History is being repeated. When Steve Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of a manilla envelope at Macworld in 2008, he claimed that no compromises had been made though it was a skinny notebook. In the following years, rivals tried to catch up with Apple and made their devices thinner, lighter and somewhat powerful but Apple’s most popular notebook computer remained way ahead of competition. An update was necessary as the last significant physical overhaul was in 2018.
What an update it has received, now powered by the first second-generation Apple Silicon processor — the M2 system-on-a-chip. The wedge shape is gone but that hasn’t stopped a number of changes from appearing. Just 11mm thick and weighing 2.7 pounds, the new wardrobe features a dark blue called ‘midnight’ and a light gold called ‘starlight’, besides the usual silver and space grey.
Thinner bezels bound the 13.6-inch screen and the notch, on board is the M2, which will give the machine a significant boost over M1. Not only are we going to see improved performance but, more importantly, far better power efficiency.
To make your workflow legible under bright conditions, the display will be able to achieve 500 nits of brightness and support the P3 wide colour gamut for a billion colours. There is a significant improvement in the form of the 1080p webcam. The four-speaker system is integrated into the case and offers support for Spatial Audio. A three-mic array captures audio using advanced beamforming algorithms, while the speakers produce improved stereo separation and vocal clarity.
Let’s go deeper. MagSafe returns to MacBook Air, giving users a dedicated charging port that is easy to connect, while protecting MacBook Air when it is plugged in by quickly releasing if the charging cable is accidentally pulled. There are two Thunderbolt ports for connecting accessories, and a 3.5 mm audio jack with support for high-impedance headphones. Additionally, the Magic Keyboard features a full-height function row with Touch ID, and a large Force Touch trackpad.
We are not done. MacBook Air offers a number of charging options and this includes an all-new 35W compact power adapter with two USB-C ports, so users can charge two devices at once (needs to be bought separately). For the first time, MacBook Air supports fast charge for charging up to 50 per cent in just 30 minutes with an optional 67W USB-C power adapter.
The new 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter features two USB-C ports, so users can charge two devices at once
Peek into M2
M2 is the next generation of Apple silicon designed specifically for the Mac and is built using second-generation five-nanometer technology. Here are some hightlights....
➡ M2 takes the industry-leading performance per watt of M1 even further with an 18 per cent faster CPU, a 35 per cent more powerful GPU, and a 40 per cent faster Neural Engine. It also delivers 50 per cent more memory bandwidth compared to M1, and up to 24GB of fast unified memory.
➡ It features 20 billion transistors — 25 per cent more than M1. The additional transistors improve features across the entire chip, including the memory controller that delivers 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth - 50 per cent more than M1.
➡ When compared to the latest 12-core PC laptop chip — which needs dramatically more power to deliver an increase in performance and is therefore found in thicker, hotter, more noisy systems with less battery life — M2 provides nearly 90 per cent of the peak performance of the 12-core chip while using just one-fourth the power.
➡ M2’s GPU comes with up to 10 cores — two more than M1.
The new MacBook Air features MagSafe for dedicated charging and peace of mind when users are plugged in
Better performance
➡ For intensive workloads like editing complex timelines in Final Cut Pro, performance is nearly 40 per cent faster than the previous generation, and up to 15x faster for customers that haven’t upgraded to Apple silicon.
➡ Applying filters and effects in apps like Adobe Photoshop is up to 20 per cent faster than before, and up to 5x faster for customers that haven’t yet upgraded to Apple silicon.
➡ Even with a larger display and increased performance, MacBook Air delivers the same all-day battery life, with up to 18 hours of video playback.
Price and Availability
The all-new MacBook Air and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro will be available next month. MacBook Air with M2 starts at Rs 119,900 and Rs 109,900 for education. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 starts at Rs 129,900 and Rs 119,900 for education. You can buy the 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter for Rs 5,800.
