Evolution of the Entry-Level Line
Sleek Flat Design
Thinner Bezels and Notch Design
Equipped with Enhanced M2 Chip
Impressive Monster Battery Life
Heat Dissipation Remains an Unfinished Task
[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] It is the so-called 'YouTube era' where people of all ages shoot, edit, and share videos. Along with simply watching videos, the number of consumers wanting laptops with near-professional-level performance for video editing and uploading has also increased. To meet the expectations of the current era, IT devices continue to evolve every year. The new MacBook Air equipped with Apple's next-generation Apple Silicon 'M2 chip,' first unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC22) last June, was born from this evolution.
For this experience, I rented and used the MacBook Air M2 version in the Midnight color. The first impression was a sharp and sophisticated feel, unlike the rounded corners of the previous model, thanks to the applied flat design. The aluminum material made it seem more resistant to everyday scratches than regular plastic. In addition to the typical MacBook silver color, four colors are offered: Space Gray, Starlight, and Midnight. Although it is said that the weight is reduced by 50g to 1.24kg and the thickness is reduced by 20% to 1.13cm compared to the previous model, it was hard to notice a significant difference visually. The substantial weight gave a sense of stability when placed on a desk but might feel somewhat burdensome during frequent movement.
When turning on the screen, the thinner bezel caught my eye. Although some criticize the notch bezel as distracting, the wider display provided a more open view, which felt like an advantage. When playing 4K videos on YouTube on the spacious screen, the color expression was also remarkable. Thanks to the speaker sound system built into the laptop hinge, the sound felt like it was coming from all directions, similar to a TV soundbar. When running the Apple Arcade RPG game 'Fantasian,' vivid sound supported increased game immersion.
The processing performance also felt improved. According to Apple, the M2 version offers 1.2 times better performance than the M1 version. The central processing unit (CPU) performance increased by 18%, and the graphics processing unit (GPU) performance by 35%. Since the M2 chip integrates the CPU, GPU, neural engine, and memory into a single chip, the perceived performance is faster. In practice, even when running more than 10 apps simultaneously?such as photos, videos, podcasts, and internet?no delays or issues were found. When running Fantasian, which requires high graphic resources due to its combination of computer graphics (CG) and live-action backgrounds, there was no lag or stuttering commonly seen in high-spec games.
Due to the nature of a job that requires frequent fieldwork, the battery capacity is a point worth giving extra credit. Even after playing YouTube videos continuously for 8 hours from 10 PM to 6 AM the next day with the battery charged to 92%, the battery level only dropped to 64%, a decrease of less than 30%. The MacBook Air is known to support up to 18 hours of video playback.
Regarding heat generation, there were some disappointments, as noted by foreign reviews. The M2 version is a so-called 'fanless' model without a fan cooling system. During simple tasks like internet surfing, music listening, and watching YouTube videos, no heat was felt from the device. However, when editing multiple 4K ultra-high-definition videos simultaneously using video editing applications, some heat was noticeable, which was disappointing. Since throttling, which intentionally lowers device performance during heat generation, can occur, this is seen as a drawback.
Price is also a factor that causes hesitation. This is because if you slightly increase the specifications, you might as well buy the 14-inch MacBook Pro. It is also 300,000 KRW more expensive than the previous M1 version (starting at 1.39 million KRW). Even with the minimum options, the price starts at 1.69 million KRW, and upgrading the RAM costs an additional 270,000 KRW for 16GB and 540,000 KRW for 24GB. For the SSD storage, choosing 512GB or 1TB adds 270,000 KRW and 540,000 KRW, respectively. While the M1 version is listed among the top 10 cost-effective (price-to-performance) laptops, the M2 version requires careful consideration.
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