Apple 11.6" Silver Review

This 2015 MacBook Air is a ultra-portable relic. At $200, it's only for MacOS die-hards who need a tiny web browser and nothing else.

Look, this 2015 MacBook Air is a certified refurbished laptop you can get for about $200. The one thing you need to know is that it's a time capsule. It's incredibly portable and reliable, but it's also incredibly outdated. It's not a daily driver for 2024, but for someone who just needs a basic, ultra-portable machine for web browsing and documents, it's a unique option at this price point.

Our database shows this thing is a paradox. It scores in the 99th percentile for compactness, which is no surprise—it's tiny and light. But its CPU is in the 15th percentile, and its RAM is literally in the 0th percentile. That 4GB of RAM is the biggest bottleneck. You'll feel it the moment you open more than a few browser tabs. The Intel HD 6000 graphics are fine for a YouTube video, but our gaming score of 7.6/100 tells you everything you need to know about playing anything modern.

At $200, it's cheap. But 'value' is tricky here. You're not buying performance; you're buying portability and the MacOS experience on a shoestring budget. If your needs are minimal, it's a unique value. If you need to do actual work, it's a waste of money.

Forget comparing it to modern MacBook Pros or ASUS Copilot+ PCs—that's like comparing a bicycle to a sports car. The real question is: should you buy this or a used Chromebook for the same price? The Chromebook will likely have a better screen and feel faster for web tasks, but it runs ChromeOS. This 11" Air gives you MacOS in a famously portable package, but with severe performance limits. It's a toss-up between operating system preference and basic usability.

If you're looking for a primary laptop for work, school, or anything beyond the most basic tasks, skip this. Go find a used M1 MacBook Air or even a modern budget Windows laptop. They'll run circles around this for not much more money.

We can only recommend this to a very specific person: someone who needs the absolute smallest, lightest Mac possible for under $250, and whose tasks are strictly limited to writing, light web browsing, and maybe streaming video. For literally anyone else—students, business users, general consumers—this 9-year-old laptop with 4GB of RAM is not a good choice in 2024.