The slimmer bezels are also immediately noticeable, giving the MBA M2 a cleaner and more modern look. The extra 0.6” screen real estate is noticeable and appreciated, especially for photo editing. However, with use, just like on the iPhone, you quickly forget about the notch and move on with life. Upon lifting the lid, you immediately notice the notch. While it may look visually larger, it feels really thin in hand, especially when you realize how close your fingers are on each side of the laptop. The MBA M2 is harder to lift off a desk, but feels great in hand. The iconic wedge shape is gone and the Air no longer looks like an Air! It looks more like a 14” MacBook Pro that’s gone on a serious diet. If you decide to support this site by purchasing a laptop or other products from any of the affiliate links on this page, we thank you for helping us earn a small commission. Let’s see how the new MBA M2 performs.ĭisclaimer: The MacBook Air M2 used in this evaluation was purchased at full retail price from Apple China.

My expectations, based on the Apple launch event, are to realize performance improvements in the 1.4x range for both photo and video editing workflows. The baseline for this evaluation will be from the perspective of an existing MBA M1 owner with the 8 Core GPU, 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD configuration. The local Apple store suggested I order both since they didn’t have any in stock to view and to return the one I didn’t want I ensured that I returned the Space Grey one in perfect condition without having used it. When Apple announced the new MBA M2, I immediately put an order in for Space Grey and Silver (more on why I chose Silver later) laptops with the 10 Core GPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD configuration.

The MBA M1 is so good that I had stopped using my Intel powered i9 27” iMac because I found the MBA M1 to be more responsive and almost as fast at most tasks.

It powers through even the most challenging workloads, wether on the road or at home. These were real, tangible improvements that made the MBA M1 the best laptop I’ve ever owned.Įven in 2022, the MBA M1 is still a formidable laptop and one that I would recommend to anyone. The MBA M1’s performance saw improvements of several hundreds of percent over its predecessors with time to complete tasks dropping by minutes. The MBA M1 was a major upgrade over its predecessor with a step change in performance that is unlikely to be repeated. It seems like only a short while ago that I reviewed the incredible MacBook Air M1 (MBA M1), however that was actually a year and a half ago time has sure flown by! The MacBook Air has become my favourite laptop line of all time, with the perfect balance between portability and power, and the relentless drive from Apple to make each iteration better and better.

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