Apple’s latest laptop may be priced high, but Elly Awesome was amazed at its performance, screen, sound quality, and battery life.
This week Apple has launched its MacBook Air 2022 and is back with a new look and updated features.
The MacBook Air comes in four different colors: silver, space gray, and new starlight and midnight, which I’ve played with.
Unboxing
There’s not much in the box, just everything you need to get started. The MacBook Air, Apple stickers, documentation, new MagSafe USB-C charging cable and a 30 W USB-C power adapter.
I love how versatile this new MacBook Air is when it comes to recharging. Not only can you charge it using either of its two Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, but you can also use the new MagSafe port that comes off quickly if you accidentally hook it up.
For example, if you stumble upon the cable, you will not remove the entire laptop from the table. We’ve had MagSafe on Apple laptops habitually in the past, so that’s not at all revolutionary, but it’s great to get it back.
New colors for Macbook Air
I had the new Starlight and Midnight MacBook Air colors in my hands. Starlight is a very beautiful color combination that is like silver mixed with gold, but it also tends to pick up nuances from the light sources around you. Sometimes it looks more golden, sometimes silver or even pink. I really like it.
Midnight is another unique color that lies between black and dark blue, depending on your surroundings. In my opinion, though, it definitely leans toward a dark blue most of the time, so don’t expect a jet black color.
Characteristics
More importantly, the new MacBook Air now has Apple’s M2 chip, a major performance upgrade for the slim machine. With a faster 8-core CPU, up to 10-core GPU, and a 16-core neural engine, it really delivers very professional performance.
In fact, the new Macbook Air can handle editing 7 4K video streams with titles and effects, which video editors would know is really awesome for such a slim, fanless laptop. I edit a lot of video content and am now considering using Air as a machine to go with my 16-inch MacBook Pro.
The design is less conical and has returned to the classic rectangular shape with rounded corners. And honestly, it looks like two super slim iPads are joined, but one side has a keyboard and a trackpad. It has virtually the same weight as the previous model, but the screen size has been increased slightly from 13.3 inches to 13.6 inches and includes a new Liquid Retina display.
There’s also a new four-speaker sound system that includes two tweeters and two ultra-thin woofers, unlike stereo speakers.
They should make a difference, as my partner asked me if I was watching TV when I was testing the Macbook Air speakers.
I was watching the show Prehistoric planet on Apple TV + and the sound quality, clarity and volume were amazing for such a slim laptop, quite impressive if it can be confused with the sound quality of a large TV. The quality of the video and the image of the high resolution content is also amazing.
New 1080p FaceTime camera
Other notable new features should be the 1080p FaceTime camera that has finally arrived on the MacBook Air after years of being a 720p camera.
The quality of the camera seems to improve when you have good lighting, but to be honest, I think it is still a bit lacking in low light conditions compared to my iPhone. I will forgive you, though, because later in the year, Apple will allow you to use your iPhone as a webcam with iOS 16, how is that?
Battery life
Battery life is ridiculous in this thing. It can last up to 18 hours. While testing the MacBook Air, I kept intermittently checking the battery percentage during my workday, hoping it would drop seriously and I wouldn’t.
From editing some videos in the morning, to doing a workout at Apple Fitness + (using AirPlay from my iPhone), playing some games on Apple Arcade and writing this article, I was still sitting at 54% of the battery at 8 p.m.
Do you have to buy it?
I was very impressed with the performance, screen, sound quality and battery life of the MacBook Air 2022.
Its new M2 chip has given me the ability to pack a lighter computer in my bag while I can still use my intensive video editing programs, as well as enjoy some games and playbacks in my spare time. .
Aside from not having many ports and not including old school USB ports or HDMI ports that some people may miss, this is now such a versatile machine for anyone.
The price is definitely higher for our Australians from $ 1899, but the features are worth it. I think students, in particular, will find the new MacBook Air to be a great investment, with new-era technology that should be maintained for a long time in their career.
Elly Awesome is an Australian technology and lifestyle vlogger @ellyawesometech | YouTube