All-new Apple MacBook Air has a 13.6″ notched display and new M2 chip

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference isn’t typically known for being a hardware-focused event, but 2022 sees Cupertino doing things a little differently this time around. Alongside the usual announcements on the latest for iOS, macOS and iPadOS, we also saw some brand new devices, headlined by a redesigned MacBook Air complete with the new Apple M2 processor.

Apple MacBook Air Malaysia pricing and availability

So far, Apple’s most popular laptop isn’t yet available in Malaysia but we do know how much they will cost. According to the Apple Malaysia website, the new MacBook Air will start at RM5,499. This gets you the absolute base model laptop with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and is considerably more than the RM4,399 the last generation MacBook Air launched at. Crucially though, this only gets you the Apple M2 chip with 8 GPU cores; for RM400 more you can upgrade it with an M2 chip with 10 GPU cores. Apple also offers the MacBook Air M2 with 10 GPU cores, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD at RM6,699.

On top of that, the base model MacBook Air comes with a 30W USB-C power adapter in the box. Choosing the M2 processor with 10 GPU cores with a 512GB SSD and above will get you a complementary upgrade to either the 35W dual USB-C port power adapter or a 67W USB-C power adapter. It comes in four colours, namely Midnight, Starlight, Space Grey and Silver.

Apple MacBook Air specs

The most obvious change with the new MacBook Air for 2022 is its design. Cupertino’s new laptop features a sleek new look, with less of the traditional wedge and more of a squared design when looking from its side. It also gets a slightly larger 13.6-inch, Liquid Retina display running a 2560 x 1664p resolution with a notch on the top of the display, just like the MacBook Pro 14 and 16. The display is also capable of 500 nits of brightness—100nits brighter than the MacBook Air M1—with full coverage of the P3 colour gamut and True Tone technology. The new look all aluminum chassis weighs just 1.24kg and measures 1.13cm thick.

Another big change with the 2022 MacBook Air can be found under the hood. Apple has revealed the new Apple M2 chip, the successor to the original Apple M1 from two years ago. Built on the 5nm process, Apple says that the Apple M2 features 20 billion transistors on it, 25% more than that on the M1. This gives it an 18% CPU performance boost and a 35% GPU performance boost in the Apple M2 over its predecessor. Just like the last MacBook Air, this M2-powered one has a fanless design.

There’s an 8-core layout on the M2, with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. It also gets up to 10 GPU cores along with a 16-core neural engine that’s apparently 40% faster than before. Apple M2 (and the new MacBook Air) supports up to 24GB of LPDDR5 RAM too, up from the 16GB limit on the M1. You can also put up to a 2TB SSD in the new MacBook Air, for RM3,200 extra over the base model’s 256GB SSD.

Battery-wise, the MacBook Air has a slightly larger 52.6Whr battery over its predecessor’s 49.9Whr battery. However, despite Apple’s claims that the new M2 chip has ‘industry-leading performance per watt’, you should only expect the same battery life as the M1 MacBook Air; up to 15 hours of web surfing and up to 18 hours of Apple TV playback. This is however the first MacBook Air to support 67W fast charging, though again the base model configuration only has a 30W USB-C charger. According to Apple, the 67W USB-C power adapter will be able to charge its battery up to 50% in 30 minutes.

Elsewhere, there’s an upgraded 1080p FaceTime HD camera that Apple says offers twice the low light performance of the old MacBook Air. The new macOS Ventura update also brings with it a new Continuity Camera feature which lets you use a MagSafe-ready iPhone as your webcam. There’s now a four-speaker setup on the laptop too, with support for Apple Spatial Audio as well as a three-mic array with directional beamforming. Touch ID stays with the new MacBook Air. As for ports, there’s not much on offer with just two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack and a MagSafe port for charging. It supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity.