MacBook Air (2022)

An all-new design and Apple's M2 chip makes this a must-have laptop for most people

- ROB MEAD-GREEN

The 2022 MacBook Air has lost its predecessor's wedge-shaped design in favour of a classy, uniformly flat chassis that's both elegant and light.

The world's best-selling laptop has finally been given the Apple silicon makeover it deserves, ditching the wedge-shaped design of its forebears in favour of a superslim, uniformly flat design that's 20% slimmer by volume than its predecessors - yet is still powerful enough to snap at the heels of its closest Apple sibling, the new M2 MacBook Pro 13-inch (Mac/Life #197). Measuring 11.97x8.46x0.44-inches and weighing 2.7 pounds, the new MacBook Air is slimmer and lighter than its M1-powered predecessor (still available for $999), yet comes with a bigger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, an upgraded 1080p FaceTime camera (up from 720p) and Apple's next-gen silicon: the M2 system-on-a-chip (SoC), which promises up to 1.4x more performance than the M1 version and up to 15x faster performance than its Intel Core i5powered ancestors. That's some upgrade.

The MacBook Air comes in four somewhat sober colours: Silver, Starlight, Space Gray and almost-black Midnight.