Apple has made a bunch of announcements at its WWDC 2022 event including iOS 16, iPadOS 16, WatchOS 9, MacBook Air and Pro with the all-new M2 chip. The redesigned MacBook Air and the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro are powered by the new M2 chip, successor to the M1 chip. With an all-new, thin design and even more performance, MacBook Air also features a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, four-speaker sound system, up to 18 hours of battery life, and MagSafe charging.
The all-new MacBook Air and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro will be available on Apple’ own store. They will begin arriving to customers, and will be in select Apple Authorised Resellers, next month. MacBook Air with M2 starts at Rs 119,900 and Rs 109,900 for education. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 starts at Rs 129,900 and Rs 119,900 for education. The 8-core GPU model with in 8GB + 256GB variant is priced at Rs 1,19,900 for normal customers while the 10-core GPU model in 8GB + 512GB variant comes at Rs 1,49,900. In addition to silver and space gray, MacBook Air is now available in two new finishes — midnight and starlight.
The MacBook Pro with M2 chip for normal customers is available for Rs 1,29,900 for 8GB + 256GB variant and Rs 1,49,900 for 8GB + 512GB variant. Both of them have a 10-core GPU.
Apple M2
The system-on-a-chip (SoC) design of M2 is built using enhanced, second-generation 5-nanometer technology, and consists of 20 billion transistors — 25 percent more than M1. The additional transistors improve features across the entire chip, including the memory controller that delivers 100GB/s of unified memory Bandwidth — 50 percent more than M1. And with up to 24GB of fast unified memory, M2 can handle even larger and more complex workloads.
The new CPU features faster performance cores paired with a larger cache, while the efficiency cores have been significantly enhanced for even greater performance gains. Together, they deliver 18 percent greater multithreaded performance than M1, so M2 can rip through CPU-intensive tasks using very little power, like creating music with layers of effects or applying complex filters to photos. Compared with the latest 10-core PC laptop chip, the CPU in M2 provides nearly twice the performance at the same power level. And, M2 delivers the peak performance of the PC chip while using just a quarter of the power, claims Apple.
When compared to the latest 12-core PC laptop chip, M2 provides nearly 90 percent of the peak performance of the 12-core chip while using just one-fourth the power.
M2 also features Apple’s next-generation GPU with up to 10 cores — two more than M1. Combined with a larger cache and higher memory bandwidth, the 10-core GPU delivers a big boost in graphics performance, bringing up to 25 percent higher graphics performance than M1 at the same power level, and up to 35 percent better performance at its max power, says Apple. Compared with the integrated graphics of the latest PC laptop chip, the GPU in M2 delivers 2.3x faster performance at the same power level, and matches its peak performance using a fifth of the power. The higher performance per watt from M2 enables systems to have exceptional battery life, and run cool and quietly, even when playing graphics-intensive games or editing massive RAW images.
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MacBook Air with M2
Built from the ground up around M2, MacBook Air has an entirely new design that is thin from every angle. It measures just 11.3 mm thin and is only 2.7 pounds, and features a durable, all-aluminum unibody enclosure.
MagSafe returns to MacBook Air, giving users a dedicated charging port that is easy to connect, while protecting MacBook Air when it is plugged in by quickly releasing if the charging cable is accidentally pulled. MacBook Air also features two Thunderbolt ports for connecting a variety of accessories, and a 3.5 mm Audio Jack with support for high-impedance headphones. Additionally, the Magic Keyboard features a full-height function row with Touch ID, and a spacious, industry-leading Force Touch trackpad.
The new Apple MacBook Air with M2 features a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, which has been expanded closer to the sides and up around the camera to make room for the menu bar. The result is a larger display with much thinner borders, giving users more screen real estate to view their content in brilliant detail. At 500 nits of brightness, it is also 25 percent brighter than before. In addition, the new display now supports 1 billion colours.
MacBook Air includes a new 1080p FaceTime HD camera with a larger image sensor and more efficient pixels that deliver twice the Resolution and low-light performance of the previous generation. Next, MacBook Air also features a four-speaker sound system. To fit inside such a thin design, the speakers and mics are completely integrated between the keyboard and display. A three-mic array captures clean audio using advanced beamforming algorithms, while the speakers produce improved stereo separation and vocal clarity. MacBook Air also supports immersive Spatial Audio for music and movies with Dolby Atmos.
Apple MacBook Air with M2 inside, also offers a number of charging options, including an all-new 35W compact power adapter with two USB-C ports, so users can charge two devices at once. And for the first time, MacBook Air supports fast charge for charging up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes with an optional 67W USB-C power adapter.
13-inch MacBook Pro with M2
The 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro has also been updated with the new M2 chip under the hood. Some of the product highlights are as below:
- With a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, working with RAW images in apps like Affinity Photo is nearly 40 percent faster than the previous generation, and up to 3.4x faster for users who are upgrading from a model without Apple silicon.
- Playing graphics-intensive games like Baldur’s Gate 3 is also nearly 40 percent faster than the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro, and up to 3.3x faster for customers upgrading from a model without Apple silicon.
- With an active cooling system, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is designed to sustain its pro performance.
- Thanks to M2, the 13-inch MacBook Pro also supports up to 24GB of unified memory — along with 50 percent more memory bandwidth — making multitasking and working with large assets super fluid.
- With support for ProRes encode and decode in the media engine of M2, users can play back up to 11 streams of 4K and up to two streams of 8K ProRes video. And they can convert their video projects to ProRes nearly 3x faster than before.
- The 13-inch MacBook Pro delivers battery life with up to 20 hours of video playback.