new’ 15in MacBook Air – the biggest and thinnest MacBook out there. So far.
Airing on the side of awesome
As ever, there’s nothing terribly new here. It’s a MacBook Air, just slightly bigger. It’s got everything you’d expect it to; MagSafe charging, two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a singular 3.5mm aux port. Oh, and lest we forget Apple’s “new” colour schemes that delve into Midnight and Starlight subcategories. What would Steve Jobs say?
Odd colour names aside, we finally see some cool stuff. Apple claims that this is the world’s thinnest 15in laptop. They wouldn’t lie about that, right? As for Apple’s “world’s best 15-inch laptop,” comment… we’ll hold judgement until we get our hands on one.
Of course, we’ll be keeping our hands off the 15.3in liquid retina display that’ll hit 500 nits brightness, with 5mm bezels surrounding the display, and a 1080p webcam embedded into the top of the lid.
Let’s look at those innards
Delve into the hardware, and you’ll find Apple’s (second) best of the best; the M2 chip, with an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. Apple claims that the new MacBook Air will be twelve times faster than any of its previous Intel-centric Air models on the market while offering up to 18 hours of battery life. It went a step further, adding that the new Air is two times brighter, doubles the performance and offers 50% more battery life than other competing brands in the 15in laptop segment.
One of the MacBook’s best features is its speakers. That’s not changing this time ’round. Apple mentioned that there are six speakers in there, somewhere, fully kitted out to support spatial audio. The 3-mic array doesn’t hurt either, especially if you’re still riding the Zoom train (sorry).
If you’ve got some money burning a hole in your pocket, you’ll have to hold off for longer. Apple has set a starting price of $1,300 (R25,000). What that’ll inflate to when it eventually arrives on South African shelves, we couldn’t say.
