Let me go right to the point: If you’ve been holding off on upgrading your MacBook Air for the past four or five years, go ahead and do it now.

This is due to the fact that the new 2022 MacBook Air, which runs on Apple’s proprietary M2 hardware, is essentially the perfect work-from-home (or, really, work-from-anywhere) companion. This new M2 Air offers everything you need for any computer-related job for a starting price of $1,200: Rock-solid battery life, a 13.6-inch display that is larger than previous generations, a great keyboard, and enough power to do daily activities with ease.

Is it flawless? Without a doubt. The refresh rate and port options of the new M2 MacBook Air still require urgent improvement. However, if you’re anything like me and have worked on an older MacBook Air for far too long, this upgrade is a no-brainer.

Larger but still slender

I’ll take the M1-powered MacBook Air from late 2020 as the basis for the majority of comparisons since Apple’s most recent MacBook Air is a direct successor to that model. In fact, one of the main ways the two models diverge is in their physical appearance.

The facelift of this new M2 Air model won’t mean much to the average person, but it might be obvious to more tech-savvy people. Previous MacBook Air notebooks had a bottom half that gets smaller as it goes from end to end. In other words, when using the laptop, the piece of the body that houses the keyboard and trackpad was thinner than the component that attaches to the display.

That defining feature of the MacBook Air design is no longer present. The 2020 model’s thickness ranged from 0.41 cm to 1.61 cm at its thickest, in contrast to Apple’s constant 1.13 cm thickness throughout. This appeals to me because I value symmetry and uniformity; I want my laptop to be the same size from one end to the other. Although it may not be as thin at its thinnest point as it formerly was, this machine is nonetheless quite tiny overall.

And that’s remarkable given that Apple increased the display’s size from its previous 13.3 inches to a new 13.6 inches. Even though a third of an inch may not seem like much, in the context of ultra-portable laptops, it can make a significant difference. You may believe me on this because I’ve been using a MacBook Pro with a 13.3-inch display for the last three and a half years and saw the change right away.

Display size of M2 MacBook Air

It is noteworthy that Apple was able to increase the display’s size while keeping a decent level of thinness and even reducing the weight (2.7 lbs. versus 2.8 lbs. on the 2020 Air model). I think the new camera notch, a carryover from the 2021 MacBook Pro, to be less remarkable. On a phone screen, even though I don’t particularly like it there, I can put up with this because it’s smaller. On a larger laptop display, though, I do find the notch a little distracting.

Although everything from YouTube to Sling has black bars where the notch would be, to Apple’s credit, the notch doesn’t actually get in the way when streaming media. However, I think it looks ugly.

However, the 1080p camera in the notch is a significant improvement over the previous iteration’s 720p camera. Simply put, if you opt to buy the new M2 MacBook Air, your video calls will look lot better, and not just because of the higher resolution. Every work call for years has required me to properly position myself in front of an overhead light behind me because, if I didn’t, that light would drown out my own face. With the new M2 MacBook Air, my face is still visible and the obtrusive glare is reduced to a bright circle in the corner.

MagSafe

The MacBook Air’s left side now has a MagSafe charging connector in addition to the two Thunderbolt / USB-C connections that were previously there. This is the last significant physical change. Naturally, this enables you to continue using the laptop’s two Thunderbolt / USB-C connections while it is charging. However, I still wish there were one or two more of these ports to maintain parity with the shoddy 2016 model I’ve been using, which has four in total. The 3.5mm headphone jack on the right side of this bad boy is one thing I won’t quibble with, though.

Here’s a more thorough look at the M2 MacBook Air’s specifications before we discuss how it feels to use it:

• Space Grey, Starlight, Midnight, and Silver are the four colours.
• a 13.6-inch screen with a refresh rate of 60 Hz
• Front-facing camera in 1080p
• 8, 16, or 24 GB of RAM
• 2TB to 256GB of storage
• Two Thunderbolt / USB-C connectors, a MagSafe 3 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack

Keyboard Kingly

For someone who has spent years using one of Apple’s terrible, outdated butterfly keyboards, switching to the M2 MacBook Air felt somewhat comparable to entering nirvana. This keyboard is excellent and ought to be marketed to everybody who is still using a butterfly keyboard.

Despite feeling robust, key taps are rarely audible. Simply pressing the keys into the keyboard is satisfying, man. In contrast to the butterfly keyboard, which felt like pressing down on something that was enmeshed in molasses, this keyboard genuinely feels like pressing a real button. Nevertheless, this keyboard feels almost exactly like the 2020 M1 MacBook Air, indicating that it is not a cutting-edge keyboard design. Instead, a favorable trend is continuing.

One significant difference is that the function row along the top has been lengthened, resulting in full-sized keys as opposed to the half-sized ones on the 2020 Air. In actual use, this primarily results in the escape key feeling enormous and having a similar form factor to the tab key. I must say that I like it. I have rather large fingers, thus in my opinion, bigger is always better. The Touch ID key, which is still located in the upper right corner of the keyboard, is still functional and can be used to log into the device without having to type a password each time.

Without a doubt, if you still have an older MacBook, the best reason to upgrade is for the keyboard. For the exhibit, I hope I could make the same statement.

Requires more hertz

To be sure, the display on this new M2 MacBook Air is generally really good. On a screen this big, its 2560×1664 resolution keeps all of your photographs, videos, webpages, and other content looking as sharp as possible. Its maximum brightness of 500 nits is 25% greater than the 2020 Air model’s maximum brightness of 400 nits. When utilising this display for nearly any daily work, you won’t have any issues.

I just have one significant issue with it: the refresh rate only goes up to 60Hz. That’s just not good enough for a laptop that costs at least $1,200. Although the maximum refresh rate on almost all streaming websites makes it adequate for streaming, normal online browsing looks and feels so much better at 120Hz. People, I want that smoothness. I require it.

Nevertheless, don’t let the display deter you from purchasing the new M2 MacBook Air. It’s more than enough in every other way, as I’ve already stated, and I actually quite enjoyed using it as a secondary screen to watch baseball while using my primary TV for other things. Even if the refresh rate isn’t as quick as it could be, the performance profile as a whole is better.

Fast and discrete

Like its M1 and M1 Pro predecessors, the M2 CPU keeps the new MacBook Air running extremely quickly. This isn’t really unexpected, as users are prepared to pay the high “Apple tax” on every item the company produces in part because of its top-notch performance. This new MacBook Air lives up to the high standards we have for Apple goods.

In my testing, I mostly used it as a computer for regular work and web browsing. To achieve that lovely, sweet “inbox-zero” feeling, I must talk with my boss on Slack, hold video conversations with a large number of coworkers, browse Twitter, write articles, stream the aforementioned baseball games, and bulk-delete emails.

All of these would impede the performance of my 2016 MacBook Pro in some way. Additionally, none of these in any way hampered the 2022 M2 MacBook Air.

The overall experience is quick and responsive, and GeekBench benchmarking results place it on par with or even better than the more costly 2021 MacBook Pro in some areas. The battery life is rated by Apple as 15 hours of online surfing and 18 hours of movie playback, which isn’t necessarily a negative thing even though it’s the same as the 2020 Air’s. For a laptop like size, I was able to obtain 24 hours of real-time use between charges, which is more than sufficient.

The nicest aspect is that it is completely silent throughout the entire process. No fan? No issue.

It’s a simple choice, either way

There is no denying that the brand-new M2 MacBook Air is among the best models in the Air series. The only topic worth talking about is whether you really need to update.

Fortunately, I don’t believe it will be a tough decision to make. Make the switch if you still have a butterfly keyboard or a MacBook from before Apple shifted to its own M-series silicon (and you have at least $1,200 to spend on a new laptop). The new MacBook Air has exceptional performance and one of the best keyboards available, making it the perfect work companion whether you commute to and from an office or work from home full-time.

However, the M1 MacBook Air from 2020 is a little less expensive, starting at $1,000. Due to a smaller display, it may be a little bit more compact and lighter despite having a somewhat different appearance. Although it lacks a full-sized function row, its keyboard is still superb. However, it is not nearly as good. However, the M1 processor, despite its age, is still a powerhouse, so there’s no incentive to update if you already have one of those machines. Additionally, you won’t lose much money if you decide to purchase the older M1 Air.

The M1 model would have been more out of date with a 90Hz to 120Hz display, but for the time being, there are solid reasons to continue with that one.

In any case, Apple’s new MacBook Air is a fantastic device that, for someone who has been using one of those terrible old keyboards for years, is a light at the end of a long, twisting tunnel.