Apple’s annual developer conference had more than just announcements about the company’s operating system. The company announced its long-awaited M2 chip, a new MacBook Air built around the M2 chip and the next iteration of macOS.Â
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Apple’s M2 chip
The next generation of Apple silicon is here. The M2 chips are based on a 5nm architecture and Apple’s claiming 18% more CPU performance and 35% more GPU performance over M1 thanks to 10 cores, two more than the M1. Neural Engine also works up to 40% faster.
M2 also offers 50% more memory bandwidth over its predecessor, 1000GB/s to be specific and comes with up to 24GB of unified memory support. This better performance is coming from the new performance and efficiency cores on the M2 chip, four each to be exact with the performance cores getting a 16MB cache and efficiency cores getting a 4MB cache.
All this plugs into giving Apple a more powerful Mac with a slimmer chassis and a fanless design.
New MacBook Air
The first Mac to get the M2 chip is the MacBook Air. The new laptop is quite similar to the 14-inch MacBooks in terms of design and features two Thunderbolt ports, a headphone jack and MagSafe charging.
The 2022 MacBook Air also gets a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display which the company claims can go up to 500 nits and supports 1 billion colours with smaller bezels around the sides. There’s still a notch present, but it now houses an upgraded 1080p webcam with new mics and speakers that support Dolby Atoms. Do keep in mind that the M2 MacBook Air Pro misses out on the camera upgrade.
Apple is claiming 20 hours of battery life on the new MacBook Airs. To complement this, the 2022 model also supports fast charging with an optional 67W USB-C power adaptor that’ll cost users $59 but will charge the laptop up to 80% in around 20 minutes. The company also announced a new 35W dual-port USB-C charger for the same price.
Both the 2022 MacBook Air and MacBook Air Pro will be available starting next month. The MacBook Air comes in at $1,199 ($1,099 for education) and the MacBook Air Pro will cost $1,299 ($1,199 for education).
| Specifications | MacBook Air | MacBook Air Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Apple M2 | Apple M2 |
| Memory | Up to 24GB | Up to 24GB |
| Storage | Up to 2TB | Up to 2TB |
| Display | 13.6-inch LED Liquid Retina Display 500 nit brightness | 13.3-inch LED Liquid Retina Display 500 nit brightness |
| Connectivity | WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.0 | WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Battery | 52.6 watt-hour battery Up to 67W fast charging | 58.2 watt-hour battery Up to 67W fast charging |
macOS Ventura
To cap off the Mac-related announcements, Apple also dropped the next iteration of macOS — macOS Ventura. The new operating system has the new Stage Manager tool, a feature it shares with iPadOS 16 and updates to Mail, Safari and Spotlight.
The Stage Manager tool lets users organise currently running apps on the left side of the screen while focussing on one or more apps that they’re currently working on with more apps and the dock being available for quick access to recent or favourite apps.
Mail search has been tweaked to have better previews, quicker suggestions and spell-check. Safari now has a real-time tab sharing feature that lets users share tabs with their friends and see which user is on which tab instantly. Then there are passkeys — Apple’s new alternative to passwords which uses TouchID or FaceID to replace traditional passwords on all supported platforms.
Spotlight can now find images inside the photo library, text from images and shortcuts and has gotten a design overhaul making navigation easier. Other than that, there’s also a new feature called Continuity Camera which lets users use their iPhones as a webcam for FaceTime calls. This feature also supports Center Stage, Portrait mode and Studio light. FaceTime also supports Handoff now, letting users switch from their iPhone or iPad to their Macs in the middle of a call.
The developer beta of the new macOS version is available starting Monday. A public beta will arrive later in July before the eventual release in Fall later this year.
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