Apple’s redesign of the MacBook Air incorporating 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, once again, one of the initial Macs to be released as part of an Apple Silicon generation. After leading the charge for the M1, Apple’s using it again for the M2. This time though, things are very different. The M1 MacBook Air was decidedly an internals-only update, with the vast majority of the specifications sheet left untouched. What did change was the core components driving the processing. For the M2, Apple did what it arguably should’ve done for the first release. Instead of giving the performance benefits to users in a tired and old package, Apple has taken the opportunity to utterly overhaul the design of its most compact notebook.

Specifications

SpecificationsMacBook Air (2022, M2)Starting Price$1,199Best M2 MacBook Air pricesDimensions (inches)11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44Weight (pounds)2.7Display13.6-inch Liquid Retina,Wide Color (P3),True ToneResolution2,560 x 1,664Brightness500 nitsProcessorApple M2Graphics8-core GPU,10-core GPUMemory8GB,16GB,24GBStorage256GB,512GB,1TB,2TBBattery52.6Wh lithium-polymer,Up to 15 hours web, 18 hours videoNetworking802.11ax Wi-Fi 6Bluetooth 5.0Touch IDYesCamera1080p FaceTime HDAudioFour-speaker sound system,Three-mic array with directional beamforming,Headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support,Dolby Atmos support with Spatial AudioPortsTwo Thunderbolt/USB 4,3.5mm headphone,MagSafe 3

A taper-less Pro appearance

The first big thing about the MacBook Air’s design is that it doesn’t really look like a MacBook Air anymore. The old design used a wedge tapered from a thick side to a thin edge, giving its signature appearance. For the M2, the MacBook Air no longer goes for the tapered look. Instead, we have an aluminum enclosure that’s uniformly flat, and one that seems to take a lot of style cues from the 14-inch MacBook Pro (check deals). 2022 MacBook Air (left) and 2020 MacBook Air (right) It’s still almost the same footprint as the old model at 11.97 inches by 8.46 inches, if a smidgeon bigger, but instead of a 0.63-inch to 0.16-inch taper, it’s a flat and straightforward 0.44 inches. It’s still the smallest and thinnest MacBook in Apple’s range and also the lightest at 2.7 pounds. It’s even lighter than the previous model. Type-C and MagSafe ports Continuing the external tour, there is a pair of Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Though it could be considered a holdover and a missed opportunity, given the plethora of ports you get in the larger MacBook Pro models, you do still get one additional port. The color-matched MagSafe 3 cable MagSafe 3 has joined the party for the MacBook Air, so you can now recharge using a dedicated connection. You can still use one of the Thunderbolt ports for charging, such as using a dock’s power delivery capabilities, but if you’re using a standard outlet charger, you’re not sacrificing a data connection to recharge.

One more notch

One element that has transitioned from the Pro models to the MacBook Air is the updated display, which is both a blessing and a curse. The screen has been bumped up from a 13.3-inch Retina display to a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina version. It’s complete with a slightly taller resolution of 2,560 by 1,664, giving it a pixel density of 224ppi. The 2022 MacBook Air has a larger display It’s also including support for 1 billion colors, Wide Color (P3), a fairly typical 500 nits of brightness, and True Tone. It’s still using LED rather than miniLED, so you’re not getting the 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 sports thin versions on the side and the top. However, this latter element brings in the controversial part of modern MacBook displays: the dreaded notch. That notch enables the FaceTime HD camera to be positioned correctly, but it does cut into the display estate. This isn’t really a problem, as all it does is cut into the menu bar on the desktop, and for fullscreen apps, it’s discretely hidden by supportive blacked-out sections. The new notch and upgraded camera This latter state brings the overall usable resolution back down to the same level as the M1 MacBook Air. Since it only consumes part of the menu bar on the desktop, you’re still benefiting from the extra pixel rows overall, and it shouldn’t be a problem except for the pickiest user. MacBook Air camera compare That camera is still a FaceTime HD one instead of a True Depth array, so there are no depth mapping benefits yet. However, Apple did finally move to improve the camera from 720p to 1080p, one boosted by the onboard advanced image signal processor with computational video, which will be a welcome change for home workers. Below the display is Apple’s backlit 78-key (U.S.) or 79-key (ISO) 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 Force click and multi-touch gesture support. These haven’t gone through any major changes, but they probably don’t need anything to be done to them at this stage. MacBook Air keyboard The slight change Apple made is expanding the size of the function keys. They’re no longer short rectangles but full-sized keys. In use, they’re easier to hit dead-center as you quickly reach to adjust your music playback, lower 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. While still presumably the entry-level option of the M2 range, it stands to offer quite a few improvements over the M1. For a start, while 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 options for 8-core and 10-core GPUs. Again, Apple claims there is a 35-percent performance improvement just for the GPU. Memory bandwidth for the Unified Memory has also increased from 68.25GB/s in the M1 to 100GB/s in the M2. It’s a nice upgrade, but not as close to the 200GB/s of the M1 Pro as we would like. The existing 8GB and 16GB memory options have been joined by a third, providing 24GB. Again, it’s not quite the 32GB we would expect, but it’s still a welcome addition. Even the Neural Engine has been given a boost, using the same core count as the M1 version but running 40% faster overall. The image signal processor has been updated in the M2, granting it better image noise reduction, which should considerably improve the higher-resolution webcam. A significant departure with the M2 is the inclusion of the 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’s included it in the M2. Able to handle 8K H.264 and HEVC video, as well as ProRes 4K and 8K video, the Media Engine can considerably speed up video exports. The new and fast MacBook Air The only real drawback to this is the passive cooling of the MacBook Air. While the MacBook Pro lineup offers fans for active cooling, you’re limited to heating the MacBook Air’s aluminum casing, which typically involves reduced potential processing due to thermal throttling. For most brief workloads, this won’t be a problem. Thermal throttling does threaten performance when under high sustained workloads, such as intensive video edits or if you’re gaming, but this is far outside the scope of most typical MacBook Air usage. If you’re using a Mac for these sorts of tasks, you’ll probably spend more and get an actively-cooled 14-inch MacBook Pro at the least. Storage options start at a 256GB SSD for the base model, with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB options available. Going for the 10-core GPU starts you out at the 512GB level. Frustratingly, one video feature has made a return for the M2 from the M1. Along with the built-in display, it only supports one external 6k 60Hz monitor, handled via one of the Thunderbolt ports. The M1 Pro and higher broke free of this limitation, but seeing it return in the M2 is saddening.

Performance, speed, and thermals

Turning to benchmarks, our M2 MacBook Air scored 1,898 in the single-core Geekbench 5 test and 8,941 in the multi-core version. Our M1 MacBook Air scored 1,693 and 7,195 on the single and multi-core, respectively. Those are respectable gains for the M2. The M2 MacBook Air outperforms the M1 version in Geekbench’s main tests. Since Apple has increased the clock speed on the M2, we see that improvement in the single-core and multi-core tests despite the M2 still being an 8-core chip. Cinebench revealed the same with 1,581 and 8,360 single- and multi-core scores. The M2 MacBook Air’s Cinebench 23 results We also ran the Affinity Photo benchmark, which taxes both the CPU and GPU. In the combined multi-core CPU test, the MacBook Air reached 765, while the GPU scored 10,397. Affinity Photo tests for the M2 MacBook Air For comparison, the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro yielded 12,206 for the GPU test with its ten cores. In the Speedometer browser benchmark, testing produced 398 runs per minute. This is perfectly on par with the 13-inch MacBook Pro, seemingly without any hit to performance. The M2 MacBook Air’s Speedometer result is practically the same as the 13-inch MacBook Pro On graphics, the M1 model reached 20,284 on the Geekbench Compute benchmark running with Metal, while the…