MacBook Air M2 Review: Is It 100% Worth Buying? 

The one downside to the MacBook Air’s revamp is that it now starts at $1,199, $200 more than the M1 model. That older machine is still a decent option if you find it on sale or refurbished, but otherwise I’d say the M2 model is absolutely worth the extra cost. Just be prepared for the price to rise quickly as you start adding extra hardware. If you wanted to bump up to our review unit’s specs, you’d have to pay $1,899. Personally, I’d say prioritize throwing in as much RAM and SSD storage as you can. The M2 chip will still be very capable without the $100 upgrade for the more powerful GPU.

It’s remarkable to think how far the MacBook Air has come since 2008. It used to be overpriced and underpowered, a testament to Apple’s tendency towards style over substance. Since then, the entire PC industry jumped aboard the ultraportable bandwagon, and Apple found a way to pack a ton of power into a razor-thin case. Now, the MacBook Air is arguably Apple’s best laptop yet.

Along with a new look, it also gets the aforementioned M2 chip. This is the follow-up to the impressive M1 found in the previous MacBook Air. After ditching Intel, Apple now creates its own processor and graphics to power its Macs and MacBooks, and the results have already been spectacular, with excellent performance and industry-leading battery life.

As we saw with the new MacBook Pro 13-inch, the M2 chip continues this, with boosted performance and once again long battery life. The good news for the MacBook Air is that it gets the same M2 chip as the more expensive MacBook Pro 13-inch, which allows it to offer almost identical performance.

Throw in the new design (which offers a larger and brighter screen than the MacBook Pro 13-inch) and lower price tag, and there’s a strong case to make for the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) making the 13-inch MacBook Pro obsolete.

The new MacBook Air is a success on virtually every level. It’s got a better screen, thinner and lighter design, better speakers, a much-improved webcam, an excellent keyboard and trackpad, more convenient charging, and excellent build quality.

But that success comes at a cost, literally, and the performance advancements over the M1 model aren’t as stark as the design and feature improvements are. The M2 Air is a better choice for the vast majority of people over the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro model, even though the Pro has slightly better performance and longer battery life.

I’d personally lean towards the M2 Air — the thinner design and better screen are very compelling for me — but only if I was willing to spend $1,500 or more to get one with at least 512GB of storage and perhaps 16GB of RAM. If that’s just too much for your budget, then the M1 Air remains an excellent option.

The MacBook Air M2 is simply the best laptop for the money based on my testing. You get stellar performance, a vibrant display and superb battery life all wrapped up in a design that is delightfully portable. Yes, $1,119 is a steep price, but I would easily recommend this system over the $999 MacBook Air M1 staying in the lineup because of its better performance and display, along with sharper webcam and MagSafe charging.

There are some things I don’t like about the Air M2. I wish you could connect more than one external monitor, and the notch at the top of the display is a bit of an eyesore. But overall I would highly recommend the MacBook Air M2. It is the new laptop to beat.

Overall, the M2 MacBook Air is an absolute delight to use, with a lovely fluidity in its performance. Everything is fast and responsive to open – especially the apps optimised for Apple Silicon, switching between tasks is an absolute breeze – and will become even easier with MacOS Ventura and Stage Manager – and the M2 MacBook Air has no issues in handling the slightly more demanding features like image editing and gaming.

For the everyday user, the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) is a superb machine with a fabulous lightweight design, excellent and fluid performance and very, very little (basically nothing) to complain about. If you are after an all-rounder laptop, you are looking right at it.

The M1 MacBook Air was an excellent example of the compact notebook form factor. The M2 version continues the story.

Compared to the M2 13-inch MacBook Pro, the M2 MacBook Air is the better overall package by a wide margin. With Apple’s thorough modernization of the classic lightweight MacBook Air, there are very few reasons anyone should go for the Pro over the Air.

Setting aside the M2 stablemate comparison, the M2 MacBook Air is a very good notebook in its own right. It’s still qualifying for the “Air” suffix by being extremely light and powerful, but it does so by departing from its wedge-like lineage.