Apple today unveiled the redesigned MacBook Air powered by the new M2 chip at WWDC 22. The new MacBook Air features a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a four-speaker sound system, up to 18 hours of battery life, and MagSafe charging. In addition, the laptop is available in four finishes.
Apple unveils the long-rumored M2 MacBook Air at WWDC 22
“We’re so excited to bring our new M2 chip to the world’s two most popular laptops — the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Completely redesigned around M2, MacBook Air is thinner, lighter, and faster with a bigger display, better camera, and all-day battery life, in four beautiful finishes. Only with Apple silicon can you build such a thin and light notebook with a fanless design, and this combination of performance and capabilities. M2 also comes to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, featuring incredible performance, ProRes acceleration, up to 24GB of memory, and up to 20 hours of battery life — making our most portable pro notebook even better.”
M2 chip and Performance
The M2 is the first chip of Apple’s second-generation M-series chips. The new chip brings more performance and capabilities to the Mac, says Apple. The chip features an 8-core CPU and a GPU that has up to 10 cores.
M2 delivers 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth and supports up to 24GB of fast unified memory, so it can handle even larger and more complex workloads with ease. Designed to dramatically speed up video workflows, M2 also adds a next-generation media engine and a powerful ProRes video engine for hardware-accelerated encode and decode, so systems with M2 will be able to play back more streams of 4K and 8K video than before.
As per Apple, the new Macbook Air offers up to 18 hours of video playback. The tech giant also says that editing in Final Cut Pro is almost 40 percent faster than the previous generation and 15x faster for users that have not upgraded to Apple Silicon.
Design, Finishes, and Display
The M2 MacBook Air features a stunning compact aluminum design that measures just 11.3 mm thin and is only 2.7 pounds. The new design has allowed for a 20 percent reduction in volume. The new design is available in four finishes: silver, space gray, midnight, and starlight.
The laptop comes equipped with a stunning 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with thinner borders and a notch at the top. the laptop reaches 500 nits of brightness making it 25 percent brighter than its predecessors.
1080p FaceTime HD Camera and Speakers
The new MacBook Air features a 1080p FaceTime HD camera with a larger image sensor that offers improved resolution as well as low-light performance. This, in combination with the M2 chip, ensures clear video quality for users.
What is a good camera for video calls if the sound system does not match up? Users do not have to worry about that with the MacBook Air as it features a four-speaker sound system. In addition, a three-mic array is used to capture clean audio. The laptop also supports Spatial Audio for music and movies with Dolby Atmos.
MagSafe, Connectivity, and New Charging Options
The M2 MacBook Air features MagSafe charging giving users a “dedicated charging port that is easy to connect,” says Apple. In terms of connectivity, the laptop features two Thunderbolt ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
During its keynote, Apple announced a new 35W compact power adapter with two USB-C ports for MacBook Air which will allows users to charge two devices at once. The laptop can also go from zero to 50 percent in just 30 minutes as it supports fast charging for the first time. Note that fast charging requires an optional 67W USB-C power adapter.
Pricing and Availability
The redesigned Macbook Air is now available from pre-order on apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app. The laptop will begin shipping to consumers and will be available in select Apple Store retail locations next month. Pricing starts at $1,199 and $1,099 for education.
Read more:
