Apple’s upcoming MacBook Air with M2 processor finally has a ship date. After a slightly longer wait than usual, the new $1,199 laptop will start shipping July 15, with pre-orders opening July 8 at 8 a.m. ET. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar announced next to it at WWDC 2022 is already available. While that familiar-looking model first came out of the gate with the second-generation chip, this MacBook Air offers a lot more that’s new, like a MagSafe charger, 1080p webcam, and a revised design with a larger, notched 13.6-inch. inch inch screen.
While the new MacBook Air has a lower starting price than its 13-inch Pro counterpart, it is certainly the more colorful and unique. Unlike previous Air laptops, it shifts from a wedge-shaped design to a more conventional slab and comes in a new, darker color.
Brand new MacBook Air with M2 hands-on
In our brief hands-on with a demo unit after the WWDC announcement, the Air’s thinness and lightness were immediately noticeable — it’s just 11mm thick and weighs 2.7 pounds. It now has a notch at the top of the larger display, much like the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, although it seems like a much more attractive concession compared to being stuck with a Touch Bar like the 13-inch Pro with M2.
We’ll have to see how the new MacBook Air’s specs and design perform when we spend more time on it, though on paper there seems to be a lot of promise.