The first customers are now receiving their MacBook Air 2022 with an M2 chip. Selected journalists were already allowed to take a close look at the new Apple notebook. These testers now come to a clear verdict. How does this turn out?
MacBook Air 2022: almost perfect Apple notebook, but not for every user
Positive, but with a small caveat. Basically, the new MacBook Air 2022 leaves an almost perfect picture with its fresh design, new display and, last but not least, thanks to the M2 chip. Devindra Hardawar of Engadget, for example, doesn’t find a hair in the soup and writes (translated):
“The Air is impressively thin and light, but it also has a bigger and better screen, great speakers, and a fancy MagSafe power adapter. And thanks to Apple’s M2 chip, it’s also much faster than the last model I called “breathtakingly fast” a year and a half ago. Once again, Apple has set a new standard for ultraportables.”
The Verge took a look at the new MacBook Air 2022:
Colleague Dan Seifert from The Verge comes to a similar conclusion. However, with the restriction that the older and cheaper M1 model is still a consideration for many users who still own an older notebook. The price premium for the new M2 model is just pretty steep. Therefore, the new Air is primarily an option for customers who might consider buying the MacBook Pro with the M2 chip as an alternative. In detail (translated):
“But that success comes at a price, quite literally, and the performance improvements over the M1 model aren’t as clear as the design and feature improvements. The M2 Air is a better choice than the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro for most people, although the Pro has slightly better performance and longer battery life.”
In the speed comparison, the measurements confirm the previous report. As a result, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with the M2 chip are roughly on the same level. But this statement also applies to a rather less glorious detail.
Apple presented the new notebook model at the beginning of June:
SSD dispute: Apple’s “enlightening” PR response
That’s how it will be The basic version of the MacBook Air 2022 comes with just a single NAND chip (256 GB).. This circumstance already led to significantly poorer SSD benchmark results for the MacBook Pro with the M2 chip. These can now also be understood with the MacBook Air. The Verge checked with Apple and got the following response (translated):
“Thanks to the performance boost of M2, the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro are incredibly fast, even compared to Mac laptops with the powerful M1 chip. These new systems use a new, higher-density NAND that offers 256GB of storage in a single chip. While benchmarks of the 256GB SSD show a difference from the previous generation, the performance of these M2-based systems is even faster in real-world activities.”
So everything good? Not really. Because when Apple speaks of faster results in real-life tests, this does not explicitly include the SSD performance. Instead, the whole package is meant. Apple is basically distracting from the fact that cannot be argued away. A classic PR manoeuvre, which can be revealed on closer inspection.