At the WDCC 2022 presentation, Apple announced the new MacBook Air. The smallest laptop is now equipped with a cooler current MacBook Pro models, has a new processor and a larger screen with a monobrow.
External changes will be noticeable, first of all, by the appearance of a cutout for the front camera in the laptop display. The other visual changes are mostly body-related – the “feet” on the bottom of the new Air now follow the shape of those on the Pro models.
The shape of the hull has also changed slightly. The thickness of the topcase no longer changes from attaching the display to the opposite side. The keyboard has larger top keys than the Pro (while retaining Touch ID and the trackpad with Force Touch). But the best update was the return of the proprietary magnetic port for recharging – MagSafe. Next to it there are two Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4, and on the other side there is a separate headphone jack.
All this was placed in a case measuring 304.1 x 215 x 11.3 mm, the weight of which is 1.24 kg. The new Air has four color options – the familiar Space Gray and Silver, as well as the new Midnight and Starlight.
The MacBook Air has grown a bit in terms of display. Its diagonal is now 13.6 inches with a resolution of 2560 × 1664 pixels. It uses an IPS-matrix Liquid Retina with support for True Tone and P3 color space coverage. In addition to the notch, the display also has slightly rounded corners, and the maximum brightness of the backlight has increased to 500 cd/m².
The laptop is equipped with three microphones to transmit the owner’s voice during calls, as well as a system of four speakers with support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos technologies. The webcam has upped the resolution to 1080p and promises improved image quality.
The biggest update inside was the new Apple M2 processor. It is designed with increased power and energy efficiency in mind. Built on 5nm process technology, the M2 has 20 billion transistors, 25% more than its predecessor. The new chips received 8 main cores (4 for powerful tasks, and 4 more “weak” cores), 8- or 10-core graphics and a 16-core Neural Engine. All this will work as quietly as possible with passive cooling.
Apple is talking about an 18% increase in power compared to the M1, and the charts are up to 35%. The base model offers 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which can be upgraded to 24GB and 2TB respectively. All configurations support Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
The 52.6 Wh battery should last for 18 hours of video playback through the Apple TV app or 15 hours of browsing. There is an interesting point here with power supplies: the base model with 8-core graphics comes with a 30-watt unit, and with 10-core graphics, a 35-watt one, also with two ports. That is, this way you can also charge at the same time, for example, iPhone or Apple Watch. And the top versions of the laptop with a 67-watt power supply will support high-speed charging.
Unfortunately, the changes have increased the cost of the new MacBook Air. Now the base model will cost $1199, and for the version with 10-core graphics and maximum memory the price tag will rise to $2499. New items will go on sale next month.
