by The MacBook Air has been one of the best laptop design since first appearance in 2008. This year’s model, which Apple just announced at WWDC and is also the first Apple laptop to come with an M2 chip, abandons the famous wedge shape but also improves almost everything else about the Air.
Almost two years since the launch of Apple’s M1 chip — the first ARM-based “Apple Silicon” hardware — we finally have a successor: M2, the first of its next-gen Apple Silicon Chips. While the M1 chip was notable for showing what Apple could accomplish with a more efficient mobile design, the goal of M2 is about refinement rather than breaking new ground. This time, it’s all about efficiency.
Performance M2 Macbook Air
With the M2, Apple noted that it focused on power efficiency in designing the chip. The company is using a 5 nm technology to build the chip, which features an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, for a total of 20 billion transistors. The memory controller offers 100GB/sec of unified memory bandwidth — 50% more than M1 — and can support up to 24 GB of memory. During the keynote, Apple said the M2 MacBook Air offered 38 percent faster “video editing performance” and 20 percent faster “image filters and effects performance” but didn’t specify which apps it used for that benchmark.
Apple’s also quoting “18 hours” of battery life, but that number is for video playback with all the radios off. I’d assume the M2 gets the same stellar all-day battery life as the M1 Air, but 18 hours is definitely not realistic.
Features M2 Macbook Air
The 2022 Air didn’t receive all of the additional ports of the 2021 Pro models: There’s no SD card slot, it doesn’t get an HDMI output for an external display and it has just two USB-C Thunderbolt ports. However, the updated Air does have MagSafe charging. Above the display is an updated 1080p camera joined by a three-mic array and a four-speaker sound system.
The new fanless body is available in four colors: silver, space gray, starlight and midnight. The laptop is just 11.3 millimeters thick and weighs only 2.7 pounds (1.2 kilograms). The new 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is 25% brighter than its predecessor’s screen, reaching 500 nits and support for 1 billion colors.
Price Macbook Air
Like with the M1, the M2 will make its debut in the new Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. There’s no word yet on other M2 variants, but I don’t think anybody would be surprised if we saw an M2 Pro, Max or Ultra within the next year or so.
The starting price of the Air is $100 less than that of the Pro, at $1,199 (£1,249).
