Apple just blew everyone out of the water with the release of the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (2023), which features the M2 Bionic chip.
Apple went all out at the latest WWDC event, revealing the MacBook Pro 14-inch (2023), Mac Studio (2023) and the Mac Pro (2023). The MacBook Air got its own refresh with the MacBook Air 15-inch (2023), which the company claims is the thinnest 15-inch laptop on the market at just 1.15cm.
Since Apple put so much focus on the size of the latest MacBook Air, we wanted to see how it compares to another iconic, sleek laptop, the Acer Swift Edge 16 (2023). Keep reading to find out all the key differences between these devices so you can decide which laptop is right for you.
A thin design or a lightweight design?
The MacBook Air keeps the same iconic design as the rest of the MacBook series, sporting a sleek and minimalist design. Apple claims that it’s the thinnest 15-inch laptop on the market right now, measuring just 1.15cm. It weighs in at 1.51kg, making it one of the heftier creativity laptops.
The Swift Edge 16 is larger, with a 16-inch screen. Despite its larger size, it’s more lightweight than its Apple rival at just 1.23kg. This will make it better suited to hybrid workers who need to take their laptop on the go. It’s also very thin, at just 1.29cm. While it may be a tad chunkier than the MacBook Air, it will feel a lot less impactful in your backpack or laptop bag.
MacBook Air is more expensive
Apple isn’t known for developing the most affordable products, and the MacBook Air is no exception. The base model comes with a crisp $1299/£1399.99 price tag, with the more powerful model starting at $1499.99/£1599.99.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 is a lot more affordable in comparison. The base model starts at $1299.99/£1299.99, making it the more accessible option overall.
Swift Edge comes with a larger screen
Both these laptops come with impressive screens. The Swift Edge 16 sports a 16-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 3.2K resolution. Acer claims that the laptop covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, which would make it suitable for creative professionals. It also touts a brightness of 500 nits, which should make it a great device for watching media content.
Apple kitted the MacBook Air out with a 15.3-inch LED-backlit display with a 2880×1864 resolution. It also has a peak brightness of 500 nits and coverage of the P3 gamut, according to Apple. Acer seems to peak out Apple in this category thanks to the inclusion of OLED technology and the higher resolution. However, due to the integrated GPU on the Acer Swift Edge 16 – which we will touch on in the next section – it won’t be as powerful as the MacBook Air, limiting its content creation use.
M2 vs AMD
Apple decided to pack the MacBook Air with the M2 Bionic chip. It can be configured in two ways; one touting an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB unified memory and 256GB storage. The more expensive version has the same core count and memory, but more storage at 512GB. The M2 chip is more than capable enough for graphical workloads and should power through productivity tasks with ease.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 is tamer in comparison, featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U CPU. AMD claims that this processor is more powerful than the Apple M2 chip as well as the Raptor Lake Intel chips, but we’ll have to test out this laptop before we can make any definitive claims. The downside is that it sports an integrated GPU, which won’t make it viable for intensive creative tasks like 3D modelling.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.