MacBook Air M2

The MacBook Air with M2 got rid of the tapered wedge shape the Air had carried since 2008 and replaced it with a flat slab, 11.3mm thick from end to end and around 20 percent smaller in volume than the model before it. Two colours became four, adding starlight and midnight to silver and space grey, each with a MagSafe cable dyed to match.

Almost everything visible changed with it. The screen grew slightly to 13.6 inches, reached 500 nits of brightness rather than 400, and gained the notch already familiar from the MacBook Pro. The webcam finally moved from 720p to 1080p, four speakers replaced two, and MagSafe charging returned after years of USB-C only, freeing both Thunderbolt ports for other things. The headphone jack gained support for high-impedance headphones.

The M2 chip kept the same 8-core processor layout as the M1 with two extra graphics cores, which Apple rated at 18 percent faster for general tasks and 35 percent faster for graphics, with memory expandable to 24GB. Battery life stayed at up to 18 hours and the machine remained fanless. 

It cost $1,199 at launch, $200 more than the M1, which Apple kept selling at $999 as the cheaper option. 

A 15-inch version followed in June 2023 using the same chip. Announced at WWDC on 6 June 2022, it reached customers on 15 July 2022.