The MacBook Air is now all pro barring its name. It sports a better screen, has more performance and comes with an improved sound system.
Since 2020 when Apple updated the MacBook Air by giving it a better screen and the phenomenal M1 chip, it has been a popular laptop. Apple says MacBook Air is the world’s best selling computer but even if we consider it Apple-speak aka hyperbole, it is safe to say that the Air is one of the most popular laptops in the world. Now, it is getting an update. And the update not only makes it better, in fact better than the MacBook Pro 13-inch in some ways, but also pricier.
At WWDC 2022, Apple on June 6 announced the new MacBook Air. As the MacBook Airs go, this new one is quite significant because it comes with a new design and updated hardware. The new laptop is not going to be available until July but when it does in India its price will start from Rs 119,900. This is a fairly significant price increase compared to the current MacBook Air that starts at a price of Rs 99,900.
However, along with increasing the price Apple is also kind of changing the nature of the MacBook Air. In its 2022 avatar, it is seemingly a more premium product compared to the previous MacBook Air. It is pro in everything but its name. So much so that there is virtually no difference between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro 13. And while MacBook Pro 13 too, mysteriously I must say because it no longer seems to serve any purpose in the Apple laptop lineup, is getting an update, of the two it is the Air on which Apple is focussed more.
The biggest two changes in the new MacBook Air are new processor and new design. The new MacBook Air comes with Apple M2 chipset. The M2 is not going to be as radical as the M1. But from the specs Apple shares, it looks like a mighty good chip. If with the M1 Apple wanted to showcase that it was possible to pack great power-efficiency and fast performance in one chipset, with the M2 the company is simply trying to refine its previous chipset. Apple says that in multi-core performance the M2 will be around 18 per cent faster compared to the M1.
A bigger change with the M2 is its design. While the laptop will not be available for purchase for a few more weeks, I did get a chance to try it briefly at the WWDC. And my first thought after holding it was: it’s baby Pro.
The new MacBook Air is a thinner and lighter version of the MacBook Pro 14. It has the same rounded edges, similar rubber feet, and the same notch on its screen. I am not entirely sure if the design of the new MacBook Pro is going to be liked by everyone. This is because the wedge-shape Air, popular since Steve Jobs took it out of an envelope over a decade ago, is much loved by many MacBook Air users. It is the distinct wedge that gives it an edge. The design with rounded edges and uniform thickness feels different. Not bad or not good but different.
Apart from the changed design, the MacBook Air is also going to be available in two new colours. In total it now has four finishes: Midnight, Starlight (sort of golden), Silver and Space Grey.
The design or the M2 chip aren’t, however, the reasons why the MacBook Air is getting pricier. I believe it sports a higher price tag because of some additional features it is getting.
The most significant of these features is the display it has. For a long time, Apple kept a 768P TN display in MacBook Air even as every other device in the company’s lineup received IPS retina screens with high pixel density and high resolution. At that time, it had seemed as if Apple wanted to shield its Pro laptops from Air. Now, it seems that Apple wants to turn the Air into a pro laptop.
The 13.6-inch display in the MacBook Air is as good as the display in the MacBook Pro 13-inch, according to the specs sheet. In 2020, one of the major differences between the Air and 13-inch Pro was display brightness. This time, both sport the same 500 nits displays. Actually, many users may even like the display on the Air because it has thinner bezels (result of the redesign) and that tiny notch which we first saw on the Pro 14 and Pro 16 earlier this year.
Another area where the Air is improving is its sound system. It now sports a 4-speaker sound system, and supports features like spatial audio. Compared to the speakers in the previous Air, as per the specs the new one is vastly superior.
The display and speakers were two major areas where the Air was a disadvantage compared to the Pro 13-inch. This time, Apple has decided to keep the Pro and Air on the same footing.
Then there are two areas components where the Air has an advantage over its Pro sibling. One is the front camera. The new Air comes with a 1080P front camera while the MacBook Pro 13-inch still sticks to 720P cam. The other area is the availability of ports: Because the Air now comes with a MagSafe charging port, its two USB-C ports can be used even when it is plugged into a charger. The Pro 13-inch doesn’t have this MagSafe charging port.
The only areas here the Pro 13-inch now seemingly holds an advantage is its battery and active cooling with a fan. But these advantages, in real-world, may not amount to much. The new Air, just like the 2020 machine, uses a fan-less design. This wasn’t an issue in the previous Air, and it is unlikely to be a problem for users in the new Air 2022. Similarly, the battery difference is going to be barely perceptible. According to Apple specs sheet the difference is around 10 per cent more battery in the MacBook Pro 13-inch.
Looking back, it is clear that MacBook Air has come a long way since its early days. Once sold in India at prices of around Rs 55,000 to Rs 60,000, the Air is now an expensive laptop. It has slowly become a part of Apple’s Pro range of laptops, and particularly so with the MacBook Air M2. Whether this is good or not is something that we will see in the coming weeks when the new Air goes on sale in July.