When is an ultraportable not an ultraportable? It’s a riddle posed by Apple’s latest addition to the MacBook Air family. The much-loved thin and light line just got its largest model to date. The 15-inch MacBook Air is – by some measures – also the company’s largest consumer laptop, given the work/enterprise focus on its 15- and 16-inch Pro models.

Screen real estate has always been a bit of a sticking point for the line – though its also been understood that some sacrifices have to be made for the sake of portability. A 15-inch Air occupies an interesting space in the ever-shifting MacBook line, taking the parts of the company’s best laptop and scaling them up. The design means it’s quite portable for such a large screen – but again, portability is relative at 15 inches.

Reported supply chain shortages mean the company is skipping the M3 chip here, disrupting what has thus far been a twice year refresh cycle of the base-level chip, followed by the Pro/Max. As we’ve noted before the M2 is still more than enough chip for the majority of users, but creative pros who like to push these machines to their limit might want to look elsewhere. Ditto if you’re looking for the best experience with No Man’s Sky, which recently hit the Mac App Store.

Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air is its largest to date by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch