Last night Apple kicked off its annual WWDC developer conference, with the semi-hybrid event featuring a lot in the way of new software. It was not all iOS and macOS, however, as a new MacBook Air (MBA) also saw the light of day.
This latest iteration of Apple’s slim notebook is particularly noteworthy as it packs the latest silicon from the Cupertino-based company – the M2 chip.
The announcement corroborates reports in February that Apple was indeed planning to announce the M2 for the MacBook Air.
In terms of capabilities, the M2 surpasses its predecessor in most categories.
“Built using second-generation 5-nanometer technology, M2 takes the industry-leading performance per watt of M1 even further with an 18 percent faster CPU, a 35 percent more powerful GPU, and a 40 percent faster Neural Engine. It also delivers 50 percent more memory bandwidth compared to M1, and up to 24GB of fast unified memory,” highlights Apple in a press release regarding the new chip.
“For intensive workloads like editing complex timelines in Final Cut Pro, performance is nearly 40 percent faster than the previous generation, and up to 15x faster for customers that haven’t upgraded to Apple silicon,” the company adds with respect to the performance on the new MBA.
If you lean more towards the Pro side, notebooks running the new M2 chip were also announced last night.
Back to the 2022 MBA and it is sporting a 13.6″ Liquid Retina display, along with the all-aluminium unibody chassis weighing in at 1.22kg and 11.3mm thin. Added to this are four different colour options – Silver, Starlight, Space Gray and Midnight.
Other notable additions are the return of the MagSafe port for charging, a 1080p FaceTime camera, four speaker array and up to 18 hours of battery life (video playback).
No local availability or pricing has been detailed for the new MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with M2 silicon, but Stateside pricing for the MBA starts at $ 1 199 (~R18 547).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwmS1gc9S5A
