Hello everyone it's SpawnPoiint and this is the 13-inch m2 macbook air,
Apple's smallest and newest macbook in 2022. But how does it compare to what we've seen before and
is it really worth buying? Well i've been using it for the last two weeks, i even edited last week's
and today's video entirely on this macbook. And i wanted to give you my thoughts on its usability,
size, screen, features and of course value for money. So we'll get this
unboxed and take a closer look at what this macbook air has to offer. And today's video
is sponsored by Polyarc and their new VR game called Moss Book 2. There's a
link below if you wish to check it out but i will explain more on this later.
okay so here's the box which is pretty plain as we've come to expect from apple we've got the
macbook air branding on one side here and then on the top it just shows the side profile of the air
inside we have the 13 inch macbook air the cardboard sleeve containing some paperwork and two
apple stickers then we've got the braided usb c to magsafe charging cable and finally we've got the
power brick and the plug so the one that i've got here is a 35 watt charger but you can also buy a
67 watt if you want to now over the last few years we have seen the design slightly change on each
release of the pro or the air models but this time the air has adopted the overall thicker look from
last year's pro it's got the rounded edges and a more smoother look and on first impressions this
is noticeably chunky than what we've seen before from the air releases but that's only because it's
not tapered and it's the same thickness from the front to the back in fact this macbook air
is thinner overall than the previous version but this year we've also now got four colors to choose
from so we've got the original silver and space grey then they've dropped the gold and introduced
midnight and starlight and that's the one that i've gone for i wasn't sure how this would look
but on first impressions i really like the look of this it's actually light enough that it could
almost pass as the silver color but in the right light you can see a very small hint of gold it
looks pretty fresh especially with that large apple logo on the lid but here it is compared
to my space gray macbook pro that i've got as well and it's only when you compare the two side
by side you can see the starlight really does have that hint of gold and flipping over you'll
see we've got some large rubber feet to stop it sliding around on your desk but there's also no
branding on the bottom of this laptop whereas on last year's pro we had macbook pro etched into
the bottom which was a really nice touch now the reason i'm surprised by this on the air is there's
also no macbook air branding on the front so when you open the lid now you will not see macbook air
written below the screen now there's a few reasons you would go for the macbook air over the pro
and one of those reasons is the overall size and portability as this is the smallest macbook that
you can buy right now and using it for the last couple of weeks i've realized just how easy it is
to use a laptop this small being able to pick it up one-handed move it around the house and
work from anywhere is really convenient the size of this is definitely one of the biggest reasons
to go for an air and going back to my 16-inch macbook pro after using this feels stupidly big
heavy and bulky it's really made me question why i'm using this laptop just look at how much
thicker and bigger the macbook pro 16 looks compared to the air it is an absolute beast
but if portability is a concern and a deciding factor you really cannot go wrong with the air
and as for the screen it has really impressed me over the last couple of weeks it's got a liquid
retina display and 500 nits of brightness so it is brighter than what we've seen before it's great
to see that the edges are almost borderless as they've taken it right up to the case but it has
also adopted the notch at the top now that's not a huge issue once you've used it for what a few
hours you kind of forget that it's even there then inside this notch it's got the front-facing 1080p
facetime camera and that has been upgraded from the 720p that we've seen before now the brightness
of 500 nits has been absolutely fine for viewing indoors it's only when using it outside that it
becomes a slight issue but that's a combination of the 500 nits and that glossy screen so it's still
viewable but a little brighter would be perfect and as for the screen quality well this thing
looks great editing photos and videos on here even just watching videos on youtube all look crisp and
vibrant there's no denying it the retina display does a great job at producing those awesome colors
but it is worth noting though that this is only a 60hz screen so it's not got the new 120hz pro
motion display that we've seen on the pro models so you are getting a smaller screen and lacking
a couple of features from the pro but another thing about the 13 inch macbook air is of course
the screen size and the screen real estate so this depends on what you'll be using it for
or how you wish to use it but if you're editing photos writing documents browsing the web or even
watching videos online you will be absolutely fine but when it comes to editing videos on
here especially full time i have found it to be slightly too small the overall space you get on
the screen or the real estate just isn't quite enough to comfortably work on i have actually
caught myself constantly leaning in or zooming in to see what i'm editing which does make it harder
to work on now if you're using this docked or you've plugged it into another screen for
projects like this then there are zero issues with a screen of this size i've had it plugged into my
40 inch ultra wide on my desk and it looks great it also scales really nicely as well but if i was
to use this for editing all of my future videos on without an external display i know that i would
struggle and it would definitely slow my workflow down but of course it doesn't help that i have got
used to the 16 inch screen and i am using a 40 inch most days and for a quick comparison here
is the 11 inch ipad pro alongside the 13 macbook air and finally we've got the 16-inch macbook pro
you can instantly see just how much extra screen you're getting on the 16 but with that comes a
huge laptop that you need to carry around it's the whole iphone pro versus pro max debate do you need
the extra screen space for me the air really is the perfect balance between these two sizes
right so spec wise i've got the eight core cpu with a 10 core gpu 16 gigabytes of memory and a
one terabyte ssd so this is not the base spec that i've got here but it's got a few extras thrown in
but over the last two weeks of using this daily it's really surprising just how good it is that
new m2 chip means it's done a decent job of handling all of my usual tasks doing some light
editing of photos in photoshop and lightroom no issues at all it runs smooth doesn't throttle
crash or lag and the software opens quickly and i've usually got five or six apps open at the same
time the same goes for browsing online or writing documents as you would expect the air can handle
pretty much any day-to-day task that you throw at it now the biggest test for me was editing
videos in final cut pro if it was going to see any kind of slowdown or throttling this was going to
be it well i've edited two videos on here now so you've got last week's gaming monitor review and
this video today and throughout these two videos i've had absolutely no issues with the air keeping
up it scrubs through my 4k footage effortlessly it's never dropped to frame or stuttered this
isn't rendered footage either this is dropped straight into the timeline and edited and played
straight from here i definitely came into this with expectations that the m2 air could not keep
up with my macbook pro but this has pleasantly surprised me and the fact that the macbook air
doesn't come with fans it actually doesn't get particularly hot during normal use now when it
comes to exporting in final cut pro this is when i definitely saw a slow down it is noticeably slower
than what i'm used to on the m1 max but then it's quicker than my old intel macbook pro so i went
ahead and exported the same project on both the m1 max pro as well as this m2 air and these were
the times that it took to complete and this was a 5 gigabyte file so it's quite a big difference
between the two but that's kind of expected so the m2 chip puts it higher than the m1 that we saw a
couple of years ago but it's still a lower spec than the m1 pro and the m1 max chips that we see
in the pro models and a quick word about today's sponsor Polyarc so if you follow me for a while
you'll already know that i'm massively into gaming i often show playstation and xbox stuff here on
the channel but i've always wanted to get into VR well that's where Moss Book 2 comes in this
awesome new VR game from Polyarc you play as this little mouse called Quill where you can explore
the world manipulate the environment interact and engage with the weapon inventory the sound design
and visuals of this game are absolutely stunning and it's probably one of the most beautiful VR
games out there playing through the story and listening to the narration gives you a real
sense of immersion and connection too it's not like anything else i've played before now if
you've not played the first don't worry you can jump straight in but this is a sequel now it was
originally released on psvr which was a huge success but it's now available on Meta Quest 2
and is packed with the gameplay and graphics optimization with this new release playing on
Quest 2 also means you're able to use the two controller setup which provides a more natural
feeling to explore more freely so if you want to know more about this awesome VR game from Meta
Quest 2 click the link below and download it today you can actually get both of these games as part
of a bundle called the Moss series pack and at the moment is 20% off but that's only until August the
4th. So looking at the porch which i think for a 2022 laptop is still lacking it only comes with
two thunderbolt 4 usb c ports and they are both on one side now that's not a huge issue but once
you've docked it and you've plugged in say an external drive well you're done an extra one or
two would be useful as for example when i record my audio i also need to plug my microphone in so
you might notice that we've also got the magsafe connector now on the air which is a nice addition
this just clicks onto the side and means if you do knock it while you're charging it will pop right
off although if you pull it sideways across your desk it won't disconnect and it will just slide
it across your table you do need to pull it up to release it then around the other side we have the
3.5 mil headphone jack which also supports high impedance headphones i've always got my sony
headphones plugged in while i'm editing videos so i hope we never lose this port now obviously
there's no hdmi or sd card slot as that's reserved for the pro models and typing on the keyboard is
great the keys feel responsive and the travel is pretty much perfect for a low profile keyboard in
fact this video today was completely written and scripted on the m2 macbook air it's backlit too
so if you're typing at night or on a low lit environment you can obviously still see what
you're doing then across the top we've got the usual function keys and on the right side we've
got the touch id button which is also the power button and as for the track pad well this is
just as awesome as all the previous macbook pros and macbook airs it's got that pressure sensing
control and it's really precise when using it as a mouse okay so most of the time i'm either using
my headphones or my airpods but let's talk about the audio on the air so it's now packing a four
speaker setup which is a step up from the stereo setup that we've had before the overall quality
of this sound is good especially coming from a laptop this small now they do lack any kind of
bass that you might have wanted or expected to hear they're pretty flat in terms of the
low end but the quality and the clarity is really good take a listen to this and see what you think
[Sound test]
now i've easily got an entire day's use out of this before needing to charge and that's from
100 down to about 30 percent the air has always been incredible at battery life and this one
is no different so it's rated up to 18 hours of use and around 15 hours of wireless web browsing
this will heavily reduce depending on the task you're doing so video editing for example will
reduce that further but i have found a full day of editing in final cut pro tweaking a few photos
and browsing online i easily saw eight hours now the rated 15 to 18 hours of normal use is what
two to three days depends on how you're using it that's absolutely awesome for most people
it does come with a 35 watt charger in the box but you can upgrade that to the 67 watt charger during
checkout okay so you're interested in buying the air but how does it stack up against the
pro models well let's start with the advantages of the air over the pro so it's cheaper smaller
lighter and has a slightly better battery life it's also available in those two extra colors
and then there's the pro models while we know it's bigger thicker and more expensive and heavier but
they also have a bigger and brighter screen that 120 hertz pro motion display and an hdmi port
and the sd card slot they also have the option for the m1 pro and the m1 max chips as well as
internal fans so intensive loads and editing and exporting won't be an issue at all so if
you want the biggest screen that you can get well you need to go for the pro if you wanted to be as
fast as possible again the pro model is probably best suited but if it's cost and portability that
you're after well you cannot really beat the air now i've already mentioned the spec that i've got
here but this is not the cheapest option available right now so if you wanted the entry-level macbook
air it's going to cost you £1,249 that's already a £250 increase over the previous air the spec that
i have here comes in at £1,949 which puts that £50 more than the entry-level 14-inch macbook pro but
ultimately the question is is the 2022 m2 macbook air worth buying well for me this seems to be the
perfect all-rounder it's small powerful has decent battery life and it's one of the cheapest options
available right now if you're wanting something portable that you don't need to be editing 8k
or even 4k content on a daily basis this is a brilliant laptop it will handle most things you
throw at it however if you're looking to be using it for more creative work like video editing or
animation you might want to look at the 14-inch macbook pro i mean once you start specking the
air like i have with the more memory and cores you might as well just go for the bass back
14 inch pro otherwise the entry macbook air is absolutely fine for most people i could happily
use this on a day-to-day basis now if you drop an apple symbol with the word air in the comments i
will give you a thumbs up for staying right to the end and if you did enjoy today's video check
out my other macbook pro videos next as they cover both the 14-inch and the 16-inch versions
thanks for watching please like sub and follow me on instagram and twitter until next time