Something to look forward to: Apple has announced a redesigned version of its popular MacBook Air, powered by the company's new M2 chip. The 2022 MacBook Air features a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display boasting 500 nits of brightness, which is 25 percent brighter than before. It's powered by the aforementioned M2, the latest version of Apple Silicon that is built on a 5nm process and packs 20 billion transistors with 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth.
The M2 chip consists of an 8-core CPU (four performance cores and four high-efficiency cores) alongside a GPU with up to 10 cores. In the Air, it is passively cooled, so you won't have to worry about fan noise.
The new MacBook Air also packs a 1080p FaceTime HD camera that affords twice the resolution and low-light performance compared to the previous generation. There's also a four-speaker sound system that supports Spatial Audio for movies and music with Dolby Atmos alongside a trio of microphones, all of which sit between the keyboard and display.
The all-aluminum unibody chassis borrows the flat edge design from the iPhone and iPad. The system now measures just 11.3mm thin uniformly and weighs only 2.7 pounds. Colorways include silver, space gray, midnight and starlight.
MagSafe charging returns to free up the system's two Thunderbolt ports for other duties, and a 3.5mm audio jack that supports high-impedance headphones should suffice for private listening. Battery life is rated at up to 18 hours of video playback and with fast charging and the optional 67W USB-C adapter, you can get up to a 50 percent charge in 30 minutes.
The new MacBook Air with M2 starts at $1,199 which includes an eight-core GPU, 8GB of unified memory and a 256GB SSD. A top-end configuration with a 10-core GPU, 24GB of memory, a 2TB SSD and 67W USB-C power adapter will push the price up to $2,499. Systems aren't yet available to pre-order, but you can configure a machine and save it to purchase when they launch in July.