Apple released the first general-user MacBook Air laptop based on its M2 processor in July with UK retail prices starting at £1,249. The company says it represents the first major redesign of the computer in essentially a decade, with its move to producing its own silicon driving many of the changes.
Weighing just 1.24kg and at only 1.13cm thick, the 13.6-inch-screen laptop fits comfortably into a traditional A4/Letter envelope (though obviously that’s not a recommended portability option). At the same time, the M2 – here in an 8-core CPU/8 or 10-core GPU configuration – offers 1.4x better performance on a video editing benchmark than the M1-based edition.
Apple is also claiming a 15x improvement for video against earlier MacBooks that used Intel’s Core i5 chips (although, for context, remember that Intel is today on the Core i9). Meanwhile, ‘SkyJuice’ of the ‘Angstronomics’ Substack column on semiconductors says the Air’s specifications now exclude...