During its 2022 developer conference, the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which opened on June 6, Apple confirmed the arrival of its new M2 chip within the year. It will take over from the first in-house chip in the company’s history, which has already earned a solid reputation for its performance. It is the new MacBook Air from the Apple brand that will benefit from it first.
The M2 chip, more efficient and more energy efficient
Logically the M2 chip will have the performance of the M1 chip but better. Presented by John Ternus, Apple’s vice president for hardware engineering and Johny Srouji, vice president, the new component will again be engraved in 5nm, among the best on the market, and will be equipped with 20 billion transistors, 25% more than for the M1.
WWDC 2022: all the announcements from Apple
The M2 chip will surpass its ancestor in everything. Credit: Apple
Apple sought a compromise between performance and energy saving. M2 will be an 18% faster processor than its predecessor, a 35% more powerful GPU, 50% higher memory bandwidth, with 100GB/s. It will have a unified memory of 24 GB. It will be possible to play several video streams in 4K and 8k.
In terms of energy sobriety, Apple’s CPU will offer twice as much performance for the same power. Cupertino also promises that the M2 provides ” almost 90% of the maximum performance of the 12-core chip using only a quarter of the power “.
Enjoy your MacBook Air M2 in “starlight” color
It is the new MacBook Air which will benefit first from these performances. Redesigned with the know-how of the apple brand, it will be less bulky, with 11.3 mm in size and 1.2 kg on the scale. It will have two Thunterbolt ports and an Audio Jack port. Users will be able to choose from four colors, black, gold, classic light gray and dark gray or as Apple prefers to present it “ silver, space gray, midnight and starlight “.
The finishes “silver, starlight, space gray and midnight.” of the MacBook Air. Credit: Apple
The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display promises to be 25% brighter than its predecessor. Its 1080p camera will also get an upgrade thanks to the M2 with twice the resolution. One billion colors will be supported.
Sound level, the MacBook Air will have four speakers, integrated into the keyboard. They will no longer be visible to the naked eye, any more than the network of three microphones responsible for drinking the words of the user during his FaceTime meetings. Apple highlights the use of an algorithm to improve the sound quality of the device and support for immersive spatial audio, for films in Dolby Atmos.
To illustrate the performance of the laptop boosted by its new chip, Kristin White, head of Apple’s engineering program, gave some examples: it will be 20% faster when using Photoshop and 38% for video editing in Final Cut Pro.
The MacBook Air promises 18 hours of battery life while watching a video, 20 hours in normal use. Thanks to a fast charging system, MagSafe, which is making a comeback, it will be possible to recharge 50% of its battery in 30 minutes. A MacBook Pro 13 will also be available with the M2 chip.
At Apple, the conversion from dollars to euros is not favorable to Europeans
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, touts a device ” Completely redesigned around the M2 chip, MacBook Air is thinner, lighter, faster, with a bigger screen, better camera, all-day battery life, and comes in four beautiful finishes. »
To acquire the latest laptops made in Apple, it will still be necessary to pay the price. Cupertino announced, for the United States, the sum of 1,199 dollars. The other side of the Atlantic will probably be worse off with a bill of 1,499 euros in Europe for the Air and 1,599 euros for the pro. The release of both devices is scheduled for next month.