The new MacBook Air laptop with Apple’s M2 processor chip will be officially launched on July 15. The new shell of this new machine has a new design, giving users a refreshing feeling. The newly launched midnight dark color is even more stunning. The included MagSafe power cord is in the same color as the computer lining, which makes prospective buyers even more excited. This time, the editor will make a hands-on evaluation of the M2 version of MacBook Air in terms of practical application, performance, and various minor changes, and see if other aspects other than appearance will make you take it home immediately.
test video
The new color is super eye-catching, mature, stable and decent
This time, the M2 version of MacBook Air uses a new design, and in addition to silver and space gray, it brings new colors of midnight dark and starlight. The starlight color is slightly more noble and elegant, and this time we got the real midnight dark color, which also amazed our unwire editorial department. This midnight dark color is more solid and generous than the official website. The color is a very dark gray that is almost black and mixed with a small amount of dark blue. Although it is also a metal surface, the degree of reflection on the surface is low, adding a mature taste, which is different from black. The keys of the keyboard are well lined. The new MacBook Air is designed with slightly rounded corners on all sides, especially the overall body will not have “up and down”, becoming a real square “thin metal plate”, the actual thickness is only 1.13cm, which is lighter and thinner than the previous generation design. The overall volume has been significantly reduced by 20%. The feel of the computer is also quite stable. In addition to the 1.24kg body, the body feels a lot lighter, and I don’t worry regarding dropping the phone. The editor thinks that the folded part of the computer is abandoned and the edge gradually becomes thinner until it touches. The part of the hand has become a sharp design like a “chopping knife”, but this time I feel better when I pick up the computer.
More “light” and “thin” feel
Users will be concerned regarding how to choose when comparing with other tablets and computers since the new MacBook Air focuses on thinness and lightness. This time, this MacBook Air weighs regarding 1,240g, while an iPad Air with a keyboard weighs 1,065g, the iPad Pro 11-inch with a smart keyboard is 1,072g, and the iPad Pro 12-inch with a smart keyboard is 1,351g. However, I think the 13-inch MacBook Air has a larger board area than the iPad Air, so although the body feels lighter, I personally think that the MacBook Air is lighter than the iPad Air with a smart folding cover and keyboard. You can also go to the store to see which one is more suitable for you.
MagSafe power cords are practical and pretty
Another design highlight of the M2 MacBook Air is its MagSafe charging cable. Needless to say, its MagSafe function is magnetically attached to the charging position. In the event of an accidental pull of the cable, the charging cable can be quickly separated from the computer without pulling the entire computer to the ground. The current-generation MacBook Air comes with a charging cable with the same color as the body, which makes the whole computer feel more unified than the previous white USB-C charging cable. In other words, the plug-in part of the charger is still silver, but to be honest, that part is rarely seen directly, and it has little impact on the aesthetics. In addition to using MagSafe to charge, you can actually still power and charge the computer through the USB Type-C port on the body.
▲The other end of the MagSafe charging cable is a white plug, which may be designed to match the originally white charger
▲ Note that the MacBook Air with 8-core GPU configuration comes with a “30W USB-C power charger”, while models with 10-core GPU and 512GB SSD storage or higher will come with a “35W dual USB-C connection” Port Power Converter”. If you want to fully charge the M2 MacBook Air from 0% to 50% in just 30 minutes, you need to purchase the “67 USB-C Power Adapter” separately. The above three chargers are suitable for all models of the new M2 MacBook Air, and users can purchase them independently according to their needs.
However, it should be noted that the material used in this midnight dark color, although it feels good, actually absorbs hand sweat, and fingerprints are more likely to stick to the surface of the machine. Beauty lovers had better find a case for it, which will not stain the computer body when carrying it.
13.6-inch Liquid Retina screen for wider field of view
Another change that benefited immediately upon purchase was its 13.6-inch Liquid Retina screen. The overall texture, detail, and brightness of this screen are better than those of the previous MacBook and MacBook Air. The screen brightness can reach 500 nits, which is brighter than the 400 nits of the previous generation. We have tested that under direct sunlight or slanting sunlight, the color of webpage text and photos can be presented in detail, especially when you look at the screen next to the computer, the screen is still clear. Sometimes sitting by the window, or working outdoors, you don’t need to worry regarding the problem that the sun is too strong and you can’t see the screen.
When you look at the configuration table, you will notice that the screen used by the MacBook Air is a “Liquid Retina” screen, which supports the P3 wide color gamut, and we see that it will be more colorful than the “Retina” screen when it displays a colorful screen. performance will be better. But the editor also saw that using a higher-end “Liquid Retina XDR” MacBook Pro 14-inch to view pictures, HDR showed higher luminosity and clearer low-light details. Friends who want to have top performance on the screen display, just Consider higher-end models that are more expensive.
The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina screen also uses an ultra-narrow bezel, making the computer screen larger. The screen display experience for processing documents and photos will be better than ever, but at the same time, pay attention to the “bangs” at the top of the screen where the video camera is positioned. In a general word processing environment, the “bangs” can be placed in the menu; and when playing a video or using a full-screen application, the computer will enlarge the screen appropriately, so that the video or window will not be affected by the “bangs”. ‘ devoured until a piece was missing.
Midnight dark body fits perfectly with the keyboard
The MacBook Air’s black keyboard fits well with the midnight-dark body. The new keyboard backlight used on the new generation of MacBook has greatly reduced light leakage. Unless you look at it from the most side, you will only see the light transmission of the letters of each keycap when you use it, and the texture is further improved. The F1~F12 function keys on the top of the keyboard are “full height” design, the area of the character keys is the same as other keys, and the size of the ESC key is also very easy to press, which brings the advantages of the MacBook Pro over.
The MacBook Air keyboard also introduces the Touch ID function. The upper right button can sense the user’s fingerprint, which is used for computer unlocking or authentication when logging in to a website. As for the computer’s trackpad TrackPad, its wide area and operating tactile sensations, such as the smoothness of the board surface and the rebound touch following pressing the button, have always been the unique advantages of Mac computers, and they have also been inherited in the latest design.
4 The speaker design comprehensively enhances the enjoyment of watching movies
We found the new design of the new MacBook Air especially enhanced the experience of video viewing and video conferencing. Its four speakers are evenly arranged at the bottom of the fuselage, so that the sound volume is large and clear, and there is no problem of sound disassembly. You can listen to YouTube and Netflix movies clearly, indoors or outdoors. Especially watching movies indoors, you’ll find that the sound output is much better than previous MacBook Airs. The newly designed 4 speakers also make the voices of other participants in the video conference can be heard clearly, and the built-in three-microphone high-wind array in the fuselage keeps the sound quality of the radio sound good. Its 1080p FaceTime HD camera also improves overall clarity, especially when used in darker environments, which is a huge improvement over previous MacBook Airs.
▲The 4 speakers distributed in different positions of the fuselage can effectively make the sound more expansive and improve the sense of presence and somatosensory sound quality
New 3.5mm headphone jack Hi-Fi headphone plug directly has beautiful sound
Even if you listen to music with headphones or need to listen to audio in audio editing software, the MacBook Air has special enhancements. The 3.5mm headphone jack on the current-generation MacBook Air has advanced support for high-impedance headphones. Some high-impedance headphones actually sound good, but if the output of the 3.5mm headphone output is not enough, the full strength of the headphones cannot be exerted. Now you don’t have to “choose headphones” to cater to the computer, you can choose a wider range of products on the market. Ordinary headphones, you can even plug the Hi-Fi Headphone directly (or via an adapter) into the 3.5mm headphone jack of the MacBook Air, without having to go through an external amplifier to get good sound quality. We have tested some Hi-Fi headphones, and the new MacBook Air can get better sound quality. The overall high frequency, mid frequency, and low frequency clarity will be more prominent, and the audio content that users can hear will be richer.
Fanless design body screen can sometimes get hot
The MacBook Air has a fanless design, so the computer operates with little noise. However, the performance per watt of the M2 chip is limited. For general operations such as writing, browsing the Internet, and watching streaming videos, the processor can handle the operation with ease, and naturally an active cooling system has become unnecessary. But in fact, this does not mean that the computer itself does not heat up, the main unit (ie the keyboard part) will still be slightly hot under long-term operation, and the screen part will sometimes get hotter than the main unit. This heat is felt when you need to leave the machine unarmed to get work done outdoors. But generally speaking, it does not have much impact on the user experience.
Improved performance helps save battery power for everyday applications
The new generation of MacBook Air uses the second-generation 5nm process technology Apple M2 chip as the computer processor, which further improves the efficiency and energy saving performance, and only needs less power to bring the computer performance that users need. The memory bandwidth is increased to 100GB/s, and the maximum supported memory is up to 24GB, which further improves the data processing speed. The 10 image processing cores built into the new M2 chip are 1.2 times faster than the previous generation M1 MacBook Air and 5 times faster than the dual-core Intel Core i5 MacBook Air, according to Apple, when using filters and effects in Adobe Photoshop. Cut Pro’s movie editing speed (tested with a complex timeline of movies) is 1.4 times faster than the previous generation M1 MacBook Air and 15 times faster than the dual-core Intel Core i5 MacBook Air.
We also ran scores for different processors and CPU processing speeds for the new machine. The results found that the CPU score will increase by regarding 10% in the single-core test and regarding 16% in the multi-core test. Compared with the Intel Core i5 model single The core test has nearly 1 times the performance improvement, and the multi-core test has 2.76 times the performance score improvement.
In terms of GPU processing speed, in the GFXbench 4K Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen test, the performance of the new M2 chip is 14% higher than that of the M1 processor, and 2.46 times higher than the Intel Iris Plus Graphics used in the previous MacBook Air. Score increase.
Geekbench 5.4.5 benchmark
Single Core Score: 1900
Multi-core score: 8977
Compare with old model:
| MacBook Air 2022 (M2, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU) | MacBook Air Late 2020 (M1 8 Core)* | MacBook Air Early 2020(Intel Core i5-1030NG7) 1100Mhz 4 核心* | |
| single core score | 1900 | 1723 | 1037 |
| multicore score | 8977 | 7736 | 2387 |
GFXbench 5.0.6 4K Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen Benchmark
Score: 2560.6 Frames
39.8227fps
Compare with old model:
| MacBook Air 2022 (M2, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU) | MacBook Air Late 2020(M1)* | Intel Iris Plus Graphics* | |
| Frames | 2560.6 | 2250 | 738 |
| Fps | 39.8227fps | 35.0fps | 11.5fps |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark
Score: 5266
Average frame rate: 31.3fps
Compare with old model:
| MacBook Air 2022 (M2, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU) | MacBook Air Late 2020(M1)* | |
| Frames | 5266 | 4404 |
| Fps | 31.3fps | 26fps |
*Online information
However, in fact, the running score does not fully represent the strength of the Apple M2 chip. Apple places great emphasis on the processor to exert more extreme performance while consuming less power. In terms of battery life this time, we can see that it can still be used for a whole day under daily applications such as using various document software and watching YouTube movies on the screen with a high brightness display, which is better than what we used in the past. Laptops are better for 2-3 hours at most. According to Apple’s own data, while providing the same performance, the M2 chip CPU consumes only 25% of the power of a 10-core PC laptop chip, while the GPU consumes only the power of a 10-core PC laptop chip. 20% of computer chips.
Summary: Refreshing design with satisfactory performance
The new MacBook Air in 2022 will have another major reform in the body design. The appearance is more solid and stable than in the past. There is no unbalanced feeling that one side is thick and the other is thin, but the overall body thickness is thinner and the overall body volume is also larger than in the past. The MacBook Air is much thinner, and users can easily feel it in terms of the physical feel of the machine. I believe that many of my friends also like the new midnight dark and starlight colors. When you get the real thing, you will feel its noble and mature look. If you are interested, you must go to the store to see the real thing.
With the latest Apple M2 chip, notebook computers can save more power in general daily word processing and Internet applications, and the computer can handle general applications with ease throughout the day, making the latest MacBook Air more in line with our “ideal laptop computer”. For professional applications, such as using Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, or converting ProRes-encoded videos, the new MacBook Air is capable enough to complete user-level work. If you use these software for one or two projects, modern generations MacBook Air can help you too.
