Update: The store is back up and the new MacBook Air is now available to order.
The Apple Store has gone down ahead of the new 2022 MacBook Air with M2 chip going up for preorder in a few hours. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 went on sale last month.
The new Air features the latest Apple Silicon core in an all-new design, eschewing the classic MacBook Air tapered edge chassis. The new Air adopts design cues from the 2021 MacBook Pro, with a flat exterior case style, thinner screen bezels, and display notch cutout housing the front camera …
Of course, the Air’s chassis is much thinner than the MacBook Pro, measuring at just 11.3 mm. Apple is also offering several new color options with a choice of four finishes: silver, starlight, space gray and midnight.
In addition to the striking new design, the MacBook Air sports a larger 13.6-inch display, an upgraded 1080p webcam, and improved speaker system.
We already know what to expect from the M2 chip in terms of performance, thanks to reviewers and customers already having hands-on experience with the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro. Compared to the M1 chip, CPU performance is about 15% faster for single core tasks, and the GPU is up to 50% faster.
This means the Air and Pro are technically the fastest Macs available when looking at single-core benchmarks. Of course, for multicore performance, the M1 Max/Ultra chips found in Apple’s pro machines will still easily win out as they have a lot more cores.
Finally, the M2 chip means MacBook Air customers can now configure their machines with up to 24 GB RAM, an increase from the maximum of 16 GB available with the M1 chip.
You’ll be able to preorder the new MacBook Air starting at 5 AM Pacific Time, in approximately 1.5 hours from now. The new Air starts at $1199. The M1 MacBook Air will continue to be sold at the $999 price point.
