Apple debuts its M2 chip on a redesigned MacBook Air

A mere eighteen months after the launch of the first generation of the M chips, Apple has already iterated its silicon initiative to the second generation. 
At WWDC 2022, its annual developer conference, the company introduced the M2, a new chip that’s even more power-efficient than the already impressive M1. The duty to carry the M2 into the world falls onto the same two Macs: the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. 
But while the new MacBook Pro is the same as the old one minus the new chip, Apple has completely redesigned the M2 MacBook Air. The new Air moves along the same design directive as the upper-tier MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. The wedged shape of the MacBook Air is now a thing of the past. The laptop’s body is just 11.3 mm thin and weighs only 2.7 pounds. The aluminum unibody enclosure contributes to a general feeling of sturdiness, and it now comes in four finishes: Space Gray, Silver, Midnight (dark blue), and Starlight (a tonality reminiscent of the old Champagne Gold color). The screen is a larger 13.6” Liquid Retina Display, a big step forward from the previous version, and comes with the same notch we’ve seen on the latest MacBook Pros. That's where Apple placed a new 1080p FaceTime HD camera. 
The parallel with the higher level Macs extends to the charging options, as the MagSafe returns to the MacBook Air as well.

The M2 is also super-powering the MacBook Air for a relevant jump in performance from the previous version. The chip comes with an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, which offer an 18% and 35% increase in speed and power. The M2 also has an upgraded unified memory that delivers 50% more memory bandwidth and up to 24GB of unified memory, up from 16GB tops in the previous generation. The update will be appreciated in particular by video enthusiasts, as the chip has enhanced hardware video encoding capabilities. The new MacBook Air will be available next month starting at £1249 for the 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU model with 8GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage.