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The screen on Apple’s new MacBook Air.
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With the lid closed, it’s almost indistinguishable from the 14-inch MacBook Pro from above—apart from the unique color.
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Also like the MacBook Pro, it has pronounced feet on the bottom.
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The ports on the left side include MagSafe and two Thunderbolt.
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On the right side, there’s just a headphone jack.
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Here’s the keyboard, with a full function row and Touch ID.
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According to a new blog post by the company, Apple will begin taking orders for its newly redesigned 13.6-inch MacBook Air this Friday, July 8, at 5am PDT. The laptop will arrive at buyers’ doorsteps and become available for same-day retail purchase one week later on Friday, July 15.
It will be the second Mac to launch with Apple’s second-generation M2 system-on-a-chip, which follows 2020’s M1 with substantially faster memory bandwidth and graphics and moderately improved CPU performance.
It’s the same chip as that found in the 2022 13-inch MacBook Pro, which we recently reviewed. We found that the M2 offered 10 to 15 percent improved CPU performance compared to the M1 and as much as 40 percent faster GPU performance with the 10-core GPU configuration. Unlike the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air defaults to an eight-core GPU configuration with an optional 10-core upgrade.
The new MacBook Air is also the first to get a major chassis redesign and visual makeover in many years, as it abandons the tapered design the Air is known for in favor of a boxy, flat design. The 2022 model is a flush 0.44 inches (1.13 cm) thick, whereas the 2020 model ranged from 0.16 inches (0.41 cm) to 0.63 inches (1.61 cm) from its thinnest to thickest point.
It also brings back the MagSafe connection from MacBooks of yore, albeit with a different design—the same previously seen in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro introduced last year. Also like those laptops, it has a taller display with minimal bezels but an iPhone-like camera notch. And like the recent iMac redesign, it comes in several finishes—in this case, Apple calls the finishes silver, space gray, starlight, and midnight.
The 13.6-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,199 for a configuration with an eight-core GPU and 256GB of solid-state storage. Another standard configuration priced at $1,499 bumps that to a 10-core GPU and a 512GB SSD. Both come with 8GB of memory, but you can optionally upgrade to 16GB or 24GB at time of purchase. There are also optional upgrades to 1TB or 2TB of storage.
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Listing image by Samuel Axon
