🔬[REVIEW] Apple MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022)
Channel: LaptopMedia
Date: 2022-10-02

📈 💵  Specs and Prices: https://laptopmedia.com/series/apple-macbook-air-13-2022/
🔬 In-depth Review: https://laptopmedia.com/review/apple-macbook-air-m2-2022/
➡️  CONTENTS:
[0:00] Introduction
[0:22] Design and construction
[0:51] Keyboard and Touchpad
[1:13] Ports
[1:28] Display quality
[2:00] Sound
[2:07] Storage
[2:51] Battery life
[3:07] Performance
[3:31] Temps and Stability
[3:57] Verdict
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🔬[REVIEW] Apple MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022)

The MacBook Air 13 is Apple’s best-selling laptop, but instead of replacing the 2020 model, they’ve bumped up the new M2 variant to $1199. So is the new notebook good enough to justify the 200$ price hike, or are you better off picking the older laptop?

[Intro]

The new notebook comes with a fully aluminum body, and is 20% smaller than its predecessor. The screen bezels are thinner, the body is sleek, with a matte finish and an Apple logo on the lid. It has sharp edges, while the base and bottom panel are much rounder. Still, it makes for killer looks, while durability is superb. Portability is amazing as well, as the device stops the scales at 1.24 kg and has a profile of only 11.3 mm.

[Input devices]

The base houses the keyboard and touchpad, but not a single speaker grill around the entire laptop, despite the four speakers inside. The keyboard has shallow key travel, due to the slim profile, but feedback is clicky, so typing is definitely comfortable. The touchpad could have been bigger, but in terms of tracking and gliding, you’d hardly find anything better. 

[Ports]

The I/O is minimalistic, with only two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Charging is done through the MagSafe connector, which could save you a lot of money in case of accidental cable trip.

[Display] 

On the front, we’re greeted by a great display with a notch on top. Still, the resolution is exceptionally high for a 13.6-incher, while the Liquid Retina panel makes for a very sharp image. You can do whatever you want on this panel, thanks to the max brightness of more than 500 nits and high contrast ratio. BTW, the panel is 25% brighter compared to the 2020 model. Creator work can excel as well, with 100% DCI-P3 coverage and serviceable accuracy.

[Sound]

The good display is matched with audio of great quality, despite having no dedicated grills for the speakers.

[Storage]

The 256GB SSD on the inside has fast Write and Read speeds of 1663 MB/s and 1554 MB/s, respectively, which is a bit quicker than the M2-powered MacBook Pro 13. However, that’s slower than the 256GB variant from 2020 and the reason is that Apple uses single NAND storage chip for this model. If you need faster storage, get a configuration with at least 512GB SSD.

[Battery]

The combination of the Apple M2 and a 52.6Wh unit gives us 17 hours and 23 minutes of Web browsing, or 17 hours and 55 minutes of video playback. This is an exceptional result.

[Performance]

The M2 SoC with an 8-core GPU is significantly quicker in Single-core benchmarks when compared to the whole slew of M1 SoCs, but the Pro and Max variants outperform it in Multi-core tests. 

The GPU is quicker than its M1 counterpart, however, it can't match the performance of the MacBook Pro models with Pro and Max SoCs. 

[Cooling]

With only a passive solution, we can’t expect miracles. Still, the M2 was on fire, reaching a max temperature of 104°C. At that time, the chip draws less than 15W. However, you can’t feel the temperatures on the base, as the hotspot stays at 43°C, with the bottom panel getting the brunt of the heat. The laptop was dead-silent through all tests, as there are no fans to spin. 

[Verdict]

With performance improvements and better-balanced battery life, the new M2-powered MacBook Air 13 is the better option for a new laptop, even at the higher price of $1200. However, if you already own the M1-powered version, you have to decide whether these upgrades would be of help for your workday.