That still-available 2020 M1 MacBook Air, one of the first set of Macs to move from Intel to Apple Silicon, is not a bad-looking machine, but it's based on a design that launched in 2018, which is roughly forever ago in computer terms. In 2020, the Air switched from Intel chips to Apple's own M1 chips, but without a physical redesign.
That's when the Air gained modern features like a higher-res screen and fingerprint reader. The latest MacBook Air represents the biggest overall change to the product line, arguably since 2008, but at least since 2018.
That somewhat mitigates the price increase on the new version, but you're inevitably going to be drawn to the new design and features.
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In head-to-head testing against both the still-available M1 version and the recently released 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, its performance falls in the middle, and while it gets a nice power bump over the 2020 M1 Air, it's not significant enough that I would upgrade just for that.Īnd yes, it's good that the previous M1 Air, with an older design, remains available at $999. Note that we're reviewing the step-up $1,499 configuration, which adds more GPU cores and more storage space (but still only includes 8GB of RAM). At $1,199, the $200 increase over the traditional $999 MacBook Air starting price is a disappointment. Thanks to a new design, a larger display (13.6 inches versus the previous 13.3 inches), a faster M2 chip and a long-awaited upgrade to a higher-res webcam, I feel comfortable keeping that "universally useful" title for the new 2022 version of the MacBook Air, with one caveat. And since 2008, Apple has succeeded in nailing that formula more often than not. In the 14 years since the MacBook Air line launched, I've often described it as "the most universally useful laptop you can buy." That's because the Air has always attempted to hit a delicate balance between price, portability, ease of use and features. Even though it costs $200 more than its immediate predecessor, I still think the new M2 version of Apple's MacBook Air is a great default starting place when you begin your laptop search.
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