Apple will soon fulfill the first orders of MacBook Air M2. Coincidence of the calendar (or not), the first tests have just been published. While waiting for ours to arrive, we bought a machine not our own, we read the tests of our brothers and sisters.
Embargo lifted for media who were lucky enough to receive the MacBook Air M2 early (shortly after the MacBook Pro 13 M2). On our side, we bought a machine that we will probably receive tomorrow. In the meantime, the American media, and some French media have published their tests which we have devoured.
As a reminder, after 14 years, three revisions and two different processor architectures, the iconic MacBook Air has moved on. He changed his appearance, adopting the screen with notch and the M2 chip, as well as a new dark dress.
A new appearance that convinced
Let’s start with its appearance. As you’ve no doubt seen, the new MacBook Air borrows much of its build and design from the MacBook Pro 14 and 16. It’s symmetrical and square, with a more aggressive layout than previous MacBook Air models.
According to The Verge, this MacBook is “remarkably thin — just over 11 millimeters — and that thinness is immediately noticeable when you open the lid and start typing on it. “. The journalist from The Verge is frankly convinced of Apple’s choices: “ In short, I am a fan of this new design. It’s modern and refreshing, and it works perfectly (…) This new Air is a beautiful computer, and I think this design will work well for the next five years (or maybe more!). “.
Same story at Numerama: “ Slightly rounded edges to improve grip, completely flat screen and cover… It’s as beautiful as it is modern. We also find the very appreciable Magic Keyboard present on MacBooks for several years (not the one that breaks…) and the multitouch trackpad emblematic of the macOS experience, which works perfectly well. “.
A brighter screen, a notch of discord
The screen is brighter, all testers seem to have noticed. At CNBC, the notch doesn’t get in the way one bit: ” Apple has upgraded the screen from a Retina display to a brighter and more colorful Liquid Retina display than the previous model. There’s a notch at the top, like the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. However, the notch didn’t bother me when using the 14-inch MacBook Pro I own. “. To use a 14-inch MacBook Pro on a daily basis, we can confirm that this notch disappears, we get used to it especially with the TopNotch application.
Well, not everyone, The Verge is still not used to this notch: “ It’s not that the notch is particularly ugly or distracting, it’s that it completely ruins the way I use the menu bar when using a Mac. I happen to be quite fond of menu bar apps, and I have a ton of them for various things like clocks, calendars, to-do lists, system monitoring, and other utilities. “.
There is no Mini LED screen unlike the Pro range, but that does not seem to bother the first testers, Numerama confirms that it is a successful screen ” no need to tell you that, unsurprisingly, this is a panel with very good resolution, with very pretty colors and high brightness. For everyday use, it’s hard to do better…”.
MagSafe and the audio system convinced
MagSafe is also there, and it’s appreciated: ” MagSafe is there too, like on the 14-inch MacBook Pro. It’s the small magnetic charging cable that pops out from the side and pops out easily. So if you trip over the cable, the MacBook won’t fall off your desk. Alternatively, you can charge the laptop using either of the two Thunderbolt USB C ports. You can quickly charge it up to 50% in 30 minutes if you buy Apple’s 67-watt charger for 60 dollars (in euros, it’s the same) “.
The new sound system sounds convincing, The Verge finds it far ahead of other laptops: “ The new speaker system consists of two tweeters and two woofers and features Apple’s Spatial Audio technology. Compared to the Air M1, the new speakers produce less echo, especially at full volume. But, the difference isn’t huge, and they’re not as good as the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. “.
A camera that is not unanimous
The webcam goes from HD definition to Full HD, however that does not mean that it is unanimous. At The Verge, we think that Apple could have done better: Luckily, the camera inside that notch is the same as the larger Pro models. It’s a lot better than the dull camera that was in the old Air and the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. The image turns out sharper, with more detail, better color and contrast, and just a better looking image overall…”.
For Nicolas Lelouche of Numerama, this is the weak point of the device: “(…) MacBooks have never been good at this. My MacBook Pro M1 does well, but the quality has nothing to do with my smartphone’s front camera. So I was hoping that the pandemic and the emergence of telecommuting had finally made Apple want to make an effort (…) A little grainy during the day, it does watercolors in low light, the result is awful. “.
Improved performance
Let’s move on to the Apple M2 chip. The M2 chip features 8 CPU cores and up to 10 GPU cores, and Apple claims it’s around 18% faster for performance multithreaded. If you opt for the fastest GPU model, you can expect graphics speeds around 35% faster than the M1.
Apple also doubled the memory bandwidth of the M2 and increased the maximum RAM to 24GB. That’s probably a little excessive for an Air, but it’s still nice. Hardware support for ProRes encoding and decoding is also provided, though I imagine most video editors will opt for more powerful MacBook Pros.
On the benchmarks side, Numerama confirms that the M2 chip does better than the M1 chip thanks to a slight gain in single core. It is especially on the GPU side that the M2 chip stands out, thanks to its 10 cores instead of 8. In itself, this M2 chip is not a big development. We understand why Apple keeps the MacBook Air M1 in its catalog, which remains by far Apple’s best price-performance ratio.
Regarding heating, note that the MacBook Air has no active cooling system. It does not produce noise, but it therefore heats up more easily. Tom’s Hardware ran a Flir One sensor, the hottest spot on the bottom of the laptop was measured at 39.5 degrees. It’s not excessive, however, it is very localized on a specific point of the keyboard. If you have activities that require long calculation processes, this is therefore a computer to avoid.
Autonomy still as important
Finally, autonomy is a strong point of Mac Silicon. Is this still the case ? Yes, according to Tom’s Hardware. Apple’s move to an ARM architecture with Apple Silicon continues to pay off in terms of efficiency.
They ran OpenGL tests while connected to Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits brightness, the MacBook Air with M2 ran for 14 hours and 6 minutes.
Neither a surprise nor a disappointment
In sum, the MacBook Air M2 does not seem to be a surprise or a disappointment. If the appearance of your PC is important to you, this model is definitely the one to aim for. Otherwise, it seems more judicious to direct towards the M1 version. It is much more accessible. In any case, we will confirm all this in our test very soon.
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