5 great new features on the Apple MacBook Air M2

Apple has launched the latest MacBook Air as part of the WWDC 2022 presentation. It features a new flatter fanless design, a bright 13.6-inch display with a notch for the camera and MagSafe charging. 

The biggest change of all though is the addition of the brand new M2 processor. The previous MacBook Air M1 launched back in 2020 but this updated model not only looks completely different, but it has some incredible features. 

As an overview, I've rounded up the best five features of the upcoming MacBook Air M2. 

1. Design

The new MacBook Air's all-aluminum body is 20% smaller in overall volume than the previous model. It is just 11.3mm thick and weighs in at 1.22kg (2.7lbs). There's also a choice of four colors here. Though slightly disappointingly they are not the bright colors we saw on the iMac 24, it does come in a brushed gold (Starlight) and black (Midnight) in addition to the silver and space gray options. 

2. Display

The screen is a 13.6-inch (2560x1664) liquid retina display that has thinner bezels than the previous model to fit in the extra size – though it does take out a little space for that camera notch (see below). Importantly, the display has 500 nits brightness (which is 25% more than the old Air) and now supports up to 1 billion colors.  

3. Notch camera

A weakness among previous MacBooks has been the built-in camera, so it's great to see the new MacBook Air features a 1080P FaceTime camera. I'm slightly disappointed that there's no mention of Center Stage here for the subject tracking we've seen on iPads but it's still not impossible. 

4. MagSafe charging

Apple proudly announced that MagSafe was back – something that many Mac users were very sad to see go away. This magnetic charging port avoids damaging the device when accidentally tripping on the power lead and it also frees up one of the two Thunderbolt ports for accessories. 

There's also a 3.5mm audio port here for headphones, or indeed plugging into external speakers if you wish. 

5. M2 processor

Of course, the stand-out feature is its brand-new M2 chip as the Air will be the first machine to feature it – along with the new MacBook Pro 13-inch. The M2 is Apple's second-generation 5nm silicon chip and promises an 18% increase in performance over the M1. It also now offers unified memory up to 24GB – compared to 16GB on the M1. 

While there are still faster processors available (watch out for Pro, Max and Ultra models though), the focus here is on power efficiency. It also features larger cache in its 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU (two more than the M1). 

The MacBook Air M2 starts from £1249/$1,199/AU$1899 and will be available from July 2022.