MacBook Air M2. What's New?

Previously, we wrote much about the possible features a new MacBook will get. Now it's time to see what it actually has -almost every aspect of the new MacBook Air has been updated or changed. We collected all the reviews and chose most interesting details you should know about before considering buying a Cupertino-based company new product.

According to The Verge,

it’s the biggest update to the Air since it originally debuted nearly a decade and a half ago.

An ideal ultraportable

The new MacBook Air is one of Apple's most important computers since Steve Jobs pulled the original Air out of an envelope,

writes Devindra Hardawar for Engadget.

Of course, the main feature of the laptop is its new M2 chip which makes its much faster and more powerful than the previous Apple's ultrabook.  The new Air is impressively thin and light, but it also has a bigger and better screen, a great set of speakers and a nifty MagSafe power adapter.

Moreover, the laptop received a new design - the Air's trademark wedge design is gone – now, it's uniformly thin from front to back. It is also far more balanced, which makes it easier to hold.

The price tag

In all reviews, authors mention the higher price tag as the biggest disadvantage of the new model. The laptop will cost you about $1,199 ($200 more than the model that preceded it), which is a price one can expect for a MacBook Pro, rather than the entry-level MacBook Air.

It seems Apple is aware of that, as unlike other models, which get discontinued once a new version is out, Apple will continue to sell the older MacBook Air, marketing it at people who want a more affordable MacBook,

writes Matt Hanson for Techradar.

At the same time, this price upgrade offers you some bonuses in response. The MacBook Air got the already mentioned M2 chip, the same as the more expensive MacBook Pro 13-inch, which allows it to offer almost identical performance.

However, there are some downsides of the new processor. Macrumors revealed that last month it was discovered that the 256GB model of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip has up to 50% slower SSD read speeds and up to 30% slower SSD write speeds compared to the equivalent previous-generation model in benchmarks.

Apple, in response, stated that the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro with 256GB of storage "may show a difference" compared to previous-generation models, real-world performance is "even faster".

Much better than the Pro

This is the MacBook I would recommend to a majority of users,

writes Brian Heater for Techcrunch. Comparing two models - the 13-inch Pro and the new Air - he chooses Air thanks to its many new features and updated design.

Here is the list of the pluses he giver for the Air:

• Bigger screen (13.6 inch versus 13.3), with newer display technology (Liquid Retina versus Retina)
• New design and colors
• MagSafe
• 0.3 pounds lighter
• 0.17 inches thinner
• Upgraded camera (1080 to the Pro’s 780)
• Function keys

But let's be objective - among all delighted reports, one can find some discussing the minuses of the laptop.

The Verge gives us the following list:

• More expensive
• Gets warm and throttles aggressively under intense workloads
• Base model has much slower storage
• Display notch gets in the way of menubar apps
• Midnight color gets covered in fingerprints
• Port options are still limited

We would also add a new 35W charger to this list. The 35W brick only charged the Air 25 percent in 30 minutes with the lid closed — half the speed of the 67W bric. The speed also will slow down once one will plug an iPhone in the charger's second port.  

The new Air is good, may be even excellent. But it cannot be recommended everyone, especcially because of its new price tag.