Apple’s all-new MacBook Air with M2 is here, boasting a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, 1080p FaceTime HD camera, MagSafe charging, and more. Today, on the day of launch, The Apple Post has gone hands-on with the remarkably thin new machine, taking a look at one of Apple’s most highly-anticipated MacBook Air iterations to date.
Measuring just 11.3 millimetres thin and 2.7 pounds in weight, the new M2 MacBook Air is thinner than Apple’s original iPhone, featuring two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories, a 3.5 mm audio jack with support for high-impedance headphones, a full-height function row with Touch ID, and Apple’s Force Touch trackpad.
The larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is 25 percent brighter than the previous M1 MacBook Air, offering more screen real estate, 500 nits of brightness, and support for 1 billion colours.
The second you take the new M2 MacBook Air out of the box the thinness of the machine instantly becomes apparent. The all-aluminium unibody enclosure, in four new finishes — midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray, feels sturdy, with Apple removing the classic MacBook Air wedge design, making the machine the same thickness at the front as it is at the back.
The new midnight color option is a mix of blue and black. From the short period of time I’ve spent using the machine, it has become apparent the new midnight MacBook Air is a fingerprint magnet, similar to other dark-colored laptops. If you’re a clean-freak, you may want to consider one of the other three colors in the lineup.
Image: The Apple Post
When opened on a desk, the bottom half of the new M2 MacBook Air is about the same thickness as an iPad, and like last year’s all-new M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro models, Apple has returned MagSafe charging to the Mac, with the M2 MacBook Air coming with a color-matching cable for charging, which Apple is also selling separately for $49.
Image: The Apple Post
The new MacBook Air includes a new 1080p FaceTime HD camera with twice the resolution and low-light performance of the previous generation. The machine features a four-speaker sound system and a more powerful 8-core CPU and up to 10-core GPU.
Like the 2021 MacBook Pro models, Apple has brought the notch to the M2 MacBook Air. This is a hands-on first impression, and the notch is definitely noticeable, especially if you haven’t used either of the most recent MacBook Pros, but like with the iPhone X in 2017, I’m sure the notch will soon become one of those things you don’t notice after some frequent usage.
Image: The Apple Post
Starting at $1,199, Apple says the new MacBook Air offers up to 18 hours of video playback with the same all-day battery life as before. Further usage will determine just how well the battery holds in real-world usage, however, the M2 chip will undoubtedly help with power efficiency, especially during heavy workload tasks.
All in all, the first impressions are good. The machine is incredibly thin and looks sleek, modern, and feels like a true upgrade rather than a typical incremental improvement. Apple promises ultra-fast performance and unmatched efficiency, so I’m looking forward to putting the machine to the test and delving deeper into all that the all-new MacBook Air with M2 has to offer.
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