I always thought a 15-inch Air was a good idea, even back when I first wrote about the concept about a decade ago. A MacBook Pro is an expensive investment, at least $2,000 today, but sometimes you just want a bigger screen, not necessarily the faster processors, extra ports or other MacBook Pro features.

For me, the main reason is that I work primarily with text, and frankly a 13-inch screen is just too small for all-day, every day use. I regularly bump my Google Docs up to 125% or even 150%. Hey, when you get to my age, you'll probably find the same thing.

It might surprise you to learn that Apple, until today, has not had a 15-inch laptop for a few years. It's still the default laptop screen size for many Windows users, especially in office environments. But Apple killed the 15-inch MacBook Pro, leaving it without any skin in the 15-inch laptop game.

The MacBook Pro currently comes in 14- and 16-inch sizes, and the current Air was previously 13-inch-only. (There was also an 11-inch Air once upon a time, as well as a 12-inch system just called "MacBook.") But now, the MacBook lineup has 13-, 14-, 15- and 16-inch models.

Apple promises 18 hours of battery life and, again, based on what I know of current MacBook specs and performance, that doesn't sound unreasonable. With the same overall design and same chip, what you gain with the larger 15-inch body is... a larger battery. If you opened up the chassis of your current MacBook Air, you'd find it's basically a huge battery inside, with some computer components crammed in alongside it. Bigger body, bigger battery, more battery life.

The 15-inch Air is fanless, because it's using the same M2 chip as the fanless 13-inch model, and the bigger chassis gives it even more room for passive airflow and cooling, so that doesn't surprise me.

The screen is already high-res enough that moving up to 15 inches doesn't affect sharpness. There's a very tiny bump to the screen resolution over the 13-inch, going from 2,560x1,664 to 2,880x1,864 pixels. And carrying the system in my hand, it felt light enough that I could cart it around in my shoulder bag, although for an everyday commute I'd still probably stick with the 13-inch Air. Both come in the same starlight, midnight, space gray and silver color options.

One of the things I liked most about the 15-inch Air is something I predicted in my WWDC preview from a few weeks ago. Since it's the same basic design, same chip, and mostly the same features and capabilities as the 13-inch Air, there was no reason to give it a big price bump. And indeed, the 15-inch Air starts at $1,299 (£1,399, AU$2,199), which strikes me as reasonable. Especially when the 13-inch M2 Air was, until today, $1,199 -- it just got a price chop on its one-year anniversary to $1,099. So the bigger screen is now a $200 add-on, which isn't nothing, but also isn't as bad as it could be.

This is based on my very brief hands-on time with the device at WWDC, and I look forward to getting a deeper look at the 15-inch MacBook Air in the near future.

The design looks and feels just like the 13-inch M2 Air I currently use almost daily. Apple calls it the world's thinnest 15-inch laptop, although I think some LG Gram models must come close, and might weigh less. Side by side, the 15-inch Air is 0.45 inches thick and weighs 3.3 pounds. The 13-inch Air is 0.44 inches thick and weighs 2.7 pounds.

I've been making the case for Apple to introduce a bigger version of its most popular MacBook for over a decade. Now, it's finally here. At Apple's WWDC keynote, the company revealed a new 15-inch version of its MacBook Air laptop. The new 15-inch model joins the current 13-inch Air and Apple's own M-series chips power both.

This would not be the first time a MacBook Air has been available in a different screen size. From 2010 to 2016, Apple offered an 11-inch MacBook Air. With the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops, Apple now offers laptops with 13-, 14-, 15- and 16-inch screens. Add in the iPad Pro lineup and you've got a laptop size for just about everyone.

Starting at $1,299, the new MacBook Air 15 is the world's thinnest 15-inch laptop at 11.5 millimeters, and it weighs only 3.3 pounds. It features an Apple M2 chip (eight-core CPU, 10-core GPU), a 15.3-inch display with a max brightness of 500 nits, up to 24GB of memory and up to 2TB of storage. The 13-inch M2 MacBook Air stays in the lineup for $100 less at $1,099, and the M1 MacBook Air holds down the entry-level position at $999. The MacBook Air is available for preorder now and is expected to start shipping next week.

The M2 MacBook Air 15-inch also has a fanless design so it'll stay quiet in class, meetings or when you're on FaceTime or Zoom calls. A 1080p webcam and three-mic array will also boost the overall video call quality. The body also houses six speakers with force-canceling woofers for more immersive spatial audio.

In its announcement of the MacBook Air 15, Apple said the new Air is 12 times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air and it's capable of up to 18 hours of battery life. This isn't surprising given Apple's MacBooks continue to have the longest battery lives of any laptops we've tested.