Apple continues to focus on power performance. Maximizing performance while also making it power efficient. It’s built on an enhanced 5nm process, so it’s a bit of an upgrade over M1. M2 features up to 24GB of unified memory. It also has 8 cores. There’s four high-performance and four efficiency cores. Which have been improved over M1. It also has a 18% performance improvement over M1. While being nearly 2x better than the competing PC chipsets. There’s also 10 cores in the GPU now, adding two more than M1 had. That’s a 25% improvement in graphics performance compared to M1. This is going to make for a pretty powerful chip, and the MacBook Air will be the first Mac to get this new chipset. That rumored redesign is finally here.
The redesigned MacBook Air with M2
The new MacBook Air with M2 is designed based on the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro’s that were released last year. It’s no longer a wedge-shape design, and it does add MagSafe. Which is a huge deal. There are two Thunderbolt ports on the same side, with a headphone jack on the opposite side. No HDMI or SD card ports here unfortunately. That appears to be sticking with the Pro models. It’ll be available in silver, space gray, starlight and midnight colors. It sports a new Liquid Retina display, which is larger, and can get as bright as 500 nits. About 25% brighter than before. The camera has also been upgraded, to the 1080p Facetime HD camera from the MacBook Pros released last year. And that means it also has the same notch as the MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch. Magic keyboard is available, and the Touchbar is gone. So it’s essentially the same keyboard as the MacBook Pros from 2021, with the Touch ID sensor in the corner. Surprisingly, it does come with a charger in the box. But not only that, there are two USB-C ports on the charger, so you can charge the MacBook Air as well as another device. The MacBook Air will be available at $1099, and available starting next month. The M1 MacBook Air will remain in its lineup for $999. So there’s something for everyone, from $999 up to almost $3,000 in the MacBook lineup.
13-inch MacBook Pro also gets M2
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is not getting a redesign, so it’ll be the only, updated MacBook without a notch. Which might be great for some people. It will come with up to 24GB of unified memory, thanks to M2. There’s not a lot to talk about with the 13-inch MacBook Pro, since it is basically the same as the model announced in 2020, but with the new M2 chipset, which is significantly faster. The MacBook Pro will start at $1299. Available starting next month.
