Two weeks after judging the 13-inch MacBook Pro to be an incomplete machine, this reviewer found his answer in the redesigned MacBook Air, a laptop that had reached him only in a brief hands-on moment at WWDC. Across the long arc of Apple's portables, the Air has spent most of its life as the modest, tapered workhorse, and now it returns with a boxy frame, MagSafe, and the M2 chip, asking whether the lighter machine has finally caught up with its more expensive siblings. His conclusion is that for most people, given the lineup as it stands today, it is the one to choose, even as the Pro keeps
Apple's M2 MacBook Air Outshines the 13-Inch Pro, Redefining the Thin-and-Light Laptop
Higher floor, lower ceiling.
Mark
Why does a review of the Air spend so much time on the Pro?
Mimi
Because the Pro review felt incomplete without it. The 13-inch Pro launched alongside the Air, and the Air overshadowed it.
Mark
What does the Pro still do better?
Luke
Quite a bit, on paper: a fan, a better three-mic array, and a stated 20 hours of battery against 18. But the reviewer measured just over 17 hours on the Air, and he doesn't report a Pro battery test here.
Mimi
And the Touch Bar, which he'd happily trade for MagSafe.
Mark
How close are they on speed?
Mimi
Nearly identical on Geekbench 5. The Air scored 1922 and 8974, the Pro 1939 and 8955.
Luke
Those are one reviewer's benchmark runs, though, not sustained-load tests. He notes the fanless design is a bottleneck, but he gives no numbers for throttling.
Mark
So who should still look elsewhere?
Mimi
People with heavy creative or gaming workloads. The 14-inch Pro starts at $1,999, and the M1 Max hit 12,674 multi-core.
Luke
And the Continuity Camera hinge worry is just a question. He says we'll have to wait and see.
Il Polso
- The 13-inch Pro carries a new chip inside an older body, and that mismatch unsettles the buying decision.
- Apple's first redesigned Air in 14 years drops the tapered wedge and borrows the boxy 14-inch Pro look, thinning to 0.44 inches and 2.7 pounds.
- MagSafe, a headphone jack, and a notch return, while all three ports crowd onto one side and draw complaints.
- Benchmarks show the M2 Air matching the 13-inch Pro, though the fanless design will eventually choke under sustained heavy loads.
- At $1,499 for the tested configuration, the Air costs $300 more than its entry price, and the verdict lands firmly on it for most buyers.
Two weeks after judging the 13-inch MacBook Pro to be an incomplete machine, this reviewer found his answer in the redesigned MacBook Air, a laptop that had reached him only in a brief hands-on moment at WWDC. Across the long arc of Apple's portables, the Air has spent most of its life as the modest, tapered workhorse, and now it returns with a boxy frame, MagSafe, and the M2 chip, asking whether the lighter machine has finally caught up with its more expensive siblings. His conclusion is that for most people, given the lineup as it stands today, it is the one to choose, even as the Pro keeps a few things that matter to the demanding few.
Two weeks before this review, the reviewer had called the 13-inch MacBook Pro incomplete. What unsettled him was a machine he had only glimpsed at WWDC: the redesigned MacBook Air with Apple's M2 chip. After two weeks of daily use, he says it is the MacBook he would now recommend to most people.
His case against the Pro is about timing. It pairs a new chip with an older body, much as the first M1 machines did, and it arrived beside what may be the biggest Air upgrade in fourteen years. The Pro still offers a Touch Bar, a fan, a slightly better microphone array, and a longer stated battery life. The Air answers with a larger display, new colors, MagSafe, a sharper webcam, physical function keys, and a body that is 0.3 pounds lighter. He says he would trade the Touch Bar for MagSafe in a second.
The design borrows from the 14-inch Pro. The tapered wedge is gone, replaced by a boxy frame that drops to 0.44 inches thick and 2.7 pounds. Midnight is his favorite, though it shows fingerprints. All three ports sit on one side, which he dislikes, while the headphone jack returns and now handles high-impedance headphones, a real help for audio editing. The notch, he found, faded from notice within a few days.
Tested at $1,499 with 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and the 10-core GPU, the Air costs $300 more than its entry price. Benchmarks show it matching the 13-inch Pro, though the fanless body is a limit for sustained heavy work. He is a video and audio editor who once owned an early Air, and he says the old compromises have largely disappeared. Heavy creative and gaming users should still consider the 14-inch Pro, but for most buyers, he expects the Air to be the right choice.
Two weeks before this review, TechCrunch published its verdict on the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the reviewer says it felt incomplete. The reason was a laptop he had only touched briefly in a hands-on session at WWDC weeks earlier: the redesigned MacBook Air with Apple's M2 chip. After about two weeks of using it, he concludes that the Air is the MacBook he would recommend to most people, given how the lineup currently stands.
His case against the 13-inch Pro is one of timing. That machine carries a new chip inside an older body, much as the first M1 systems did. It launched next to what he calls arguably the biggest upgrade in the Air's 14-year history, a redesign to match its new internals. What the Pro still has going for it is a short list: it may be the last machine with a Touch Bar, and it has a fan. It also has a better three-mic array, the same one as the 14-inch model, and a longer stated battery life of 20 hours against 18, from a 58.2-watt-hour cell versus the Air's 52.6. And it has no notch.
The Air, by comparison, has a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display against the Pro's 13.3-inch Retina, new colors, and MagSafe. It is 0.3 pounds lighter and 0.17 inches thinner, with a 1080p camera in place of 720p, and it has physical function keys. The reviewer says he would trade the Touch Bar for MagSafe in a second.
The design borrows heavily from the 14-inch Pro. Apple retired the tapered wedge it had kept for nearly 14 years and shrank the boxy 14-inch look to 0.44 inches thick, from 0.61, and 2.7 pounds, from 3.5. Two new colors, Midnight and Starlight, come with matching MagSafe cables. Midnight, his favorite, attracts fingerprints. Starlight reads as a subtler yellowish tone than the press photos suggested. All three ports sit on one side, which he dislikes. The headphone jack remains and now supports high-impedance headphones, which matters to him for audio editing. The upgraded webcam has less noise and better color, though he would still use an external camera for anything public. The notch, he found, was easy to forget after a while.
The display keeps roughly the same pixel density as the 2020 Air, with brightness up from 400 to 500 nits. The speaker array grows from two speakers to four and adds Spatial Audio head tracking for AirPods. He calls the sound passable. The battery grows from 49.9 to 52.6 watt-hours, but stated battery life is unchanged, and he got a bit over 17 hours of Apple TV streaming at 50 percent brightness. The standard 8-core GPU model ships with a 30W charger. The 10-core GPU model adds a compact 35W dual USB-C adapter with two cables.
Apple sent a unit with 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, priced at $1,499, which is $300 above the entry price. The M1 Air starts at $1,000, and he calls it still a reasonable choice. The 14-inch Pro starts at $1,999.
On Geekbench 5, the Air scored 1922 single-core and 8974 multi-core, essentially matching the 13-inch Pro's 1939 and 8955. It beat the 14-inch Pro's single-core score of 1781, but the M1 Max reached 12,674 multi-core. Under Rosetta 2 emulation the Air scored 1462 and 6955, against the 13-inch Pro's 1485 and 6992. GPU results landed alongside the M2 Pro, slightly ahead of the 14-inch Pro, and behind only the Mac Studio. His summary is a higher floor and a lower ceiling. The fanless design remains a bottleneck for sustained heavy work, though few people will hit it day to day.
As a video and audio editor who owned an early Air, he says the old trade-offs were glaring. The gap is still real between the 8-core M2 and a 20-core M1 chip, but he says the floor is far higher than in the Intel days. Heavy creative and gaming users should still look at the 14-inch Pro, while he expects the Air to suit most buyers. He also raises one open question: whether the smaller hinge can bear an iPhone mounted on the lid for Ventura's Continuity Camera.
Citazioni salienti
As the lineup currently exists, this is the MacBook I would recommend to a majority of users.— TechCrunch reviewer (paraphrased)
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