After months of rumors and leaks, Apple has finally taken the wraps off of the new 2022 MacBook Air. Turns out, many of those leaks and rumors turned out to be correct — however some were a little off the mark.
The 2022 MacBook Air offers a complete redesign over last year’s model, with a few new colors, and an edge-to-edge display. Not only that, but it also has Apple’s all-new M2 chip — essentially meaning that it ups the performance over last year’s M1, and kicks off a refresh of Apple’s next-generation chips.
Interested in learning more about the laptop for yourself? Here’s everything you need to know.
New MacBook Air design
The new MacBook Air is different both inside and out — so lets start with what’s new on the outside. The laptop has gotten a major redesign that brings it more in line with the new MacBook Pro, with an edge-to-edge design and notch at the top.
For the first time in a long time, Apple is doing away with the tapered design on the MacBook Air, in favor of a more blocky look similar to that on the MacBook Pro. It’s a good look, and while many will miss the tapered design, I like the more uniform look.
It has a slightly new port selection too. On the left side, you’ll get a MagSafe charging port, along with two Thunderbolt 4 ports. On the right, there’s a headphone jack.
Instead of shrinking the laptop and keeping the 13-inch display, Apple has opted to increase the size of the display, keeping the external footprint of the laptop. To that end, the laptop now has a 13.6-inch display.
Generally speaking, the laptop looks great. And, it’s available in four colors — Starlight, Midnight, Silver, and Space Gray.
New MacBook Air display
As mentioned, the display on the new MacBook Air is 13.6 inches, up from 13 inches on the last model. But it’s also a slightly nicer display. Unfortunately, the laptop doesn’t have the same high-end Mini-LED display found on recent MacBook Pro models, but it can still reach a brightness of 500 nits, and that’s 25% brighter than the display on the M1 version of the laptop.
New MacBook Air Specs
Perhaps the biggest change to the MacBook Air comes in the form of new internal specifications. The laptop now offers a new M2 chip, which supports up to 24GB of RAM, and is up to 40% faster than the M1, according to Apple.
The battery life on the laptop, thankfully, is still excellent. Apple says that you’ll get up to 18 hours of video playback on the laptop. Even if you didn’t reach those heights, however, you’ll still get a battery that should last most all day.
New MacBook Air price and release date
The 2022 MacBook Air is better in almost every way to the last generation model. It looks better, offers better performance, and more. Unfortunately, however, you’ll pay for the improved design and features. The laptop comes at $1,200 for the base model, and will be available in July. Alternatively, you can pay for an upgraded model for $1,500, and you can configure your MacBook Air to offer up to 24GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.
The last-generation M1 MacBook Air will continue to be available for $1,000.
