What’s wrong with Apple’s new MacBook Air M2 (2022)

Highly anticipated, the best-selling Mac has been brought up to date. After the euphoria of WWDC 2022, it’s time to ask whether this new MacBook Air M2 lives up to expectations.

The MacBook Air has been Apple’s signature laptop since Steve Jobs pulled it out of an envelope in 2008. This year, Apple announced the fourth major iteration of the Macbook Air, changing almost everything.

We compared it to MacBook Air M1 (2020)to MacBook Pro 14 (2021) as well as at MacBook Pro 13 (2022). The range of MacBooks is very wide with machines whose sizes are comparable, but whose performance is very different.

If you haven’t read the various articles on theAir M2whose Melinda’s griphere is a summary of the main changes.

The screen is now larger, 13.6 inches diagonally, with a notch that houses a camera now in 1080p definition. The screen is also capable of reaching 500 nits of brightness and ensures a P3 wide color gamut for a billion colors, but that’s not the Mini-LED technology of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

In terms of connectivity, few changes, except for the notable addition of MagSafe charging, which allows the two Thunderbolt ports to remain available during charging. The audio jack supports high impedance headphones now. The Touch ID button is also a welcome addition.

Of course, the biggest change to the MacBook Air is inside the case, with the new M2 chip that Apple says delivers 1.4 times the performance of the M1 model depending on the task, assuming you choose the more expensive option: the eight-core processor and a 10-core GPU.

The amount of basic RAM can limit the machine

The new MacBook Air equipped with the Apple M2 chip, like the one with the M1 chip, are all equipped with 8 GB of RAM by default, and Apple offers an option, billed at more than 200 euros, to go up to 16 GB.

We had several months to compare the 8GB version to the 16GB version on previous M1 Macs. It is clear that on Xcode, video export or Lightroom, the 8 GB version is lagging behind its 16 GB big brother, in all three tests.

Obviously, if you are doing heavy video editing work, 8GB will cause you problems. It’s a shame that’s still the default amount of RAM on newer MacBook Airs, with a $230 option to upgrade to 16GB (and $230 more for 24GB). Again, this probably isn’t an everyday use case, but it shows how far you can push this 8GB RAM configuration. It’s powerful for most people, but it can be a real handicap for heavy tasks.

Prices are even higher

The MacBook Air 2022 M2 is sold from 1,499 euros and 1,384 euros at the Education price. Apple continues to sell the MacBook Air with M1 chip and 7-core GPU, from 1,199 euros.

The entry-level is equipped with an M2 with an 8-core CPU and an 8-core GPU, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD, all for 1,499 euros. The version with the M2 10 cores in the GPU part and 512 GB of storage is at 1,849 euros.

Model	Apple MacBookAir M1	Apple MacBookAir M2	Apple MacBook Pro 13	Apple MacBook Pro 14
Core chip	Apple M1	Apple M2	Apple M2	Apple M1 Pro
Basic RAM	8.16 GB	8, 16, 24 GB	8, 16, 24 GB	8, 16, 32, 64 GB
Basic storage	256 GB	256 GB	256 GB	512 GB
Screen	13.3″, Retina	13.6″, Liquid Retina	13.3″, Retina	14.2″, Liquid Retina XDR
Connectors	2 USB-C, 1 headphone port	2 USB-C, 1 headphone port	2 USB-C, 1 headphone port	3 USB-C, 1 headphone port, 1 HDMI and 1 SDXC slot
Audio	Stereo speakers	Quad-speaker audio system	Stereo speakers	Six-speaker audio system
Battery	49.9Wh battery	56.2Wh battery	58.2Wh battery	70Wh battery
Base rate	1199 euros	1499 euros	1599 euro	2249 euros

In short, it’s expensive. The entry ticket for the most recent MacBook Air increases since the previous models were respectively 1,129 euros and 1,399 euros.

No Mini-LED

The MacBook Air screen is changing from Retina technology to Liquid Retina. If you no longer have Apple’s vocabulary in mind, it means that the MacBook Air does not benefit from the mini-LED technology of the MacBook Pro and the 12.3-inch iPad Pro.

It is therefore a classic IPS LCD, while Mini-LED is found on the 12.3-inch iPad Pro. We therefore have a screen that embeds a notch in order to enlarge the surface of the screen (13.6″), with thinner borders and a brightness which increases slightly from 400 nits to 500 nits. The change is meager.

No touchscreen

You could tell us: yes, but there is the iPad. However, since 2021, iPhone apps are supposed to work on Mac. Even if the experience is a bit buggy, there are now many iPad/iPhone apps in the Mac App Store.

Apple has created a system for each iOS application available in the Mac menu called ” Touch Alternatives“. This is a series of buttons, gestures, and other spellcasting incantations for using apps that require a touchscreen on a Mac. It’s frankly ridiculous and the clearest sign yet is that Apple is bending over backwards to avoid doing what obviously needs to be done: putting a touchscreen on the Mac.

No fun colors

We quibble over this last point, but it remains significant. The new colors introduced by Apple are a very beautiful dark blue called ” Midnight and a light gold called ” starlight“. No fun colors like on the iPad Air, it’s a shame for a machine that is supposed to be for the general public.

No USB-C on the right

It’s a recurring problem on MacBooks, despite the departure of Jony Ive who dreamed of minimalism (we will remember the 12-inch Retina MacBook with a single USB-C port).

While the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 have full connectivity, including HDMI and an SDXC slot, nothing has changed on the Air 2022. There is no USB-C on the right side of the case, which is an ergonomic problem on some desks.

In fact, the new MacBook Air 2022 is a machine that will certainly be a benchmark in the market. Nevertheless, it is clear that the price increase and some stinginess from Apple make us a little less enthusiastic. Now let’s wait for the extensive tests to better understand what the M2 chip has in its belly.

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