The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, goes the adage. When we ask children to follow their dreams, what we really mean is go about life their own way, which may not involve turning up in collared shirts and pressed pants for a nine-to-five gig, but at the same time we want to hand down certain tools — tools that we use — to make the journey easy.
The MacBook Air is such a tool. In 2008, it was a pathbreaking moment when the first Air slipped out of a manila envelope to revel in all its glory. It became a style statement. Every other adult aspired to have it and worked hard towards landing one. They did. Then they married… a person with a MacBook. And then came their children seated between two adults with two MacBooks. The child saw the parents carry the device around, to the cafe, office and even vacation.
The child is now 14 years old or old enough to have a MacBook. And what better way to begin the journey up the MacBook ladder than its latest iteration — Air, powered by the M2 chip. Call it the MacBook-isation of a new generation, even though there is plenty of competition in the market. What makes the new MacBook Air radiate the same joy as it did in 2008? Ease of use, year after year. Everything has changed about the device… and nothing in way of its objective.
The control centre from where you can access the most important features
There are a couple of quibbles that go with the device but that will certainly not stop this from being the bestseller of 2022.
Who is the device for?
The biggest “feature” of the new MacBook Air is obviously Apple’s own new system on a chip, the M2, one of the most powerful as well as power-efficient options in the market, way ahead of competition in terms of CPU and GPU performance. This is the ultraportable device — weighing only 1.24 kg — that 80-90 per cent of the laptop users need.
The MacBook Air (M2) is among the slimmest and lightest laptops you can buy
Most people don’t need a MacBook Pro (M2) because video-editing or intensive gaming is not their cuppa. Be it office work — from spreadsheets to architectural models, coding to uncomplicated video and photo editing — or entertainment, the new MacBook Air gets the job done like a Pro.So, there are two new MacBooks — the Air and the Pro, both come with the M2 chip, so technically they should work the same way, right? It does and doesn’t. What separates the Air from the Pro is the fan-less design.
When you want sustained, superior power, you also need more heat dispensation. Consider this: Rajkumar Hirani sits down to edit parts of a film on a MacBook. He will obviously choose the Pro because rendering will take place over hours and there the software needs to push the processor hard, creating heat, which can be tackled by having a fan inside the machine. And now consider making a simple20-minute video that requires very little power, you can achieve this on the Air.
For the first six-seven minutes both the Air and the Pro pushes the CPU and GPU equally hard and gets away with it but beyond that, a Pro is needed. The Air doesn’t throttle, doesn’t cave in unless someone forcefully makes it happen. Further, there are variants of the Air, so you can choose a model having M2 with an eight-core GPU or another with a 10-core GPU. Overall, the M2 takes the industry-leading performance per watt of M1further with an 18 per cent faster CPU, a 35 per cent more powerful GPU, and a 40 per cent faster neural engine.People on MacBook Air are not working on crazy big projects and if you are going to work on a huge file, chances are you will have a bigger drive that doesn’t hurt the speed. Moderately demanding workflows will be fine on the Air.
The other changes
There are four other big changes that make the Air worth its price.
First, MagSafe charging is back. It’s one of the coolest feature MacBooks earlier had and then was replaced by USB-C charging. Anyway, the magnetic charging port is back and there is a very long braided cable in the box, which doesn’t go bad easily. The charging wire sticks magnetically to the port, so if you trip over the wire, it will automatically detach and not make the laptop fly through the air.
Second, Apple has finally graduated the webcam from 720p to 1080p, which makes a world of a difference to the quality of video you will be sending while videoconferencing. The earlier webcam was showing its age, so a good move.
The full-size keyboard is comfortable to type on and there is zero flex on the trackpad
This has also brought in the notch, like on the iPhone but it also means extra screen space for the menu bar. You get more screen space to play around and the notch is something you will begin to ignore after 10 minutes of unboxing. There is a crowd on Twitter that likes to complain about things without using the product. Don’t go by comments on social media; walk into an Apple store to experience the product before making a purchase.
Staying with the display, it’s 13.6 inches without adding to the width. In other words, bezels have shaved off slightly to accommodate a bigger panel. It’s a 60Hz panel but you will rarely feel the difference because Apple optimises its software better than anyone else.
MagSafe Connector makes a return and there is a long braided cable to go with it
Third, let’s talk about ports. On the left, there are two Thunderbolt ports to facilitate high transfer speeds. Having a MagSafe charging port means, the two Thunderbolt ports have been freed up.
In case you don’t want to travel with the charging brick, you can still use one of the ports for charging with your USB-C cable. But, here’s a quibble. The Air supports one external monitor but with both the USB-C ports on the left side, chances are you have to keep the external monitor on the left.
Fourth, and this one matters a lot for people who want to use the device for media consumption, there are four speakers on this thin laptop but they are very well tuned, enough to take care of all your audio needs. Needless to say, there is support for Spatial audio and the soundstage is among the best you will get on such a slim laptop. Further, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right, which is good news for audiophiles.
If you are wondering about the level of comfort while typing, the keys are well spaced out with excellent key travel and just the perfect backlighting.
Should you buy it?
There will be days when you push the laptop to the brink or six-seven hours of on-screen time and if the workload is not very heavy, expect 11-12 hours of on-screen time, both winning figures. If you are buying the eight-core GPU variant, there is a 30W charging brick in the box while the higher variant with 512GB storage comes with a 35W dual USB-C port power adapter in the box. Or, buy the 67W USB-C power adapter.
Finally, another welcome change — the MacBook Air had become slightly boring in way of design because of the wedge shape but now it follows the same design philosophy as the MacBook Pro, which means the entire machine has a slim factor. And let’s not forget the two new colours besides Silver and Space Grey — Starlight is golden-ish and Midnight is a deep black matte (it is a fingerprint magnet).
With a new college session around the corner and as well as the festive season, the M2 MacBook Air has got its timing right. And like we said earlier, it’s a machine that simply takes the MacBook philosophy a generation forward — make everyone around you green with envy, inspiring people to get one.
It has what the Swedes call mys or the feeling of warmth, makes you feel professionally productive without you having to worry about how to get things done.
At a glance
Device: MacBook Air (M2)
Price: Upwards of Rs 119,900
High notes
- More screen estate
- Takes advantage of M2’s processing power
- Excellent battery life
- Lightweight
- Comes with MagSafe connector
- 1080p webcam
Muffled notes
- Supports only one external display