After many months of rumors, the new MacBook Air is finally coming true . Apple has featured it as the highlight of all the WWDC 2022 novelties , honoring that exception to the rule of presenting hardware at an event focused on software developers.
New design and M2 chip to become everyone’s Mac
As rumored, the MacBook Air is presented with a renewed design that ends with the teardrop shape that we have traditionally seen in this laptop. From now on, straight and sober shapes are taken along with a new range of colors similar to what we saw last year with the iMac M1 . Inside, the M2 chip claims to be a rather linear successor to the M1 by adding more graphics cores (9 or even 10) with slightly more efficient CPU cores. The final performance is 20% more than on the M1 chip and we are still without a fan. Therefore, the silence of the MacBook Air is going to be total. At the storage level we start from 256 GB and we can reach 2 TB of storage, including RAM of up to 24 GB . The minimum in that regard is still 8 GB. The screen is 13.6 inches and has 500 nits of brightness , capable of capturing more than a billion colors. There’s a 1080p FaceTime (yes, notched ) camera capable of sensing low-light environments much better. Four speakers distributed throughout the casing are responsible for providing spatial audio. This new MacBook Air also inherits the MagSafe 3 port from the 2021 MacBook Pro , in addition to the two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports. Another good news is that the 3.5mm audio jack is retained. Charging can be done from 0% to 80% in 20 minutes thanks to a new internal adapter.
MacBook Air M2: price, availability and release date
The new MacBook Air start at 1,519 euros (it shows that the dollar is strong compared to the euro) for the model with 8 GB of memory, 8-core GPU, and 256 GB of storage. The model with 10 GPU cores and 512 GB of storage starts at 1,869 euros. The model with the M1 chip with a 7-core GPU continues to be sold for 1,219 euros. The release is scheduled for July ( rumors say that reservations could start on the 8th and the final release would be on the 15th).
MacBook Air M2, first contact
The Steve Jobs Theater was packed as in the good old days after two years and a peak of the pandemic without returning there. The demo area was upstairs, not at the exit of the auditorium downstairs, but it was just as alive as ever. I was surprised by how much people were interested in the new MacBook Air : on the Keynote the design looked interesting but when I saw it in person I understood what all the fuss was about. When Steve Jobs thought about the laptop of the future , he was no doubt thinking something like this: this new design ditches the traditional wedge design, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look incredibly slim when held in front of it. So much so, that many of the journalists who attended the event photographed him holding it open with one hand for their covers. I had a chance to see it up close and I think that, like all of us who saw it for the first time, our first reaction was to praise the design. And it is that it is not only small, thin: it is balanced. The wedge shape was a design necessity that is now covered thanks to Apple Silicon technology: the miniaturization of its components and the creative freedom of the Cupertino teams have achieved a laptop worthy of the Air name. After weighing it, touching it, looking at it closely, and having first impressions that left me wanting more – and an idea of the wonder of its promises – it was very clear to me that this new incarnation needed a complete overhaul: the design must not only be beautiful, also work with the set and above all, check the power – that’s why the heart is an M2. Almost nothing.
MacBook WOW Air
When the cast box arrived, I thought it would be nice to record some Instagram stories for when the article you’re reading is published. I prepared the camera and opened the package that kept the laptop box itself: first surprise. It seemed so small that I had inadvertently spoiled the shot. My first impression when I first opened the box was that it was probably the most beautiful portable Mac in years . In hand, the impression completely changes to any photo or video that you have seen on the Internet and also this model had something that I liked even more: the midnight color. Apple was finally betting on offering a colored MacBook Air something that hadn’t happened since the Mac Books – and the colors of the generation are really beautiful live In Apple Park I could see them all: beyond the traditional space gray and silver that we all know, we have this midnight and the “star white”. The latter, from what I could see of the models exhibited on the day of the Keynote, had certain cream tones that together with the aluminum of its construction gave it a certain elegant touch.
