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M2 MacBook Air: Why would you get the Pro 13?

8:33 video

WWDC 2022 just ended, and Apple announced a slew of software updates (macOS Ventura is downloading on my Mac as I record), but this video is about the new M2-based MacBook Air.

Design

It’s the latest laptop to get Apple’s modern design language: a slimmer design that’s no longer the wedge that’s been synonymous with the Air since 2009. It takes its cues from the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and I think it looks stunning. From the top, you see the new keyboard with a full-height function row and Touch ID, and no speaker grilles: Apple says it’s a new four-speaker system with spatial audio, with the speakers behind the keyboard. I’m curious how it sounds with no external openings, but I’ll find out.

The notch

Like the 14 and 16-inch Pros, the new 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display has a notch that houses a new 1080p camera. I won’t talk about the camera, because Apple admitted its webcams suck: macOS Ventura and iOS 16 let you use your iPhone as the Mac’s camera, even demoed with a Studio Display, whose camera is notoriously terrible after two months for a $1,600 display. If you don’t have a 14 or 16-inch Pro, you may think the notch is gross, but it fades into the background like the iPhone notch did, after a couple of hours of use.

The display reaches up to 500 nits with P3, True Tone and a billion colors, which in my mind removes any need for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which also got an M2 but nothing else. I don’t understand why Apple keeps it around: almost no reason, except maybe a fan to hold peak power a little longer. It just sits there in the lineup to fill a price gap.

Ports

Two Thunderbolt ports and a MagSafe connection on the left, a 3.5 mm high-impedance headphone jack on the right. The MagSafe cable has a color-matched connector, unlike the MacBook Pro’s silver connector on space gray models, which doesn’t make sense, and this looks really nice.

The M2

  • Memory bandwidth doubled, up to 100 GB/s, and memory up to 24 GB (vs. 16 GB max on the M1).
  • An 8-core CPU with four performance and four efficiency cores, up to 10 GPU cores (vs. 8), the 16-core Neural Engine, and a hardware ProRes encoder and decoder.
  • Apple says CPU is about 18% faster than the M1 and graphics about 35% faster than the 8-core M1 GPU.

The most disappointing part: still one external display, like the M1. I was hoping for multiple display support on the base M2, but it looks like you have to wait for the Pro and Max versions.

Colors

Midnight, Space Gray, Silver and Starlight. I like them: I was worried the bright blue in the renders would be accurate, but I don’t think very colorful laptops have good resale value or that you’ll stay happy with them. For a device you’ll keep, or for resale, stick to basic colors like silver and space gray, but Midnight and Starlight are toned down and look really good.

Pricing

It starts at $1,199 (8-core CPU and GPU) vs. $999 for the original M1 Air, so for $200 you get a big spec bump and MagSafe, which frees a port.

  • 10-core GPU: $100 for up to a 25% increase in graphics performance.
  • 16 GB of memory: in my opinion, for any creative work (art, video, audio) you want at least 16 GB, though 8 GB is fine for everyday work. Up to 24 GB is $400.
  • Storage: the baseline is still 256 GB, upgradeable to 2 TB for up to $800.
  • Power adapters: the basic 30 W adapter, or upgrade to the dual USB-C port or the 67 W adapter for fast charging, up to 50% in 30 minutes.

It goes on sale in July. I’ll compare it against the base M1 Air once I have one.

Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. See my ethics statement.

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