During its WWDC 2022 Keynote on June 6, Apple announced two MacBooks powered by the new M2 chip: the new 13-inch MacBook Air and the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro. The M2 MacBook Air should be a good option for most people looking to get a new Mac unless they need Pro-level processing power. Here's what the new MacBook Air has to offer and how the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro compares to the M2 MacBook Air.
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M2 MacBooks: Price & Release Date
Pricing
- MacBook Air starts at $1,199
- MacBook Pro starts at $1,299
Availability
- Both models will be available in July
Colors
- MacBook Air: Silver, Space gray, Starlight, Midnight
- MacBook Pro: Silver and Space Gray
M2 MacBook Air
M2 Chip
The biggest update to the new MacBook Air is the addition of the M2 chip. This is a significant upgrade from the M1 Air since the M2 has an 8-core CPU speed that is 18 percent faster and a 10-core GPU that is 35 percent faster than the earlier chip, according to Apple. The M2 chip can support up to 24 GB of memory. Apple also says the M2 MacBook Air will offer 38 percent faster video-editing performance and 20 percent faster image filters and effects performance.
New Design
Weighing in at 2.7 pounds and just 11.3 mm thin, the M2 MacBook Air is only slightly lighter than the 2.8 pound M1 model. The main difference in physical design is that Apple has abandoned the wedge shape of the M1 Air in favor of a uniform height of 0.44 inches for the M2 model. It comes in four colors: Silver, Space Gray, Starlight, and Midnight. The new model also has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display that supports 1 billion colors, making the display 25 percent brighter than the previous Air's Retina display. Users should see a noticeable difference when watching a movie or viewing photos. The M2 MacBook Air also has a silent, fanless design.
Other Features
One of the features that we were happy to see in the new MacBook Air is the 1080p FaceTime Camera, a big improvement over the 720p camera of the M1 MacBook Air and even the upgraded 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, which also has a 720p camera. This is great for people who want to use their MacBook Air for video meetings. We were hoping that the new MacBook Air would have more ports, but unfortunately, it still has four ports like the older models. Nevertheless, we were happy to see that Apple added a MagSafe charger, which makes charging the MacBook Air easy and prevents damaging your pricy computer if you accidentally pull on the charging cable. The M2 MacBook Air has a four-speaker sound system, which provides vocal clarity and stereo separation. As a result, users will have a better sound experience with the new MacBook Air.
M2 MacBook Pro
Like the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro has the M2 chip, and there is not much of a difference between the two laptops when it comes to performance. As far as power and battery life, the MacBook Pro has 17 hours of wireless web and has up to 20 hours of Apple TV app movie playback. That is in contrast to the MacBook Air which has 15 hours of wireless web and up to 18 hours of Apple TV app movie playback. While the MacBook Air is fanless, the MacBook Pro has a fan to keep it cool which is beneficial if users have a large workload.
