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Ubisoft pinky swears that Skull and Bones is still happening, and it'll have a closed beta to prove it. You'll have a chance to try the long-delayed action-adventure game between August 25th and 28th. You can sign up for the closed beta at the game's website. The beta, which Ubisoft announced with the help of a sea shanty performance, will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

To give you an idea of how long this game has been in the works, we had our first hands-on with it at E3 2017. The Skull and Bones development process has reportedly been more turbulent than just about any stormy sea. Ubisoft has delayed the game multiple times and it's currently scheduled to arrive by the end of March 2024, approximately five years behind schedule.

Skull and Bones sees you take control of a pirate ship. You'll be able to team up with friends to sail the high seas in an open world and take on other players as you try to become a legendary pirate. You'll need to keep your crew happy as you get your hands on increasingly larger ships. Here's hoping it's all worth the wait.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

Ubisoft’s open-world Avatar game is almost here. At the company’s Summer Game Fest preview event, we got a substantial look at the story and gameplay of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. James Cameron introduced the game in a prerecorded segment, teasing “new environments new flora and fauna and characters”.

A cinematic trailer lays out how this tale will fit in with the Avatar movies. In short, it’ll cover the events of both games, with the protagonist being kidnapped during the events of the first film and schooled by the human invaders. After the events at the end of Avatar, you are cryogenically frozen… then unfrozen 15 years later in time to fight the RDA’s continued invasion.

The game itself is an open-world first-person action-adventure game, where you'll be able to combine Na'vi skills and weapons with human assault weapons and a casual rocket launcher or two. It wouldn't be an Avatar thing without the ability to bond with sentient animals you can ride. The trailer teases the ability to ride direhorses as well as your very own ikran. You'll be able to feed and customize your partner when not flying down waterfalls. Frontiers of Pandora will include a new western expanse not seen in the movies, where you'll meet as-yet unseen Na'vi clans, including a secretive healer clan. 

You'll be able to equip and grow your character to fit your own playstyle, crafting weaponry and items from resources and upgrading your own skills as you see fit. 

Frontiers of Pandora launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC and, oddly, Luna. (Yes, Luna!) on December 7th 2023.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

Last year's Mac Studio was the super-powered Mac mini many Apple fans were begging for. But, for the most demanding users, it was unclear if it was worth shelling out $3,999 for the high-end Mac Studio with an M1 Ultra chip, or if they should just wait for the inevitable Mac Pro refresh. Now that Apple has revamped the Mac Pro with an M2 Ultra chip, the company's desktop lineup finally has something for everyone.

At the most basic level, there's the $599 Mac Mini. If you need a bit more power, you can get that same slim machine with an M2 Pro chip for $1,299. Meanwhile, all-in-one fans have several iMacs to choose from, starting at $1,299 (though it's probably worth waiting for an M2 spec bump).

That leaves the $1,999 Mac Studio as the ideal machine for Apple power users. It'll be enough for video editing work, and it also comes standard with 32GB of RAM (it could use more than 512GB of storage, though). Step up to the $3,999 model with an M2 Ultra chip, and you've got a system that can destroy just about any task you put in front of it. The few professional users who need PCIe expansion can now opt for the M2 Ultra-equipped Mac Pro, which starts at an eye-watering $6,999.

All of sudden, the higher-end Mac Studio makes so much more sense. It has the same raw power as the Mac Pro, a ton of ports, and it won't take up much room on your desk. What seemed like a curiosity last year, now feels like a tremendous value for power users. Funny how that works, isn't it? (Apple reportedly shelved plans for an even more powerful M2 chip, which could have offered double the power of the M2 Ultra, according to Bloomberg.)

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

The base Mac Studio is now equipped with an M2 Max chip, featuring a 12-core CPU (with eight performance and four efficiency cores) and a 30-core GPU, as well as 32GB of RAM. Compared to last year's M1 Max, the new chip has two more efficiency cores and six additional GPU cores. What's most notable is the additional upgrade options: You can configure the M2 Max chip with a 38-core GPU and 96GB of RAM (previously you were capped at 32GB of memory).

Step up to the M2 Ultra and you effectively get two M2 Max chips: It starts with a 24-core CPU, 60-core GPU and 64GB of memory. If you want to truly push your system (and wallet) to the limit, the M2 Ultra can also be configured with a 76-core GPU and 192GB of RAM. With all that power, who needs a full-sized PC tower?

And really, that's what I kept asking myself as I tested our review unit, which was equipped with an M2 Ultra and 192GB of RAM. The Mac Studio is so ridiculously overpowered, only the most demanding users would need the Mac Pro's PCIe expansion. Since the M2 chips feature unified memory integrated alongside the CPU and GPU, there's no way to add additional RAM down the line, which used to be another reason to get the Mac Pro. At least you can stuff the Mac Studio to the gills with RAM, if you need it.

Much like the M2 Max-powered 14-inch MacBook Pro, Apple's latest chips deliver noticeable performance increases over the M1 generation in just about every benchmark. But it's also not significant enough to run out and replace an M1 system. Instead, the new Mac Studio is an even more tempting machine for Mac users still trucking along with Intel processors, even for some Mac Pro owners.

In the Geekbench 5 CPU benchmark, the Mac Studio scored higher than any system we've tested this year. But really, that's not a surprise – even last year's M1 Ultra Mac Studio scored higher than the Razer Blade 16, which features Intel's fastest mobile 13th-gen chip. Apple doesn’t always come out ahead: that Blade 16 beat the Mac Studio in the Geekbench 5 Compute benchmark, which you can chalk up to the NVIDIA RTX 4090 under the hood. Still, the Mac Studio's multithreaded Cinebench R23 score (a test that mostly measures CPU performance) was more than double the Blade 16's.

The new Mac Studio transcoded a 4K video file to 1080p using Handbrake in 21 seconds, three seconds faster than last year's M1 Ultra model. That same job took the Razer Blade 16, the fastest PC we've seen this year, 26 seconds to complete. Scale that saved time up to a feature length project, or encoding jobs you'll need to run several times a day, and the Mac Studio seems like a no-brainer upgrade for some creatives.

Years ago, some professionals would buy the Mac Pro for its sheer performance, while the internal expansion possibilities were more of an afterthought. The Mac Studio is a system made for them. And now, thanks to Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4, external storage options are fast enough to deal with the demands of a video production shop.

The Mac Studio certainly won't leave you wanting when it comes to ports: On the rear, it features four USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB 3.2 Type A connections, 10Gbps Ethernet, full-sized HDMI and a headphone jack. There are also two USB-C ports on the front (USB 3 by default, Thunderbolt 4 on the M2 Ultra), alongside a full-sized SD card slot. Just like last year, video editors I've spoken with said they'd prefer a headphone jack on the front, but at least it's easy to get behind the Studio to plug things in. Given the user this machine is aimed at, it also would have been nice to get Thunderbolt 4 ports on the front for every configuration.

Physically, the Studio is no different than what we saw last year. It's a beautifully polished box that looks like two Mac minis stacked together. It’s far more prominent than that slim desktop, but for Apple devotees, that may be more of a feature than a bug. Now that it no longer seems like a stopgap solution for people eagerly waiting for an upgraded Mac Pro, the Mac Studio looks like the purest expression of what Apple wants a desktop to be in 2023. Why fiddle around with internal hardware when the package Apple delivers is so fully featured?

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

As I said in my review last year, the Mac Studio isn't meant for everyone: It's a system targeted at people who know their demands are lightyears beyond mainstream users. They won't balk at a $1,999 starting price, or even the $3,999 for the M2 Ultra model, if it means they'll be able to deliver projects faster. On the PC side, you've got alternatives like Intel's NUC Extreme small-form factor desktop, but that system has ballooned in size so much that you can't really compare it to the Mac Studio.

I've gone from being intrigued by the Mac Studio to truly impressed. It continues to blow PCs away when it comes to heavy-duty work, and it has so much connectivity I don't miss the lack of internal expansion. It's more than just the big Mac mini – it's a compact Mac Pro that many creatives can actually afford.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is already suing to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activsion Blizzard, but now it's reportedly taking steps to halt the deal before the July 18th deadline for the merger. A CNBCsource claims the FTC is poised to file for an injunction that would prevent the merger from closing as scheduled.

We've asked the FTC and Microsoft for comment. Microsoft tells CNBC the injunction will put the case in front of a federal judge sooner. In previous statements, Microsoft has downplayed the deal and claims that Activision Blizzard doesn't have "must have" games. It even suggests Sony has higher-quality exclusives. The FTC, however, notes that Activision is one of just a few giant game publishers that publish major titles across platforms.

The lawsuit is going before the FTC's own administrative law judge in August. That official will make a decision that can appeal to the Commission for a vote. If the agency votes against the merger, Microsoft can appeal to a federal court to challenge the outcome.

The reported injunction comes weeks after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority said it would block the $68.7 billion purchase. The regulator is concerned Microsoft may buy its way into a monopoly of the young cloud gaming space, giving it up to 70 percent market share. Microsoft has tried to assuage those fears by striking deals with game streaming providers to put titles on their services. The tech giant has also tried to address fears of a Call of Duty Xbox exclusive by promising multi-platform releases for a decade.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

It's been quite a day for Reddit. Thousands of communities have temporarily closed shop to protest changes the company is making to its API, which is impacting several third-party apps. On top of that, the platform suffered a "major outage" across its desktop and mobile websites, as well as the mobile apps. 

"We're aware of problems loading content and are working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible," read a message on the Reddit status page as of 10:58AM ET. By 11:30AM, the site was loading again. 

"A significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues, and we’ve been working on resolving the anticipated issue," Reddit told Engadget in a statement.

A bot was tracking all of the subreddits that were going private as part of the protests. As you might expect, the bot was out of commission while Reddit was down, but it's up and running again.

Reddit said in April that it would start charging for access to its API, which third-party developers have used in thousands of apps that tie into the platform, such as moderation tools. While the primary target of the API changes may have been companies that are scraping Reddit for content to train language learning models for generative AI systems, the move has been a significant blow for those making third-party clients that many redditors prefer to the company's own website or apps.

After claiming that he would have to pay $20 million to keep operating Apollo for Reddit as is, Christian Selig ultimately decided to shut down the app. Apollo will close its doors on June 30th. RIF, another popular third-party Reddit app, will shut down on the same day.

This story is developing; refresh for updates.

It’s nearly time for the big Ubisoft Forward Summer Game Fest showcase event, so expect plenty of announcements, trailers, demos and more. With E3 deflating like a sad balloon, this is likely the year’s biggest gaming conference for incredible reveals. The showcase starts at 1:00 PM ET, with a pre-show at 12:45, and there are a bunch of ways to watch live. Ubisoft is hosting its own YouTube stream and Twitch feed for the event, in addition to streams available via the festival itself.

So what’s on the agenda? The publisher has already confirmed that it’ll be releasing information regarding Assassin’s Creed Mirage, a new The Crew racing title and a game adaptation of a little-known film series called Avatar. Ubisoft is extremely prolific, however, and is always working on a diverse array of games. Titles like the oft-delayed pirate sim Skull and Bones could make an appearance, and the same goes for Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland and the company’s forthcoming multiplayer shooter XDefiant.

The company already announced a Prince of Persia sidescrolling spin-off on the first day of SGF, so more gameplay footage might drop during the event. Those looking for additional information about the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake will have to keep waiting, as Ubisoft recently said that it would not be showing any new footage at the Forward event.

Ubisoft has not announced how long its showcase will run, but similar events have come in at around the 90 minute mark. As always, Engadget has staffers on location to report on the most jaw-dropping announcements, so keep the site open for updates.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

I’m worried about Saga Anderson. She’s a seasoned FBI agent investigating a string of ritualistic deaths around Cauldron Lake, and she’s a little too impressed by all the supernatural gore she encounters. At one point, she’s talking to her partner about the cult activity they’ve seen – the dismembered body parts and necromancy and murderous villagers roaming the forests – and she says, “this place just keeps getting crazier… but this is exciting.”

A few scenes later, she’s shoving a heart through a portal to another realm and inviting a witch to show her “the terror.”

So, yeah, I’m nervous about Saga’s fate in Alan Wake II – and that only makes me more excited for the full game. I saw a 30-minute hands-off preview of Alan Wake II at Summer Game Fest, set in the second chapter. By this time, Saga has made her peace with the paranormal darkness of the case she’s investigating; she’s already pulled a manuscript page out of a corpse’s chest cavity and followed its instructions to Cauldron Lake, the setting of the original game.

Alan Wake came out 13 years ago, and the timeline in the sequel has also progressed 13 years. The writer Alan Wake has been missing that whole time, and Saga is hunting the ghost of FBI agent Robert Nightingale, who was killed at the end of the first game. In chapter two, Saga and her partner are deep in the Pacific Northwest woods. The preview shows off gorgeous lighting, character models and environments, plus satisfying-looking gunplay and flashlight-play.

Dialogue scenes between Saga and her partner aren’t rushed, establishing the narrative and letting it breathe, and there are a few moments where players can choose how to respond. The two agents split up and there are a series of simple puzzles for Saga to solve, like collecting a fuse or finding the right numbers to crack a lock, all while a sense of dread constantly builds in the background. The preview provides some serious early Resident Evil vibes — Alan Wake II is a survival-horror experience, while the original was an action-thriller.

As Saga attempts to solve the mysteries around her, she can jump into her Mind Place (no, not Mind Palace) to organize clues and connect the dots. Her Mind Place looks like the living room of a ’90s conspiracy theorist, with photos and notes connected by red string along one wood-paneled wall. This is where Saga can manipulate the evidence she’s found, placing clues near each other to see if they’re related, unlocking the path forward. If she gets stuck, she can go to the desk in the center of the room and commune with her subjects, asking them for answers based on the clues she’s gathered; this is called Profiling. Saga can enter her Mind Place at any time.

Remedy Entertainment

There are a few jump-scares in the preview, where the screen quickly cuts to a screaming face or an enemy suddenly bursts through a doorway, but they’re well placed and not overdone. Saga feels capable and curious – maybe a little too curious for her own good, but we’ll have to see how that plays out in the full game. At the end of the preview, Alan suddenly appears in the woods with Saga, screaming about dark forces and confused by how long he’s been missing.

The big innovation in Alan Wake II is the ability to swap between Saga and Alan himself, playing as both characters throughout the game. Chapter one begins with Saga in the driver’s seat, and after that players can choose to play as her or Alan at the beginning of each new section. A Remedy spokesperson said developers are still fine-tuning the swap mechanic; they don’t necessarily want to give players the ability to change characters every five minutes, for the sake of the narrative flow, but they still want to provide real instances of meaningful choice.

Remedy Entertainment

Alan Wake II is a contained single-player experience and it doesn’t have a bunch of side quests, according to Remedy. There are a few errands to complete and secrets to find parallel to the main story, but this is first-and-foremost a linear, narrative-driven game. 

There were plenty of sequels at the Summer Game Fest showcase, and Alan Wake II stands out in this crowded field. The preview showcased a clear vision: Alan Wake II retains the themes of the original game, but introduces a fresh perspective with the protagonist, mechanics and genre. It feels like Remedy knows the story it's trying to tell — even if Alan and Saga don't.

Alan Wake II is due to hit PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 on October 17th.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

The UK's AI oversight will include chances to directly study some companies' technology. In a speech at London Tech Week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed that Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic have pledged to provide "early or priority access" to AI models for the sake of research and safety. This will ideally improve inspections of these models and help the government recognize the "opportunities and risks," Sunak says.

It's not clear just what data the tech firms will share with the UK government. We've asked Google, OpenAI and Anthropic for comment.

The announcement comes weeks after officials said they would conduct an initial assessment of AI model accountability, safety, transparency and other ethical concerns. The country's Competition and Markets Authority is expected to play a key role. The UK has also committed to spending an initial £100 million (about $125.5 million) to create a Foundation Model Taskforce that will develop "sovereign" AI meant to grow the British economy while minimizing ethical and technical problems.

Industry leaders and experts have called for a temporary halt to AI development over worries creators are pressing forward without enough consideration for safety. Generative AI models like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Anthropic's Claude have been praised for their potential, but have also raised concerns about inaccuracies, misinformation and abuses like cheating. The UK's move theoretically limits these issues and catches problematic models before they've done much damage.

This doesn't necessarily give the UK complete access to these models and the underlying code. Likewise, there are no guarantees the government will catch every major issue. The access may provide relevant insights, though. If nothing else, the effort promises increased transparency for AI at a time when the long-term impact of these systems isn't entirely clear.

When I saw the announcement trailer for Immortals of Aveum in the winter of 2022, I was surprised by my own interest in the game. Immortals came from an unproven studio founded four years prior by Bret Robbins, a AAA creative director who most recently built a trio of Call of Duty titles: Modern Warfare 3, Advanced Warfare, and WWII. Ascendant Studios, his independent venture, was partnering with EA on its debut game, a first-person shooter in a militaristic fantasy world. On the surface, it didn’t sound like something I’d be drawn to.

But Immortals of Aveum caught my eye. Its cinematics were beautiful and the trailer showcased frenetic combat with bright beams of magic, all while actors Gina Torres (Firefly) and Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever) narrated an epic story of rebellion, political sabotage and dragons. From a first-person perspective, the protagonist’s hand movements were quick and sharp, and they looked like a satisfying build-up to powerful attacks.

With a few months of hindsight, I remain interested in Immortals of Aveum and I think I’ve figured out why. There aren’t a ton of first-person action games that rely on mechanics other than guns — Dishonored, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hexen come to mind, but it’s a small field overall. That might be one reason Immortals of Aveum stands out as something fresh, but it’s also nice to see a new, AAA-level game that’s single-player and narrative-driven with a contained campaign, rather than an open world of live-service features. Learning more about Ascendant helped, too: Robbins was also the creative director of the original Dead Space and his team included former Telltale Games members, lending weight to the assertation that Immortals of Aveum would center a dense storyline.

I played a demo of Immortals of Aveum at Summer Game Fest 2023, and it was gorgeous. Its cinematics were particularly impressive: The motion capture was smooth and the character models were finely detailed, with delicate eye markings and layers of gear. The clarity of the cutscenes made it easier to get lost in the dialogue and the ravaged fantasy world of Aveum, even in a short period of time.

Gameplaywise, I had access to the blue type of magic, which granted me two abilities: a whip that pulled enemies toward me, and a burst of balled-up energy, spammable as fast as my finger could press R2. I also used the Animate ability on a giant rock hand, using a telekinesis-type power to manipulate its fingers and bridge a gap between two cliffside landings. Playing with a gamepad on PC, I found the mechanics to be almost too smooth, with my reticle often sliding beyond my intended targets, but this is something I think I’d get used to after 30 minutes longer with the game. Even with the hyper-lubricated controls, I appreciated the lack of a noticeable aim assist.

EA

I didn’t encounter the sheer number of enemies that Ascendant has shown off in trailers for Immortals of Aveum; my hordes maxed out at about eight. But by the end of my play time, I felt like I’d started to learn the rhythm of the game’s combat, and I can see it becoming frenzied — in a great way — with the addition of new magical powers. And, sure, some more enemies.

The most jarring part of the demo was actually traversing the terrain — there were plenty of craggy mountainsides and rock walls that looked perfectly climbable by modern action-adventure standards, but they weren’t. Maybe I needed to spend more time learning the intricacies of gap-jumping and ledge-grabbing, but I found my character to be slightly less spry than I wanted, unwilling to fully double-jump or pull himself onto platforms. However, the movement restrictions seemed purposeful, and the game wasn’t sluggish by any means: Immortals of Aveum felt more like a puzzle game than a climbing adventure, with a series of locked stone doors and multicolored gems to throw magic at in specific patterns.

EA

My demo broke once, when a bug prevented a stone door from opening, and a developer had to get me back on track. I was assured that the game will be in full working condition by launch day, in about six weeks.

Ascendant Studios is independent, but it’s marketed as a AAA team and it has about 100 employees. Immortals of Aveum certainly looks like a big-budget game; it’s built in Unreal Engine 5 and heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on July 20th. I remain intrigued; I'm excited to get my hands on a few more magical powers and see where this world of high-fantasy politics leads.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

When Apple announced the 15-inch MacBook Air last week, it was exactly what you’d expect. Apple simply took the design and internals of the M2-powered Air it announced a year ago and stuck it in a bigger case with a bigger screen. Done and done.

As such, I went into this review thinking it would be a simple assignment. “It’s a MacBook Air, but bigger.” But that undersells the actual experience of using the 15-inch MacBook Air. See, for a long time, a 15-inch Mac was my ideal computer, from the days of the first titanium-clad PowerBook G4 through the 15-inch MacBook Pro Apple sold a decade ago. Those laptops were powerful and had a screen big enough to use all day, but they were also compact enough to take anywhere. In recent years, though, Apple really leaned into the “Pro” designation, with the price skyrocketing well above $2,000, making it cost-prohibitive for most people.

But the M2-powered, 15-inch Air brings me back to those days. I could easily see using this laptop as my only computer. Like the 13-inch model, it’s powerful, has long battery life and a high-quality (if not cutting-edge) display. It’s also surprisingly thin and light, another hallmark of the Air lineup. And with a starting price of $1,299, it’s significantly more affordable than any laptop that Apple has offered with this size screen.

There are only a few things that the MacBook Air doesn’t have in common with its smaller sibling. Most obvious is the 15.3-inch display with a 2,880 x 1,864 resolution. That works out to 224 pixels per inch, the same as the 13-inch Air. It’s one of Apple’s “Liquid Retina” displays, which has 500 nits of brightness, support for the P3 “wide color” gamut and a modest 60Hz refresh rate.

It’s missing the niceties you’ll find in the mini LED displays on the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, including a much more dramatic contrast ratio, support for HDR, slightly more pixels per inch and a 120Hz max refresh rate. But Apple’s standard displays are still very nice, and the MacBook Air’s screen is bright, sharp and entirely pleasant to look at for extended periods of time. I use a MacBook Pro as my daily driver, and while I noticed the lower refresh rate at first, I mostly forgot about it after a short while.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

The rest of the differences between the two Air models are minor. The base 15-inch model comes with the 10-core GPU variant of the M2 to power the bigger display’s extra pixels; the 13-inch has an 8-core GPU by default. The other internal specs are similar for both base models: 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. (The model I’m testing has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, a configuration that costs $1,699.)

The 15-inch Air also has a six-speaker sound system with “force-canceling woofers” for improved bass, compared to a four-speaker setup in the smaller model. Apple has been making surprisingly excellent laptop speakers for a few years now, and these also sound very lively and full when playing back music or movies. They’re not nearly as good as the ones in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but that laptop is significantly thicker and heavier than the Air; that extra space surely helps with resonance and bass. But the speakers in the Air still sound lively and fun to listen to. Cranking the volume up to the max reveals the lack of bass, but I was happy to listen to music at mid-range volume all day long.

Beyond those things, the 15-inch Air is just a slightly bigger version of the 13-inch model. It has the same relatively meager port selection: just two USB-C ports, MagSafe for power and a headphone jack. The laptop comes in the same four colors (or, more accurately, shades of gray). The keyboard, large trackpad and Touch ID sensor are all excellent, which is true of all Mac laptops at this point. The butterfly keyboard debacle is fortunately a distant memory.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Unsurprisingly, it sports the same design language that Apple first unveiled with the MacBook Pro refresh a few years ago and then carried over to the Air last year. That means the Air’s formerly iconic wedge shape is gone, replaced with a uniform thickness of less than half an inch, noticeably thinner than the 16-inch MacBook Pro and about identical to the 13-inch Air. Naturally, the 15-inch Air is heavier and bigger in other dimensions, but it still feels extremely thin and also far more portable than either of the MacBook Pro models.

There’s also a notch in the display for the 1080p webcam — again, the same one we’ve seen on other recent MacBooks. It’s much better than the old camera Apple was using until recently, and I don’t mind trading the notch for an improved webcam. The bezels around the display are otherwise nice and thin: not quite as thin as those on the MacBook Pro, but not thick enough for me to give them a second thought.

Performance-wise, the 15-inch Air is also essentially identical to the smaller model. Geekbench 5 scores were almost the same as those we got when testing both the 13-inch Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, both of which also use the M2 chip. The same goes for Cinebench R23 and a few others we tried. It's worth noting that while single-core performance is similar to the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Max chip, multi-core and graphics performance is where the M2 can't quite keep up. That said, for most users, there's plenty of power here. 

Performance-wise, the 15-inch Air is also essentially identical to the smaller model. Geekbench 5 scores were almost the same as those we got when testing both the 13-inch Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, both of which also use the M2 chip.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Beyond the benchmarks, the 15-inch Air is just as capable as the smaller model we reviewed last year — it can handle most computing tasks without breaking a sweat, and despite having no fans, I never really noticed it getting warm. Of course, that changes a bit if you’re running games or doing more intense tasks like video editing. But my workflow, which consists of dozens of tabs open across multiple Safari windows along with apps like Mail, Slack, Music, Trello, Todoist, Bear and Lightroom, didn’t cause any hiccups. To be fair, these aren’t taxing apps, but dipping into Lightroom to edit some large RAW photos didn’t tax the computer either.

My only concern is that this brand-new Air is running a chip that’s already about a year old. It’s so powerful that this shouldn’t be a problem for the Air’s target audience, but it’s still something worth considering. If you’re going to spend more than $1,000 on a laptop that you’ll likely own for years, the ideal situation is to start out with the newest, fastest, most future-proof tech that you can afford. The M2, as capable as it is, has been around for a while already. If you want bleeding-edge Apple silicon you might be better served with a MacBook Pro or waiting for the next Air refresh. But given that Apple just released this computer with the M2 chip inside, it’s fair to say the company is in no hurry to release an M3.

All of the Apple silicon laptops I've tried have had outstanding battery life, and the 15-inch Air is no exception. It exceeded the 18 hours that Apple claims for video playback by about an hour before eventually running out of juice. And while the battery didn't quite last as long during my normal work routine, I still got about 12 hours before I needed a charger. I easily got through the work day and still some power left for some couch browsing and messaging. I think it's safe to say most people can charge overnight and then not worry about plugging in again until their day is over.

One thing to note on battery, though. Apple offers a compact 35W dual-port charger, which is handy if you want to have your computer charger and another cable right at hand. But after using more powerful chargers for the last few years, this one definitely felt pokey — while I was using the Air, it took about two hours to charge from 45 percent to full while in use. Since Apple gives you the option of swapping in a single-port 70W for no extra charge, I'd recommend that if charging speeds are at all important to you. On the other hand, the battery lasts so long that just charging it more slowly overnight, when speed doesn't matter, is also a fine option.

As usual, Apple dropped a lot of hyperbole about how the 15-inch Air compares to the “most popular 15-inch Windows laptop running an Intel i7 chip.” The claims are that the Air is much faster, the screen is better, the battery is longer while the laptop itself is thinner and lighter. Apple is being very deliberate about these claims, but the MacBook Air does stack up well compared to some of the most popular 15-inch laptops available.

Dell’s XPS 15 is one of the best overall laptops out there, and the $1,299 base model has double the RAM and storage of the Air. You can also get one with a discrete graphics card, which can make a big difference in more demanding tasks. But it’s also much thicker, a pound heavier and has a lower-resolution display and webcam. Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 5 is probably a closer comparison for the Air – it’s a little bit thicker and heavier, but more svelte than the XPS 15, and has a higher-resolution screen. But it doesn’t have the newest Intel, and the M2 bests the 12th-generation chip that it does offer.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

As you’re surely aware, the 15-inch MacBook Air is little more than a bigger version of the computer that Apple released a year ago. But that’s damming it with faint praise when actually this is one of the best Apple laptops I’ve used in a long time. It does everything the 13-inch MacBook Air does with a noticeably larger screen and only a modest price increase. The only real catch is that I think the RAM and storage in the base model is rather stingy, not an unusual tactic for Apple. The M2 smokes even with only 8GB of RAM, but consider adding more if you want your computer to remain speedy for years to come.

If you travel a lot, or value portability above all else, by all means get the 13-inch model. But if I were in the market for a new laptop right now, I think the 15-inch Air would be at the top of my list. It’s fast, light and extremely pleasant to use. And getting a big screen in a compact package is just icing on the cake.