Tomorrow, July 15, official sales of the MacBook Air with the M2 processor will start.
Foreign journalists have already received the novelty and shared their impressions. In general, everyone is happy with the laptop.
More details below.
1. Edge
This is the biggest update to the MacBook Air since it debuted nearly a century and a half ago.
One of the first computers was received by The Verge journalists.
The keyboard of the new Air is taken from the 14-inch MacBook Pro. It has a full-size feature set and Touch ID, and thankfully doesn’t have the dubious usefulness of the Touch Bar that’s still obscurely available on the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro M2.
The trackpad is not much different from the models, although it is slightly wider. However, functionally it works the same.
Interestingly, the new Airs lack the speaker grilles found on just about every other MacBook model. Instead, speakers are built in between the keyboard and display for a cleaner look.
Along with the new design comes a whole new look. The screen of the new Aira is slightly larger than before – 13.6 inches versus 13.3. The bezels around the screen have been reduced and the viewing angle is now rounded as well, a more modern look than before.
It doesn’t have ProMotion’s high refresh rate for smoother scrolling. But the new screen is a popular improvement over what’s been available before, and it’s better than the one found on the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Brainchips produced the M2 laptop, as in the new MacBook Pro. Apple claims this new chip delivers 18% exceptional multi-core performance over the M1, with up to 35% faster graphics.
The blue case is very easily soiled
During testing, M2 always outperformed M1, but not by much. But the M2 Air is noticeably slower than the MacBook Pro M2. All because of the nature of the fan. For example, the 30-minute Cinebench 23 multi-core test for laptops slow down. In this case, the bottom of the computer is of great importance during testing.
Improved Air M2 graphics also constrained by its construct of consent – while it scores better than the Air M1 in games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it didn’t perform as well as the Pro M2 scores despite having the same number of GPU cores.
NoteThe Verge has always run a 4K video export test on laptops in Premiere Pro as part of the benchmark, but they have noticed a significant performance regression with Premiere Pro 22 than the Air M1 in Premiere Pro 15.
During normal work with a laptop, it is not audible at all, it does not heat up and does not throttle. For the vast majority of laptop users, the MacBook Air M2 is more than expected.
With active work on a laptop, journalists received autonomous work from 8 to 10 hours. This is the level of the previous generation.
2. Engadget
This is a great computer
Laptops are also highly rated at Engadget. Their text follows.
When I first picked up the MacBook Air, it looked more like an iPad with a built-in keyboard than a laptop. It’s funny that it’s actually more portable than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
I’m a bit disappointed with the new 1080p webcam. It contains more than visible 720p cameras, but still produces rather gray and grainy photos.
One of the highlights of the computer was the M2 chip. There was a significant difference in the Cinebench R21 multi-threaded test, but it wasn’t a big surprise. The MacBook Air is a fanless system, so its processor has to throttling to keep everything cool. On the other hand, the 13-inch MacBook Pro has fans and a higher cooling system so it can handle longer workloads.
All of my testing made it clear that the MacBook Air is just as fast as the 13-inch Pro for most tasks. It even achieved the same 30fps average on the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark.
If you’re doing complex work like video editing or 3D rendering, you’ll have to live with the slow motion effect. For most people, I find this to be a worthy compromise considering everything else the MacBook Air has to offer.
The MacBook Air has the same great keyboard and super-sleek trackpad. No annoying TouchBar, just reliable function keys. It even has more ports!
There are two USB-C connectors, but the laptop is also equipped with a MagSafe port for power. This means you can actually charge your MacBook Air without using one of your prized USB-C connections! Perhaps Apple should have just rebranded it as the MacBook Air Pro.
With moderate collection, the computer was able to work for 16 hours and 30 minutes.
Apple has also increased the brightness to 500 nits. And in reality, the difference is noticeable in the sun. It is disappointing that there is no support for ProMotion, as in Pro-models.
One of the downsides I would say is the cost. The new MacBook Air is $200 and costs $1199.
Source: Iphones RU
