Laptops with notches! Dot notch when?
The MacBook Air has always been a staple MacBook in Apple’s portfolio, along with the more expensive “Pro” variant. The former brings a slim and light design while also carrying the best performance possible on a laptop.. What does the new MacBook Air have to offer us today?
Aside from its slim 11.3 mm width and its light 1.24kg weight, the new MacBook Air takes its design from the previous MacBook Pro, adapting the silly notch for the camera. It also features the all-new M2 chip, the direct successor of the popular M1 chip that was introduced for both iPads and MacBooks.
At the same time, the camera has been upgraded from HD+ to FullHD (1080p). This has been long overdue and it will make video calls much clearer than ever. Apple also promises better low-light performance in case you’re calling during the starry night.
In terms of display, the laptop is actually pretty small. It has a 13.6″ Retina display with a resolution of 2560x1664px. It has support for 1 billion colours as well. In terms of pixel density, it’s 224ppi. While only an IPS panel, it does have support for P3 wide colour gamut as well as TrueTone, for maximum vibrancy and accuracy with real-life colours. Perfect for videographers and digital artists.
It has a 52.6Wh battery charged via USB-C. In addition, Apple is also offering a 35W dual USB-C adapter that’s to be included as an upgrade for every purchase of a deca-core 512GB version of the MacBook Air. Other versions get a single 30W USB-C adapter for use in charging. However, the octa-core M2 variants could be configured to use the dual 35W charger. By default, all versions would get a USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable. All versions are capable of fast charging, up to 67W. This would make the laptop charge from empty to full in about an hour. For a laptop, this is surprisingly fast.
It has a fingerprint scanner embedded inside the space bar. In terms of ports, there are a few but all of them are pretty versatile. This includes two USB 4/Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe port, and a 3.5mm jack.
As we mentioned, there are two versions of the laptop, one with an octa-core GPU, and the other with a deca-core GPU. It comes with 8GB of unified memory and can be configured to 16 or 24GB, depending on the options you choose. The chipset is built for multi-tasking and productivity, hence the reason why it has its own encoder and decoder as well as a 16-core Neural Engine.
There are four colours to choose from: Silver, Starlight, Space Gray, and Midnight Black. All four colours could be configured to have the octa-core or deca-core version of the M2 chip. The octa-core variant starts at USD 1,199 (~Php 63.4K) while the deca-core variant starts at USD 1,299 (~Php 68.7K). In the US, the M2 variant will ship out next month. In the Philippines, we’ll let you know when authorized stores like Beyond the Box will start selling them. As always, it will be priced much more than the actual retail price in the US due to tax.
SPECS:
- 13.6″ 2K (2560x1664px) IPS LCD, Retina display, 224ppi
- 1 billion colours
- TrueTone
- DCI-P3 wide colour gamut
- Apple M2 chipset
- Choice of: octa-core or deca-core GPU
- PORTS:
- 2x USB 4/Thunderbolt
- 1x MagSafe charging port
- 1x 3.5mm jack
- MacOS 12 Monterey
- 1080p FaceTime front camera
- ISP with computational video
- Spatial Audio (speaker, wireless, and wired), Dolby Atmos, Triple Mic array with Beamforming, Stereo Sound, Four-speaker system
- Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, TouchID (embedded on Space Bar), Backlit keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, Ambient Light Sensor
- Silver, Starlight, Space Gray, Midnight Black
- PRICES (Octa-core version):
- 8/256: USD 1,199 (~Php 63.4K)
- 16/256: USD 1,399 (~Php 74K)
- 24/256: USD 1,599 (~Php 84.6K)
- 8/512: USD 1,399 (~Php 74K)
- 16/512: USD 1,599 (~Php 84.6K)
- 24/512: USD 1,799 (~Php 95.1K)
- 8/1TB: USD 1,599 (~Php 84.6K)
- 16/1TB: USD 1,799 (~Php 95.1K)
- 24/1TB: USD 1,999 (~Php 105.7K)
- 8/2TB: USD 1,999 (~Php 105.7K)
- 16/2TB: USD 2,199 (~Php 116.3K)
- 24/2TB: USD 2,399 (~Php 126.9K)
- PRICES (Deca-core version)
- 8/256: USD 1,299 (~Php 68.7K)
- 16/256: USD 1,499 (~Php 79.3K)
- 24/256: USD 1,699 (~Php 89.8K)
- 8/512: USD 1,499 (~Php 79.3K)
- 16/512: USD 1,699 (~Php 89.8K)
- 24/512: USD 1,899 (~Php 100.4K)
- 8/1TB: USD 1,699 (~Php 89.8K)
- 16/1TB: USD 1,899 (~Php 100.4K)
- 24/1TB: USD 2,099 (~Php 111K)
- 8/2TB: USD 2,099 (~Php 111K)
- 16/2TB: USD 2,299 (~Php 121.6K)
- 24/2TB: USD 2,499 (~Php 132.1K)
We’ll let you know about local prices.
Source: Apple
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