Apple at its WWDC event introduced its new MacBook Air powered by the new M2 chip, as expected. It has an 8-core CPU offering up to 18% faster CPU performance than the previous generation and the new 10-core GPU is up to 35% more powerful, and has a 40% faster Neural Engine, says Apple. It supports up to 24GB of fast unified memory, and adds a next-generation media engine and a powerful ProRes video engine for hardware-accelerated encode.
There is a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display that is 25% brighter, has an entirely new design measuring just 11.3 mm thin and weighs just 1.24 kg. It has an all-aluminum unibody enclosure and integrates its components so efficiently that it results in 20% reduction in volume, says Apple.
It features a fanless design, so it remains completely silent even with heavy workloads. There is a 1080p Facetime HD camera inside a notch, features a four-speaker sound system which is completely integrated between the keyboard and display along with the mic and also brings back the MagSafe charging port. It has an all-new 35W compact power adapter with two USB-C ports to charge two devices at once. MacBook Air for the first time supports fast charge with 67W USB-C for charging up to 50% in 30 minutes.
Apple MacBook Air (M2) specifications
- 13.6-inch (2560 x 1664 pixels) 224 PPI Liquid Retina display with True Tone, Wide colour (P3), 500 nits brightness
- 8GB RAM (Configurable up to 24GB), 256GB / 512GB SSD storage (Configurable up to 2TB)
- Apple M2 chip 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
8-core / 10-Core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine - macO
- Magic Keyboard, Touch ID, Force Touch trackpad
- 1080p FaceTime HD Camera
- Four-speaker sound system, Wide stereo sound, Support for Spatial Audio when playing music or video with Dolby Atmos on built-in speakers, Three-mic array with directional beamforming, 3.5 mm headphone jack
- Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with support for: Charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gbps), USB 4 (up to 40 Gbps), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps), MagSafe 3 charging port
- 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 2.4GHz + 5GHz, Bluetooth 5.0
- 52.6‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery with up to 15 hours wireless web, up to 18 hours Apple TV app movie playback, 30W USB-C Power Adapter (included with M2 with 8-core GPU) / 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter (included with M2 with 10-core GPU and 512GB storage, configurable with M2 with 8-core GPU), support for fast charging with 67W USB-C Power Adapter
Pricing and availability
The new MacBook Air comes in silver, space gray, midnight and starlight colours, is priced at Rs. 1,19,900 for the 8-Core GPU, 256GB Storage version. The 512GB, 10-Core GPU version costs Rs. 1,49,900. These will be available from select Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, next month.
The 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter and the 67W USB-C Power Adapter are priced at Rs. 2000, each.