The MacBook Air is the best-selling among Apple computers. Since 2008 it has made the history of computer science, paving the way for thin and light computers, the so-called ultrabooks that later arrived in the Windows world. And in 2020 it was among the first Macs to mount the M1 chip: all new on the inside, always the same on the outside. The 2022 model, which we tested for a few days in preview, instead marks a turning point: in the processor, which is the M2, that is the second generation of the chip designed by Apple, but also in the design, which is completely different from that conceived by Jonathan Ive.
As did
The current model still fits in a bubble wrap envelope like the one Steve Jobs showed fourteen years ago; weighs 1240 grams and is 1.13 cm thick. The width is the same as the previous model (30.41 cm), the depth just higher: 25.5 cm against 25.2) It loses the inclination of the chassis towards the keyboard, and gains an evident resemblance to the MacBook Pro family , with that squarer profile and rather pronounced feet. The screen incorporates the notch from the professional models, that is the central notch that hides the camera for FaceTime and video calls: thus the display size goes from 13.3 “to 13.6”. Increase the maximum brightness, which goes from 400 nits to 500: the difference can be seen, especially in broad daylight.
For the rest, the keyboard is the same – excellent – of the MacBook Air and the Pro models, and there is also the MagSafe, Apple’s magnetic system that ensures the release of the power cable in case of sudden stress, to avoid falls. ruinous. As already on the iMac, the power cable is in the same color as the computer, dark blue in our case, and covered in fabric which makes it more resistant to wear. The power supply is similar to the previous models, but it has two Usb-C ports to charge another device at the same time, such as an iPad or an iPhone. But the MacBook Air, like all Apple laptops, can also be recharged using one of the two USB-C ports it is equipped with, with all due respect to current and future European regulations. Attention: the charger with double Usb-C port is not included in the base model, to have it you have to choose at least the MacBook Air with a 10-core configuration and 512 GB of memory (or you can buy it separately, for 65 euros).
Made as always in recycled aluminum, the computer is thin and light, but extremely robust, it does not bend and does not make any noise even when trying to apply a fair amount of force. Four colors are available: in addition to the usual natural gray and sidereal gray, a pale gold (Starlight) and a brand new dark blue (Midnight), which for Evans Hankey, Apple’s vice president of industrial design, is inspired by the reflections of basalt. It is perhaps the most beautiful, but it is also the one where the footprints are most noticeable and the one that will most easily wear out at the edges by dint of carrying it around.
In uso
Again we configured the Mac using Migration Assistant, which copied data from a MacBook Pro M1 through a Thunderbolt cable (the two Usb-C ports are compatible with this standard). Everything worked perfectly, and in about twenty minutes the new computer was ready to use, including the password. The temperature increase is minimal, especially considering the external one, which is already high. The MacBook Air has no fans, so it dissipates heat through the case; from a technical point of view this should be the most notable difference with the new MacBook Pro 13 ”which shares the same processor, but which should be able to withstand high workloads for longer periods. In our short test, the Air actually behaved in exactly the same way as the smallest of the Pros: comparable, if not superior performance in GeekBench 5, same fluency in games, web browsing and multimedia content usage. Indeed, there is a difference here: thanks to the four built-in speakers, the new Air sounds better than the new / old MacBook Pro, the dialogues are clearer, conversations on Zoom or Teams more understandable. And in this regard, finally an integrated 1080p camera arrives, the bare minimum to be seen well in video calls. The sensor is in the notch of the screen, which splits the program navigation bar into two parts. Among the software tested, there were no compatibility problems, the commands always remain perfectly accessible.
The strength of M2
Battery life is excellent: Apple claims up to 15 hours of web browsing on wi-fi, or 18 hours of video playback; we had little time to verify the accuracy of these data, but the feeling is that they are more than credible. Like other Apple-powered MacBooks, the Air M2 also seems to go on forever: you’ll get tired of working (or watching movies) long before the battery runs out.
This is mainly due to the M2 chip which includes 8 cores, 4 of which are optimized for performance and another 4 for basic operations, and chooses which ones to use in relation to the type of commitment required, thus favoring power or autonomy. Compared to the M1, the new processor is made with an improved 5nm process, and has 20 billion transistors against 16 billion. This allows to further increase the thermal performances, that is to have a greater computing power with the same consumption.
The MacBook Air is not that slower than a 14 ”MacBook Pro, although obviously it is aimed at a completely different audience. If you want to dig into the Geekbench results, it even turns out that it has performance slightly higher than the basic Mac Pro, the last one left with an Intel processor, which costs at least four times as much.
Like its predecessor, the M2 is a System on a Chip (SoC), so it also includes elements that in other computers would be separate: graphics card, Ram memory, various controllers. And all have been revised and corrected in this second generation: the Ram now travels at 100 GB / sec, while the GPU has a larger cache and is more powerful than the M. Technically, the M2 SoC integrates a higher bandwidth video encoder media engine, a ProRes media engine for hardware accelerated encoding and decoding, the latest version of the Secure Enclave, and a Neural Engine capable of processing 15.8 trillion operations per second (over 40% more than the M1). A lot, in short, and much more than what 9 out of 10 users ask their Mac: however, who wants to be sure that his Air is usable at its best even in a few years, it is better to focus on a Ram endowment of at least 16 GB (the maximum is 24 GB) and maybe you choose to also increase the storage to 512 GB. In our test, the supplied SSD proves to be faster than that of the 256 GB MacBook Pro M2 tested a few weeks ago: it uses two memory slots that travel in parallel, while probably the configuration with 256 GB could also be on the Air. use only one slot. The difference in normal use is imperceptible, and certainly very far from the test numbers, but it could slow down the computer when practicing what is called swap: once the RAM is exhausted, it uses that of the disk, which is an order of magnitude smaller. It happens when you have a lot of programs open, and not just Photoshop or Premiere: Chrome also uses a lot of memory.
We like it
- Excellent performance
- New design
- MagSafe
We do not like it
- Costly
- The RAM of the basic configuration is 8 GB
- In the Midnight Blue color it is impossible to keep it clean
Trial
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In fine
The MacBook Air has an interesting new design, a great display, a powerful processor, a battery that makes you forget about cables and power supplies. It is recommended for anyone looking for a portable Mac, with a few exceptions: those who need a laptop capable of withstanding heavy workloads for a very long time (for them there is the MacBook Pro 14 “or 16”), or those who really they want to spend little (and here the good news is that the MacBook Air M1, with the usual design, is still in the catalog at 1,299 euros). The new model, on the other hand, starts at 1,529 euros, but for a configuration with 16 GB of Ram and 512 GB of storage space, the considerable figure of 2,109 euros is reached. For students and teachers, then, there is the Back To School offer, with which the price starts at 1,414 Euros, and in addition includes: Apple Gift Card worth 150 Euros, 20 percent discount on Apple Care +, 1 one month free trial of Apple Music and Apple TV +.
The MacBook Air was Apple’s best-selling computer – it will continue to be, you can bet.
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