Today, Apple has announced the new MacBook Air with a host of impressive new features and improvements and the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro, both of which feature the company's latest silicon, the M2.
Long one of the company's most popular products, the MacBook Air offers remarkable portability, and with today's redesign and new features and upgrades, it offers serious performance as well.
The star of the show, is, of course, the M2 chip, which offers steps forward in both its performance and efficiency cores, a 10-core GPU (2 more than the M1), 100 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, and support for up to 24 GB of unified memory. So efficient is the M2 that the MacBook Air does not require a fan, resulting in a totally silent design. Beyond that, the new MacBook Air comes in an all-aluminum unibody that is just 11.3 mm thick and 2.7 pounds. Gone is the laptop's tapered profile, with Apple opting for a sleek, flat design.
The new MacBook Air comes in four finishes: silver, starlight, space gray, and an eye-catching midnight. MagSafe also makes a return, which is sure to please a lot of users. It has certainly saved me a few times when my dog or I have tripped over the power cord. In addition, the MacBook Air features two Thunderbolt ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. The keyboard features a full-height function row with Touch ID, which is complemented by the large Force Touch trackpad.
Along with the new M2 chip, perhaps the biggest upgrade is the new larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, the biggest ever in an Air model. The display is now 25% brighter at 500 nits and supports 1 billion colors. Complementing that is a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and four-speaker system. Remarkably, the three microphones and speakers are all integrated into the display and keyboard, helping to maintain the device's tiny footprint.
On top of all that, the new MacBook Air offers up to 18 hours of battery life. In addition, it now supports 67 W fast-charging, allowing for a 50% boost to the battery in 30 minutes. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 offers up to 20 hours of battery life.
The new MacBook Air looks particularly exciting; I plan on replacing my older Intel MacBook Pro with one when it's available. Expect both the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13" models to be available in July.
The air certainly looks compelling but if you like the touch bar (i do too) then i wouldn't worry too much, the Pro is still an incredibly powerful machine.
It seems that Apple's decision to offer the 13" Pro was only driven by the chip shortage and a already established manufacturing line. I guess this is the first model that will be canceled in the near future.
The Pro also has a Liquid Retina Display (that is just a fancy term for an IPS panel).
But the Air has 100nit more brightness. 500 instead of 400. Better camera. And a little bit more screen estate.
And you get a magsafe port – which in itself is very useful – but you also "gain" one more thunderbolt/usb-c port which is not blocked by the power cable. But you can still use the thunderbolt/usb-c as for power if you like.
So all in all I think the Air is the better deal. Even though it is more expensive. BUT if you like the touch bar. Then the M2 MBP 13" is better than the M1 MBP 13".
Well, if you have an iPad, use it with Sidecar and it will give you the option to display the Touch Bar at it’s bottom.