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M2 MacBook Air Hands-on Review. What can you do to improve on perfection? The MacBook Air has been the ultimate ultraportable laptop for years, inspiring a slew of imitators and igniting the “ultrabook” laptop craze.
But, at least in terms of appearance, the MacBook Air hasn’t changed much since Steve Jobs first unwrapped its super-slim frame from a manila envelope at Macworld 2008 all those years ago.
However, fast forward to WWDC 2022, and Apple has finally decided to update the MacBook Air line completely. Not only does it now include the recently announced M2 chipset, but it also comes in a revised (yet still ultra-slim) form factor and a variety of new colors.
Apple M2 MacBook Air Design
Do you require a lightweight powerhouse? Although the M2 MacBook Air has a new chassis design, it remains as light and thin as ever. The tapered shell that gave previous generations of the Air their razor-sharp profiles is no longer present; instead, a flatter design more closely resembles the MacBook Pro lineup has been introduced. It’s only 11.3mm thick and weighs 2.7 pounds, making it just a smidgeon lighter than the most recent model. You’ll be able to sling this thing in your backpack and forget it’s there, and you’ll be able to balance it with just one hand.
As previously leaked, there are a few more color options to choose from, but not quite the iMac rainbow that many had hoped for. Silver, space gray, Midnight, and Starlight are the available colors. They’re both very appealing in person — the Starlight has a slight, almost iridescent quality to it as it moves in the light, while the Midnight is as close to a black laptop as Apple will ever make.
MagSafe fans will be pleased to learn that the snap-on, snap-off charging method has also made a long-awaited return, freeing up the two onboard Thunderbolt ports for accessory use only. The MagSafe charging cord will be color-matched to the color scheme of your MacBook Air. The M2 MacBook Air includes a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones, which is useful for all that high-resolution Apple Music streaming.
A 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display with a resolution of 2560×1664 can be found on the screen. The premium mini-LED display was always a long shot, but it didn’t make the cut this time. The new MacBook Air with the M2 chip has 500 nits of brightness and thinner borders than previous generations (camera notch notwithstanding), giving the impression of more screen real estate than previous models. It’s bright and colorful, with the ability to support up to 1 billion different colors now, and it’s legible even in the harsh Apple Park showroom lighting. A 1080p FaceTime webcam is also embedded at the top.
Apple appears to be continuing to respond to fan criticism by hitting the keyboard. Above the large Force Touch trackpad, there’s plenty of travel, and the keys are satisfyingly clicky. A full-height set of function row keys, as well as a handy Touch ID sensor in the top right, have been added to the mix. Between the keys and the screen are four speakers capable of Dolby Atmos spatial audio playback (though we have yet to hear them in action).
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M2 Chip and Internal Specs
The M2 chip, on the other hand, is arguably the most intriguing aspect of the new MacBook Air for 2022. Apple’s second-generation bespoke silicon sounds like a beast — not quite as powerful as the first-generation M1 Max and M1 Pro revisions, but not far off.
Thanks to a new 5 nm manufacturing process and 20 billion transistors, Apple claims that the M2 will have an 8% faster CPU, a 35% more powerful GPU, and a 40% faster Neural Engine. The increased transistor count also enables a memory controller to deliver 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, which is a 50% increase over the M1.
An 8-core CPU (four high performance, four efficiency) with a larger cache and an 8-or 10-core GPU make up the M2. When compared to the M1, the 8-core GPU option provides 18% better graphics performance for the same amount of power, while the 10 GPU option doubles that. This is capable of running high-end games (such as the soon-to-be-ported Resident Evil Village, which will be shown off at WWDC 2022) as well as multiple high-resolution video streams at resolutions up to 8K.
On the Apple TV app, you’ll get up to 18 hours of video playback and 15 hours of wireless web browsing per charge. Fast charging with a compatible charger over a 67W USB-C plug is now supported, allowing you to reach 50% capacity in just 30 minutes.
You’ll be able to upgrade the standard 8-core GPU to a 10-core GPU; choose between 8GB, 16GB, or 24GB of RAM; and a 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB SSD, among other configuration options.
Apple M2 MacBook Air Price and Availability
The 2022 M2 MacBook Air will be available in Apple Stores next month for $1,119 / £1249. You can also get a $100 / £100 discount on education pricing.
That makes it a little more expensive than the M1 MacBook Air, which is still available for $999. A new design and generation chipset, on the other hand, were never going to be cheap.
our verdict
The inclusion of the new M2 chipset would have been enough to entice those who were drawn in by the MacBook Air’s slim profile. However, a new set of colorful design options and a reimagined chassis will make anyone considering an entry-level MacBook Pro think twice.
We’ll need more time to put the M2 through its paces—and to see if the new design is as reliable as the previous MacBook Air—but, given that the MacBook Air is supposed to be Apple’s entry-level laptop, it’s hard to imagine a more impressive first look, even if the price hike makes it a little more difficult to afford!
