Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022) Review: Setting The New Benchmark

Performance is a juggling act with the MacBook Air, as unified memory, flash storage, the M2 chipset, and the fanless design all attempt to deliver speed without overheating (or burning your legs). Push the notebook hard and, with no active cooling onboard, the base gets toasty — though never uncomfortably so — and eventually the Apple M2 will throttle back accordingly. Processor throttling isn’t unique to Macs, of course, but you can expect it to happen sooner here with high-intensity workloads than, say, in a 14-inch MacBook Pro that has a fan.

Were it my money, then, I’d push the boat out and opt for 512GB of storage and 16GB of unified memory, and loosen two of the most obvious potential bottlenecks (not to mention leaving me feeling a little happier about future-proofing a non-user-upgradable laptop). That would take the Air to at least $1,599 though, and still leave me with the 8-core GPU.

Would you be at a marked disadvantage — or outright disappointed — if you went with the cheapest new MacBook Air? Or, for that matter, if you only upgraded storage, or memory, but not both? For most users, needing a laptop that can smoothly handle internet browsing, media playback, messaging and emails, and the usual brace of productivity tasks that working-from-home generally includes, there’s more than enough grunt here to deliver.

The same goes for battery life, where Apple suggests the new MacBook Air is good for up to 15 hours of web browsing over its WiFi 6 connection. In practice, jumping between apps than just Safari, I managed 10-12 hours. It’s pretty much in line with the old, M1-based Air.