Apple's M2 Macbook Air is now available for preorder. Apple has a history of revealing some surprising innovations, and while the new M2 Macbook Air doesn't introduce any drastic improvements over the previous model, I think it manages to be the finest edition to the M2 lineup so far.
The 2022 model features some minor, but worthwhile improvements, most notably of which are the return of the traditional MagSafe Charging Cable and a variety of new colors. The new Macbook Air now comes in Midnight Blue and Starlight Gold in addition to the previous Space Gray and Silver colors. The included braided charging cable is also color-matched to the laptop you select too, which I find to be a nice touch.
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Under-the-hood improvements aren't all that jaw-dropping either. The 13.6 inch Liquid Retina Display now has a peak brightness of 500 nits, which should make for a better viewing experience to most content, and the FaceTime HD Camera got a bump in resolution to 1080p. The big change is, of course, the next generation of Apple Silicon, the M2 chip. Apple claims the new Macbook Air is nearly 1.4 times faster than the M1 chip, which was already in a class of its own when it was first revealed. This makes it a real powerhouse for productivity and content creation. Beyond speed and efficiency advancements, the M2 chip allows the new Macbook Air to do more work, faster than before, while delivering almost 18 hours of battery life. Not quite an all-day machine, but pretty close.
Other than that, the M2 Macbook Air looks pretty familiar to the last generation model. Not a huge leap in Apple's technological timeline, but one worth mentioning. If you already have a Macbook Air and are happy with the M1's performance, I wouldn't say there's much need for an upgrade yet. But if your old laptop is feeling a little sluggish, or if you're just a fan of shiny new things, the new M2 Macbook Air is an impressive machine more than capable of keeping up with a busy life.