The New MacBook Air: A Step Forward for Apple's Most Unassuming Laptop

It is a slightly larger screen, measuring 13.6 inches diagonally, and it's also brighter, with Apple boasting an impressive 500 nits of brightness, which is 25 percent brighter than its predecessor. This increased brightness should make the display more suitable for use in well-lit environments or when working on content that requires accurate color representation.

The biggest improvement, however, is the upgraded full HD camera, featuring a 1080 resolution sensor. Apple's MacBooks have traditionally had cameras that were not particularly impressive, but with the growing emphasis on video conferencing and online meetings, these webcams are becoming increasingly important. The new MacBook Air's upgrade to a higher-resolution camera should make it more suitable for everyday use, such as Zoom meetings or Skype calls.

From an external perspective, the MacBook Air weighs in at 2.7 pounds, which is slightly lighter than its predecessor. It also boasts a thickness of around 12 millimeters, making it relatively thin and portable. The laptop's design has shifted towards a more squared-off shape, which seems to be becoming the new standard for Apple's MacBooks.

The right side of the laptop still features the familiar headphone jack, a welcome return that should bring relief to those who prefer using wired headphones or have trouble finding suitable wireless alternatives. On the opposite side, you'll find two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and a MagSafe charging port, which was reintroduced last year for the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

The MagSafe charging port offers an additional layer of safety, as it can help prevent the laptop from being knocked off a table if the cord gets tangled. Apple has also brought back the Magsafe charging brick, which is more compact than its traditional counterpart but still provides two USB-C ports for connecting multiple devices at once.

Inside the MacBook Air, you'll find the new M2 chip, which represents a significant improvement over its predecessor, the M1. According to Apple, this system can be up to 40 times faster in certain tasks and 20 times faster than the M1 version of the MacBook Air in other tasks. This increased performance should make it more suitable for demanding tasks such as video editing, software development, or multitasking.

However, there is a catch – the base price has jumped from $999 to $1,199, making the laptop less accessible to those who are used to its traditional pricing model. While the M2 chip offers significant improvements, this increased price may deter some potential buyers and make the MacBook Air less competitive in the market.

Despite this caveat, the new MacBook Air seems like a solid upgrade for Apple's most unassuming laptop. The upgraded camera, improved performance, and return of MagSafe charging should make it more suitable for everyday use. With its durable design and portability, the MacBook Air remains one of the most universally useful laptops available today.

The new color options also seem like a welcome addition, offering users a fresh start for their MacBooks. These new colors will likely appeal to those who are looking for a laptop that not only performs well but also looks great. With its improved performance and updated design, the MacBook Air is shaping up to be an excellent choice for anyone in the market for a new laptop.

The release date for the new MacBook Air has not been officially announced, but based on Apple's typical release cycle, it should arrive sometime next month.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enapple has got a new version of one of the best-selling laptops of all time one of my favorite laptops that is the macbook air now i have said for many years over many generations that that 13-inch macbook air is probably the most universally useful computer you can buy it was in fact one of the very first apple computers to get that first m1 chip one of the first ones to switch from an intel chip to an apple silicon chip and now it's the first mac laptop line to get a second version of that not only do we have the new m2 chip in this system instead of the m1 it's got a whole new design that takes a lot from the recent 14 inch and 16 inch macbook pros but actually add some new wrinkles on top of that so the first thing that's really going to jump out at you besides anything that's happening inside is that this looks like that 14 inch that 16 inch macbook pro it's kind of squared off a little boxy it's got the camera notch in it but unlike those guys this now comes in a wider variety of colors yes you can get the silver and you get the gold and you can get the gray but now it's got midnight black and obviously looking at all these side by side that is the one that you're going to want it takes me back to the very first intel macbooks where you could get them in polycarbonate white and polycarbonate black and black was definitely the cooler one to get it was this awesome matte black color and that's kind of what they're recreating here unlike the 24 inch imacs that have a whole rainbow of colors this is just standard matte colors plus this new black one but frankly i've seen it up close i've picked it up and touched it it looks really cool so of course being a macbook air the screen is one of the most important things they've shaved down the bezels a little bit so now it is a slightly larger screen it's a 13.6 inch screen diagonally it's also brighter apple says at 500 nits this is 25 percent brighter than the previous macbook air screen and of course the biggest improvement the one i've been waiting for a long time it now has a full hd camera a 1080 resolution camera our macbook airs have traditionally had cameras that were frankly not very good more recently the 14 inch and 16 inch macbook pros and the 24 inch imac they all moved up to these high resolution cameras and because we've all been home for so long doing zoom meetings uh you know calling into stuff everything is video based those web cameras are so much more important than they used to be so the fact that the macbook air is now getting this upgraded full hd 1080 resolution webcam uh that's a really big step it's kind of a late step but it's great and i'm very excited that it's in this new model so on the outside it's 2.7 pounds i think it's a hair lighter than macbook air is traditionally worth a little bit under 12 millimeters thick it has again more of a squared off boxy shape than the traditional macbook air which had a little bit more of a taper to it but apple is moving away from that in general everything i think has transitioned to that kind of squared off boxy shape now around the sides you're going to see some interesting new stuff not a ton but a little bit on the right side you've still got the one headphone jack and guess what this is an apple product that's still a headphone jack so you know thumbs up on that and then on the other side you've got your two usbc thunderbolt ports but now you've also got that magsafe port they brought magsafe back i think last year for the 14 and 16 inch macbook pros so the option of using that magnetic connector that was always great and saved you from knocking the laptop off the table if you tripped over the cable you can use that but of course you can still charge it through usbc and since so many of the things i have are charged through usbc that's just what i use by default i can use the same usbc plug on anything on the macbook on my nintendo switch on my steam deck on a lot of windows laptops that use usbc it's just very universal but it's still nice to have the mac save in there as well as an option and it actually plugs into a charging brick that is more compact and has two usb-c ports built into it and all that is part of a system that actually brings the macbook air into the rapid charging era where it will build up a significant chunk of its battery charge in a very short window of time if you don't have a lot of time to leave it plugged in so of course inside this guy has the new m2 chip sequel to the m1 you have the m1 and then you have the m1 pro and the m1 max and the m1 ultra those are very high end chips the m2 is just the next iteration of the baseline consumer you know mainstream model however apple says that this system with the m2 can be 20 faster than the m1 version of the macbook air in some tasks and can even be up to 40 faster than other tasks they used an example of a particular type of final cut workflow to show that the m2 can be a lot faster than the m1 version now all of that sounds fantastic and again it goes to my philosophy of saying that macbook air is just one of the most universally useful laptops anywhere going back to the very first model that i reviewed years and years ago up until the most recent one the m1 version and now this m2 version however there's a catch there's always a catch and in this case apple is actually bringing back one of my least favorite macbook air features for this new model what is that it's that the base price is not 999 dollars anymore now it jumps up to 11.99 and that really changes your calculation of what's kind of a mainstream really mid-priced laptop that you can use for years and would just be universally useful across a wide variety of circumstances for 9.99 it's really a no-brainer for a lot of people for 11.99 you have to think a lot more about it and you're getting a lot more with it but breaking it out of that traditional 9.99 price has always been a mistake when apple has done it before within a year or two they've gone back to the 9.99 other than that i like just about everything about this new macbook air especially the new color options and we should see it next monthapple has got a new version of one of the best-selling laptops of all time one of my favorite laptops that is the macbook air now i have said for many years over many generations that that 13-inch macbook air is probably the most universally useful computer you can buy it was in fact one of the very first apple computers to get that first m1 chip one of the first ones to switch from an intel chip to an apple silicon chip and now it's the first mac laptop line to get a second version of that not only do we have the new m2 chip in this system instead of the m1 it's got a whole new design that takes a lot from the recent 14 inch and 16 inch macbook pros but actually add some new wrinkles on top of that so the first thing that's really going to jump out at you besides anything that's happening inside is that this looks like that 14 inch that 16 inch macbook pro it's kind of squared off a little boxy it's got the camera notch in it but unlike those guys this now comes in a wider variety of colors yes you can get the silver and you get the gold and you can get the gray but now it's got midnight black and obviously looking at all these side by side that is the one that you're going to want it takes me back to the very first intel macbooks where you could get them in polycarbonate white and polycarbonate black and black was definitely the cooler one to get it was this awesome matte black color and that's kind of what they're recreating here unlike the 24 inch imacs that have a whole rainbow of colors this is just standard matte colors plus this new black one but frankly i've seen it up close i've picked it up and touched it it looks really cool so of course being a macbook air the screen is one of the most important things they've shaved down the bezels a little bit so now it is a slightly larger screen it's a 13.6 inch screen diagonally it's also brighter apple says at 500 nits this is 25 percent brighter than the previous macbook air screen and of course the biggest improvement the one i've been waiting for a long time it now has a full hd camera a 1080 resolution camera our macbook airs have traditionally had cameras that were frankly not very good more recently the 14 inch and 16 inch macbook pros and the 24 inch imac they all moved up to these high resolution cameras and because we've all been home for so long doing zoom meetings uh you know calling into stuff everything is video based those web cameras are so much more important than they used to be so the fact that the macbook air is now getting this upgraded full hd 1080 resolution webcam uh that's a really big step it's kind of a late step but it's great and i'm very excited that it's in this new model so on the outside it's 2.7 pounds i think it's a hair lighter than macbook air is traditionally worth a little bit under 12 millimeters thick it has again more of a squared off boxy shape than the traditional macbook air which had a little bit more of a taper to it but apple is moving away from that in general everything i think has transitioned to that kind of squared off boxy shape now around the sides you're going to see some interesting new stuff not a ton but a little bit on the right side you've still got the one headphone jack and guess what this is an apple product that's still a headphone jack so you know thumbs up on that and then on the other side you've got your two usbc thunderbolt ports but now you've also got that magsafe port they brought magsafe back i think last year for the 14 and 16 inch macbook pros so the option of using that magnetic connector that was always great and saved you from knocking the laptop off the table if you tripped over the cable you can use that but of course you can still charge it through usbc and since so many of the things i have are charged through usbc that's just what i use by default i can use the same usbc plug on anything on the macbook on my nintendo switch on my steam deck on a lot of windows laptops that use usbc it's just very universal but it's still nice to have the mac save in there as well as an option and it actually plugs into a charging brick that is more compact and has two usb-c ports built into it and all that is part of a system that actually brings the macbook air into the rapid charging era where it will build up a significant chunk of its battery charge in a very short window of time if you don't have a lot of time to leave it plugged in so of course inside this guy has the new m2 chip sequel to the m1 you have the m1 and then you have the m1 pro and the m1 max and the m1 ultra those are very high end chips the m2 is just the next iteration of the baseline consumer you know mainstream model however apple says that this system with the m2 can be 20 faster than the m1 version of the macbook air in some tasks and can even be up to 40 faster than other tasks they used an example of a particular type of final cut workflow to show that the m2 can be a lot faster than the m1 version now all of that sounds fantastic and again it goes to my philosophy of saying that macbook air is just one of the most universally useful laptops anywhere going back to the very first model that i reviewed years and years ago up until the most recent one the m1 version and now this m2 version however there's a catch there's always a catch and in this case apple is actually bringing back one of my least favorite macbook air features for this new model what is that it's that the base price is not 999 dollars anymore now it jumps up to 11.99 and that really changes your calculation of what's kind of a mainstream really mid-priced laptop that you can use for years and would just be universally useful across a wide variety of circumstances for 9.99 it's really a no-brainer for a lot of people for 11.99 you have to think a lot more about it and you're getting a lot more with it but breaking it out of that traditional 9.99 price has always been a mistake when apple has done it before within a year or two they've gone back to the 9.99 other than that i like just about everything about this new macbook air especially the new color options and we should see it next month\n"