Apple Launches New M2-Powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro
Apple has announced a new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro powered by the new M2 processor.
MacBook Air with M2
The new air is 11.3mm thin, or under half an inch, and weighs only 2.7 pounds. It comes in four finishes and MagSafe which keeps the two Thunderbolt ports free for peripherals instead of needing to use one for charging. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack that supports high impedance headphones, just like Apple’s other recent computer announcements.
The 2022 MacBook Air also has a new liquid retina monitor that is expanded closer to the edge for a larger 13.6-inch display area. Apple says it is 25% brighter (500 nits) with support for one billion colors, too.
The design of the display mirrors the MacBook Pro and features the polarizing camera notch. In that notch, the MacBook Air features a new 1080p camera that Apple says has twice the resolution and low light performance compared to the previous Air. Combined with the M2’s enhanced image signal processor (ISP), Apple says users will look great on video calls.
The computer integrates the speakers and microphones between the keyboard and display, the former of which is made up of a four speaker soundsystem that has support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos. The magic keyboard has a full-height function row and touch ID as well as the ForceTouch trackpad.
On the performance end, Apple says the new MacBook Air is 20% faster in Photoshop than the last generation Air and had 38% faster performance in Final Cut.
The new laptop has a silent and fanless design and despite the larger display and increased performance, it maintains the upt o 18 hours of video playback capability. On top of that, Apple has a new 35W compact power adapter with two USB-C ports two charge two devices at the same time and the MacBook Air supports fast charging of up to 50% in 30 minutes when paired with the optional 67W USB-C power adapter.
MacBook Pro with M2
In addition to the new MacBook Air, Apple has announced the M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro. It features a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU which Apple says makes working with RAW photos in apps like Affinity Photo nearly 40% faster than the previous generation.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro also supports up to 24GB of unified memory thanks to M2 along with 50 percent more memory bandwidth. With support for ProRes encode and decode in the media engine of M2, users can play back up to 11 streams of 4K and up to two streams of 8K ProRes video and can convert their video projects to ProRes nearly three times faster than before.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro has up to 20 hours of video playback battery life as well.
The new MacBook Air starts at $1,199 and the 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,299. Both will be available starting later this month.
Image credits: All photos by Apple.
