13 inch MacBook Air vs. 15 inch – Which Should You Buy?

By Josh Teder

I’ve spent well over 6 months using a 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air, and I’m going to take you through which size I’d recommend getting. First, let me walk you through some questions to consider that should make this easier:

How Will You Use Your MacBook Air?

First up, what situations do you plan to use your MacBook Air in? Are you mainly using it at and around home, or are you more likely to be on the college campus, traveling for work, or just generally on the go? The 13-inch is more portable and lighter weight, and in my experience, is generally easier to carry around because of its slightly smaller size. Most backpacks and bags can accommodate a 13-inch laptop, while that’s not always the case for the 15-inch size.

Weight Considerations

Speaking of carry bags, another question to consider is how much weight matters to you. The 13-inch weighs 2.7 lb or 1.24 kg, while the 15-inch weighs 3.3 lb or 1.51 kg. That’s a difference of about 270 g, which isn’t nothing. That’s just a bit heavier than the weight of the largest iPhone, but probably not enough to break your back.

External Monitor Setup

Another question to ask yourself is: in the situations you’ll be using your MacBook Air, will you have access to an external monitor? If so, that could make the case to get the smaller MacBook Air since when you want to use it for long periods of time, you’ll be able to use it with a larger display like Apple’s excellent Studio Display, which is hands down the best monitor I’ve ever owned. And because it’s a 5K display, it scales macOS perfectly to its 27-inch size. Though, yes, it is a bit pricey. But in this instance, you do really get excellent top-of-the-line quality for what you pay for.

Session Length and Screen Real Estate

Related to the monitor question, another one you should consider is how long per session do you plan to use your MacBook. If you’re only using it for quick spurts while you’re on the go, the screen real estate may not matter as much to you as the portability. However, if you don’t have access to an external monitor most of the time when you do plan to use your MacBook Air, that’s when I’d seriously consider looking at the 15-inch model, especially if you plan to do a lot of work from your computer.

“While 2 inches may not sound like a lot, 6 months later, that added screen real estate is actually really useful, especially when using split screen between two windows.”

So, those are some questions I think you should consider when looking at which size MacBook Air to get. But what about downsides? If you opt for the 15-inch, the main downsides are that it’s heavier and larger in size. And if you go for the 13-inch, the main downside is the smaller display.

The Not-So-Obvious Differences

But there are more differences between these two laptops that might not be as obvious.

Battery Life (Spoiler: It’s the Same)

Take battery life for example. Actually, that’s a bad example. It’s the same between both of them. While the 15-inch has a larger battery, the display that battery is powering is also larger, so the gains there are offset by the display’s increased power draw. Both models are officially rated for up to 18 hours of video playback and 15 hours of wireless web browsing.

Speaker Quality: A Clear Winner

But one area where these two laptops do diverge from each other is with their speakers. At the time of recording, the 13-inch has a four-speaker sound system, while the 15-inch has a six-speaker sound system with force cancelling woofers. Can you really tell that much of a difference, though? Yes. The 15-inch is not only louder than the 13-inch by maybe around 10 or 20%, I’d say, but it does noticeably have a fuller sound than the 13-inch.

Now, when you see these two force cancelling woofers in the spec sheet, those aren’t really there for deep bass, but they absolutely help create that fuller, more punchy sound that pretty much everybody is going to prefer when listening to these two computers side by side. The 13-inch sounds fine, but way more tiny compared to the 15-inch.

“For dorm room listening sessions or just using the speakers in general, the 15-inch is definitely the way to go.”

Ergonomics and Comfort

Another difference is the palm rest area is slightly larger on the 15-inch model, and 6 months later, I found I slightly prefer it to the experience I had with the 13-inch.

Charging Differences Matter More Than You Think

There are also differences in the charging brick that come with each model. The barebones 13-inch, which has an 8 core GPU versus 10 core GPU, comes with a 30W USB-C power adapter. The 35 watt dual USB-C port compact power adapter comes with the rest of the configurations by default.

This is something a lot of people probably breeze by when ordering a MacBook Air, but it’s actually really important and I strongly recommend that you almost always opt for the 70 watt charger. This is going to charge your MacBook Air much faster than the 35 watt dual USB-C charger. While it’s missing an extra USB-C port, you can always plug your phone into your MacBook Air if you need to charge it. Or opt for a gallium nitride charger from Anker like the one they sent me that I used to test the power draw from different devices. It can charge my MacBook Air, iPhone, and Apple Watch all from one charging brick. And they didn’t sponsor this video, by the way. That’s just my personal favorite charger to use. And I have their previous version I bought as well, and I use it all the time when I travel. I’ll leave a link to it in our products link down in the description and pinned comment if you want to learn more about it.

My Final Recommendation

So, those are all of the differences between the two size laptops. So, which one in general do I think you should buy? 6 Months Later, my default recommendation is to get the 15-inch model if you plan to do a lot of work from this MacBook Air. Generally, I’ve just found I benefited quite a bit from the extra screen real estate you get with it. Plus, it has better speakers, a larger area to rest your palms.

When the 13-inch Makes More Sense

Now, when do I think it doesn’t make sense to go for the 15-inch option? Two main scenarios. First is you really need to prioritize portability. So, you might have a smaller bag it needs to fit in or you plan to use it in short spurts where the larger screen real estate won’t matter as much. Or if you have a larger display to use with it, in those cases, I think it makes sense to just go with the 13-inch version.

Now, of course, the last thing to consider is if there are any current sales going on with one size, and I’ve left links to both sizes, so you can check their current prices across multiple retailers. You can find the products link in the description and pinned comment.

So, those are my thoughts on which sized MacBook Air to get. If you want to see if there are any current sales going on or learn more about the products, don’t forget to scroll up to the Featured Products or Reccomended Videos section. To see all of the products I recommend at any time, you can do that by visiting 6monthslater.net/shop.

For 6 Months Later, I’m Josh Teder. Thanks for reading!