AppleInsider is supported by its audience and may earn a commission as an Amazon Associate and Affiliate Partner on qualifying purchases. These affiliate partnerships do not influence our editorial content.
Apple’s redesign of the MacBook Air, featuring the M2 Apple Silicon processor, makes it the best option for most people who want to own a portable Mac.
The M2 MacBook Air is again one of the first Macs released as part of the Apple Silicon generation. After leading the charge for the M1, Apple is using it again for the M2.
This time, however, things are very different.
The M1 MacBook Air was definitely an internal component-only update, leaving most of the spec sheet untouched. What changed were the core components driving the processing.
For the M2, Apple did what it probably should have done for the first edition. Instead of giving users productivity benefits in a tired and old package, Apple took the opportunity to completely redesign its most compact laptop.
Specifications
Specifications MacBook Air (2022, M2) Starting price $1,199 Best prices for M2 MacBook Air Dimensions (inches) 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 Weight (pounds) 2.7 Display 13.6-inch Liquid Retina, Wide color (P3), Resolution True Tone2560 x 1664 Brightness500 nits ProcessorApple M2Graphics8-core GPU, 10-core GPUMemory8GB,16GB,24GBStorage256GB,512GB,1TB,2TBBattery52.6Wh lithium-polymer,Up to 15 hours web, 18 hoursvideoNetworking802.11ax Wi-Fi 6Bluetooth 5.0Touch IDYesCamera1080p audio FaceTime, HDAudioFour Three-microphone array with directional beamforming, Headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones, Dolby Atmos support with Spatial AudioPortsTwo Thunderbolt/USB 4.3.5mm headphones, MagSafe 3
Professional appearance without taper
The first big thing about the MacBook Air’s design is that it no longer looks like a MacBook Air. The old design used a wedge that tapered from a thick side to a thin edge, giving it its signature look.
For the M2, the MacBook Air no longer strives for a tapered look. Instead, we’ve got an aluminum body that’s uniformly flat and looks like it’s taking a lot of style notes from the 14-inch MacBook Pro (check deals).
2022 MacBook Air (left) and 2020 MacBook Air (right)
It’s still pretty much the same footprint as the old model at 11.97 inches by 8.46 inches, if slightly larger, but instead of a .63-inch by .16-inch taper, it’s a flat and clear .44 inches.
It’s still the smallest and thinnest MacBook in Apple’s lineup, and also the lightest at 2.7 pounds. It is even lighter than the previous model.
Type-C and MagSafe ports
Continuing the external tour, there’s a pair of Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. While it might be considered a holdover and a missed opportunity given the plethora of ports you get on the larger MacBook Pro models, you do get one extra port.
Color-matched MagSafe 3 cable
MagSafe 3 has joined the party for the MacBook Air, so you can now recharge via a dedicated connection. You can still use one of the Thunderbolt ports for charging, such as using the dock’s power capabilities, but if you’re using a standard charger, you’re not sacrificing a data connection to recharge.
Another notch
One item that carried over from the Pro models to the MacBook Air is the updated display, which is both a blessing and a curse.
The screen has been increased from a 13.3-inch Retina display to a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina version. It’s packed with a slightly higher resolution of 2560 by 1664, giving it a pixel density of 224ppi.
The MacBook Air 2022 has a larger display
It also includes support for 1 billion colors, Wide Color (P3), a fairly typical 500 nits of brightness and True Tone. It still uses LEDs, not miniLEDs, so you don’t get ultra-high contrast ratios or high HDR brightness levels, but it’s bright enough for most typical users.
As part of Apple’s war against thick bezels, the MacBook Air now offers thin versions on the sides and top. This last element, however, brings in the controversial part of modern MacBook displays: the dreaded notch.
This notch allows the FaceTime HD camera to be positioned correctly, but cuts into the display. This isn’t really a problem as all it does is clip to the desktop menu bar, and for full screen apps it’s discreetly hidden by supporting dimmed sections.
The new notch and improved camera
This latest state brings the total usable resolution back to the same level as the M1 MacBook Air. Since it only takes up part of the desktop menu bar, you’re still benefiting from the extra pixel rows overall, and this shouldn’t be a problem for all but the pickiest user.
MacBook Air camera comparison
This camera is still FaceTime HD instead of True Depth array, so no depth mapping benefits yet. However, Apple has finally moved to upgrade the camera from 720p to 1080p, boosted by the built-in advanced image signal processor with computational video, which will be a welcome change for home workers.
Below the display is Apple’s 78-key (US) or 79-key (ISO) backlit Magic Keyboard, complete with 12 full-height function keys, four arrow keys in an inverted T arrangement, and Touch ID in the corner. Below is the Force Touch trackpad with support for Force click and multi-touch gestures.
They haven’t undergone major changes, but probably nothing needs to be done to them at this stage.
MacBook Air keyboard
The small change Apple has made is expanding the size of the function keys. They are no longer short rectangles, but full-sized keys. When in use, they’re easier to reach dead center as you quickly reach to adjust music playback, turn down the volume, or authenticate via Touch ID.
From M1 to M2
The main reason for the changes is the inclusion of the M2 system on chip, the first of a new generation of Apple Silicon chips. Although still supposed to be the entry-level option of the M2 range, it offers quite a few improvements over the M1.
For starters, although it has the same 8-core structure of four performance cores and four efficiency cores, it also runs about 18 percent faster than the M1.
The GPU has also been updated, so instead of choosing a 7-core or 8-core version, you have 8-core and 10-core GPU options. Again, Apple claims a 35 percent performance improvement for the GPU alone.
Memory bandwidth for Unified Memory has also increased from 68.25 GB/s in M1 to 100 GB/s in M2. It’s a nice upgrade, but not as close to the M1 Pro’s 200GB/s as we’d like.
Existing memory options of 8GB and 16GB have been joined by a third providing 24GB. Again, it’s not the 32GB we’d expect, but it’s still a welcome addition.
Even the Neural Engine got a boost, using the same number of cores as the M1 version, but running 40% faster overall. The image signal processor has been updated in the M2, giving it better image noise reduction, which should greatly improve the higher resolution webcam.
A significant departure from the M2 is the inclusion of Media Engine, Apple’s system for hardware video encoding and decoding. While you had to get an M1 Pro for this in the previous generation, Apple included it in the M2.
Capable of handling 8K H.264 and HEVC video, as well as ProRes 4K and 8K video, Media Engine can significantly speed up video export.
The new and fast MacBook Air
The only real downside to this is the MacBook Air’s passive cooling. While the MacBook Pro series offers fans for active cooling, you’re limited to heating the aluminum body of the MacBook Air, which usually involves reduced processing potential due to thermal throttling.
For most short loads this will not be a problem. Thermal throttling does compromise performance under high and sustained workloads, such as intensive video editing or if you’re gaming, but that’s well beyond the scope of most typical MacBook Air use.
If you’re using a Mac for these kinds of tasks, you’ll probably spend more and get at least a 14-inch MacBook Pro with active cooling.
Storage options start at a 256GB SSD for the base model, with 512GB, 1TB and 2TB options available. Your choice of 10-core GPU starts at the 512GB level.
Disappointingly, one video feature has returned for the M2 from the M1. Along with the built-in display, it only supports one external 6k 60Hz monitor, controlled via one of the Thunderbolt ports. The M1 Pro and above got rid of this limitation, but seeing it return to the M2 is sad.
Performance, speed and thermal performance
Turning to the benchmarks, our M2 MacBook Air scored 1898 in the Geekbench 5 single-core test and 8941 in the multi-core version. Our M1 MacBook Air scored 1,693 and 7,195 for single-core and multi-core, respectively. These are respectable gains for the M2.
The M2 MacBook Air outperforms the M1 version in Geekbench’s core benchmarks.
Since Apple increased the clock speed of the M2, we see this improvement in the single-core and multi-core tests, even though the M2 is still an 8-core chip. Cinebench revealed the same with 1581 and 8360 single and multi-core scores.
Cinebench 23 results on the M2 MacBook Air
We also ran the Affinity Photo benchmark, which taxes both the CPU and GPU. In the combined multi-core CPU test, the MacBook Air scored 765, while the GPU scored 10,397.
Affinity Photo tests for the M2 MacBook Air
By comparison, the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro scored 12,206 on the GPU test with its ten cores.
In the Speedometer browser benchmark, testing resulted in 398 runs per minute. This is completely on par with the 13-inch MacBook Pro, seemingly without any performance impact.
The M2 MacBook Air’s speedometer score is virtually the same as the 13-inch MacBook Pro
On graphics, the M1 scored 20,284 on the Geekbench Compute benchmark running Metal, while…
Add Comment