Apple said Wednesday that it will start taking preorders for its next-generation MacBook Air laptops starting Friday, July 8. And will actually start selling the system on July 15th. The new machines will go on sale globally this month, so time will soon tell if the company has produced enough PCs to meet initial demand.
Apple and its retail partners will offer M2 SoC-based systems in Midnight, Starlight, Silver, and Space Gray, starting at $1,199 for machines with 8GB of LPDDR5 memory and 256GB of solid-state storage.
For users with high performance requirements, the biggest improvement of the new MacBook Air is of course its M2 SoC, which is equipped with 4 high-performance Avalanche cores running up to 3.49GHz and 4 energy-efficient Blizzard cores, and a whopping 10 cluster. The chip can support up to 24GB of RAM with 100GBps of peak bandwidth, which will boost the performance of bandwidth-hungry applications such as graphics-intensive games.
Powered by the octa-core M2 SoC, the new Apple MacBook Air will be the company’s most significant redesign of the machine ever, as it features an all-new chassis with a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display. The new chassis is very different from the wedge-shaped form factor introduced in 2008. The design improves the internal architecture of the machine, enabling higher performance, longer battery life and enhanced durability through improved airflow within the chassis. In addition, the new machine is equipped with a new 2560×16640 resolution display with a brightness of up to 500 nits, supports Display P3 color gamut, and a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The new MacBook Air also supports an external monitor with resolutions up to 6K at 60Hz.
Other changes include a new 1080p webcam, an improved audio subsystem with more speakers and microphones, and a 3.5mm headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. As for input/output capabilities, the new MacBook Air features a Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.0 radio, two Thunderbolt 4/USB4 ports, and a MagSafe port for charging. The machine is also equipped with a 52.6Wh battery, which is comparable to the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple says the battery lasts up to 18 hours.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the new MacBook Air is that Apple will start selling it worldwide immediately. Traditionally, Apple launched its systems in the US and parts of Western Europe first, then left the rest of the world for later. This time around, the company has apparently managed to produce enough MBA systems for a global launch, which is great news for those planning to buy.
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