MBA 15" good enough?

Is the MBA 15" 16/512 worth it/ sufficient enough:

- For a light and portable laptop.
- To do some light video editing.
- To do some music making (DAWs like FL Studio, Reason 12 and Audacity etc).
- For decent, all-day battery life.
- For a good screen for video watching.
- For opening 50 tabs on Firefox.
- For doing some writing on Pages/Word
- For doing some editing on Sheets.
- For streaming online (Hyperbeam).
- For eBook Reading.
- For streaming music
- To not spend a lot of money on overkill specs.
- For someone on a budget.

If not, what else do you recommend?

The macbook 15 air is not a budget computer; it's a premium product. All that stuff you listed, the air will perform fine.

Even an M1 MBA would tick all those boxes. You'll have plenty power to play around with if you get the M2 MBA.

superamit said:

Yes. It's great. Just get it; you'll be happy.

Thanks, I'm definitely looking into it soon.

arcite said:

The macbook 15 air is not a budget computer; it's a premium product. All that stuff you listed, the air will perform fine.

Yes, I know that it is a Premium Product, but compared to the MBP, it's still touted as "the budget option" on the website (well the more budget-friendly, cheaper one). But thanks. I will look into it soon.

Andeddu said:

Even an M1 MBA would tick all those boxes. You'll have plenty power to play around with if you get the M2 MBA.

I guess so but I'd like a bigger screen than the 13". I currently have a 13" laptop, and I like it enough, but 15" would be a nice upgrade and sweet spot.

1BadManVan said:

Easily handle all of that and doing it silently

Oh, that's great. I want it to be silent

With my M2 MacBook Air, I do everything you do and more and it's never slowed down, not once.

50 tabs in Firefox would need approximately 8.5 GB of RAM (give or take a couple GB). You will have 16 GB and so that is sufficient. Purchase with confidence.

Pretty much all of the Apple Silicon models are absolute screamers in terms of performance. Any of them will fit the bill for what you're planning to do with it.

If you plan on doing heavy multitasking, I'd probably go for the 16GB model (as @SAdProZ mentioned). 8GB will still get the job done, but some of these workloads are the kinds of workloads where you'll probably have a much better experience with 16GB (video editing and audio work especially, although Logic is pretty lightweight if you're using the stock plugins. It's third party stuff that gets heavy quickly).

I'm sure it will do all that and then some.

For $300 more you can get a MBP14"

VirtuallyInsane said:

For a good screen for video watching.

that really depends on the individual, having being spoiled by the mini led on my mbp 14 and ipad pro i can't go back to regular lcd on the mba.

VirtuallyInsane said:

For opening 50 tabs on Firefox.

assuming you got nothing else open in the background, like literally nothing else.

VirtuallyInsane said:

To not spend a lot of money on overkill specs.

you already speccing it to the base mbp 14 price range, whether you consider it overkill spec no one can really answer that for you.

VirtuallyInsane said:

Is the MBA 15" 16/512 worth it/ sufficient enough:

- For a light and portable laptop.
- To do some light video editing.
- To do some music making (DAWs like FL Studio, Reason 12 and Audacity etc).
- For decent, all-day battery life.
- For a good screen for video watching.
- For opening 50 tabs on Firefox.
- For doing some writing on Pages/Word
- For doing some editing on Sheets.
- For streaming online (Hyperbeam).
- For eBook Reading.
- For streaming music
- To not spend a lot of money on overkill specs.
- For someone on a budget.

If not, what else do you recommend?

Click to expand...

You could do all that on a base model iPad.

Yes, it's overkill.

Just picked up a 15" 16G 1TB.
Works like a champ.
No issues with screen after comparing it side by side with a 16 (and a 14). While I would have liked the 16, the 14 was too small and the extra bit of screen wasn't worth it for the price difference, in my opinion. I know...machine lasts 5 years, so its 5-7 a month if you want to spread it out, but I didn't want to.

Plus, I loaded Windows 11 in a UTM VM and it ran all the Windows software I needed, plus still had memory to spare.

Only thing I don't like is the spacing between the keys. I'm used to a keyboard with a wider spacing. I'll get used to it though, I did last time I used a macbook keyboard.

Thanks for your replies, everyone.

SAdProZ said:

With my M2 MacBook Air, I do everything you do and more and it's never slowed down, not once.

50 tabs in Firefox would need approximately 8.5 GB of RAM (give or take a couple GB). You will have 16 GB and so that is sufficient. Purchase with confidence.

Yes, my current MBP has 8GB and it needs a bit more RAM than that. The storage is fine and it runs alright, but I want more RAM without the overkill Pro specs.

ArkSingularity said:

Pretty much all of the Apple Silicon models are absolute screamers in terms of performance. Any of them will fit the bill for what you're planning to do with it.

If you plan on doing heavy multitasking, I'd probably go for the 16GB model (as @SAdProZ mentioned). 8GB will still get the job done, but some of these workloads are the kinds of workloads where you'll probably have a much better experience with 16GB (video editing and audio work especially, although Logic is pretty lightweight if you're using the stock plugins. It's third party stuff that gets heavy quickly).

Totally Bored said:

I'm sure it will do all that and then some.

For $300 more you can get a MBP14"

I know that, but it's kinda getting into "do I want that thicc thing in my backpack?" territory.

ilikewhey said:

that really depends on the individual, having being spoiled by the mini led on my mbp 14 and ipad pro i can't go back to regular lcd on the mba.

I don't care so much for screens when my iMac is 5K, and this thing has a clear enough image. But that's fair enough. You have your reasons.

ilikewhey said:

you already speccing it to the base mbp 14 price range, whether you consider it overkill spec no one can really answer that for you.

But it depends on where you get it from. And I know this sounds really superficial, but I'm dying to get my hands on that Midnight shade. I am so sick and tired of space grey, and grey. I want something darker.

throAU said:

You could do all that on a base model iPad.

Yes, it's overkill.

Yeah, but it's not a Macbook lol. I have an iPad but I use it mainly for reading things.

GaryGnu said:

Just picked up a 15" 16G 1TB.
Works like a champ.
No issues with screen after comparing it side by side with a 16 (and a 14). While I would have liked the 16, the 14 was too small and the extra bit of screen wasn't worth it for the price difference, in my opinion. I know...machine lasts 5 years, so its 5-7 a month if you want to spread it out, but I didn't want to.

Plus, I loaded Windows 11 in a UTM VM and it ran all the Windows software I needed, plus still had memory to spare.

Only thing I don't like is the spacing between the keys. I'm used to a keyboard with a wider spacing. I'll get used to it though, I did last time I used a macbook keyboard.

Click to expand...

Yes, exactly what I am looking for. I'm looking for the portability of the Air, but a bigger screen and if it's powerful enough to run a VM on, then it will be good enough to run some DAW editing on it. I have a MBP 13" (8GB, got it for a good price a few years back) and it runs alright, but I think the bigger screen and the extra 8GB RAM will help me out.

I did think about the 14"/16" MBP, but it does seem overkill. Unless there was one on offer for an amazing price, then I am probably not going for that, to be honest. Nothing wrong with it, but it does seem very powerful. I'm not a professional who needs all those specs (I say, typing from the base model MBP, lol, which in fairness is more like a new MBA from what I can tell).

Then it’s settled then: you’re getting the 15.5-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip, 16 GB RAM, and Midnight color.

There’s no detriments to your pick. Everything about it is amazing. Just buy it already and then tell us about it. We want a testimonial.

SAdProZ said:

Then it’s settled then: you’re getting the 15.5-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip, 16 GB RAM, and Midnight color.

There’s no detriments to your pick. Everything about it is amazing. Just buy it already and then tell us about it. We want a testimonial.

SAdProZ, what configuration of MBA 15 do you have?