Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) vs Apple MacBook Pro 13 (2022)

For general use, both MacBook Air and MacBook Pro offer crisp visuals and ample brightness, making texts sharp and colors vivid, which is pleasing for everyday tasks like browsing and watching videos. When it comes to engineering and design, their wide color gamuts ensure accurate color representation, which is crucial for professional photo editing and graphic design. However, their lower refresh rates limit the smoothness needed in 3D environments, making them less ideal for tasks like 3D modeling or gaming that benefit from higher frame rates.

Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.

The Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) offers a larger 15.3-inch screen with high resolution and brightness, making it suitable for general use with quality visuals, while its slimmer and lighter design enhances portability despite a slightly smaller battery compared to the MacBook Pro 13 (2022), which compensates with longer battery life and thus extended off-the-grid usability, though it has a more compact 13.3-inch display which still delivers excellent quality for general tasks. Both models are equipped with the same CPU and RAM, ensuring robust performance for everyday applications, and their high-quality keyboards, speakers, and build, along with efficient heat management and operation noise, contribute to a solid overall user experience, while the choice between them may hinge on preferences for screen size and battery life.

The MacBook Air 15 (2023) and MacBook Pro 13 (2022) are rated similarly for 3D tasks because both use the same Apple M2 GPU with a 10-core configuration, which provides adequate but not top-tier performance for graphical tasks, and they also both have the same screen refresh rate of 60Hz which is suitable for basic 3D applications but may not be optimal for high-end gaming or professional graphics work. Although the Air offers a slightly larger and brighter screen, enhancing the visual experience, both models have similar screen quality, with high resolution and color accuracy that contribute to the overall 3D experience.

The Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) offers a larger screen with high resolution and color accuracy which is excellent for design, plus a fanless design for silent operation, but with a slightly shorter battery life compared to the Apple MacBook Pro 13 (2022), which offers very similar CPU, RAM, and GPU capabilities for engineering tasks along with longer battery life and comparable portability. Both have high-quality keyboards and speakers, but the MacBook Pro is slightly more portable due to a smaller form factor.

PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.

PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.

PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.