Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Apple has a new version of its iconic MacBook Air M2. This new 2022 version has some significant changes both on the outside and the inside. Now over the years at the various time, I’ve referred to the 13-inch MacBook air as the most universally useful laptop you can buy. That is not been true of every iteration but generally, it’s been true more times than not.
Table of Contents
In this new version well you have got a new design, You’ve got some new colours, you’ve got some a new chip inside the M2 Versus the M1 there are changes to the screen, to the webcam. There’s however one change I am not a big fan of and that is changes to the starting price for a big chunk of its lifespan the MacBook Air has started at $999, which is a nice digestible price. Occasionally, It’s got above that usually come back down well.
Now, The MacBook air is back to a starting price of $1199. The previous MacBook Air the M1 version with the order design is actually still going to be available at $999. So, Apple can say that have a thousand-dollar laptop but frankly looking at the two of them side by side I’d be very hard-pressed to give up all the cool new stuff in the new model, just to save $200. S, Taken all together the new design, and the new features it’s are the biggest overall change to the MacBook Air since that original2008 model definitely the biggest change since the last big physical redesign which is around 2018.
If this new MacBook Air looks familiar that’s because it takes a lot of the design cues from the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. These all kind of look like part of the same family now with this more squared-off modern minimalist design getting rid of the taper that MacBook Air has had since the very beginning. So, A giant leap for the air look and feel a lot more like a pro.
The MacBook Pro which also has the new M2 chip actually keeps that older tapered design with all the stuff that goes with it like the older low-res webcam and no MagSafe and stuff like that. you could still get the other new MacBook for this reason. Obviously, The MacBook Air goes a lot further with its changes.
The new MacBook Air actually goes beyond the 14-inch and 16-inch pro in one interesting area. It adds some new colours moving beyond silver and grey, into the gold kind of tones we’ve had for MacBook for a while now we’ve got two new colours. In addition to silver and space grey, You’ve got starlight which is again kind of goldish and then you’ve got midnight which is deep mate black.
If you put it side by side with the M1 Air and M2 Air, the new footprint is a little bit smaller. It doesn’t taper down as thin in the front but it’s a little bit thinner overall and the hair lighter, it’s 2.7 pounds versus 2.8 pounds. So, not a huge difference there but this has always been a great very portable laptop.
So, really the big reasons, You go for this new M2 version of the Air over the M1 version are the screen is a little bit bigger and brighter, the new design, the new colours. The M2 chip versus the M1 chip’s most important thing is the new higher res webcam replacing that old 720p webcam that MacBook Air has had pretty much forever.
You also now get the Magsafe connection back in the MacBook Air. Years ago, all MacBooks had the Magsafe connection. It was a little magnetic power plug and if you tripped over it would pop right out. It was great and they went to USB-C to power everything. Now, you still have USB-C power which is great because it’s universal among almost every laptop now and many other devices as well. So, you really just need one power adapter and you can use it to charge all your different things but now you have the MagSafe option again in MacBooks. you got the 14-inch and 16-inch pros, and now you have it in the MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air is fine if you’re working on your desk, in the office or at your work from the home office. I think it has to go with you in order to shine. So, that was actually a really nice small system to take around with me. I think the greatest travel laptop was the late-lamented 12-inch laptop almost forgotten now. which was fantastic super thin and super light.
The MacBook is only a hair smaller than the M1 version. It is bigger in one important respect and that is it has a 13.6-inch display instead of a 13.3-inch display. If you look at them side by side. It’s a nice difference. The bezels are thinner. so, you can get more screens and pretty much the same lid space.
Now cut into this new webcam. It is 1080p camera is the same as on the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. The Air previously and the 13-inch Pro, have an older 720p camera that nobody ever really liked and that’s become increasingly important because we’re all doing these video meetings and zoom meetings all the time now and having a good webcam is much more important than it used to be. You could forgive the lower res camera on the MacBook Air before but these days we need a 1080p camera. so, Apple has also moved the new camera as well. The trade-off is like the 13-inch and 16-inch MacBook pros it is in a notch.
In the MacBook air, There are a lot of feature changes on the inside. The big changes obviously go from the M1 chip to the M2 chip. That is the next generation of apple silicon. You have the M1 still available in the 999 MacBook Air and the Mac mini and a few other things. You have got the M2 now. That’s the second place faster than that. However, are they still the M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra those tips you can get in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook pros and for the ultra, You can get that in the Mac Studio.
So, those are much more powerful chips. The M2 is really modest setup from the M1. You can see performance differences between them. If you want to squeeze even a little bit more out of the M2. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is come out that has the M2 chip and is also a tiny bit faster than the Air again