Apple MacBook Air M2 Review

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My primary use case for the MacBook Air is my everyday laptop emphasizing portability and travel. Consider a 15-inch if you like a larger canvas or plan on using this laptop in a more constant setting instead of day-to-day traveling with it. Also, consider upgrading the storage to at least 512GB unless you are partial to using external storage since 256GB may work now but may begin to feel cramped if you house lots of media (images, photos, videos) on your device. Finally, upgrading RAM from 8-16GB again extends longevity (less because of swap memory, more factoring in that future versions of macOS and the apps you run will be even hungrier for memory 3-5 years from now).

Apple’s MacBook Air M2 is an outstanding upgrade over its predecessor. Providing greater performance, an updated aesthetic and several small but essential upgrades.

Its new display boasts slimmer borders, an iPhone-esque camera notch, and outstanding colors and brightness ratings from our testers, earning high marks for viewing documents or streaming videos.

Design

The MacBook Air M2 is one of the premier Mac laptops on the market due to its powerful M2-based processor, outshone every other laptop in its price range and even rivaled by more expensive 13-inch MacBook Pro that uses this same chip. Its slim design measures only 0.44 inches thick and weighs just 2.7 pounds for portability, and this year features a more uniform slate design than previous generations of the MacBook Air.

This Air is slightly wider than its predecessor to accommodate its 13.6-inch diagonal Liquid Retina display, though they remain quite similar in height and depth. Additionally, its chassis no longer taper allows it to be thinner while at the same time restricting space for ports on its sides and back as well as dissipating heat effectively; as a result, under intense workloads the chassis feels slightly warmer compared to its predecessor but never uncomfortably so.

Apple maintained the same port selection found on the M1 Air, though they moved the headphone jack over to the left side and reinstated MagSafe – both welcome additions. They also provided two Thunderbolt 4/USB 3 ports – more than enough to cover most users needs.

Our testers lauded the M2 Air keyboard for its comfortable-sized keys and high-contrast text. Furthermore, they appreciated its full-sized function key row which makes adjusting screen brightness or video chat settings during video calls much simpler.

The M2 processor is an upgrade over its M1 Air counterpart and by far the best CPU we’ve tested in any MacBook we’ve looked at. It provides enough speed for most productivity tasks as well as multitasking easily and quick video editing tasks, and can even handle gaming; though gaming will likely prove more challenging on this model without its fan for cooling purposes under heavy workloads.

Performance

The MacBook Air M2 is an outstanding laptop designed to offer basic multitasking, video project work and gaming on an entry-level system. It makes an especially great upgrade from older Intel MacBooks or Windows laptops; for those requiring even greater performance the 13-inch MacBook Pro may also be worth considering.

We found the Air M2 to be among the highest performing notebooks we tested. Its second-generation M2 CPU provides solid power without compromising battery life or features; and while not as powerful as Intel Core i5 processors used in MacBook Pro 14-inch laptops, its price point puts it ahead of all 13-inch MacBook Air laptops available today.

Real-world tasks have also proven impressive: in the Handbrake test, it transcoded a 4K video into 1080p in 7 minutes and 52 seconds–beating out both category average of 8 minutes as well as times required for the XPS 13 with Intel Core i7-1185G CPU and Spectre x360 with Intel Core i7-1365MQ CPU to complete it. Furthermore, its Puget Photoshop score of 821 outshone the category average of 917!

Graphically, the M2 chip may not match up to last year’s MacBook Pro’s i5 processors in terms of graphics performance; however, it still provides enough muscle for most gaming and photo editing tasks. I did notice that its display wasn’t quite as vibrant than competitor machines with OLED screens though.

If you intend on using the MacBook Air M2 for creative work, I suggest investing in the higher capacity 512GB model. That extra spend won’t break the bank and will make your computer twice as fast.

The MacBook Air M2 is an outstanding update to Apple’s 2022 MacBook Air model that introduced their proprietary M-series silicon. If you are new to Mac or looking for an upgrade from an Intel MacBook, the Air M2 should be your top pick on the market.

Battery Life

The new Air utilizes Intel’s M silicon to deliver lots of raw power in an ultrathin laptop form factor. Paired with its large 13.6-inch display and fanless design, this powerful machine will keep up with most day-to-day computing demands as well as occasional bursts of more demanding tasks – while staying cool and quiet while doing it!

Apple claims the M2 MacBook Air’s eight CPU cores and ten GPU cores offer a 33% increase in performance over its predecessor. Although our tests did not produce this result, I did see improvement; for instance, mixing down a 30-second 1080p video using iMovie with music, two cross dissolve transitions, title cards and transitions took approximately 12 seconds on average on an M2 MacBook Air while it required 16 seconds with its older Intel counterpart.

I was also able to open 20 Chrome tabs simultaneously and work with Apple Mail, Typora, Evernote and several smaller tools without my battery running low or experiencing any slowdown. That being said, the M2 MacBook Air did experience occasional throttle-down when performing more intensive workloads (e.g. batch processing a large RAW file in Lightroom), though this ceased shortly thereafter and returned near full speed after only brief delays in performance.

Overall, the MacBook Air M2 is an excellent upgrade option for Intel MacBook users and makes an ideal first Mac without incurring its higher price tag. With outstanding battery life and crowd-pleasing features such as Liquid Retina display and quad driver stereo speaker system as well as improved FaceTime webcam, this laptop provides all that’s necessary for success at an attractive price point.

Also included with the MacBook Air M2 is a fast charger capable of replenishing battery life to 50 percent within two hours, or you can speed up charging with an optional 67W charger. My only minor reservation with it is that its 35W charger instead of higher capacity MagSafe cannot be purchased separately.

Keyboard

The M2 MacBook Air is Apple’s premium ultraportable laptop to date, combining excellent design, powerful performance, and a large display that is only rivaled by upgrading to their 14-inch MacBook Pro counterparts. For many people, this represents the ideal Mac portable.

The most noticeable upgrade over the previous generation is a larger 13.6-inch 2560x1664p Liquid Retina screen. This display produces vivid and accurate colors while offering bright outdoor viewing capabilities. Plus, with such a larger surface area for multitasking capabilities.

Another welcome update to the MacBook is its improved keyboard, which now boasts butterfly keys rather than the awkward oval keys of its predecessor. Not only is this change more comfortable but its trackpad functionality has been significantly enhanced as well, supporting light press as a click and deep press for various functions such as offering definitions of highlighted words or making purchases with Apple Pay. In addition, Touch ID built directly into its trackpad enables unlocking of your computer or purchases made using Apple Pay.

Though the new MacBook Air boasts many useful updates, it still has some drawbacks. For one thing, its weight remains relatively heavy for its size; with only one headphone jack and two USB-C ports. You will require an adapter if you plan to add devices that need traditional ports such as an external mouse or SD card reader.

Finally, Apple solders the SSDs onto its laptops’ motherboards, making replacement or upgrades impossible. Although this may be considered minor annoyance by some consumers, if you plan to buy a MacBook Air it’s something worth keeping in mind so you get maximum benefit from your investment.

Overall, the M2 MacBook Air is an engineering triumph. Apple has long wanted to produce this laptop and it delivers a great user experience for those that can benefit from its unique characteristics – for those that have used butterfly keyboard MacBooks before this M2 MacBook Air offers hope at last!

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.