MacBook Air M2 Review In 2024
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| MacBook Air M2 Review In 2024 |
7. Acer Chromebook Spin 714
The best Chromebook
The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 brings above-average battery life, a decent keyboard, a stylish chassis and a 1440p webcam — all for under $700. What’s not to love?
8. MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023)
Best MacBook
Whether you’re editing photos or videos, creating music or just working on a massive spreadsheet, the MacBook Pro 14 is the way to go. The M3 Pro chip put both Intel and AMD-powered systems to shame in power and endurance.
9. Lenovo X1 Carbon (11th Gen)
Best business laptop
Then the Lenovo X1 Carbon (11th Gen) is the business laptop for you. Offering superior performance, more than 15 hours of battery life and Lenovo’s world renowned keyboard, the Lenovo X1 Carbon is ready to get to work.
10. Acer Swift 14
The best for students
The Acer Swift 14 delivers a 14-inch laptop with a bright display, comfortable keyboard, strong performance, and long battery life packaged in a sleek chassis.
BEST LAPTOP OVERALL
(Image credit: Future)
The best laptop for most people
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: Apple M2GPU: Apple M2 GPURAM: 8 GBStorage: 1TB SSDDisplay: 13-inch, 1664pSize: 12 x 8.5 x 0.4 inchesWeight: 2.7 pounds
TODAY'S BEST DEALS
REASONS TO BUY
+Elegant redesign
+Good performance
+Excellent battery life
REASONS TO AVOID
-Only two ports
-SSD somewhat slower than M1 Air
Weighing a mere 2.7 pounds, Apple’s smallest laptop is also the best laptop for most people. There’s a lot to love about the MacBook Air M2, starting with its new look. This is one of the thinnest laptops around at only 0.4 inches thick, and yet it packs a big punch thanks to Apple’s M2 chip. This system handled most of our benchmarks with a breezy aplomb, outperforming most Windows laptops.
Other reasons to buy the MacBook Air M2 include a bright and colorful 13.6-inch display, a comfortable keyboard and over 14 hours of battery life based on our testing. Although the M2 chip won’t pull the numbers that its more powerful brethren (M2 Pro, M2 Max, M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max), the silicon is still more powerful than its predecessor.
Even better, it’s more powerful than the competition. For instance, the Air M2 crushed the Geekbench 5.4 test where the laptop hit 8,919, easily surpassing the 6,054 category average. It also performed well on the Handbrake video transcoding test, taking only 7 minutes and 52 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. Finally, there's the BlackMagic Read/Write tests which returned speeds of 2,800.1/2,210.6MBps. That’s a lot of power for a relatively affordable price –– at least for a MacBook.
If that’s not enough, you also get a 1080p webcam. So what’s not to like? However there’s only two Thunderbolt / USB-C ports, and the SSD is slower than we’d like. Overall, if you’re looking for an ultra lightweight laptop with power, the MacBook Air M2 deserves to sit at the top of your list.
See our full MacBook Air M2 review.