New processor, new MacBook Air (and even a new Pro): what announcements at WWDC22!
The Cupertino giant unveiled the completely redesigned MacBook Air and updated 13 ″ MacBook Pro, both with the new M2 chip for a further leap forward compared to the revolutionary performance and capabilities of the M1 processor.
MacBook Air takes everything people already love about the world’s best-selling laptop to the next level. With an incredibly thin new design and even greater performance, the MacBook Air has a larger 13.6 ″ Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a four-speaker sound system, and a battery that lasts up to 18 hours and MagSafe charging. It is now available in four colours: silver, space grey, midnight and galaxy.
The 13 ″ MacBook Pro, the second best-selling laptop in the world, also has the M2 chip with outstanding performance, up to 24GB of unified memory, ProRes acceleration and up to 20 hours of battery life, all in a compact design. The new MacBook Air and updated 13 “MacBook Pro join the even more powerful 14” and 16 “MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, completing the most robust line of Mac laptops ever offered. Both models will be available next month.
We are thrilled to introduce our new M2 chip to the world’s two most popular laptops, the 13 ″ MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Completely redesigned around the M2 chip, the MacBook Air is thinner, lighter and faster with a bigger display, better camera and all-day battery, and comes in four gorgeous colors. Only thanks to the Apple chip is it possible to make such a thin and light laptop with a fanless design and with this combination of performance and capacity. The M2 chip also arrives on the 13 ″ MacBook Pro and offers exceptional performance, ProRes acceleration, up to 24GB of memory and up to 20 hours of battery life, further enhancing our most portable pro notebook.
The power of the M2 chip
The M2 chip initiates the second generation of Apple’s M-series chips and extends the already remarkable features of the M1 chip. With industry-leading energy efficiency, unified memory architecture and bespoke technologies, this new chip brings even more performance and capacity to Apple’s most popular Mac notebooks: MacBook Air and 13 ″ MacBook Pro. M2 has a new generation 8-core CPU with optimized core performance and efficiency cores and a new generation Apple GPU with up to 10 cores, two more than the M1 chip. M2 offers 100GBps of unified memory bandwidth and supports up to 24GB of fast unified memory to easily handle even larger and more complex workloads. Designed to dramatically speed up video workflows,
New MacBook Air: What a Show!
Developed from the ground up around the M2 chip, the MacBook Air has an incredibly slim new design from every angle. It’s just 11.3mm thick, weighs just 1.2kg, and has a tough aluminium unibody shell that’s extremely solid and built to last. This slim and lightweight design integrates components so efficiently that it results in an astonishing 20% volume reduction. Thanks to the energy efficiency of M2, MacBook Air packs its amazing capabilities into a quiet, fanless system. In addition to silver and space grey, this model is now available in two new colours: midnight and galaxy.
MagSafe makes its return to the MacBook Air with an easy-to-use and safe dedicated charging port – when the computer is plugged in and the charging cable is accidentally unplugged, it quickly releases it to prevent damage. MacBook Air also has two Thunderbolt ports for connecting a variety of accessories and a 3.5mm audio jack with high-impedance headphone support. Additionally, the Magic Keyboard has a full-height row of function keys with Touch ID and an industry-leading large Force Touch trackpad.
13.6 ″ Liquid Retina Display
The new MacBook Air has a stunning 13.6 ″ Liquid Retina display that now expands even closer to the edges and around the camera to make room for the menu bar. The result is a larger display with markedly thinner edges that leaves more usable screen space for displaying content with rich, brilliant detail. At 500 nit brightness, it is also 25% brighter than before. Plus, the new display now supports 1 billion colours for incredibly vivid photos and videos.
1080p FaceTime HD camera and four speakers
MacBook Air includes a new 1080p FaceTime HD camera with a larger image sensor and more efficient pixels that offer twice the resolution and low-light performance of the previous generation. Coupled with the processing power of the M2 chip’s evolved ISP processor, people will look their best during video calls.
MacBook Air also has a four-speaker sound system. To accommodate such a slim design, speakers and microphones have been integrated between the keyboard and display, providing an even higher quality audio experience. The three array microphones capture crystal clear audio thanks to advanced beamforming algorithms, while the speakers produce sharper voices and improved stereo separation. Additionally, MacBook Air supports spatial audio for immersive sound when playing music and movies with Dolby Atmos.
New charging options
MacBook Air offers multiple charging options including a new compact 35W power supply with two USB-C ports for charging two devices at the same time. And for the first time, MacBook Air supports fast charging for up to 50% battery life in just 30 minutes with an optional 67W USB-C power adapter.
The other news
People love the performance and design of the 13 ″ MacBook Pro. With the M2 chip, Apple’s most portable pro notebook offers even more capacity while preserving its compact size.
- With a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, RAW image editing in apps like Affinity Photo is nearly 40% faster than the previous generation, 8 and 3.4 times faster for previous users. a model without an Apple chip.
- Even graphics-intensive games like “Baldur’s Gate 3” are nearly 40% faster than on the previous generation 13 ″ MacBook Pro, and up to 3.3 times faster for those upgrading from a model without an Apple chip.
- MacBook Pro 13 ″ has been designed with an active cooling system that allows it to sustain professional performance.
- Thanks to the M2 chip, the 13 ″ MacBook Pro also supports up to 24GB of unified memory, plus 50% more memory bandwidth, making multitasking and large assets work ultra-smooth.
- With support for ProRes encoding and decoding in the M2 chip’s media engine, you can play up to 11 streams of 4K video and up to two streams of 8K ProRes video and convert your video projects to ProRes nearly 3x faster.
- MacBook Pro 13 ″ offers phenomenal battery life with up to 20 hours of video playback.
Prices and availability
- The new MacBook Air and updated 13 ″ MacBook Pro will be available from July 2022.
- MacBook Air with M2 is priced starting at € 1,529 and € 1,414 for the education sector.
- MacBook Pro 13 ″ with M2 is priced starting at € 1,629 and € 1,514 for the education sector.
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